#[[ and now he's scheming something but I have no idea of what xD ]]

[countlessrealities]

{ To you E-Morty from my E-Morty // @thcpresidcnt }

On the president's desk there would be a note. Along side it, a plate of cupcakes; red velvet with white cream cheese frosting and a piece of hard candy shaped into a cartoonish heart adorned on top. With a black box beside it, a thin gold bracelet nestled inside of it.

The note reads: "Apologies for I can't give this to you in person. Valentine's day isn't necessarily my favorite holiday and I usually schedule my day even busier due to that. However, I figured you could use a nice treat.

--- Love, Mortimer ♡"

Saying that finding the gifts was a surprise would have been a gross understatement. Morty had decided for an early start that day and he had come to his office alone, after having sent his second-in-command to take care of a certain inconvenience.

His steps stopped abruptly as soon as he spotted the plate on his desk, amber eyes widening as his gripped on the handle faltered. The question of who could have left it didn't even touch his mind, since he already knew the reply. There was just one person who could get into his office when he wasn't there, after all. What he couldn't fathom was why.

His shock, however, didn't last long and he quickly forced himself to regain control of his reactions. Face once again schooled in a blank mask, he calmly closed the door behind him and approached the desk to have a closer look at the presents.

The cupcake looked delicious and he had no doubts that it would be a perfect mid-morning snack, considering who had gifted it to him. And the bracelet he found in the box was just as refined.

"Show-off," he breathed out, but his lips curled in a small, amused smirk as he slipped the jewel around his left wrist.

Only then he picked up the note, taking his time to read each and every word carefully. As expected, the excuse was perfectly acceptable, especially since Morty himself held the similar feelings towards that particular holiday. Yet, at the same time, it was also awfully convenient.

His attention, however, didn't linger much on such thoughts, quickly stolen away by the way his other self had signed the message. What caught him off guard wasn't the small heart, since his counterpart very often used such emojis when he tried to mess with him via texts.

Love, Mortimer.

It was a clichéd way to end a note, especially considering the occasion, and he had no reason to believe that it could mean more than that, and yet he found himself lingering on it, pensively brushing the letters with his thumb. Fascinating how such a small word could open dangerous doors and tempt him into walking in to have a look at what was hidden past their thresholds.

"Well played, other me," he mused, setting down the note. "Maybe it's time for me to up my game a little. I would hate not being able to offer you a just as surprising challenge."

[curatoroffiction]

What You’ve Hidden Part 2

This is a continuation of a story I started writing in response to a post made here. (Which is where you’ll find Part 1 of this story) This is based off of @underqualified-human’s post on their “? Yuu AU” concept, and was really fun to write! I definitely love harassing Crowley. I know I write a lot of anti-Crowley propaganda, but I fuckin’ love his character. He’s such a slimeball and I love it. XD Storytime stops before Idia’s chapter because it hasn’t been released to the English version yet.

----- Story is reader-insert, gender-neutral, and is also a continuation of an existing chunk of story I already wrote. The boys discuss how much they really know the Ramshackle Prefect. That is, until the prefect arrives on the scene and begins to explain themself.

----- The conversation quickly moved from a lighthearted conversation about the Ramshackle prefect to a cautious journey embarking through the group's delicate notions of trust.

"I don't buy it - ___ can't lie. They're too honest." Ruggie shrugs. He's never seen you lie in a way that mattered. You were always so straightforward with him and everyone else in Savannaclaw, even when it probably would've benefitted you to lie. "They're not a goody two-shoes, but they sure aren't about to pull off a scheme."

Jamil on the other hand is now rethinking everything he knows about you. "On the contrary, I've found them to be quite.. Crafty, when they needed to be." He shakes his head thinking back to how you so easily would sneak out of containment prior to his overblot. How you could escape and even collect help. He starts connecting the dots on how you always seem to know just where to look or who to talk to in order to collect help. One could say it's fate, but it was hard for him to believe in fate after meeting you.

"... They *are* capable of lying.. Lying well, at that.." Riddle murmurs, not comfortable with the conversation's route, but incapable of stopping himself from treading into these waters as people talk more about it. "When Ace and Deuce want something kept hidden, they're very good at hiding things from people." His brow furrows as he thinks on the last dorm inspection.

"Well that at least tells us they're loyal to their friends!" Kalim smiles big, refusing to fret. "And that's all I need to know to enjoy their company."

"Are they loyal to their friends? Or are they just loyal to their resources?" Azul once again steers the conversation into the depths.

"Friends! If they were just looking for power, they wouldn't have helped Ace and Deuce when they got in trouble with you, right?" Kalim cocks his head to the side, looking to Azul with genuine confusion. It wasn't hard to imagine what motivated you in his eyes.

"Mmm.. I'm not so sure about that." Jade starts delving into this thought exercise. "Through those two, ___ got a chance to interact with Riddle, which dragged him into their scuffle with Leona - Which was the primary reason it wasn't a disaster. Leona helped with Azul, Azul helped with Jamil, Jamil helped with Vil, and so on..." Many of the dormleaders had never heard of the intertwining threads of their interactions with the prefect, or how perfectly it all seemed to meld together.

This starts to garner some genuine concern, causing even Malleus and Kalim to think on the coincidental nature. It's a little too perfect.

The guys are quiet as they feel themselves consumed with the idea that you might actually be a complete stranger. Someone who has come so close to them all, snaking your way in with ulterior motives. However, they each process the concept very differently.

Riddle just flat out refuses to believe it. He thinks Azul's being paranoid and that you'd have no real reason to lie to him. And even if his overblot put you off from him, you'd have no real reason to lie to Ace and Deuce. No, Azul's the one being paranoid here, and he won't get dragged down with it.

Trey feels like it's a nonsense consideration. Even if you weren't genuine when you first met everyone here, you surely warmed up with time - Isn't that just how being a social person works? No one puts all their cards out on the table without reason. He's got no reason to doubt you.

Leona on the other hand, lets his mind dance on the edge of the idea. He'd seen firsthand how you can change your tune if you need or want to. You're not above forcing people's hands, but.. You also don't really subscribe to the "Work smarter not harder" mantra that it really takes to scheme. You put too much effort into the things you do to be someone who isn't, on some level, genuine. Still, he underestimated you once, and doesn't make mistakes like that twice.

Ruggie on the other OTHER hand figures there's no reason to worry. Hell, he's fake as hell when he wants to be. As far as he's concerned, everyone's got a grift, and it'd be nice to hear you had one too. Even if your friendship was founded on a lie, he doesn't care. You've never treated him like he owed you, and you saved his life from Leona lashing out at him. As far as he's concerned, that makes you someone worthy of respect at the least.

Jade himself doesn't really care either which way. He likes you and is amused by you, but whether you value him as a friend or not matters very little to him. If he wants to deal with you, he will. He doesn't need an invitation or prior rapport. Still, he likes to think he knows you well. Even if he doesn't know your real name, he knows how to poke and prod you to get desired responses, and at the end of the day, isn't that enough?

Kalim's bothered by the prospect. He shakes his head outright refusing to even consider a world where you were disingenuous. Still, his mind thinks on Jamil. Someone he's held dear to his heart since he was a very young child was able to fool him and use him and control him. ... He doesn't like the idea that there could be secrets you keep from him. Still, if you do have secrets, maybe there's a good reason for it. Maybe you're afraid? Or you just need a safe place to open up? Maybe he just needs to be a better friend.

Jamil furrows his brow in thought. He'd overlooked you once, only to be surprised, and much like Leona, he doesn't make that mistake twice. But unlike Leona, he has to care as far as Kalim's wellbeing is concerned. He doesn't think you'd ever do anything to hurt Kalim, considering you once tracked him down to give him treasure that Kalim tried to sneak to you. If you were in it for the money, you'd have never done that. Plus, there were plenty of times that you could have hurt Kalim by now and you didn't. If you were some kind of physical threat, you'd have struck by now. But if it's a power grab, what kind of power triumphs over money?

Vil's not intensely bothered by the idea of you using every tool in your arsenal to collect strength. If you really were so quietly calculated, it'd be something to applaude. A fake smile here, a warm grin there, you're bound to make useful connections. It's no surprise to him that you were able to make useful connections that echoed forward. He finds himself annoyed with Azul's persistence on the matter, figuring that Azul himself has been bothered by this and is now trying to make it everyone else's problem. People often try to project their insecurities onto the people around them.

Rook on the other hand is delighted at the prospect. If you suddenly showed yourself to have a side that even he couldn't see coming, what a rush that would give! Maybe he should poke and prod you more. Maybe he needs to test the waters and see what really makes you tick? People often let the most real facets of themselves surface under pressure..

Idia already had like 20 fears centered around dealing with people going into this conversation - Most of which had to do with them lying to him already. This machiavelean web of social warfare that Azul is painting just gives him a headache. It's like when the business man thinks he's onto something in boardgame club and just won't relent. Idia may not have a high social self esteem, but he knows Azul well enough to not let this get under his skin. At least, that's what he tells himself. It's hard to not be bothered by the idea, but he won't get taken for one of Azul's wild rides.

Ortho's only bothered by this line of conversation because it implies that you could lie in a way that tricks his censors - And that just isn't like you at all! But any attempt to protect your good name is just met with Azul shrugging and saying 'Anything is possible, I suppose.'

Malleus is the only one who is really torn asunder by this conversation. At first, he was offended that anyone could think that way about you, being your fiercest protector in the matter, but then it hit him that you've always been a bit weird. You've never been scared of him - Was that an act? How could he ever really know? He knew he wasn't just a means to an end, but he had no clue if you befriended him genuinely or not. Did you really not know who he was when you met? Or was that a ploy? Whatever the case could be, he's gutted at the idea that you could be anything less than a friend.

Lilia isn't bothered by the idea. He pretends to be someone he isn't all the time. It's good fun! Even people who've spent their lives hiding their true selves in favor of a false self give away truths. He is, however, bothered by the dark look on Malleus' face coupled by the thunder of the rolling clouds outside. "I mean, everyone has something to hide, don't they, Azul?" His tone is more pointed, as though he'd uncover Azul's secrets for all to see if he answers incorrectly.

A shiver runs down Azul's spine at Lilia's sharper gaze, surprising him with the reaction. ".... Yes, but when someone knows all of our secrets, shouldn't we get to know at least SOME of their's?" He looks to the others to back him up, but isn't getting much help.

He can't be the only one bothered by this, right?

---

The group is deep in thought when you arrive. You step into the room and all eyes are on you. Grim gulps from your shoulder, looking at all the staring eyes. Even he can't ignore the palpable energy of the room. ".. Did we miss somethin'?" He asks tentatively.

Azul takes the lead, snaking his way beside you with a big smile. "Of course not! We were just discussing how we don't seem to know anything about you, ___. Tell us about yourself?"

You take a glance around the room, which seems to confirm Azul's claim that the room is waiting for you to talk about yourself. "...." You blink. ".. What do you wanna know?"

"Well, your name, where's it come from? What's it mean? Tell us about it."

Your eyes narrow as you look at the businessman, who laughs off your suspicions. With Azul, there's always an angle. They must've had a bet about your name. Your eyes relax as you look around the room of your friends. Riddle looks annoyed with the octopus man. Trey gives a quiet shrug like 'I dunno why this guy is being weird'. Leona looks more annoyed with Azul than he does with you, but Ruggie seems interested in hearing you explain your answer. Azul is frevently awaiting an answer, Jade making his biggest creepiest smile to the side as his eyes won't budge from you. Kalim looks somewhere between distressed and excited. Jamil looks like he's trying his hardest to look indifferent, but you know by the way he glances at you that he's invested in your answer.

Vil actually moves to shoo Azul away from your shoulder as he takes over the conversation. "Azul's been 'kind' enough to express that we don't know much about you or where you came from. You came here so abruptly, and you had so little to your name in ways of protection. It's still an amazing mystery to us as to how you adapted so well." Quite the improv actor, Vil smoothly transitions you into the conversation with the grace of a socialite. While he's not bothered by the idea of you being cunning and cutthroat, he IS bothered by the idea that Azul might slip up and make it appear as though the entire group is worried. Besides, any chance to get to know you better is a gift.

Rook smiles delightedly as Vil takes over. If there's anything you're hiding, they'll surely be able to sense it. "Ah yes, Trickster, you fascinate with how otherworldly you are! Please tell us more about yourself. How DID you acclimate so well?"

Idia feels sick to his stomach. More social nonsense is piling up. And on the one day Ortho convinced him to come in-person to one of these meetings. He can't just check out and play a game as things are heating up, so he's stuck just looking visually awkward and avoiding your gaze. Ortho looks determined, but happy to see you. He waved when you first came in, which signaled everyone that you were there in the first place. Now that things are getting weird, he's just excited to have a chance to monitor your vitals while you're under questioning, so he can prove to the others that you're not lying.

If you're lying, he'll know.

Malleus looks like he's stuck in his own head and upset over something. Deep in thought - When he finally looks to you, his eyes melt a little and the storm temporarily relaxes. Lilia's more concerned with how strong Malleus' reaction to this than whatever you could possibly hide from them. He does find it amusing that he could scare Azul with just a judgemental glance though, and files that away as something fun to do if the young octopus man's antics cause Malleus or you grief. He's got thousands of years of judgemental dad looks stashed away for such an occasion.

"Well, uh.." You're not sure what question to answer, so you just answer Vil's because he's less creepy about it. "I just did what I could to survive. I'm as surprised as anyone that I've been able to last this long." And it's true - Everything you've done has been on the fly. Ever since arriving in Wonderland, you've found yourself in increasingly strange circumstances. You shrug, sorry that you don't have a better answer.

"But surely, you must have had something - Skills you've relied on, plans you've laid out. Things that helped you survive through the messes you've encountered?" This time, it's Rook speaking up, trying to coax more out of you.

"Not really, no. I showed up and had a flaming monster thrown at me, I held him up by the scruff of his neck and Crowley dubbed me as his handler. I was given a job as a janitor, and I'd have done it just fine, but Grim wasn't having it and threw a fit. We got in trouble for it and got a bigger workload with Ace. Then he dragged Deuce into the mess and we all got expelled.." You recount your first week here at Night Raven College.

No one ever really heard the story of what happened when you got here before.

You were a janitor? Crowley didn't let you be a student? But you came through the mirror! You couldn't even go home! The frustration of the fear that you're anything but genuine slowly bubbles away as they begin to find themselves annoyed with Crowley and his handling of the situation.

"If I got expelled, Crowley was gonna throw me out, and I had nothing, so I had to do what he told me to in order to stick around. We went to the mines, fought an overblot monster that seemed ancient, and got a magestone to replace the one we broke. From there, I was pretty ride or die for Ace and Deuce." You shrug.

Azul isn't having it though. "That explains why you got involved when they had trouble with Riddle, by why did you get involved when Savanaclaw was scheming?" He won't forget that you've somehow endeared everyone here to you.

"Crowley showed up at my door and told me to figure out why students were getting hurt. When I told him 'Nah', he blackmailed me with my food budget."

The room's stunned to silence.

".... Crowley.. *blackmailed* you?" Riddle's the first to speak up, and he's appalled and pissed. That whole ordeal was incredibly dangerous! He knew Crowley was slimy from time to time, but you didn't even have magic! That goes against several regulations!

"With your food budget no less.." Trey looks disturbed. Ruggie's big grin from earlier is gone.

You shrugged once again, desensitized to the idea. "I didn't want to get involved, but then I had to."

None of them can sense a lie off of you, but they're all listening attentively. They need to know more. How do the threads of fate connect you to them?

"What about after that? You didn't really need to help Ace and Deuce when Azul's plans came to fruition." Jade now speaks up, curious. "Surely, if you were scraping to survive at that point, it would have been easier to just ignore and let them fall to their own stupidity. It would even be a great lesson for them, yes?"

"I wasn't gonna get involved that time either - You're right, they deserved a lesson. Even Grim got in trouble there, but I was so tired at that point."

"So what happened??" Kalim asks eagerly, moving closer to listen, like his ears can't hear you if he can't see you well enough.

"Crowley again. Said faculty couldn't get involved because Azul wasn't technically breaking any rules, and he needed the problem fixed. Once again, I told him no and he threatened my housing security."

Malleus' eyes narrow. The storm outside is slowly building again, but this time for a very different reason. Azul feels sheepish. At every turn, you were being threatened and forced into involving yourself in the lives of the other students. So then why were you still so friendly? Ortho's eyes have gotten frustrated at the idea of what you're telling them. He's visibly upset. Rook is stone silent as you have every ounce of his attention.

"And with Jamil..?" Ruggie jabs a thumb in the direction of the long-haired boy from the sands.

"Crowley told me I had to keep the school's heating running while everyone was away, and I barely was able to remind him to get me food for the winter break. Even then, he held it as a reward I had to earn. He gave me a cellphone in case there was an emergency, but the damn thing was on the worst possible plan, and he never picked up when I called him. Kalim invited us to the dorm for a feast, and Grim and I were so hungry that I decided to let him treat us. When we got there, we got roped into everything.."

"But you escaped. You could have just stayed away at that point." Jamil finally speaks up, remembering the events. He's embarrassed by his actions, but he needs to know why you came back.

You throw a thumb towards Azul. "Yeah, but I only escaped because I accidentally flew the magic carpet into Octavinelle, and Azul made me take him back because he had his own agenda. I didn't wanna be indebted to him for the damage the carpet did, and I didn't trust him enough to return the carpet safely, so I begrudgingly obliged and got roped into bullshit again."

Azul looks embarrassed as once again the attention's all on him. This conversation is more exposing him for his shady bullshit than you for yours.

Luckily, he's saved by Vil speaking up once again; "With my.. incident - You were pushed into it by Crowley again, yes?"

"Yeah. Your troupe needed a place to stay, and my dorm was the only one equipped for it. I wanted to stay as far out of your way as possible, but it was kind of impossible when I was named as the manager and you knew where I slept. You whipped everyone into shape, and even pushed me to do my best, lest I find my snacks.. uh.."

"Tampered with as punishment." Jamil nods, remembering the spell Vil had been using. You were in a tough situation, and once again you made the call that allowed you your best chance of survival.

---

Before you can explain anything further, a familiar voice can be heard.

---

"Hello my gracious students! Thank you all for coming to this meeting!" Crowley has finally arrived. Half an hour late. He opens his eyes from his delight to find several people staring at him with malice. He blinks and gulps down his nerves. "... I seem to have missed something." ----- If you like stories like this, check out the rest of my collection in my Masterlist on my profile, or check out my stuff on AO3! https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuratorOfFiction

[strawurberries]

Oh my god! Berry I had an idea and I had to come running to you with it cause I thought you'd enjoy it too (and cause your writings awesome) but,

A Soulmate AU where you can hear the other person's thoughts?

With Vash, Wolfwood and nai please! (Separate obviously cause I honestly think having all three as soulmates would just be too much xD)

Whether headcannons or a little scenario thingy I leave up to you 😁

Hope you have an awesome day! - 🍰anon

Soulmate Head cannons

Summary: Head cannons with little drabbles about Soulmates <3

Authors Note: I'm sorry this took so long! Finals are finally over so I can focus on writing :) I hope you all enjoy!! Also I wouldn't mind having all three as soul mates. . . but ya know 😂

Warnings: Self-hate, mild sexual themes, angst, cursing, mentions of religion and murder.

Vash didn’t know what an ocean looked like—deep, painfully blue, and so cooling yet full of dangers unimaginable—but he assumed it had to be something similar to the sight before him: sand dunes rose and fell like the chest of some great giant, tumbling across the horizon without thought or remorse. Compared to the vastness of sand before him, he was nothing but a speck of dust—smaller than the grains of sand that covered this desolate, prison-like planet. Part of him was comforted by that fact, knowing that in the grand scheme of things he would be nothing but a passing memory—no one out there to judge him, hurt him, or even see him. Yet he also hated the loneliness of it all. Looking out and seeing no life but himself, it only served to remind him what he was. 

Vash the Stampede:

“Shit!”

He paused, feet sinking into the dry sand below. A semi-cool wind hit the back of his neck. “Hello?” his voice echoed out into the world around—hello. . . hello. . . . . hello. Nothing responded and he adjusted the strap over his shoulder. He must really be losing it now. He had suffered from heat stroke before, had experienced delusions, and been near deaths’ door due to the pounding suns above, so, unfortunately, he knew what might be happening.

He stood still for a moment, longer. . . nothing. Okay, perhaps this was a one time delusion and he’ll be fine.

“How the hell am I going to get out of this alive?!”

He whirled around, looking for any sign of life—the person of whom the disembodied voice belonged to. After a moment he confirmed his suspicions. There was no one around. He groaned and covered his face, thinking to himself: “the heat must be getting to me. . .”

“What?”

He blinked, “What?”

“Who are you?”

“Who are you?” he yelled out into the vastness of the desert. No one responded. “What the hell?”

“Great! I’m getting shot at and I’m hallucinating!”

“What is happening right now?!”

“You tell me! You’re the voice in my head!”

“No, you’re the one in my head!”

The first time you two met—and by that, I mean: the first time you two heard each other—was a mess. You were busy running for your life, and he was wandering through the emptiness of a sandy sea. Both of you, due to different reasons, thought you were going insane. You thought the adrenaline of the situation finally made you snap, and that this run-in with danger took the last bit of your sanity. Vash, on the other hand, swore the heat was out to kill him again and he ignored you for the most part—no use in talking to a delusion. It was only after you both reached safety and had a night's rest, that you both came to realize this was something more than hallucinations.

“Uh. . . so. . . are you real?” Vash thought to himself as he washed his face in the sink, the morning sun starting to make the hotel room feel like an oven.

“Of course I am! . . . are you?”

From then on you two talked a lot, and bonded immensely considering the other’s deepest, darkest and most intimate parts are on display. 

Vash tried desperately to keep the fact that he’s a plant and an outlaw a secret, but simply thinking about how he wanted to not think about it, made him think about it. And, therefore, you heard it all within the first five minutes of knowing him.

“You’re Vash the Stampede! The humanoid typhoon?!”

“Uh. . . no?” He thought about how stupid of a lie that is.

“I can hear your thoughts, Vash! You can’t lie!”

“Aw man I forgot!”

Really, Vash was terrified at first. Having someone able to hear his thoughts? It meant his act, his silly persona, was useless. He was laid bare in front of a person he didn’t know, had never seen, and wasn’t even sure if they were 100% real. No matter what lie he constructed, the truth would be sitting somewhere in his thoughts; easy to access, and even easier to talk about considering there was no way to ignore each other.

“Vash?”

He didn’t want to talk today. A mother had been killed, he had been shot in the shoulder, and ran out of town faster than he had ever known was possible. Sitting by himself in a crude rock formation, miles from any town with the moons shining down on him with pity. He wanted to be alone—to wallow, and think, and cry, and grieve for what was lost and what could never be.

“Vash, I know you're throwing a pity party right now.”

He wiped some tears from his eyes, watching the stars. 

“Vash, Vash, Vash, Vash, Vash, Vash—come on! I know you're hurting, but it wasn’t your fault. Nothing is. The whole space ship thing? Not your fault. Your brother? He’s his own person, you can’t control his actions—his decisions aren’t on you. The deaths? Inevitable, Vash. Everyone dies someday.”

“But they died because I was there!” He hated showing this side—the pain, the anger, the grief. He didn’t deserve to feel this way. His life, the wandering and suffering, was his punishment for failing to save the people he loved. He didn’t deserve comfort.

“When I finally meet you, I’m going to slap you upside the head before giving you the biggest hug you’ve ever felt.”

He blinked. “Eh?”.

After the rocky start, the weird emotional trauma bonding, and the insecurities—Vash fell hard. Having someone who could peer into his very soul? It, despite feeling so terrifying at first, made him feel so understood and. . . safe. This person has seen the very worst of him, the bottom of the barrel, and yet they chose to keep on talking to him. And, of course, normally Vash would take those emotions to the grave. He doesn’t deserve love. Whoever loves him, whoever he loves, will end up dead. But those thoughts, quite literally, are destroyed the moment they are given tangible sound. 

“I love you too, so I need you to stop thinking that I shouldn’t. Even if you keep running away—” despite the fact that he so desperately wants to meet you he’s terrified you’ll get hurt, and runs away the moment you're in a hundred mile vicinity—“I’ll still love you. And one day I’ll find you Vash. I promise that.”

He sobbed for about an hour straight after that.

He really does want to meet you, it’s the truth, but he needs to confront his fears before he can enjoy your love without guilt. 

Wolfwood:

Wolfwood couldn’t fall asleep. The lull of the bus hadn’t hit him yet, the rocking and groaning metal not a lullaby but a shrieking reminder of how far away from civilization he is. Usually he’d be passed out by now, cigarette limply hanging between his lips, but he had opted to twiddle with it between his fingers. The smoke curled around his palm, lazily rising up into the musty air of the bus. No matter how long he closed his eyes for, how many sheep he counted, or how he positioned himself, he couldn’t reach the comforting arms of sleep. Eventually he gave up, annoyed that everyone else on the bus—excluding the driver himself, thank god—had managed to peacefully drift away into their dreams.

“I’m tired. . .”

He blinked and chuckled quietly, “you and me sister.” He turned away from the window, taking a small drag of his cigarette as he turned to see who had spoken. A lady across the aisle looked at him, tilting her head. He gave a small wave and she turned away quickly. 

“Rude,” he thought for a moment before sighing. Maybe he should try to go to sleep again.

“Hello?”

He blinked and looked around. Surely someone must be sleep-talking. Right? “Wish I could be sleeping,” he looked around once more, eyes lingering on the lady across the aisle who was now starting to doze off. “This sucks.”

“Okay, I’m hallucinating now. God damn it. I knew that I shouldn’t have eaten that sandwich.”

He turned around, looking behind him, and then back to the front where the bus driver was humming a song to himself. “What. . .?” Pure confusion was all he felt. Earlier he had spent several hours in the sun, but the heat couldn’t have gotten to him this bad. . . right? Right?

“Oh God, please make this food poisoning death quick. I’m not into pain.”

Sleep deprivation must really be getting to him. This is going to be a long ride.

Chaos. Absolute chaos. 

Part of Wolfwood thought for a moment he might be getting possessed—he tossed that idea aside quickly but he did consider it for a moment before shaking his head. The other option, he thought, would have to be that the stress of trying to find the Humanoid Typhoon finally caught up to him, and he’s in the middle of a psychotic break. But he remembered hearing that you can’t be aware that you’re in psychosis so. . . where does that leave him?

“Has God really forsaken me this time?” he grumbled, stumbling off the bus and waiting for someone to toss the Punisher down to him.

“I hope not!” came the voice again, “I already have bad luck. If god hates me then I’m really a goner.”

Both of you came to the conclusion fairly quickly that there was no demon or god involved, nor were either of you dying or having a breakdown. Wolfwood, unlike Vash, accepted the situation a lot faster. He was confused and apprehensive at first, after all, no one likes showcases their true, intimate selfs—but he got over it fairly quickly. If this was what fate had given him, he would accept it. After all, it didn’t seem to be too horrible. What’s the matter with appreciating the good things in life?

When he gets bored he’d just stare off into space and annoy you—doesn’t matter what you're doing, or what he’s supposed to be doing. He’ll call your name over and over and over, or start preaching until you tell him to shut up. Sometimes, though, he will start talking about the dirtiest, strangest things you’ve ever heard of until your interest is piqued or until he can hear a reaction from you. Either way, no matter what method he chooses, you’ll eventually be talking to him.

“Here’s another quote, ‘Give your burdens to the lord. And he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall. Psalm 55:22’. You know, personally, I’ve always thought that bible verse—”

“Please shut up. I will literally kill you.”

“I’d like to see you try, Doll.”

His favorite pastime is annoying you, making you flustered, or straight up saying the most out of pocket shit you can ever imagine. And, the funny thing is, you always know what he’s trying to do yet he still manages to get a reaction. It doesn’t matter if he spends several minutes brainstorming before saying what he wants, and it doesn’t matter if you try and prepare yourself, he is a master at being a cocky, loveable bastard.

He does hate when you manage to get him to talk deeper about himself, when you bring in the comfort and philosophical talk. Deep down he knows this life isn’t something he wants to partake in, he doesn’t want to go down the path that has been chosen for him, but what other option does he have? 

“You don’t have to kill.”

“How am I supposed to survive if I don’t? This world is built on blood, and one person trying to make it better isn’t going to do shit.”

“Well, I actually think it’s two people trying to make it better. Can’t say I’ve ever killed anyone.”

He was slightly salty when he got that response. 

He didn’t fall first here, but he most certainly fell harder. His heart is a little petrified, and he often lets people in, but only deep enough to where they feel accepted yet can’t glance at anything too important. It’s like if he invited you over to his home, showed you the kitchen and living room, but kept every other door locked and closed. Yet you had the key and essentially broke every lock in one go. He still doesn’t know if he hates or loves it.

He also desperately wants to meet you but, like Vash, he’s terrified you’d get hurt. But his love and desire outweigh his nervousness and, besides, he’ll protect you with everything he has. If he must die for you, so be it. So, the moment he is sure of himself he asks where you are. And, of course, you knew this was coming, and he knew you knew, and you knew he knew you knew. Make sense?

“Do you want to meet in person?” he thought about how much he wanted to see them, feel them, hear them with his ears not with. . . his mind? He wasn’t really sure how this whole thing worked.

“Of course! How could I deny you when you’re practically begging?!”

“Begging? You haven’t seen me beg yet. . . and now that I think about it, I haven’t seen you beg either. That must be a pretty sight, huh?”

Bastard. He’s a bastard.

Million Knives:

Knives were pissed. No matter how loud he played the piano, or how many plants he surrounded himself with, he could not get that annoying little song out of his head. A solemn, lonesome hum that echoed through his mind like nothing he had ever heard—and it infuriated him beyond anything he had ever known. At first he had assumed it was the sound of the pipes, the mechanical building breathing with man-made life, but once he found himself in the desert, alone, he knew that wasn’t the case. It crossed his mind for a moment, a moment, that he might be having some mental issues but he quickly tossed that idea out the window. He could never have any problems like that, never. 

He brushed his fingers along the piano keys, thinking of problems past and future, thinking of what is to come and how he should deal with it all. His own thoughts, he noticed, almost drowned out the humming; that was, until, a voice blew through his troubled mind. 

“Woah, you’re a plant?”

He whirled around, ready to mame and kill whoever had managed to infiltrate his base. . . but no one was there. “Come on out now!” he seethed, “and I’ll make your death painless.”

No response but the clacking of gears and the hiss of steam.

“Audacious human,” he spit out in his mind, already thinking of different ways to kill whoever dared to address him. He began to stalk the room, eyes snapping from one corner to the next. “They can’t hide long. I’ll find them.”

“Why are you so violent? Geez. . . well, I mean I guess it makes sense but don’t you get tired of being angry all the time?” The voice trailed off and began humming that infuriating tune. A vague thought that wasn’t his came to the forefront of his mind, wondering if it was worth eating the stale bread or if he should—wait no, not him because this isn’t his thoughts—they should wait until they get paid tomorrow to eat.

He ignored the mundane thoughts and confronted the voice in his head, “you’re the one who’s been singing that idiotic song?!”

“Wow, you’re rude too. Who would’ve guessed?”

The conversation devolved very quickly after that.

To be honest, you’d be found very, very quickly. Unlike Vash, Knives won’t avoid you; and unlike Wolfwood, he won’t wait until the time is right—he’ll rush off into the desert and hunt you down in less than a week. Finding a stranger is surprisingly easy when you have infinite access to their thoughts. At first he was angry and only wanted to find you so he could cut your head off, but soon—despite his hatred for admitting this—he found you interesting.

“I’m coming to kill you, and you’re not worried at all?”

“I’ll die someday, and besides, I think I’m starting to charm you.”

“I will rip you apart.”

“Sounds sexy.”

You infuriate him on so many levels he doesn’t even know where to start. 

Actually, he does know where to start. You peer into his mind and learn everything about him and oh my god that pisses him off because now a human—a mere human!—knows everything about him: his trauma, his fears, his past, his brother. And he has now way to stop you from learning about him. Out of pure spite, though, he tries his best to learn nothing about you. . . but that plan fails quickly.

“I’m going to kill myself!” you cry out in your mind, rage edging at the tone of your words.

“Please don’t, it’ll take the joy out of me torturing you.” 

“I’m already being tortured! My boss sucks! Ugh! I’m going to kill him!”

He has a tiny, second-long urge to say he’ll kill the man for you before he literally gags with disgust. He had never been so glad someone was distracted because if you had focused on his intentions in that moment you would have teased him until he showed up on your doorstep and killed you. 

Over the course of the couple days he spent tracking you, he unwillingly came to be invested in your life and found a small amount of joy when he debated with you. 

“Humanity sucks, yes, but we can be good!”

“It doesn’t matter if you can or can’t. What matters is what you’ve done, and what you’re doing. Your potential means nothing when compared to the damage you’ve done.”

“. . . damn it why are you smart. Also, I didn’t do anything! I was just born!”

“That’s a sin in itself.”

“Okay, well, gotta call you out on that one. Being born is not a sin, also, what are you? A preacher? Jesus Christ!”

“Don’t use his name in vain.”

“What?”

After he gets over his initial repulsion and hatred he finds the look into human life interesting. You’re pitiful, weak, and disgusting yet you still push on. Why? Why? Why?

“Why not?’

“It’s useless.”

“So?”

“So. . .?”

“I got you, the great Knives, tongue tied? Wow, I can die happily now.”

Overall, it takes a while for him to fall for you. At first it’s purely rage, and then it’s curiosity, and then. . . maybe he’d call it interest. He wouldn’t fall first and he wouldn't fall that hard, but he’d still appreciate you in some capacity. 

[teecupangel]

So, ive recently gotten back into Protocreed and a what if..? idea i had was:

After Abstergo recovers Desmonds body, they experiment with his DNA and Blacklight. Resulting in him being revived after an outbreak and breaking free.

It could even be the assassins fault that the outbreak happened!

.

In the midst of the chaos, no one noticed the body dissapearing. It's only after the outbreak was contained and culled that Subject 17 was noted as missing. With all the footage being destroyed it is impossible to tell what happened to it, but the general consensis is that one of the infected ate it. It is a crushing blow to their research, but thankfully they have plenty of samples stored in a different facility, so all hope is not lost. No one thought of the possibilty that a repeat of Alex Mercer's revival could happen. Subject 17 has been dead for months, the body is simply too old. So no one thought too look in the shadows of the city, where something lay lurking. Tracking. Hunting.

Hungering

So I have a ProtoCreed idea similar to this that I posted here.

The comments/replies have more details on how it would go but, in a nutshell, Blacklight is a failed/abandoned Isu project headed by Tinia (so we can have a little hehe moment with Alex being called ‘Zeus’) and Dr Mercer is not a Templar but he’s still a piece of work.

And Desmond’s Isu to human genes ratio + his Bleeding Effect screwed up the virus that he still has the superhuman feats that Alex has but he can’t morph his body to have weapons or anything like that.

Instead…

It’s like he can spawn three specific humanoid figures made of the black and red writhing flesh which only has one specific goal: keep Desmond safe.

There’s more details in the link above but the main point is that Desmond’s virus makes him be able to ‘summon’ his ancestors who holds a piece of Alex’s OG abilities and it’s unclear if they are mindless or if their connection with Desmond keeps them docile because when Abstergo try to cut their connection (which are tendrils of red and black connecting the creatures to Desmond’s shadow), the creature goes berserk and attacks and devours everything around until Desmond reconnects with it.

So we have:

Altaïr = Blade

Ezio = Hammerfist

Ratonhnhaké:ton = Whipfist

Ezio gets Hammerfist because the sword of Altaïr is iconic so Altaïr gets the Blade and Ratonhnhaké:ton had the ropedart so he gets the Whipfist. XD

Although, in my original idea, Desmond keeps his memories (thanks to the Bleeding Effect) but if you want to go down the route of Desmond being ‘incubated’ by the virus during the story of Prototype and waking up afterwards, we can easily do that and the incubation period is actually what corrupted Desmond’s mind.

So in this situation, Desmond would be more like ‘Eve’ from Parasite Eve, the new origin of an outbreak (and everyone believes it’s Alex’s fault which will lead us to a modified setup for Prototype 2 and Alex and Desmond having an antagonistic start).

But the outbreak is strange because it seemed… targeted.

The ones to be hit first were Abstergo facilities or facilities under Abstergo’s shell companies.

And the spread only began when these facilities had fallen and the barricades have been breached, like… it wasn’t truly intentional but more of a ‘side effect’.

So now we have Alex trying to figure out what this new outbreak is because the ‘children’ for this one are faster and more cunning, using their surrounding to hide and wait. And these children seemed to be taking orders from three creatures made of darkness and blood.

(Or, if you want to preserve the Assassin white and red color scheme, it’s gonna be grosser with them being filled with pus and blood instead. The pus could be a sign that the virus is being combated by Desmond’s Isu genes though and that could be a clue for Alex)

And any time Alex tries to eat any of them, he only gains snippets of the memories of the same person: a man named Desmond Miles.

The three commander creatures also seemed to travel via shadows, being able to melt into the shadows before Alex could ever destroy them completely.

Later, he would realize that the whole city (whichever city we’re planning to set this on) are filled with what looked like lines all over (maybe one would say that maybe it’s the ley lines or something and Alex would say that it looks more like… veins…) and these veins are actually how the commanders travel all over the city.

At the center of the veins is a cocoon…

[ashesandhackles]

HP Reread - Order of Phoenix (Part 2)

Chapter 13,14

"Ron was now so low in his seat that his nose was on his knees". when Hermione confronts Fred and George about them testing sweets on first years. Also, living with Weasleys made Hermione realise what is a below the belt threat for Fred and George: write to Molly. XD (also the reason Ron is reluctant to go against Fred and George, something he was willing to do last year in GOF with the whole blackmail scheme, is due to reminders of Percy as Ron now holds the Prefect badge.)

love that both Hermione and Ron had opportunities to not read the room XD Ron getting on Cho's case about being a Tornadoes supporter when its clear she wanted to talk to Harry, and Hermione with Luna after she expresses her support to Harry. And Hermione being like "No REGRATS" after Harry is all, "Do you mind not offending the only people who believe me?" XD

"And it looks like it's going to rain" "what's that got to do with homework?" "Nothing" Ron is training for Quidditch secretly <3 I like that his arc is trying to define himself on his own terms (esp after the falling out with Harry in GOF which was because he felt overshadowed) - and the fact he takes initiative to practise for Quidditch, to be on team, is a step in that direction.

Harry enters Umbridge's office, and immediately takes the scene as a battle of wills. An adult being horrendous/violent is not a surprise to him, so what counts as "winning" for him in this situation is to not show he is in pain, or to check the time for when he would be allowed to go, or ask or to even complain to Ron and Hermione about it. There is also a lot of shame surrounding abuse, and ideas of weakness in admitting something like that happened to you.

Ron and Harry having a moment - where Ron reveals he wants to try for Keeper, and Harry tells him about Umbridge. It is incredible that Ron, a peer, got Harry to open up about something that has shame surrounding it. Speaks to how safe Ron makes Harry feel.

Both Hermione and Ron egging him to go to Dumbledore at different time: it's clear these two co-parents have discussed him. Also Harry discussing Umbridge with Hermione is operating under the assumption that Ron told her - and he would be right. Trio dynamics <3

Harry refuses to "trouble" Dumbledore because he feels abandoned by him, so he thinks he would write to Sirius instead: his safe space. <3

Hermione inviting him to knit hats with her. She is so happy that she can make all sorts of patterns now.

"She's nearly as nice as your mum": the way Harry understands this about Sirius, and the way Sirius also immediately understands what Harry is saying about Umbridge enough to come to the fire later. <3 also "Please write back quickly":(

I really, really love how Harry and Cho is written right down to the time we get to scenes with second hand embarrassment. Harry's crush on her is so endearing, and I like that he is comforted that Cho did not hate him for being alive when Cedric is dead (it's a casual throwaway line to Harry's own survivor's guilt)

"he got off on a mere technicality""many people I have spoken to remained convinced of his guilt" - the way Percy needs to double down and convince himself that he is on the right track.

"Nearly everyone in the wizarding world thought Sirius a dangerous murderer and a great Voldemort supporter, and he had to live with that knowledge for 14 years" the way this book emphasises how much Harry deeply understands Sirius. And also, now Sirius isnt cleared before his death hits hard.

Sirius' association of Hermione's worry for him as her sounding like Molly shows that he understands that Molly comes from a place of concern too. Also best evidence of their dynamic is not as prickly as it is made out to be.

Love the implication that Remus is just cussing Umbridge out in presence of Sirius. The comfort Remus feels speaks volumes.

"the world isnt split into good people and Death Eaters": an important quote, and given where Sirius comes from, a good insight into how he thinks.

Hermione looked upset when Sirius makes a joke about Kreacher, and this is because Sirius was the only adult to truly back her about Winky. Sirius knows she is right, just like he knows Dumbledore is right, Hermione invoking Dumbledore's name (like Molly did in the beginning) to get him to listen - he interrupts and changes the subject, because of how bitter he feels with regard to Dumbledore (just like Harry) + how isolated he is in a childhood home.

Sirius has personal bitter feelings about Dumbledore, but his eyes are clear with regard to the Order and what Dumbledore wants there: he warns the trio to not draw attention to the fact that Hagrid isnt there.

@artemisiablack masculinity meta covered 'less like your dad' moment in depth. My addition is - I am interested in Harry's complete understanding of this - not once does he become mad at this. Since he spends the entire book lashing out, isolated, disbelieved, he has a unique understanding of Sirius' position and is unusually forgiving of him. Remus tries the "what your father would have done/ wanted" route in DH, and Harry has far less understanding of it there because he is projecting himself onto Teddy's position.

Chapter 15, 16

I love the newspaper article about Hogwarts High Inquisitor. It is quite clearly a govt puff piece with support of a quote of a corrupt parent, Lucius Malfoy. The only dissent in the article comes at the end by Griselda Marchbanks and Tiberius Odgen, and Marchbank's quote of critique is something the prophet tries to diminish by having an article on her links with "subversive goblin groups" on page 17.

Lmao at Hermione looking sideways to see Harry's grade on his moonstone essay and when she gets neither Harry nor Ron's essay grades, she tries to engage them in a conversation about OWL grades. Until finally, Ron cracks and says, "If you want to know what grades we got, ask" and she is all,"I dont- I didnt mean - Well if you want to tell me". Such a poor liar LOL.

Ok I adore this detail of Fred and George naming the grades for them, and Ron raises his hand in mock celebration when they say "P is for poor" XD such a teenage boy thing.

Hermione retreated last time and came back with a new strategy. She came back to Umbridge's class reading the whole book. XD Umbridge tries to whisper to her, but Hermione speaks in clear, carrying voice so the rest of the class can overhear. Hermione rattles her enough that Umbridge forgets to whisper and then docks off points when she realises that Hermione outmaneuvered her. And then, Harry gets involved, to Hermione's distress.

"Yeah, Quirrel was a great teacher. There was a minor drawback of Lord Voldemort sticking out the back of his head" LOL

"Dean Thomas, if you do that to the mouse again, I shall put you in detention": Dean whatttt

Harry loses his temper with Umbridge in Care of magical Creatures again, and both Ron and Hermione groan. Poor kids. This is a hard year for them.

Harry comes back with a very severe bleeding hand and he is relieved that Hermione is being sympathetic instead of critical (like she was at breakfast when McGonagall took points off).

"Harry saw with an ominous feeling that her face was alight with fervour SPEW usually inspired in her" this is so endearing.

I love the tiny shade of coolness in Hermione when she mentions that Harry beat her in DADA when they had a competent teacher. It bothers her gifted child-ness a bit, but she is okay because it was done in a fair setting.

How much do you want to bet Ron and Hermione discussed the idea of Harry being a teacher and kind of laid a conversation trap.

also, Harry having his survivor guilt induced rant about how much it could have just been him who died instead of Cedric: it reminds me of the conversation in Deathly Hallows where Harry tells Ron: "Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was. I've been trying to tell you that for years."

Hermione says Voldemort for the first time, and that calms Harry down. It tells him that she is taking what he said seriously.

love that Hermione waited two whole weeks to broach the topic with Harry again. And also introduced the idea of this being an idea for a larger group of people. She believes there is a larger group of people who would be interested in what Harry has to say and that it isn't fair to deprive of them of a chance to learn - and it feels like either she has been in conversation with these people and has been gauging the mood.

and she names Ron as part of her initial idea, and Ron looks at her all alarmed . here is the confirmation that the conversation they had was rehearsed. Ron joins the conversation and backs Hermione once he is sure Harry is receptive to the idea.

the barman looked "tall and thin" and "vaguely familiar" to Harry. Aberforth :D

the man in dirty grey bandages is the one who informs Umbridge about the meeting: he is referenced earlier in the book as the dude who blows up toilets XD

"A couple of people?" but this is a good demonstration of scale of Hermione's ideas and also her awareness that this would be something Umbridge would disprove of.

first meeting of Fred and Aberforth. Later in DH, he will talk of him with familiarity: "Aberforth is getting ratty.."

love that Hermione's initial go to was to use Harry's reputation to give her idea credibility and Harry disproves that line of speech with a ":sharp look" but her voice grows bolder and has more conviction when she talks about what Umbridge teaches them is rubbish. It's a nice moment of Hermione taking on a leadership role.

Zacharias Smith's interruption rattles the trio, and both Ron and Hermione try to redirect the conversation away from Harry. But Harry intervenes in this case.

While Hermione gets nervous again, Susan Bones interrupts and bolsters the conversation in Harry's favour. ("is it true you can produce a Patronus?") also, love the detail that Molly asked Ron not to spread it around XD

also twins leap to Harry's defense when Zacharias is rude again. XD i really love that the twins are so protective about him.

Ginny intervening in Hermione and Luna's spat with a "hem hem". Love that Weasley family has a set of people who can imitate people very well. Ron does it in DH too - he imitates Pettigrew XD

the cute detail of Cho fastening her catch in hopes of staying back, but Marietta was being too impatient, so she had to leave. Such a teenage move.

ok, I know OOTP is a bit of transient phase for Romione: but I love the body language detail of Hermione turning around and trodding on Ron's feet in a shop. It speaks to how close they are standing - and it feels like a test of boundaries (we see this later with Ron gifting Hermione perfume).

OOTP - Chapter 17, 18

the beech tree the trio sits near the lake is a regular, they sit here again post-Grawp chapters (and it is the same tree Marauders are sitting under in SWM chapter).

love that Ron thinks Hermione projects her virtues onto everyone else (which she does in some ways!), but Hermione clarifies that no one can tell Umbridge because she jinxed the parchment. Ruthless lol.

Harry is so worried about Hedwig that he nearly forgets that she had a letter for him:( also the tenderness in the Harry-Hedwig here: and how annoyed she is with him for letting Grubby-Plank take her, and how that makes Harry feel.

Snape's reaction to Umbridge when she mentions DADA post, obviously sore subject for him, because he believes Dumbledore would not hand him that position out of lack of trust. In HBP, he mentions that he believes Dumbledore believes it will cause a relapse in his old ways - but in HBP, the year Dumbledore gives Snape the task to kill him, he is effectively also handing over his complete trust by giving him that post. (ofc, the job is jinxed, so there are reasons why Dumbledore didnt do it before- but I am looking at this in terms of an emotional dynamic between the two. It also adds an interesting layer to Dumbledore, someone who would refuse all sorts of temptation due to his own youth and how he projects those fears onto Snape)

Crookshanks coming close to the fire to put his face close to Sirius <3 Hermione has to pull him back to stop him from singeing his whiskers.

Hermione takes Sirius' advice about Three Broomsticks being a place that would be harder to overhear- her meeting with Rita and Luna later in the story takes place in Three broomsticks. Despite her reservations about Sirius' judgement at this point in the story, it's an interesting look into how her mind works.

What is the Mundungus-Aberforth backstory? He was apparently banned from Hog's Head 20 years ago. Is it the same tight spot Dumbledore bailed him out of?

Molly's perceptiveness about Harry's relationship with Sirius comes into play in her message that she asks Sirius to pass on. In the beginning of the book, she challenges Sirius' guardianship ("who else has he got?"), and here she has retreated to "though she accepts she has no authority over either of them and begs them..".

Love that Sirius tells Ron to tell Molly that he has passed it all on, "because I don't think she trusts me to." Sirius wants her approval.

Ofc Hermione suspecting this to be the case is one more reason the book is Hermione vs Umbridge. I also think, and this chapter demonstrates, with Hermione being the one with DA plan, creating failsafes, asking to think up a name, she functions as the leader-behind-the scenes.

Also Hedwig sitting on Dobby's topmost bobble is the cutest image.

Hermione bringing up the fact that Dobby's plans aren't always safe - with regard to room of requirement. I wonder if she was doubling back on the DA after the initial Sirius enthusiasm, and the enormity of what they are doing scared her for a moment. Or it was a need to double check.

ooh, Ginny had come in with Dean and other Gryffindors. Given that Ginny dates Dean in the next book, it is a significant point to her social circle.

"That's a majority - motion passed": Hermione XD

Harry being so cute that he decides not to point out that Neville's first attempt at Disarming when Harry is facing away from him does not actually count XD

Lmao @ twins going after Zacharias Smith. They are clearly very annoyed at him making jibes at Harry (as they displayed last time at Hog's Head).

Ok, Dean's enthusiasm is really <3 I forget that Dean's respect for Harry is what drives Dean's moment in DH, where he puts weight behind Harry being the Chosen one in the conversation. This, combined with how excited Neville was about disarming Harry, shows how the Gryffindor boys view him.

Chapter 19, 20

Queen Parvati has produced such a good reductor curse that she reduces an entire table full of sneakscopes to dust.

Hermione "trying to look modest" when Terry Boot is all admiration that she can do a NEWT level charm. LOL.

Loved the conversation between Harry and Hermione: he tells her it reminds him of the Dark mark, and she admits that is where she got the idea from. It is something she got out of Harry's retelling of the most traumatic night of his life, and I like that she stores details like this and treats information as information.

"Hey Potty I hear Warrington's sworn to knock you off your broom on Saturday" "Warrington's aim is so pathetic I'd be more worried if he was aiming for the person next to me": XD

Hermione kisses Ron on the cheek when he looks lost and miserable, and it is like the kiss brings him back to himself <3 he touches the spot slightly. (also she has to stand on tiptoe to do it. Ron is tall)

Angelina does not wince when Montague tries to crush her fingers. Go Angelina!

Lee trying to drown out the words of the terrible "Weasley is our King" song by shouting his commentary. Lee Jordan is King!

Draco actually wrote the lyrics for Weasley is our king, and Pansy was conducting it from the stands lol. Says a lot about the character dynamics here.

Harry holding George back, while the combined efforts of Angelina, Katie and Alicia are needed to stop Fred leaping on Malfoy XD and then of course Harry releases George when Draco insults his mum.

Hogwarts really doesn't care about verbal bullying. An entire song to wind up the Gryffindor Keeper? Okay. Muggle duelling after extended provocation? Oh good lord not.

Hagrid is back and so begins hints of my least favourite plotline: Grawp.

Chapter 20, 21, 22

Hermione wearing her own knobbly elf hats. So cute. I love how it is a little thing she takes pride in.

Ron being his caretaking self and really pressing about how Hagrid has been attacked. XD

Hagrid irritably calling them nosy and interfering and then his beard twitches and Harry grins. Harry bargains his Dementor story for Hagrid's tale.

Trolls on Polish border and a disagreement with vampire in Minsk? Gimme this bar tale!

love how much the everlasting fire imagery comes with Dumbledore: he offers the giants (via Hagrid) : everlasting fire. (there is Fawkes, and there is the inferno he uses against the Inferi)

Maxime being super impressive by both roughing it (Hagrid being all "she is such a well dressed woman but..") and also saving Hagrid from giants by being fast with her wand.

Okay, Hagrid going misty-eyed at memories of Maxime being fiery at the thought of attacking Death Eaters, and Harry allowing him 30 secs of reminiscences before clearing his throat, lol.

Hermione asking about Hagrid's mother and being scared of broaching the topic, and Ron covering for her<3

Thestrals first make an appearance through gnarled yew trees - to emphasise their connection with death. Nott, Harry and Neville are the only ones who can see them.

Neville being upset that his answer might have made things worse for hagrid, but truthfully, this entire segment is an exercise of Umbridge enjoying wielding her power.

Ron being greatly amused by Hermione's skiing holiday, and Harry being envious that Ron would go to Burrow until Ron tells him he is invited. And Harry feels guilty at the thought of Sirius being alone at Grimmauld Place for Christmas, and considers persuading Mrs Weasley to invite him. :(

Angelina sending Harry burning reproachful looks cos she had to recreate the Gryffindor team. XD Also, Ginny is on team as Seeker!

The tension building between Harry and Cho: how he resists the urge to walk past her several time after she beams at him, and how he hangs back hoping to get a Merry Christmas from her.

Cho is dealing with so many confused feelings in this scene: the what if about Cedric, and seeing Harry react heavily to his mention, she feels upset that she burdened him with her feelings, she says, "I know it must be horrible for you… me mentioning Cedric, when you saw him die. I suppose you want to forget about it?" and when Harry doesnt answer, she expresses her admiration and attraction.

the other half of him wanted to take it to the grave, Imao, Harry so dramatic.

"oh, are you that bad at kissing?" "dunno. maybe I am." "of course you arent." "how do you know?" LOL. The trio in this scene.

"emotional range of a teaspoon" - its a funny line, but it also conveys Hermione's feelings for Ron and how much she wants to disavow them at the moment, because he is "the most insensitive wart she had the misfortune to meet". XD The scene is also set around Hermione writing an essay to Krum.

Harry agreeing mindlessly to Ron's "he's a grouchy git, isn't he?" "bit grouchy, yeah." Also LOL at role reversal. Hermione was the one who said that Krum looks grumpy, and Ron was like, "who cares what he looks like" lol.

Harry wishing Sirius's head appears in the fire so he can ask for advice on girls XD

Harry's ridiculous dream before the nightmare conveys feelings of competition that he feels with regard to Cho's feelings for Cedric , and there is also a sense that he wants to give back to Dobby because he came to the room to set up Christmas baubles with Dobby's head.

Mrs Norris spots them on the way to Dumbledore's office (McGonagall shoos her), but the cat informs Filch, Filch informs Umbridge.

I love the implication here that Dumbledore is conducting a meeting with portraits (many of whom are in important wizarding institutions in the country, which means he gets information from everywhere). The discussion falls silent and portraits pretend to sleep as soon as there is a knock on the door.

"but in essence divided?" + the imagery of two serpents coiling and undulating in air. This is a reference to Voldemort's torn soul in Harry, but also the twin imagery between Harry and Voldemort is strong here.

also the comical whimsy of the portraits is there throughout the scene - them pretending to sleep but raising their eyelids enough to watch Harry, them yelling at Phineas to wake up, and finally, the witch with a wand that looked like a birch rod XD

love that Harry as a protector is embedded in Ginny's mind. She asks him directly what is going on, instead of the adults in the room. Harry reinforces this association by stepping directly in front of her in the climax chapters when Bellatrix threatens her.

ah the implication of Sirius being in his day clothes, and the whiff of a stale drink about him :(

Ron gives Harry a fleeting look(but does not challenge it) when Harry changes the story to as if he is watching the vision from sidelines, later on in the same chapter, he admits to seeing it through snake's eyes for Sirius and also admits to wanting to attack Dumbledore. Sirius gets the detail that Harry wanted to attack Dumbledore first.

Oh Sirius. :( It's such struggle for him to remain calm in a scene when Fred, understandably upset, hits at something below the belt. Sirius, who is a man of action, who ties his worth to doing hates being in this position. But once they sit down, he tries hard to be a host - giving them Butterbeer, suggesting they go to bed…

Ginny being curled like a cat and her eyes reflecting the firelight is such a sensual image.

"Harry and Sirius looked at each other often, intruders upon family grief… waiting… waiting". Again, the emphasis on how Harry views Sirius.

Sirius cooking for the Weasleys, Sirius saying "the more the merrier" and Molly beaming at him, and them cooking together <3

"well, he doesn't tell me anything any more" - not only does Harry confess the details of the vision, he also allows himself to tack on this resentful sentence of Dumbledore keeping him in the dark.

This is a bit of a moment for Sirius where he wants to assure Harry things are alright before admitting that the vision is worrying him - its one of the few moments in the series that Sirius is not entirely honest with Harry. So he goes to Dumbledore about this next to figure out wtf is going on - which is what arranges the Occlumency lessons.

LOL, the entrance to St. Mungos is a bit creepy, with dummy beckoning you closer with its jointed finger for entering.

Dilys (the headmistress) counting the Weasleys as though to report to Dumbledore who is visiting.

An old man with a hearing trumpet is here to see Broderick Bode.

Mrs Weasley panicking there is a werewolf in public ward, and Mr. Weasley assuring the man that Remus finds his condition easy to manage. Remus really never lets it show, unless he is bitching about Umbridge to Sirius. XD

Poor harry spends the entire chapter thinking that Weasleys had something "accusatory" in how they looked at him (a reflection of his own feelings of guilt), and he keeps being proven wrong: Molly hugs him and thanks him for saving Arthur's life, and Fred and George offer him extendable ears saying Harry has the right to listen in on their father. It makes the end of the chapter, where they are most likely worried about him and scared for him, all the more sad because Harry is going to think they are afraid of him

Chapter 23, 24

Harry's paranoia driving him to a point where he thinks he needs to go to privet Drive to keep other people safe.

Like Sirius, as angry as Harry gets at Dumbledore, he instantly obeys his instruction. And again like Sirius in his depressive episode, Harry also retreats to the room with Buckbeak, and refuses to eat.

hermione asking Harry not to tell Ron that skiing is not really her thing cos he kept laughing too much XD

Hermione and Ginny tag-teaming Harry out of his mood, leading to the "I forgot" "Lucky you" moment. And Ginny gives Harry the knowledge that gives him immediate comfort. Ron joins at the tail end of the conversation, where he senses Harry has started calming down. (He had previously looked down in response to Harry's angry glare)

Sirius singing "God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs" and his delight at having the house full, "especially at having Harry back":(

Sirius and Remus sending presents that shows both of their tacitly approving DA. Lovely shade to Remus' characterisation. Also how sweet of Tonks to send in a small model of the Firebolt.

Remus comforting Molly about Percy and the implication later that Sirius and Molly are cooking together again - Molly "sounding like she had a bad head cold" and Sirius bringing in turkey.

"The perfume is really unusual Ron" - Ron spotting that Hermione is indeed, a girl. What an awkwardly cute romantic-but-is-it gesture.

Kreacher's den - that is the boiler room where he sleeps - really makes me side-eye the stupid house elf plot that says Walburga and Regulus were "kind" to Kreacher. Sure Jan.

Christmas is the time where there is an uptick of patients who have come in cos of a family argument XD

Remus going to the forlon werewolf in the ward. :(

the Healer who ran after Ron through six portraits to offer remedy for spattergroit XD this will come in handy in Deathly Hallows.

Hermione sounding "slightly breathless" at the sight of Lockhart. Her crush remains XD

Neville saving the wrapper he got from his mum.

Harry being suspicious of Kreacher's behavior is why he is the lead detective of a mystery novel character. XD

Sirius is that character whose presence is just so powerful that his mood infects everyone: whether he is cheerful during the beginning of the holiday, or when he is depressed near the end of the holiday ("oozing under doorways like noxious gas"). Intense boy.

Harry egging on his castle which was tussling with Ron's pawn, lmaoo. "Squash him, squash him, he is only a pawn you idiot." I will say that the "Lucky you" scene and further on put Ginny among the trio. She is sitting with Hermione and Crookshanks, watching Harry and Ron play chess.

Snape and Sirius scene: this is an incredibly fun scene with two characters who are quite a match for each other's verbal sparring, and it also lays out their priorities. Sirius' priority is Harry, and he undercuts the power Snape is trying to establish in the scene by claiming ownership of both the house ("it's my house, you see") and Harry (I'm his godfather"). Snape's priority is Dumbledore's orders + the Order (and he rubs the fact that he is doing an important role to hit undercut Sirius' power in return).

The history between these two also muddies the scene with other complicated things. The moment Sirius stands up to emphasise that Harry shouldnt be bullied, Snape's, ever the hypervigilant against his former bullies, goes to his wand in his pocket. (we see a version of this in SWM, where James calls to him, and "Snape reacted as though he was expecting an attack").

They both throw emasculating insults at each other: Snape goads him about hiding in his mother's house, while Sirius calls him Lucius' lapdog. So essentially, what these two men are saying in the scene is - Sirius: "Stop tormenting Harry" and Snape is saying (especially with the jab about how Lucius knew it was Sirius): "You are putting the Order at risk". Poor Harry stuck at forcing these two grown men apart, standing immobile between them, hand outstretched. XD

Sirius forcing himself to be cheerful around people, and Harry noticing his face fell back into a brooding expression when the focus isnt on him:(

Ugh, Harry just not wanting to leave Sirius behind and the way his chest is constricting at thought of parting. And Sirius giving him a way to contact him, and then giving him a one armed hug. These two loved each other so much:(

The adults fell silent when Harry came in for breakfast, and Tonks was nervous about staying too long in the square (she even threatens Stan for simply saying Harry's name loudly). I wonder what is happening here? Are they being watched/followed? I would have loved to know more behind the scenes Order stuff. Interesting how Tonks takes the lead in this two man job, and how she splits them up, tips Stan to move them along etc etc. More glimpses of her Auror! self.

Harry saying Voldemort's name unnerves Snape, and he almost rubs the arm where his mark is. It shows that Snape is indeed, scared of Voldemort. (also Harry asking the right questions - "why can I see from snake's mind if its Voldemort's thought I am sharing?" smart cookie. It's because Nagini is a Horcrux.)

"well for the first attempt that was not as poor as it could have been" is Snape almost unwillingly complimenting Harry lol, and then he offers feedback in his typical bad teacher way: "remain focused, you wasted too much time and energy shouting. You are handing me memories you fear"

After Harry sees his mother and father in mirror, and Cedric's death once again: Snape looks "paler than usual, and angrier". I dont think he expected to encounter Lily again.

"fools who wear their heart proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked easily - weak people in other words - stand no chance against his powers". Snape is talking about himself, especially teenage Snape who joined the Death Eaters. We see a glimpse of teenage Snape later on, lying on grass and throwing swear words at James even without his wand, throwing a slur at his best friend because he is humiliated - "easily provoked, who cannot control his emotions". This is such an interesting chapter because Snape is talking about himself and there is recognition of who Harry is, away from his projection of "James' son". Snape's lip curl when asking about Ripper the dog, and Harry thinks Snape is mocking him (but interestingly, he never uses it to mock Harry - now or in the future, because it disturbs his James projection on him), but these words show that Snape is recognising himself in him. He hates it and will disassociate from the realisation until near the end of the series. Which gives weight to the "look at me" moment. He is asking Harry to really see him, and asking to be seen in return ("look at me")

Harry asking whats in the department of mysteries, unnerving Snape. Because it holds the prophecy Snape had overheard, but it also tells Snape that this is something that is haunting Harry for months (as he will later tell Dumbledore). Harry and Snape stepping on emotional landmines around each other - it makes for very interesting scenes, but good god, this is such a bad idea.

Hermione looking at Fred and george's Invisibility Hats and puzzling out how they work, and compliments how cleverly they used the charm.

Hermione asking Ron to check up on Harry since he looked ill all evening. <3 these two co-parents.

[self-indulgent-paw-patrol]

Maybe it's just me, but the idea of Adventure Bay's local news makes me laugh, just imagine seeing the pups rescues being broadcast on the news, with the news headlines and reporter commentary, with all the crazy stuff that happens, the news in Adventure Bay must be crazy. "Thanks John, in today's news our local ten-year-old leader of the town's search and rescue team and his pack of rescue pups are at it again, once again putting a stop to Foggy Bottom's own Mayor Humdinger and his nefarious schemes, this time the mayor apparently let loose a trash machine he called the 'Trash-dinger 3000' onto Adventure Bay's beach, reports say the machine got out of control and started flinging cubes of trash everywhere, prompting Ryder and his pups to appear, and it seems our favorite eco-pup Rocky has a new trick up his sleeve, coming onto the scene with what Ryder calls his 'Re-Use It Truck' capable of recycling and upcycling trash into all kinds of stuff, and all in the blink of an eye, now this is actually Rocky's 10th vehicle, if you can believe it, he has been seen driving 9 other vehicles at one point or another, including a motorcycle, that boy sure is a genius, what will he think of next? In other news, later today, our new four-legged superheroes will explain how they get their powers from a meteor that crash landed on that same beach, assuming they don't get called for another mission of course, so stay tuned!"

Hold on hold on my ADHD ass is at it again, the Re-Use It Truck was given to him at some point during the 7th season which I just finished watching so up to that point no Jet To The Rescue and no Movie truck

Which leaves us with

His regular truck

Sea Patrol boat or whatever that's called

Mission PAW vehicle I don't even remember what Rocky's looks like right now

Jungle truck

His Ultimate Rescue truck

Ultimate Rescue Swamp mini boat or whatever

Racing car

Dino Rescue truck

Motorcycle

Ah ok that checks out LMAO took me long to remember all these btw and I might have switched something for the Swamp boat simply because I can't remember anymore

With that out of my brain's way, YEAH WATCHING THE ADVENTURE BAY'S NEWS MUST BE THE EXPERIENCE

Ryder and the pups just DON'T STOP and there's always mundane things to treat as missions but also HELLA CRAZY STUFF, this ain't News, it's pure entertainm--

WAIT WAIT THE SERIES' MIGHTY VEHICLE IS NOT THE ONE FROM THE MOVIE oh shit I switched it for the Swamp boat

I want printed copies of what their newspaper looks like XD I learned to diagram entire magazines and newspapers and flyers when I studied Graphic Design college, I could try and put it to good use, would anyone want a downloadable copy? XD I'M SERIOUS I'M GONNA MAKE IT

[phoenixcatch7]

Totk au idea, with ideas involving end game spoilers under the cut:

Link as the sage of forest! Like saria! A lot of totk revolves around exploring, sure, but it focuses a lot less on the untamed wilderness and Link’s relationship with it than botw, which has been his defining characteristic for the past six years (and generally for nearly forty). If Link was a sage, I’d like for him to go back to his roots and be something the grand scheme of hyrule wouldn’t consider as important anymore, but still is.

It’d be so cool to see what kind of powers that’d give him, it’d be a canon aligned way to give him all those cool nature magics I see a lot in fics! Maybe he could talk to animals, grow plants, purify running water, enhanced senses in the wild, animal empathy, all sorts!

When I was playing, I thought the secret stones were already assigned to their respective elements, and each sage just took up that mantle like in oot, tp, etc. However, in the wiki it said that each stone actually changed according to its wielder! Obviously I went looking for receipts in game, and I found them!

Each sage has their own ‘signature’, featuring a (sheikah?) eye and scribbles, which appears in the background of their sacred realm room, but most importantly here on their stones. Similarly, each signature has a colour associated with them. Rauru has white, sonia has a vivid yellow. Zelda gets her stone from rauru, and guess what colour it has? Yellow. Zelda and sonia have identical stones, down to the signature. It has an eye on the left, and a few curved lines branching off roughly the tear duct.

When ganon steals sonias stone, not only does it grow to fit him as the stones did noticeably for the goron sage, but it gains a new colour (that I previously thought to be general ‘corrupting evil’) and a new signature, one with a figure 8 on the right.

Now, at the very end of the game, Link drives the master sword into ganons secret stone (why or how it was on a dragon instead of fusing with it I have no idea), in theory destroying it, blowing it up and saving the world, yada yada (there certainly was a detonation). However, we could assume enough of the stone survived intact, or it got rewound at the same time Link and Zelda did, or that it reformed later so as not to upset the balance or smth (sages are famous for their reincarnation/spiritual successors, after all), which leaves us with one free secret stone of phenomenal power. Literally who else would zelda give it to?

Thing is, Link isnt very... Light and time magic are very much more zeldas thing. Link is more the wildcard, the child of the forest, the knight, the hero of the sword that seals the darkness. His job is practically to fade back into the summer mist once the world is saved, you can very much see that in totk with him refusing to associate with the champion title on his travels, and pre AND post game with him happiest vibing in zeldas shadow, not bringing attention to himself. 

There is a precedent to a forest sage of course, saria, his best friend in a past life. In fact, the oot forest sage was originally intended to be the wind sage - it was in early screenshots of the game before it was released! There’s no reason at all that Link wouldn’t become a forest sage upon taking up the stone. Zelda has enough magic light in her for them both, with a kingdoms worth to spare XD.

I wonder what it would appear as? Necklace, gauntlet, anklet, earring, glove, belt, chest piece, circlet? A sheath? A bracelet? A hair ornament? 

[adorablebanite]

15 & 24 for the edgy oc ask :)

Well hello :} thank you so much for indulging me!!

15 - OC face claim??? Oh no I haven't even thought about it! Both Destri and Lilla are from one of the CC mods (I'm sorry I'm on mobile I can't remember which one, but it's probably obvious to those who use it!)

I hope some screenshots will suffice? 🥹

And 24 let's see ummm - What's an alternative path your OC could have gone down? What different choices etc!

This question is so fun!

For Lilla it's kind of funny because her destiny was kind of set for her because she was made via a Banite ritual where two Banites boinked (that's a Banite word, I swear, look it up👀) and Bane infused his essence into it somehow (I dunno how copulation. rituals work I'm just assuming it's something like that - but later on I was like "what if Bane possessed the male and-" nevermind 😈).

Basically he wanted the ultimate Banite supporter for his next Chosen so make sure things go well, and Lilla's kind of infused with the will to be as loyal as one can possibly be to Bane's Chosen, but it kind of got botched and the Banites who did the ritual couldn't put her through the ringer of bringing her up with the edict. Ultimately she ended up in the same place she would have regardless if the Banites could follow through with her traumatic training or not, so with Lilla all roads really just led to Gortash, as he's the chosen. She sees it more like she was made for HIM rather than the chosen, but it's foggy whether things would be different if the chosen was someone else - chances are she'd be just as enamoured with someone else because it's wired in her blood to be devoted and loyal (and ultimately love) the chosen.

I kind of liked toying with Gortash's reaction to this - like he's always wanted someone to love him unconditionally - and here she is (even though she can't be an equal, it's still nice) - but when he finds out she had no other choice but to love him, he struggled with the idea of Lilla's love being disingenuous (which is honestly laughably ironic from what we know about him).

Long story short Lilla's path always leads to where she is now- she just may have been a bit different and less sweet and adorable, but that's what makes her a fun Banite, imo xD

-

Destri's struggle is the epitome of being torn between two worlds! May I answer with a self-indulgent excerpt that basically puts it into words easier than I can explain it? (I'm also sorry I've I've shared it before my brain is smooth like a bean and my memory is -45)

Warning; uncharacteristically soft Gort! I am highly aware but do it anyway xD because dopamine.

---

“Remarkable!” Gortash scoffed while pacing his chamber in agitation, “Absolutely astounding . We unfold a grand scheme to usher in a new dawn in the name of the Dead Three, and all Myrkul’s Chosen can think about is resurrecting his dead daughter!”

Destri was stretched comfortably across his bed, silently re-reading her lewd novel while the tyrant fumed.

“The insinuation as well…” he spun on his heel to roam the length of the room again, clenching his fist, “Such disrespect towards our lords’ alliance. Myrkul no doubt expects full fealty from him, but it’s clear the general has his own agenda, and is using his god to serve himself - just as he had with all the previous ones he’s abandoned…”

Destri looked up with a tired sigh, “You truly are so impassioned about the bone lord’s relationship with his patron gods?” she drawled, flipping to the next page in her book, and flicking the tip of her tail playfully.

“Well…” Gortash scratched the back of his neck in aggravation, “Perhaps not that specifically…but it’s the implication of it all.” When Destri merely rolled her amber eyes, he strode over and snatched the novel from her hands, “What have you been reading all this time, that you’ve been so eager to avoid me seeing?”

Body tensing in abject embarrassment, Destri was probably the closest she ever had been to outright gutting the tyrant. Thanks to her oath to him, she stayed her hand, but she soooo very itched to gore him with her horns at the way his face fell when he read the colourful words on the page before him.

“Tyrant…” she pushed herself up off the bed, and stepped over to him with such sensual calmness, it made his skin crawl, “Return that to me now, or suffer the consequences.”

Despite the divine pact that protected him from her bloody wrath, Enver dropped the book back into her outstretched claw, swallowing dryly, “That was foolish of me, Bhaalspawn,” he muttered, “I apologise…”

Now THAT took Destri off guard. She narrowed her piercing gaze at him, awaiting some smug addition to his admission, but he only followed it up with a sincere look. She pursed her lips, and shook her head at him, but spun around to return to his bed, rather than leave the chamber altogether - however he caught her elbow, stopping her from moving away.

“Wait…” he murmured thoughtfully. She turned around to face him with an exasperated glare, but his soft expression immediately muted her anger, “Is this-” he gestured to the novel, “due to anything I can…help with? I rather didn’t take you for being touch-starved, but if there’s anything I can do…”

Destri gawked at him for an awkward moment before bursting out with a hysterical snort of laughter, “Are you rubbing it in, tyrant? Having a laugh? You can’t help yourself, can you?” Her anger was further aroused with each question, but the look of befuddlement on his dumb tyrant face told her he was being sincere… which was much worse. She couldn’t stifle a flowery guffaw, and flashed a fanged smile at him, “You’re serious? Tyrant, I am not touch-starved …This just helps…” she faltered, realising the fact she hadn’t really thought through exactly why she consumed such smut - her own experiences with Enver were drastically more licentious than the scenes in her novel, “...To get my mind off things, is all,” she said finally, uninterested in clarifying further.

It was to get her mind off him , and the blasphemous feelings she harboured between them. Debauchery and bloodless flesh games were never a complication - but the infuriating way the tyrant occupied her heart was . When she first stalked him, he sat politely behind her heart and around the corner where her Father couldn’t see…But now he damn near enveloped it- filling it to the brim with his exasperating voice, and his chewable face, and his detestable chest, and his unbearable smile, and his stupid. Fucking. Haircut.

Enver cleared his throat, considering his next words carefully, “Well…I could help with that too, if need be.”

He meant that sincerely too. He was genuinely trying to be courteous - even though he didn’t understand at all. He was so stupid . So irritating. So damnably excruciating - she needed to flay him. That would fix things, really. To pull her favourite pieces off, and chew them up, and spit the pinkish pulp out, right off the balcony into the lake in idiotic little pieces. Plop. Plop. Plop. (Like that).

“Help me by doing what, tyrant?” Destri scoffed flippantly, trying desperately to evade his sentimental approach, “Tie me down? Pull my horns? Tug on my tail?” As she said this, she brushed the stubble under his chin with the tip of her tail, but his expression didn’t falter - he continued to gaze at her with gentle concern, which made her want to bite his eyeballs out.

“That’s not what I meant…” He started, trying to find the right words, “It doesn’t have to be like that. I just…I would like to ensure you are…well…happy…” He loosened his shoulders, as if finally saying this released a world of tension, but Destri only scowled, baring her fangs. He was making things much, much worse for her.

“You think because I’m reading some indecent novel, I’m not happy?” She purred with a forced grin, “You could roleplay as the daring knight, if you want - Or, no! The swashbuckling necromancer…”

Gortash’s patience was fraying at the edges, and his soft expression began to harden into frustration. Good . It was better he was angry at her, than whatever this was.

“Well what do YOU want, Bhaalspawn?” he pointed a clawed finger directly at her, exasperated, “Is it not obvious I only wish to be kind with you? Is that somehow not appropriate now?” His obsidian eyes bored into her, smouldering with emotion, “I am clever in many regards, but clearly am I in no way equipped to appease you - barring slicing my throat and consuming my innards - or whatever it is you always rant and rave about…So you’ll just have to tell me , how to appease you. If you would…”

Rendered speechless, Destri only stared at Enver while he turned away to pace, but immediately lunged back again with an antagonistic finger directed at her as he continued, “I may not have experience with laying my emotions bare for you to witness, but forgive me, for my experiences perhaps hadn’t entirely been nurtured as perhaps it should have…” his expression dimmed to a gentle frown, “...But should I be so mercilessly tormented for trying? ”

Destri swallowed a painful lump, pouting with defeat, and fear. She couldn’t tell him that her destiny - her very soul - wavers on the edge of her Father’s ever-parched blade. Under Shar’s horrid curse, Bhaal would struggle to peer into her soul - but if she entertained the tyrant’s heart wrenching plea, she would surely know the Murder Lord’s wrath, once she returned to the city. Even if she could somehow hide her heart from his hollow, crimson eye, Orin would know. Orin was always looking. Searching. Stalking. Scrutinising. Always waiting for her to slip. Then wha t ? Bhaal would not let his own flesh and blood free so easily. She wouldn’t be permitted to frolic through the fields and forests with the tyrant like they had in their false memories, drawn on by consuming each other’s blood potions. Oh no. Ohhhhh no. If her Father didn’t tear her mindflesh to ribbons, Orin would at his behest, with gleeful giggles... Then Destri would have no tyrant, no mind, and no soul of her own. Her birthright was to be elevated as His Slayer; to ultimately offer her body and spirit for Bhaal to twist and contort for His wretched desire… That or to be disgraced, and exiled as a living, mindless murder-husk.

Those were her two options…‘A bleak prospect,’ the tyrant would say, if he truly understood. But he didn’t. And he never would. There was no third option, where she fell in love with Bane's Chosen and they lived happily ever after.

[a-yarn-of-purple-prose]

For the rarepair meme, I'm not entirely sure what actually qualifies in Genshin XD but Lyney/Nilou? I do kind of like the idea of two of our performers together....

I can see a very clear rivals to lovers thing, at least rivals from where Lyney's standing of course. Kinda like this (excuse the Lynette POV, that's how the scene showed up in my mind and she is very fun to write):

*

The Traveler couldn't stay for tea but she left Lynette a box of beautiful little honey cakes brought fresh from Sumeru. She was supposed to share with her siblings and she would do that, there were far too many for her alone anyway, but that didn't mean she couldn't hide away in her room with a pot of tea and enjoy some peace and quiet. And honey cakes, of course.

It was barely time enough for her to bite into one of the cakes before Lyney invaded her peaceful tea-time, giving his usual knock and entering before she even answered.

There was urgency in his voice as he said, “Dear sister I found out the reason behind the last few nights' shows lull in ticket sales.”

Even if Lynette was inclined to ask, she knew better than to do that. When Lyney has a plan you can see it in the very way he moves, and from the way he sauntered to the table and pulled the chair closest to her, this was a fun one. At least fun for him.

“We,” he said, eyes twinkling, “have a rival!”

Now, if she wanted him to say his piece and go away, she was forced to show attention. So she deposited her teacup on its saucer and tilted her head toward him, waiting.

“A Sumerian dancer, come here to perform for a half-season, and a famous one at that. It's all over the Steambird! We can't just lose tickets for all that time!”

Lynette blinked slowly at him, then refilled her teacup. “And your plan?”

“Who said I have a plan?”

She smiled and waited.

“I've been to her act. She's very good. Disciplined. Working elemental magic while dancing must be very tiring but the results are,” a brief, breathless pause, “stunning.” There was a little too much shine in his eyes as he said that. “As is her-- I mean, her movements. The way she dances, it's like the rest of the world stops existing, I can't help but wonder…”

As Lyney's eyes took a dreamy, faraway look, she knew it. It was a bad plan. The worst kind. She felt her right ear twitch, an old tell she usually keeps under control. That is how worried he made her.

Lyney noticed as well, he snapped back to attention, said, “That's when I knew I had to do something.”

“That plan. You shouldn't.”

“Beloved sister, I said nothing--”

The teacup clicked in its place on the saucer. “You want to distract her from work, maybe make her go away earlier. Don't. It'll backfire, you're too smitten. Remember what Father said about you and love schemes.”

The mention of Father had him straightening up, as usual, lifting his chin as if trying to stand a little taller, fill bigger shoes. Then he said, “Well, we'll see about that, won't we?”

And that was in the wrong tone. Not so much defiant as… She studied his face for a moment. There was that smile, a bit too much eagerness there. This could only mean the plan was already in motion. “Don't say…”

The smile bloossomed as if every single drop of confidence he had nurtured it. “I'll be taking her to Lady Furina's new play tomorrow!”

Nothing she could possibly say would work at this point, so she saved herself the energy and took a sip of her tea. Afterward, she said, “Then good luck on your date with the beautiful dancer.”

Lyney paled, the smile dropped just enough that she knew he had only now caught up with what he had done. “Thank you,” he said, quite like an automaton. Then he walked away, a little spaced out.

Lynette hoped her brother would pull himself together enough to be his usual self on the date. That should be enough to charm anyone. And if that didn't work, well then she'd have to do something, wouldn't she? Maybe the Traveler would even help.

[screamingwiththewolves]

So, I WANTED to draw it out first....but it's been months, too many characters, too slow. SO,

hear me out

Monster High gen 3 as gen 1's kids. Just touch up the designs and change the names a bit.

Franky; gen1Franky and Jackson became scientists, got married, and made Fran. (literally, with corpse parts and a metal leg.) gen3 Franky is so different from gen1, all you gotta do is change the name. Franky's dog is "Watzit" while Fran's dog is "Watzy."

Clawdeen; gen1 Clawdeen became a fashion designer, married Venus (let me have my ship) and then had a werewolf kid named Clawrissa. Just add some flowers and a bit of green to her design and boom. (Also, I always kind of thought Venus was south American, could be wrong, but that could work for making Clawrissa part Hispanic)

Draculaua; She and Clawd got married (somehow it works, idk) had a vampire daughter, named Lorelei. (it's kind of close to Draculaura and it's very elegant sounding) I think you could keep the overall design of gen3 Draculara, as her daughter looking a lot like her kind of suits the characters in my mind. But you'd have to change the pink to something a bit different, maybe a hue of red or purple.

Cleo and Deuce; Gen1 Cleo left her abusive family and married Deuce. He does various cook related things, and because she left her rich family, she's had to learn how to save money, which lead her to becoming the owner of a VERY popular secondhand boutique. They had a half gorgon/half mummy child named, lets say 'Calypso' (cause it kind of sounds like the name Cleo and is greek) Just take gen3's design and add slit pupils and put some blue snakes mixed in with her hair. (Why doesn't she wear glasses? either she has good control over the turn to stone thing or just can't do it at all XD)

Deuce; Gen3 Deuce, make him look a bit more like the live action movie version, make him the kid of Viperine, change his color scheme a bit, and change his name to some sort of masculine sounding pun about snakes. (Adder??)

Toralei; gen1Toralei works as a bartender (idk if she had a career in mind, so...i'm just going with bartender for now cause i think it suits her) she's a single mom, though gets help from her own mom. (Headmaster Bloodgood, cause I love the idea of them being family, it's funny) For the daughter, use the doll version of gen3 with the longer hair, and name her, idk, Tabitha? (cause Tabby cats) and there ya go, there's that family.

Bloodgood; Honestly I just kind of like gen3's design better, so...XD

Heath; Gen1 Heath and Gen1Abby had a son, let's call him Pyro. He is a lot like his dad, but wears a bit of blue cause of his mom.

Abby; uhhhhh, just a different Abominable Snowman girl?

Lagoona; Gen1 Lagoona and Gill got married and one year went to Mexico, and found a young sea monster girl fending for herself. They adopted her. All you gotta do is change gen3Lagoona's name. Pacifica? Lala?

There are other characters I gotta sort out, but this is what I got so far XD This is how I've been having my gen1 and gen3 cakes and eat them too XD

[sweet-hearts-and-destiny-knots]

Stumbled on your AU and it sounds SO COOL, the female protags often get sidelined and I really loved reading about them here! :D I was Immediately expecting Hikari to be full of ghosts or a time traveler with the comment about her way of speaking and bearing and it's so cool! ALSO man,,,I love protags being older than base game lets them be,,,,I love to see it

Question about your Hikari specifically; from what I can tell as Akari she is still in Hisui. Will she ever be able to make her way home? Or is it like a concurrent, conflicting timeline thing? I hope this doesn't sound mean dxfcgv I'm just really interested in how they work out in story!

Also if it IS a fall and then return, did she know the other protags prior? Does it change how she interacts with them? REALLY love that Leaf is as nonverbal as Red, that's something I really enjoy about Red that I like to see for her as well! Esp since Leaf Green was the first game I owned (borrowed my cousin's Blue for One [1] car ride but yeah) so I am especially attached to her as the protag. ;w; Green I am sure has no idea how to handle her sincere congratulations because that MAN he is....he sure is. XD

LOVE TO SEE SOME LOVE FOR FEARSOME POKEMON YOU GO KOTONEEEEE so so glad you still have Kris present as well, very attached to her dxfcvgbn

Me handshake Haruka I too want every single pokedoll in existence, what is her favorite pokedoll she has? Is there a story behind it? Has she ever learned how to make her own? Also LOVE to see a sea shantier, heck yeah. Does she have a favorite shanty? Or favorite vibe of shanty I guess dxcfvbghn LOVE that Touka suplexes Boldores, has she always had that strength or did she have to slowly run a gauntlet of suplexing Pokemon until she got there? Did she ever suplex a train- I saw you're a fan of ferriswheelshipping and I enjoy that your Touko and N both share the desire to protect innocents, is it maybe something they bond over?

I feel Mei's clumsiness on a deep level because I swear I run into things every DAY, at least she has someone to keep her from getting hurt too badly. XD I really like that she's both doing Pokemon things and looking for her prince; in a lot of media I feel like one is often sidelined for the other, and it's nice to see what looks like it'll be a healthy mix! Also I have to ask, do her Enamorus attempts end in success or catastrophe? Who has she most famously [or infamously] gotten together?

Love what you've done with Serena as well! Does she ever Rhyhorn race herself?

AND WE LOVE A GHOSTY PRANKSTER as someone who just Absorbs behaviors from those around me I really really enjoy the thought of someone doing that with ghost Pokemon. And love the callback to the hex maniac line heheheheheeee

RIP GLORIA YOU ARE NEVER GONNA RECOVER FROM THAT ONE OH NOOOOOOO but love the use of valiant bcus it's not used enough and it also like. Paints a picture. Like in a crisis, this Gloria would stare it down and do everything to avert it, and I really like that.

I've barely even touched Paldea szdxcfvg so I know nothing about it BUT love a straight A scholar, and I love Juliana's naming scheme too! Does she have any favorite courses? Any specific part of Pokemon research she may enjoy?

ANYWAY THIS GOT. REALLY LONG. I'M SORRY. But I also gotta ask my favorite question for any Pokeoc/Pokeau, which is what is everyone's favorite Pokemon type and why is it Bug type

FEEL FREE to not answer all my rambles sdfxcggvh I know it's a lot, but I really love what I saw on the protags page and I wanted to know more! :D

I agree that the protagonists are prone to being sidelined; it's been a steadily increasing occurrence ever since character customization was introduced to the series. That's actually one of several reasons why I began this blog!

These girls are so very important to me.

Now, to address your Hikari-related question: Hikari, or rather Akari, is determined to return to her time, reunite with her companions (both human and Pokémon), and continue striking terror into the hearts of challengers as Sinnoh's ruthless Champion. But she may tempt a boy into following her home, though...

And yes! Akari has in fact met the other protagonists prior to being sent to the Hisuian era! The narration of the story I'm currently writing even mentions a few of the other girls, showing that she does indeed know them, and well enough to apparently be familiar with some of their various quirks.

All of them meet one another sometime shortly after the events of Black 2 and White 2, at the World Tournament in Driftveil City. It's sort of similar to that scene in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a collective realization of "You're like me...(!!)"

But about Hikari's/Akari's manner of speech. This is something I'm struggling with somewhat, since I'm afraid that what's written in her character profile may be misleading. I'm aiming to give her an elegant way of speaking, but this is more meant to allude to her not sounding unusual at all when she's swept away to Hisui - which ironically only makes her seem even more suspicious to those like Kamado.

My decision for Leaf to also be mostly nonverbal was partly because it sounded interesting to write, but also because I wanted to try a different approach with a silent character - normally they're depicted as shy or standoffish, but Leaf isn't either. She's as vibrant as can be, and loves to interact with people.

Kotone's team isn't set in stone yet, but aside from Eva, her Typhlosion, she has a Gyarados (Carmen), and I would love to give her a Tyranitar too! All three quite fearsome!

And Kris taking the role of Kotone's friendly rival - I dislike adapting characters out, I want to give a role to everyone, especially the first female protagonist in the series. Even though she's the friendly rival, Kris is intended to be just as tough of a challenge as Silver - she has the starter weak to Kotone's, which is a Chikorita, but she very quickly covers her partner's weakness.

Haruka doesn't exactly play favorites with her Poké Dolls; each is a valuable member of her plushie family! She freaks out if even one is unaccounted for. About her sea shanties, she does have a few she's fond of, like 'Paldean Ladies', and one that you may be familiar with that goes something like,

"O'er across the ocean's tide Rays of sunshine far and wide Wingull they sing of cheerful things, in circles passing by!"

Not a sea shanty, but she also enjoys singing 'Rainbow Connection'.

Touko's strength is tied to her passion to protect the innocent! It all began when she was young - she would beat up anyone that bullied Bianca or her "baby brother" Touya. Her having Pokémon now doesn't really stop her from pummeling people (or trying to), though-

She and N, while they're connected on wanting to protect innocents, throughout the events of Black and White, they constantly butt heads on the best method to do that. Touko also calls him "geek boy" after hearing him speak math one time.

Mei's most notable attempt at playing Enamorus... well, I'm certain if you think about it long enough, you'll figure it out!

Serena enjoys Rhyhorn riding more as a recreational activity rather than something to seriously pursue. It's more like Rhyhorn strolling when she's on the back of one.

Mizuki is meant to be this girl in FireRed and LeafGreen!

Another reason she admires Leaf is because she didn't even so much as flinch when she and her Ghost-type pal pranked her. Her eyes just widened in surprise, no scream as expected!

As for Gloria's past crush, Hop is a good boy and lets sleeping Yamper lie. But her big brother Victor... "But Leon, you CAN'T go! I LOOOOVE you!" And he carries on until she has to slap him-

Juliana doesn't have a favorite class because she loves everything about her academic experience. But Director Clavell is her favorite member of the staff.

Everyone's preferred type? Well, I wouldn't say anybody has one since their teams are relatively balanced. Haruka and Kotone show appreciation for Bug-types, though!

This response has gotten rather lengthy as well, but thank you for showing such interest in Sisterhood!

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

Thanks for the answers :D can’t wait for your questions! lol

1: if the duo was not best friends/starburst duo in a AU, who would they be best friends/starburst duo with?

2: I know Chris’s archenemy is general zod, since they are “father & son” but why is Jake’s nemesis is victor zassz? Why him specifically out of both Batman’s & Nightwings rogue gallery?

3: you know about the sinister sons from modern comics, which is the evil versions of the super sons, who are the evil versions of the starburst duo?

4: if they can get rid of one supervillain, besides zod & zassz of course, who would it be?

5: what’s something they find overrated? Like something popular like stranger things on Netflix for example.

6: what’s something they find underrated?

You’re most welcome. So here, have some more answer lol XD @pin-crusher2000

1) Recently both @confusedhummingbird @spider-jaysart and I have been formulating an idea for a new character to act as a Wonder family member akin to Diana with Bruce and Clark, a character that’s a third POV and brings a more excited and passionate side to the Duo’s dynamic, someone to compliment them on adventures

Hence I shall take this questions as an opportunity to introduce a new character I can further develop in future posts.

Jake’s other best friend if not for Chris Kent would be named Penelope Haney Troy, a clone daughter of Donna Troy aka Troia created by Project Cadmus. She’s the lively, no nonsense, and adventurous type of girl about Jake’s age who’s always there to bring some comfort and fun to his life as he does for her. Her hero codename would be Hoplite with her main teacher being Cassie Sandsmark, similar to how Jake’s main teacher is Tim Drake

Basically think of her as the Donna to Jake’s Dick; platonic best friends, Wonder Twins

Then there’s Chris, for his best friend besides Jake, without doubt that’ll be Thara.

Oh yeah and these are in addition to a classmate Chris knows well back at school and Jasper Logan for Jake as well respectively for other best friends

2) Well that sort of relationship between Zsasz and Jake happens after a particularly difficult and cruel case involving some street orphans who are mercilessly taken by Zsasz, put into a gladiator type tournament where whoever survives then faces (and inevitably loses to) him. When Jake manages to find the location of this wicked scheme, Zsasz had him captured and personally taken into a duel against him, stripped of his powers, most of his equipment and even his own boots for this match. Had Jake won, the surviving children go free so the brave young hero takes that challenge. It was far from an easy fight as Zsasz was armed with both a butcher knife and a familiar rusty crowbar. The beat down Jake endured during this battle left him scarred both physically and emotionally while Zsasz was utterly remorseless in his work. Thus, Jake has deemed Zsasz his personal archenemy ever since

For more information on that, check out my fic ‘Broken Wings’

On a meta level, I just felt like Zsasz compliments Jake in that sort of ‘person driven by their commitment to their own’ archetype and give it a unique dark twist to it as Jake can attest to. Plus, since the original version of that arc (which btw introduced the world to Colin Wilkes) has its protagonist regularly nowadays have arch-nemeses linked to the League of Shadows in one form or another more often, that left Zsasz up for grabs thus Jake can fulfill that role

3) Oh I have a good passing knowledge of that book (mainly for the fact it’s further taking name of Chris Kent or rather Lor Zod in general further though the mud but I digress);

Now if there’s any sort of evil or at least anti hero mainline universe counterpart to the Starburst Duo, I would cast them being like a bastard preteen son of Blackfire and the aforementioned Vla-Blo (the young bully Kryptonian who was locked in the Phantom Zone by an ancestor of Chris and had the goal of humiliating the House of Zod for this perceived injustice) who both antagonize our main heroes in many fields with the notion in their minds of proving themselves superior to them, though often to failing results.

At least that’s what I can think of for this moment if anything comes up, I’ll let you know ;-)

4) Probably Mongul, a lot of it due to a time when he’s revealed as a mysterious business partner for Blockbuster regarding trading with for some reversed engineered fear toxin and the brawl that ensued between them and the Warlord tyrant was nothing short of brutal and devastating*, even if they stopped that shipped of fear toxin getting to Mongul’s hands.

*Just picture that what the Duo, also Corvus/Jasper Logan and Hoplite/Penelope Troy went through here with Mongul was akin to what happened with Mark Grayson aka Invincible and his friends when they faced Battle Beast for the first time.

5) Definitely the MCU as a general whole, Family Guy and about a few pro wrestlers they can name off the top of their heads….surprisingly not John Cena. More likely Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, The USOs and definitely The Rock. Heck Dwayne Johnson both in wrestling and especially as a film actor, they can’t stand people who claim he’s the best…or rather fittingly The Great One. It internally the Duo out hearing about him in school all the time.

6) Easily the Monsterverse movies, Hell’s Kitchen, We Bare Bears, and during the Halloween season Hellraiser (that’s if Chris and Jake are feeling brave enough to watch through it’s more gruesome moments lol)

[desultory-novice]

Okay so. I know I've discussed this before on stream but I do want to know your FULL opinion on it.

What do you think of my Ribbon Knight AU concept? In case you've forgotten, or people who weren't at the stream see this, the Ribbon Knight AU proposes that Kirby's species needs to consume at least something important to them to truly reach adolescence/their teenage years. Right as Kirby was reaching the point of needing to do this, Ribbon dies in front of them... And yeah... Ribbon Knight was born on that day.

Thank you for the reminder on this one. Sometimes ideas do slip past me I was starting to forget that these two things were the same concept... (I remembered the Ribbon dying in Kirby's arms thing and your most recent mention of Ribbon Knight in stream but at some point, they started to drift in my mind. I have a busy head.)

I think there's some really good stuff building up here! I don't remember if you indicated before where you would start/end the story, but regardless of where you put the information about Kirby's species and what they need, you've got this nice bit of tension on the mantlepiece. I also don't remember if you yourself ship Kiribbon but I think there's some good angst here whether you ship them or not. Either way, they were at one time partners who cared strongly about each other and worked in perfect unison to defeat Zero 2. And that's the other reason I think this is a neat idea: that it's Ribbon.

They have operated as one in the past. She cares for him and he/they for her. She has pretty fairy wings (and I know that most people want to see Kirby get wings as a sign of reaching adulthood) and he could inherit/grow hers (which I would assume you would do? ^^ ) but also their color schemes match, her dress being the same color as his feet and her hair the same as his body. The transition would be seamless; albeit, I can't help but think that Ribbon Knight would be a little off put in the beginning because who WANTS to fully absorb their friend, even if she was already gone/there was no way to save her?

I also dig the name because most Knight concepts go for something big like space words or weapons or these very cool, "powerful" sounding concepts to show how strong their Knight OCs are.

Ribbons are soft, smooth, colorful things that tie things together. It's really perfect for them.

That said, you're going to make it now, right? >w< Now that you've got my stamp of approval? /lh Draw up some sketches or take your summary to the scripting phase, right? (Cause you're going to make ME want to draw Ribbon Knight's origins if you aren't careful XD; )

[ramzawrites]

Petty Love - Rise!Leonardo x Reader

FEM

Pairings: Leonardo x Reader

Characters included: Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, Big Mama, Draxum

Warnings: swearing

Series: A request!

Summary: From the first moment Y/N and Leo interacted with each other, the two knew they despised the other. Leo was an annoying, egotistical ninja while Y/N was an annoying, egotistical ninja herself. What was the saying again? Opposite attract and similar repel? Surprisingly though over time the two had to admit they did enjoy the fights the two had. It was fun to test their mettle on each other whenever they had the chance. When another person enters Y/N’s life and begins to challenge her how Leo used to do, he had to admit, this didn’t sit quite well with him.

An enemies to friend to lovers fic

Word count: 13950

Authors Note: 1) If you saw this fic before, no you didn’t. Okay, yeah I posted it before but I was kind of really unhappy with the way it ended and a few other things but this means I looked it over more and 2k words more! Yay? I don’t know, this is the biggest one part fic i ever wrote. My fic that has 4 parts has only like 2k more words than this lmao 2) I hope I caught most mistake, I did my best, please tell me if this all feels maybe too disjointed or so, I read this so often now that I have no idea how it all flows (besides i can always appreciate some feedback)

Request: The request can be found here and was by @/mitarashi01 (dunno if I can tag you, so xD)

Big Mama has always been a thorn in the mutants’ sides. Mostly because she wasn’t just an enemy they could fight and that’s it. No, she had a whole organization behind her. They could try but frankly she might just be out of commission for a few days and even during that time her henchmen would keep her business up.

So, the best they could do was sometimes keep an eye on the spider yokai and deal with any weird schemes they come across. Personally, they liked to believe they have become just such a big thorn in her side similar how she has been to them. Wasn’t there a saying of do unto others as you wish they did on yourself? Something like that.

Keeping eyes on Big Mama usually meant sneaking around her hotel and trying to see what info the group can find out. At one point Leo did try to get information out of multiple employees but that usually resulted in them being chased out by big yokai with big weapons.

Now they never gave up though. They won against the Shredder! They fought back a whole alien invasion, preventing a horrible apocalypse! A measly little, but actually kind of big, spider wouldn’t deter them!

It was one of those casual sneak-in missions, that also doubled as stealth training, because might as well, when they spotted someone unusual in the hotel.

Most yokai there wore the hotel’s uniform. Those who didn’t usually belonged to security or were the guests. But even between those people this woman stood out. She was shrouded in dark cloth. Silver wrappings around her ankles and hands, closed off sandals on her feet, a silvery scarf was wrapped around her neck, two ends flying behind her back. The dark cloth was also wrapped around their head, a mask pulled over her nose. A katana was strapped to her hip. Besides the few flashy accents, they would say that this person looked like your stereotypical ninja.

This of course pulled the turtle ninja’s attention, even more so when she walked through the hotel towards Big Mama’s office as if she had done it a thousand times already. Her movements smooth and quiet against the carpeted floor. Over the years the brothers could at least tell when someone clearly had some sort of training, which this woman definitely had with the way she carried herself.

It took only a few glances between all of them that they knew that this was a person they all should follow for now. Maybe a new contractor of Big Mama’s? Maybe an assassin even, Leo mused. Either way it was probably a good idea to find out exactly why she was here and marching through the hotel straight towards Big Mama’s office.

The group broke off, Leo and Mikey stayed inside to try to get through the vents to maybe hear what is going on while Raph and Donnie tried to gather intel from outside using one of Donnie’s machines.

There was indeed a vent that still led straight through Big Mama’s office on the ceiling. Honestly it was a miracle she hadn’t made a move to close off said vent in any way, but Leo didn’t want to look a gifted horse in the mouth. With Mikey at his side, both inched closer to a grate to also try to take a look into the room.

Leo knew for a fact that Raph and Donnie were in position, but he couldn’t spot them when he looked at the huge window. Seems like the constant sneak training was actually doing something.

The door to Big Mama’s office opened and the weird ninja woman stepped inside, it was only when she closed the door that Big Mama finally looked off her paperwork. Her expression was at first a stern, annoyed one, probably assuming it was someone else interrupting her work, but when her eyes landed on the ninja, she sported a big smile.

She stood up to walk over to her guest, her arms wide open “Ah! There you are my little Sneaklypoo!”

Leo really had to pull himself together to not laugh at that name. He could only assume how the mystery woman might be grimacing behind her mask. The way Mikey’s shoulders shook for a moment, he assumed he had to withhold a laugh as well. Honestly it wouldn’t be the first time that one of their sneak missions went south because of a rogue laugh.

The ninja in the room took a deep bow to greet the spider yokai “It’s nice to see you again, Big Mama.” Her voice was steadfast. No ounce of fear seeped through. Either she might be overly confident right now or she really didn’t have a reason to fear Big Mama.

“I’m so happy to see you again. Now come over, little one, I reckon you know why I have called you?” Big Mama walked back over to desk to sit down on to her pretty gaudy chair.

The mystery ninja followed suit and sat down on the chair in front of the yokai. She pulled her legs up to sit crossed legged on it. The way the other employees reacted to Big Mama usually, Leo figured he’d never see anyone sit as nonchalantly as she did in this office. Once again either this was because she was stupid or was actually capable. Maybe a mix of both.

The ninja sighed “Yeah, I’m here for my missing payment and you probably want to schedule more fights but also I had a request to make concerning those.”

Oh, bad move. You do not bargain with Big Mama in any way. There were too many strings attached. Or webs attached. You know since she is a spider.

Leo had to physically shake his head to figuratively throw out his joke, this was not the time to joke. Well, there was no harm in it really, but Leo should really concentrate on what was happening. Not only was Big Mama paying this ninja for something, but this ninja had the gall to ask a request of her as well.

“Mhm, I told you your payment would arrive in due time.” She didn’t look at the ninja, staring down at one of the papers, tapping her pen that she was suddenly holding against the desk.

“Mama” the ninja spoke. Her voice now stern and laced with what Leo assumed was a wordless threat. Strike two. Strike three and he can already see her getting chased out the building by security.

“Y/N.” Big Mama responded with the same kind of vitriol.

Mystery ninja had a name! It was getting quite annoying to call her just the ninja. Quite forthcoming of Big Mama to reveal it.

Mikey side-eyed Leo as if to also silently confirm that he caught the name as well. The name didn’t stick out to Leo. Never once heard of her, so he huffed a quiet breath out, shrugging as a silent answer. As a response Mikey nodded. This sounded more like something they would have to ask Barry about. If anyone would maybe know about the people that worked with Big Mama, it might be him.

Y/N let out a big, disappointed sigh. If he could, Leo would tell her “Told you so, can’t bargain with Big Mama like a normal person.”

Instead of Y/N laying in on Big Mama more to maybe brute force her way through this discussion, Leo assumed that’s just something she would do, she just moved her open hand into the air, which in return made Big Mama raise one of her eyebrows.

This time when she spoke her voice was almost playful, she seemed to almost chide the crime boss teasingly in front of her, a stark contrast from before “Mama, I thought this was a private discussion!”

It was now that Leo had to painfully realize that Y/N was pointing with her hand towards the vent. The vent that both Leo and Mikey were squished inside. Mikey must have realized this as well by the way he looked at Leo with a painful grimace.

Big Mama sighed exasperatedly “Not again. Oh, turtleypoos! Come out!” She looked at Y/N for a second “I have a new playmate for you guys!” How did she immediately know it was them? Well, maybe it made sense seeing how often they have been annoying her recently.

“I’ll pay you triple your usual fee if you deal with them.”

At this point Leo tried his best to crawl back out but he forgot how small vents could be. Especially to turtles with big shells. Oops. He couldn’t even grab his swords to teleport out of this cramped space.

“Well, you are my boss! Wouldn’t want to disappoint you.” Y/N chuckled.

Leo had to watch in horror as Y/N gracefully jumped up, held on to the grid of the vent, seemed to open it without much trouble, pulled herself up and just stared at him and Mikey. Her eyes glinting in the darkness of the vent.

“Nice to meet you, I would shake your hand, but I am kind of indisposed.” Leo chuckled. His coping mechanism was still humor and will be for the rest of his life. Mikey just let his head fall down onto the cold metal, making a loud clung sound in response.

There wasn’t even so much a twitch in the facial expression that Leo could see on Y/N’s face.

“And you are the guys that have been Big Mama’s pain in the neck? How cute.”

Something about that comment just hit Leo in a way that made him uncharacteristically angry. Sure, they weren’t in the ideal position right now, but they were plenty capable. Probably more capable than her! They’ve been at this for how long now? This is the first time he even heard of her. Sure, ninja and all if she even is one, but also where the hell did she get her confidence from? She was just another henchman of Big Mama’s.

Before Leo could respond though Y/N disappeared. Falling back down onto the ground, standing directly under the vents. Then there was the horrible sound of metal colliding with metal followed by the sudden feeling of vertigo as the front part of the vent flew down, gravity literally pulling both Mikey and Leo out of it.

Both reacted immediately, pulling their weapons out, expecting to see Big Mama in her huge yokai form. But she was standing at the back, still in her human business attire. Her arms crossed as she just observed what was happening with amusement.

That said Y/N was standing in front of the two turtles with her katana out. She moved it up towards her head. Falling into some sort of fighting stance, further proving to Leo that she must have had some sort of training.

“Oh, two Battle Nexus Champions are about to fight, it’s a shame this isn’t being recorded. But that is life, no? Deal with them however you wish, my little magpie.” Big Mama waved her hand, as if finally giving Y/N the sign to attack.

By the way her legs tensed she would have if Raph and Donnie didn’t came crashing through the window in a big red glow. Raph immediately landed in front of his brothers, Donnie had his bo-staff in hand, standing at his eldest brother’s side.

“Sorry Big Mama but no entertainment for you today. Me and my brothers are leaving.” Raph growled, twirling his sais in his hands.

Leo would have expected for Big Mama to call in reinforcements, gnash her teeth together, finally transform, but no. She just stood there as if the four mutants weren’t ready to beat her up once again. As if she was just watching a show.

“Guys, jump! I’ll catch you!” Raph yelled out, running over to the now broken window but before he could reach the window, Y/N suddenly stood in front of him. As soon as he moved, Y/N quite literally jumped into action to cut their escape off.

“Already leaving the party, big guy? That’s rude you know?”

She fell back into her fighting stance “Besides, I’m finally getting my chance to test my mettle against the turtleypoos? I’m not giving this up. Let’s tango.”

Something about her was just so infuriating to Leo. Maybe it was just because she simply was the enemy. He should be annoyed at the enemy, right? But even with Hypno or Big Mama he could keep his composure rather well. Maybe her attitude just reminded him too much of himself. Damn, was this how his enemies felt when they had to fight him? Nah, she was just genuinely infuriating.

Leo got his katanas out “You wanna dance? Then let’s dance.” His mind wandering back to what Big Mama said before “Champion versus Champion” It shouldn’t surprise him that a Big Mama’s henchman might fight in the Battle Nexus as well. He had to admit, he was intrigued as to what her abilities were.

“Nardo, let’s just leave while we can.“ Donnie sounded more than annoyed.

Yet Leo stepped forward, ignoring the pointed looks of his brothers. Was this selfish? Yeah. Was this stupid? Yeah. It’s just, he couldn’t wrap his head around the person standing in front of him. She exuded confidence, Big Mama seemed to trust her as well, more than the average employee at least. Besides, couldn’t hurt to test out the abilities of their new enemy, right? After all she clearly worked for Big Mama.

“Alright, Blue.” Y/N’s eyes were now fully trained on Leo. Her eyes making sure to catch any sudden movements of his.

He rolled his shoulders before he too got into his own fighting stance “Leonardo.”

“Leonardo.” She repeated.

Both sprang into action. Leo tried using his height to attack her from the top with both of his swords, Y/N must have seen through this, ducking down, her own sword sliding across the two blades to stop them from colliding with her head, while she used her own momentum to slip past him. Her knees hitting the ground only for a second before she jumped up and was suddenly standing behind the turtle.

Both turning around to look at each other. Leo had to admit he was impressed and by the slightly narrowed eyes combined with the small crinkles around them, he assumed that she must be smiling beneath her mask. Oh, so she was enjoying this? Let’s see for how long.

He jumped again towards her, this time before he could even properly get into contact with her, he opened a portal to fly through and drop down on her from a different angle. Her eyes widened as she saw him disappear, only barely being able to dodge the turtle that was literally flying down on her from the back.

As she rolled to the side, she angled her hips and swung her legs around. Connecting with Leo’s ankles as he made contact with the ground again. He lost his balance, forcing him to catch himself with his hands. Y/N took the chance to jump back up on her own feet again. Trying to swipe at the turtle in the process but Leo just had to push himself off the ground and away from her. He immediately jumped back up, his sword in a defensive position, expecting Y/N to attack him but she didn’t.

No, why would she attack him if she could play with him? She didn’t even take this seriously, did she? At this point Leo was sure he could see her smiling beneath her mask! She definitely knew what she was doing. It was different than fighting any of the other villains. In a weird way, both their fighting styles just flowed seamlessly together. He had to wonder what kind of aces she might have up her sleeves if the two started to go full out.

“Leo! We are going!” Raph spoke up before either Leo or Y/N could attack each other again. There was a finality to his tone, a promise of getting chewed out later at home for this frankly reckless stunt. Genuinely Leo was incredibly lucky that Big Mama seemed to get enough entertainment from this and wasn’t annoyed enough to call security. And the worst part was, he knew that.

Leo took another glance at Y/N who was still ready to fight. His grip tightened around the hilts of his swords. The next time he swung them was to open a blue portal in front of his siblings. All four didn’t waste a second to jump through. Landing in the living room of their lair.

Once the portal was closed all three of his brothers turned to Leo.

“What was that?!” Raph asked. Oh, he was angry, and Leo couldn’t even fault him.

Leo put his swords back on his shell, his hands on his face as he groaned “I don’t know! I guess I wanted to know what she can do? A ninja looking person working for Big Mama? I- I don’t know.” He sighed “I know this was stupid. This could have gone really bad, I know. This is on me.”

He really meant it. He didn’t go through an almost apocalypse without learning a few things. This included how to best work in a team, and this was not it. Even if there was an admittedly intriguing person out there that just managed to somehow really get under his skin with simple taunts.

Raph sighed, his own shoulders relaxing as he let the tension out “Well. It all went well, let’s just make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Leo might be the leader now, but Raph will always be the big brother.

Mikey and Donnie still seemed somewhat skeptical.

“So, what do we do? Should we try learning more about her? Is learning about Y/N even… useful? She is one of many employees of Big Mama after all.” Mikey spoke up, probably trying to keep things going so there wasn’t any room for more arguments. He knew that Leo would beat himself up for this enough anyhow.

Dr. Feelings or even Dr. Delicate Touch might come around for a visit.

“We could ask Draxum? If she was or is the current Battle Nexus Champion, then there is a chance that he might know about her? She might have done some work for Big Mama beforehand that he caught wind of. If he does know something we can still decide if she is another person to keep tabs on.” Donnie offered.

So as soon as they could, the group visited their other dad. The relationship between the turtles and Draxum was still on the tense side, but they were working on it. Mikey firmly believed that he was a good person and if he was willing to offer Draxum this chance, they might as well follow suit for now.

Draxum sat awkwardly at the table while the turtles sat at the other side. All of them had a cup of tea but no one, including Draxum himself, but Mikey dared to touch it.

The yokai sighed “I haven’t heard much about a Y/N if at all but from the description I would wager that she is indeed the current Battle Nexus Champion. I don’t keep up with frivolous things like that, but the Champion is usually pretty well known in the Hidden City.”

Really? And Leo never got the chance to properly take advantage of that? Damn.

He leaned forward “I think her stage name might be Silver Magpie. Always thought it was a rather… weak name. Too showy.”

“Says the Warring Warrior Scientist.” Leo deadpanned.

Draxum scoffed “It’s a strong name!”

Before Leo could make another quip Donnie interrupted him “The name does make sense though, right? Wore silver and Big Mama did call her magpie once. So, let’s assume the current champion is Y/N. What else do you know about her, Draxum?”

“Only that she isn’t always in the Battle Nexus. There were talks about her if she will even defend her title since she tends to disappear for a while before returning. That’s all I can really tell you. I can only hypothesize that if she keeps fighting in the Arena, that Big Mama might use her talents for her business. Makes sense, no?”

“Nothing more?” Leo asked.

Draxum nodded “Like I told you. I never much cared for the Battle Nexus. Not like the average viewer might at least.”

Leo narrowed his eyes at that. He didn’t particular like the sound of that.

“So, what do we do?” Raph asked his brothers “Should we try to seek her out and what, ask what her deal is? Or do we just keep our ears and eyes open for what might happen.”

Leo huffed, not particularly liking what he is about to say “Frankly, I think it wouldn’t do us any good to chase her down. Sure, she works for Big Mama but what will we do? Ask her why and then beg her to stop? Something tells me this won’t work. Besides, maybe we are lucky, and she disappears again for a while, and we won’t have to deal with her.”

His brothers eyed him warily. Draxum eyed the display curiously.

“What?” Leo cut through the silence, feeling the judgment of his brothers.

Mikey rose one side of his eyebrow ridge in an accusing gaze “And here I thought you would jump at the opportunity to fight her again.”

“It was one time!”

“We only met her once, bro, and you have never done anything like that before. Well, not for a while.” Mikey explained.

“Okay, she annoyed me! Happy? Besides we now know that she isn’t just hot air.” Sure, they barely fought and the fact that she was Champion could have tipped him off as well but now it was proven fact. He didn’t need to explain himself, okay? Actually, his brothers deserved an explanation, there just wasn’t a good one.

Either way the turtles kept their usual routine up from that point on. Acting like this meeting never happened in the first place. They went patrolling at night when they could, sometimes fought off some of their usual enemies, trained, watched movies and the like. Life was flowing along normally.

Y/N didn’t make another appearance for months.

Then suddenly she did. The group was fighting off Hypno on a school campus and Y/N just suddenly jumped in. Deflecting all of Hypno’s attacks on their own. Leo had to admit he was a bit in awe seeing how focused she was as she fought back. Showing amazing control over her own blade. How long has she been training and fighting to gain such skill?

When Hypno threw his weapons and they came flying around, Leo jumped in automatically to deflect those attacks. Standing back-to-back with Y/N as his brothers took the chance to destroy the loudspeakers that he hid all around. Why he jumped in to protect his enemy? Out of the good of his heart of course. Letting two enemies distract each other could have been easy but sadly he had morals.

“Miss me?” Leo grunted as he deflected yet another attack.

Y/N laughed “You wish! Saw you struggling and decided you needed a hand.”

“Pretty sure if I didn’t deflect the last few attacks, you’d be sliced cheese.”

The two switched positions so Leo was now the one attacking Hypno directly while Y/N dealt with the attacks flying towards the two. It was a wordless transition. Their feet and bodies moving around almost as if they weren’t fighting but dancing.

“That’s what you think! I’m quite nimble, not the slow turtle type, you know?” She gasped out as one projectile connected with her blade.

He could practically hear her smirking which made him involuntarily roll his eyes.

A few loud crashes and suddenly heaps of electronics flew towards the ground, turning into scrap metal.

His brothers took care of the loudspeakers before Hypno could use them on people. It was actually only by pure coincidence that they caught him as he was just setting his stuff up.

With his brothers back in action it didn’t take long for them to send Hypno limping away. Before he could flee though, Y/N approached him and grabbed a necklace he had around his neck. It was a red ruby with a golden chain. So, Leo wasn’t just imagining it, it probably was a new item.

“You intervened just for the jewelry?” Leo asked as Y/N pocketed the necklace, “So you are a thief? Do we need to beat you up after all? And here I thought you wanted to collect some good karma.”

Y/N snorted “I still am. I’m here on the behalf of the original owner. Wants his little amplifier back.”

Leo narrowed his eyes “You know by the company you keep I do have to wonder what kind of person this owner is. I have to ask. Are you just evil or are you so naïve to trust anybody around the Hidden City? I’m leaning more towards you just being simply stupid.” He was clearly referencing their first meet at Big Mama’s place.

“Say, do you always belittle the people around you when you feel inferior or is this just your quirky personality coming out?”

“Inferior? Me? I’d beat you any day.” He snarled out, trying to hide his annoyance with a smug smile.

Y/N was still holding on to her own katana, twirling it around, both Leo and her began circling each other “Wanna put money where your mouth is because by the looks of it I did save your bacon today.”

Sensing that the tension was rising Mikey jumped over to Leo “Come on. Let’s go home. We just got out of a fight let’s not start a new one.”

“Yeah, listen to him, Leonardo.” The way she spoke his name was full of distaste “Don’t start fights you can’t finish.”

Donnie and Raph walked past Leo, pulling him along.

“Home. Now. We don’t wanna hang out with Big Mama’s guard dog.” Donnie spoke.

Right. Leo didn’t want to waste more time if he could be at home and be eating something nice. Before he walked through his own portal though, he looked back to look at Y/N but she was already gone. Probably took the chance when his brothers pulled him along. He couldn’t decide if he was disappointed or happy about this.

From that point on the group sometimes met Y/N again. Usually, she would come in in the middle of fights, help here and there but only when it aligned with her own goal. These could range from everything to collecting a bounty in the Hidden City to grabbing something one of the people carried with them.

Either way, whenever Y/N and Leo’s eyes met, insults flew. Throwing whatever petty comment they had at their disposal. Both taking any chances they had to exchange blows. Often enough they would start fighting each other while simultaneously fighting the same enemy. These fights were always very interesting. If you’d ask them, they both would deny that they enjoyed the little fights, but others would see their smiles whenever the two readied their weapons. Excitement shining in their eyes.

Now, Leo’s brothers didn’t particular care about Y/N as well, but the way Leo reacted around her was more extreme. Whenever she insulted his abilities, he would immediately respond with a venom filled quip. It was only after yet another meet between the two, when the three figured it must be because the two were more similar than Leo might realize. After all, opposite attract and similar repel.

Both were sassy, flashy and flamboyant with their attitude, fought similarly and it certainly didn’t help that both were also at some point Champion of the Battle Nexus.

Things began shifting though when Leo one night was sitting on one of his favorite roofs alone. Just wanting to spend time on his own. He held his sword in front of him in his lap, looking at the blade. Watching how the lights of the city reflected off the cold metal. He moved it around a bit to see how the colorful specks of lights danced across it.

There were soft footsteps behind him, and a black, silvery reflection appeared on his blade.

“Appreciating your own looks, are we?” Y/N spoke.

Leo ignored her, just huffing out to show how unimpressed he was.

Yet Y/N took it as an invitation, sitting down next to him, letting one of her legs dangle off the roof. Maybe Leo should have been more alarmed when she appeared but one thing he soon learned was that she did follow some sort of honor code. Never once has she attacked him without the two making it clear that they wanted to fight each other.

“I didn’t think I would see you out without your brothers.”

Leo frowned and finally he looked over at her, she had her eyes firmly up into the sky, probably watching the moon and the clouds moving along.

“What do you want?” His voice cold, not trusting this situation at all. Leo’s grip around the hilt of the sword got stronger.

Y/N finally turned to pay attention to him. She seemed to mull something over. Her eyes practically burning through him. It made him uncomfortable to say the least. It was like she was trying to communicate something to him. Then suddenly she moved her hands to remove the hood and mask, showing of her full face to Leo.

He felt almost embarrassed. Felt like this was some sort of show of trust, never expecting her to show herself like that to one of her enemies. It felt private even. This time he could watch as the corner of her mouth turned up into a smug smile as she noticed how his eyes darted all over her face, as he gulped, surprised by this action.

Taking in the new sight. He had to admit she didn’t look half bad. She was his rival after all, only natural he supposed. Not that he would ever tell her that.

He cleared his throat “Hi.”

She smiled “Hi.”

And for a moment there was just the background noise of the city. Leo trying to understand what was going on and getting used to the new sight while she seemed to analyze his reaction.

“What’s the occasion?” he eyed her curiously, burning her facial features into his memory. Thinking this might be his only chance.

Even though she had right now a bit of a playful expression on her face he could see something hardened there as well. Something he only saw on other people who went through their own battles over time. He could have guessed that by her fighting abilities but now he could actually see it.

That was an actual person in front of him and not just the ninja that annoyed him. She was still that but there was more now. Leo couldn’t decide if he preferred this or not.

She shrugged “I’m not here for business. Thought it would be rude.”

“So, you aren’t here to stab me in the back?” He retorted. It was a rhetorical question.

“Clearly missed my window for that.” She quipped.

Leo nodded, turning his gaze back to the city. Both fell into a comfortable silence. Frankly he didn’t even know it was possible between them. Maybe he was more tired today than he realized. Tired of fighting. Of fighting her.

“Can I ask you something?” Leo tried. Might as well satisfy his own curiosity while this was happening.

Y/N just gave him an affirmative hum. If this was her way to be non-committal or if she was earnestly open to answer questions he couldn’t tell.

“What is your deal? How did you get wrapped into all this nonsense?”

“You mean the constant fighting?”

He nodded, not even looking if Y/N saw it.

She sighed as she no doubt looked for the right words “I- I’d wager it would be similar to you guys. I think at least. Not that I’d know. It’s just something I was born into. Something I could do.”

“You were born into being a ninja?”

“Something like that, yeah. My family belongs to an old clan that used to live in Japan and came over to America ages ago. I just know this is the reason why I was always aware of Topside and the Hidden City. Mom and Dad started with my training mostly to just ensure I’d be safe but then I figured I might as well use my talents and knowledge.”

Leo chuckled “So, Big Mama was your first choice, or…”

Y/N let out a soft laugh as well. A rare treat to Leo’s ears. Usually, her laugh was steeped in sarcasm and mockery. This was a light and easy one.

“No, it’s mostly a thing of she is using me, and I am using her. I use her Battle Nexus as training.”

Now this pulled Leo away from the city lights to look at Y/N who had at this point her back on the roof. Her arms behind her head. The silver scarf almost framing her face.

“Really? Training? The Battle Nexus?”

She moved her head a bit so she could look better at the turtle who was now leaning back on his hands, one side of his eyebrow ridge pulled up in disbelief.

“Honestly, it’s the best place to train. It’s also the only reason I’m wearing this gaudy scarf. The Battle Nexus appreciates a good show and if you give them that they give you interesting fights.”

Leo hummed as something seemed to click in his mind “The Silver Magpie, huh?” The name must be part of showing off.

He laughed when Y/N broke out into an embarrassed blush and she purposefully looked away, not daring to look into his eyes any longer “Not my idea. It was Big Mama’s. But if it meant that I could have interesting fights I was willing to go along.”

“Because you clearly would have better ideas.”

“I’m sure my ideas would be better than yours. Besides, I will forever life in the knowledge that Big Mama probably would have just called you Blue because you’d never make it to main stage.”

He rolled his eyes “May I remind you, I was Champion as well.”

She moved her head up so she had an easier time to snap her finger before dropping her head again “Yeah. Was.”

“So were you! Didn’t this bull yokai become the new champion?”

“Mhm, but you forget.” She mused with a grin “All that counts is that I’d be able to beat you if we ever got the proper chance to fight.”

Leo would have loved to retort that now was the perfect time since his brothers weren’t here to intervene but surprisingly, he didn’t want to.

It was the first time he talked to her and didn’t feel incredibly aggravated. Maybe it was the causal environment. Maybe both just got tired over the months. Maybe it was just somehow a special night.

Instead, he too laid down on his back, propping his head on his arms “Nope. I’d win easily. I have actual magical powers. Don’t think you have any, do you?”

“Don’t need them. I actually use my head.”

This time as they argued it didn’t feel as filled with venom like it usually was. Leo managed to somehow connect to Y/N. She didn’t come over as malicious. Thinking back on it she never once stopped a fleeing enemy to continue the fight and she did jump in multiple times to help the four turtles out. Protecting them.

Maybe it really was a big worst first impression for the two. Yet it still didn’t sit with him all to comfortably that she worked for Big Mama just so she could continue fighting in the Battle Nexus. It wasn’t worry for her but more disappointment of her decisions.

When the Mad Dogs met Y/N once again as they chased someone through the Hidden City, a group stole from the police department which was very ironic and funny to Leo, the new dynamic between Y/N and Leo was immediately noticeable.

Instead of the immediate curses and insults they gave each other a quick nod. As if they were going mentally through the plan of catching these guys. Hell, Leo even teleported Y/N so she could be in front of the thieves and cut their escape of. Mikey used the chance to wrap his Kusari-fundo around them, holding them in place for the Hidden City police to collect them.

And when Leo caught up with her, he just made a quip of that he couldn’t believe he had to help Y/N only because she was way too slow. Apparently, it was hard to watch.

And she chuckled. She chuckled!

The fighting was tame, still biting but tamer nonetheless. Nothing like how it used to be. It was obvious that the group missed something between the two.

Once they all were back in the lair, they immediately interrogated Leo. He gave them a quick rundown of Y/N’s apparent deal.

Mikey went on the tip of his toes to lay his arm on Leo’s shoulder “I can’t believe you actually were the bigger person and didn’t immediately go for the kill. You actually talked to her.”

Leo scratched the back of his head embarrassed “Well, I think she was the bigger person. She just sat down and took her mask off.”

“Wait you saw her face?” Raph’s eyes were wide.

“And here I thought similar repel.” Donnie spoke and Leo could only watch in confusion as both Raph and Mikey nodded along. He was sure he was missing out on something.

“But this confirms it! Y/N isn’t a bad person. She might be a little confused, but she’s got the spirit.” Mikey suddenly exclaimed.

To which Raph shrugged “Eh, I figured but I do trust your sense on these things more than mine. Haven’t been wrong about Draxum, yet.”

A big toothy grin appeared on Mikey’s face as he hugged Raph “I know. I’m always correct when it comes to these things.”

Soon Leo and Y/N met every few weeks on the same roof. Just sitting and talking. Both vowing that this place was neutral land. No ninjas. Just two tired warriors talking. The two even exchanged phone numbers and when Y/N suddenly stood inside the lair to the surprise of Raph, Mikey and Donnie, they quickly realized that they went from being enemies to finally being friends.

In fact, this was Leo’s first friend that wasn’t also his brother’s friend. Y/N was doing fine with them but somehow Leo and Y/N just clicked. It almost seemed like the whole Cass situation all over again. An enemy becoming a friend.

“I’m-a going, bros!” Leo yelled through the lair, ready to open a portal.

“Going out to meet Y/N?” Raph leaned into the living room where Leo was standing.

He nodded “Yep. She decided she wanted to get back into Battle Nexus and asked me if I wanted to come along.”

Raph looked at him, worried “You… Will you fight?”

Leo blew a raspberry “I might firmly believe that I could beat Y/N and be champion over her, our scores are currently 18 to 17 in my favor after all, but I honestly don’t want to deal with Big Mama and her stupid deals. No, I’m just watching and playing coach. Also I can make sure this was nothing weird is happening.”

His brother relaxed at that “Okay. Good. Not that I don’t trust you, but-“

“I know.” Leo smiled “Just worried, I get it. Now, I gotta go or she will think I screwed up my teleport.”

“Have fun!” but Leo was already through the portal. With a shrug Raph returned back to his own room.

He stepped out of the portal and arrived in the Hidden City. Y/N was already standing close by. The way she had her eyebrows pulled up he already knew what was coming.

“Did you mi-“

“Nope. No wrong teleports. Just a worried brother.”

Y/N chuckled, lightly patting the back of his shell “Sorry, forgot. Sore topic. Still on training wheels and all.”

“What does that even mean?”

“You are still a novice, now let’s move. I wanna get into the Battle Nexus and train and warm up before the first fight starts. Come on, old man.”

Y/N pulled her ninja hood up and moved the mask over her mouth. Leo couldn’t help but miss her full face. Now he can’t see how her mouth always quirked up right before she tries to deliver a new quip. The prouder she felt the more shit eating was that grin. He liked that grin.

Before the two entered the building Leo turned to her with a snicker “Do I gotta start referring to you as the Silver Magpie?”

Y/N poked his plastron, looking up into his eyes with her own narrowed ones “Oh no you don’t. I’ll kick you if you do.”

Now he was actually laughing, moving his hands up in defeat “Alright! Alright! Feisty today, aren’t we?”

With a roll of her eyes, Y/N moved again, grabbing Leo’s wrist to make sure he would come along.

They walked through the doors, Y/N ignored the counter with a secretary right in front of them but instead walked down a flight of stairs to walk into a small office. Never letting go of Leo who was walking along as if he was a lost child.

In the office sat a tired looking alligator yokai. When Y/N saw him, she hissed in surprise. At first this alarmed Leo, but Y/N let out a snort.

“What did you do to get put down on sign-in duty?”

The yokai let out a deep grumble what Leo thought must be his way to sigh.

“The nexus isn’t doing so hot at the moment. I’m filling in.”

For some reason Leo felt like he has seen this particular yokai before. So, he clearly worked for Big Mama, this wasn’t his usual position and Leo saw him somewhere.

That’s when it hit him “It’s you!” He but yelled out. Finger pointing at him.

The Alligator sighed again “Yeah. Well. You are lucky I’m off duty. I’m not the security chief right now. My second in command took over for the time being and frankly I’m way too tired to chase after you, turtle.”

Guess some of his adversaries only chase him around for the paycheck. No passion for their jobs nowadays.

“Anyway, Leatherhead. Write me down for the fights. I want my belt back. And, oh, he is my coach. Never had one but I think I have to tell you that. Might wanna use a nickname for him.”

He nodded “Yep. You got it. One Silver Magpie accompanied by Blue Bird written down.” Suddenly he stopped moving and stared at the paper in front of him, before he looked up again at Y/N with a mischievous expression. As mischievous as it can be with his teeth and huge snout.

“It’s good that you decided to come back again now.”

Y/N looked at him, eyebrows pulled together in a silent question.

“The people will be happy to see The Silver Magpie again. If you help bring Big Mama the money back in again, I’m sure she would be grateful towards you. Do good and I’m sure Mama will be happy to pay you extra.”

There was an understanding glint in Y/N’s eyes. At this point Leo knew her well enough to know that she must be grinning.

“Coach and I will go train then. I need to be ready to show off.”

He waved his huge, clawed hand dismissively towards her “Go ahead. You are a regular, I think I can fill the rest out for you.”

“You are a sweetheart!” Y/N just said and begun pulling Leo along again. Walking down the corridor to reach an open space outside with sandy ground. Other yokai were walking around, doing shadowboxing, swinging around weapons or fighting each other. Apparently this was one of the smaller arenas the Nexus sometimes used.

“So, as your coach I can order you to run like fifty rounds around here, right?” Leo asked as Y/N settled at one corner of the place, beginning to do her stretches.

“You could but I won’t do it. As a fellow ninja I can respect your abilities, but I doubt you warm up like that.”

Before Leo could retort to one of her rare compliments, that definitely didn’t inflate his ego at all, there was suddenly a fox yokai standing behind Y/N, coughing to get her attention.

He wore traditional Japanese clothing and with the sword at his side it screamed Samurai to him.

He had one of his eyebrows pulled up as he carefully eyed Y/N up and down “You… are a ninja?” His voice was smooth as he spoke. He sounded well put together. Not the type of person Leo would think to meet here.

A bit confused by him suddenly approaching Y/N, she slowly nodded her head “Uh, yeah. Trained as a ninja. Curious or do you want to try to fight a ninja?”

The fox scoffed.

As if to see if Leo also heard that Y/N looked at him before pulling their attention back on the fox who took a few steps around them.

And then he let out a laugh.

“You are not ninja.”

“What the hell dude. I’m not walking around telling people what they are and what they aren’t. What’s your problem?” Y/N crossed her arms, squaring her shoulders. Leo took unconsciously a step towards her. As a fellow ninja he felt insulted on her behalf.

“Tell me, ninja.” He practically spat out the word “How come that you are here when you are meant to be in the shadows. This place is not for ninja. You might believe you are, but you are lying to yourself.”

“Well, this ninja wants to earn a good paycheck and get better at martial arts. The way you speak I’m surprised you are still walking around and not dust already with how ancient your views are.”

Leo recognized this tone of voice. It’s the one Y/N used to direct towards him. Now that he was not involved, he was surprised how hostile it sounded. Maybe now that the two were friends his memory was skewed?

“Who are you that you can tell her what she can and can’t do?” Leo finally spoke. Not liking the look of all of this.

The fox looked at Leo “I’m Akira and I’m a samurai. I’m here for glory and honor.”

Y/N and Leo immediately locked eyes, both bursting into laughter. It took a few moments for them to calm themselves down again. Oh, this was too good.

Y/N wiped a tear away that threatened to run down towards her dark mask “Oh man. Listen Akira, you won’t find honor here. Glory? Money? Maybe. But honor? No. Not when you deal with Big Mama in any capacity.” She might be a lot of things but not self-aware wasn’t one of them. Well, sometimes.

“Why should I trust the word of a ninja. You work from the shadows, you are tricksters, you don’t know the first thing about honor.” Akira was fast to retort.

Y/N moved closer, putting her hands on her hips “Listen here furball. You were the one who approached me! You were the one who made wild accusations out of nowhere! I’m telling you how it is! You can either take it or leave it! I’ll be training and hey if you are lucky, we both will meet one day to fight in the arena. I’ve been fighting here for years now. I know how this works and I can tell you, with your attitude, you will sink. And believe me, I will watch. Now move along and leave me be. I have actually important things to do. I don’t need to try to belittle my opponents, so I have a chance to win because I’m actually good at what I do.”

The yokai scoffed, turning around to do whatever he was doing before he thought this was a good idea.

“God damn superiority complex.” Y/N grumbled as she turned around towards Leo.

Leo looked at her for a long second “Do you tend to make enemies wherever you go?”

He expected a laugh from Y/N, but she just stared at him.

“No. This is only a thing I do for special people apparently. Fair, when we two met, I was a bit cocky and all, but I was trying to impress Big Mama, but this here was just plain unnecessary. I don’t want to waste my thoughts on this weirdo. Let’s train, Leo.”

“Well training it is. Don’t want you to eat dirt here, as your coach this would look horrible on me.”

This finally elicited a chuckle from Y/N.

According to Y/N the first few fights were mostly against monsters. Some sort of plant, beast like beings. Those were mostly there to weed out the weaklings. Haha, get it? It does start with four people in the same ring as they try to defeat as many as possible.

Leo was allowed to sit at the sidelines since he was officially written down as her coach. It was just as a way so that he didn’t have to be stuck with the other viewers and Y/N promised she’d deal with Big Mama should she catch wind of him being there. And apparently Leo lives in a crazy enough world now where he trusted Y/N like that.

When Y/N walked into the arena with the other three fighters, Leo could already see how tense she was with how she was swinging her sword around in anticipation. And judging by the simple fact that Akira stood next to her with crossed arms, he wagered that her being tense wasn’t because of the upcoming fight.

As expected, Y/N didn’t have a lot of trouble with the monsters. Flipping and jumping around as if this was just another Thursday, which to her very much was. After all it wasn’t her first time going into the ring.

Leo did understand Y/N’s outfit a bit more now. The way that the silver scarf flew behind her, combined with the lights of the arena, it did kind of look like silvery wings. Only if you squinted though.

There were people in the audience who held up posters and cards, screaming out Y/N’s stage name. Sometimes he forgot that she was a known quantity here.

At one point Y/N stood in the middle of the arena while the other fighters fought, she moved her hands up in a manner to encourage the audience to cheer louder. Even doing some spinning flips to egg them on. It worked. The lights were on Y/N like a spotlight and between all the general yelling and screaming there were a few “Silver Magpie!” No wonder Big Mama appreciated her the way she was able to make the audience roar.

This must have annoyed Akira since from that point every time Y/N was about to deal with another newly grown plant monster, he swooped in and dealt with it in her stead. Leo didn’t need to be in the ring to see how Y/N was getting more and more frustrated. She tried her best to combat his aggressive attacks by using her speed to weave through the chaos and deal her own strikes.

At this point the other two contestants were forgotten. This was clearly now only a power struggle between Y/N and Akira. The time was up, and the fighters walked out of the arena. It took a good few minutes before Y/N returned. Leo was greeted by an icy stare, the last time he saw that one was way back when he and Y/N had another one of their fights and he just kept teleporting her a few feet away from him, all the while he made comments about her being all out of breath while he was fine. This was a day where he particularly pissed her off.

He grimaced “Hey, fighter. You did awesome!”

She grabbed his arm and began pulling him out of the Battle Nexus “Big Mama will have to pay me if I have to keep dealing with that asshole.”

“Doesn’t she already pay you?”

“Only for special fights. Basically, buys me to fight for her to rile up the people. This? This here is all about the price money at the end. It’s also the best way to get your name out and for me it’s amazing for training since all kinds of new people appear but also shows that I’m still useful to Big Mama.”

She stopped moving when they were out of the building. Heaving a heavy sigh.

“That bad, huh?”

“I’m this close to committing manslaughter, Leo.” When she held her fingers up to show the exact amount, her fingers were touching.

Leo blinked “Oh, damn. You already killed him? Do I need to help to hide the body?”

“No, just the amount is so small it’s hard to see. Let’s just go. The next fight will be in the next few days. Actually no, wanna train a bit? We haven’t fought in a while. Like properly. I need to work through my frustration.”

When Leo laughed, Y/N just stared at him confused.

“It’s just weird. This is how you used to react to me and now I’m the person helping you through your anger.”

“Oh, this is nothing. There were times where you got under my skin worse than this.” She chuckled and laid her hand on his shoulder “Don’t worry, Leo. You will always be my number one.”

“Good because if I get beaten by that weird dude that would be a bit of a blow to my ego, not gonna lie. I worked hard for that position.”

During training for the championship Akira would sometimes approach Y/N and the two just began spitting out insults. The fights where both were involved riled the audience up more since it was obvious the two tried to show each other up.

Made only sense that the Battle Nexus would begin pairing the two up for every challenge.

This meant though that Y/N would meet up with Leo and just grumble about Akira and what stupid stuff he said last time during prep or during fights.

One day Y/N burst into Leo’s room unannounced, throwing herself on his bed with a huge groan.

“Knock knock. Who’s there? Y/N, can I come in? Yes, of course my lovely friend, you may! It’s nice to see you! Aw, thank you Leo! It’s so good to see you!”

He gave her a pointed look, but she had her hands on her face, a muffled yell came out behind them.

“Okay. So. What’s up?” He sat down next to her on the bed.

She was an emotional person so it didn’t surprise him to see her like this and yet something big must have happened.

Only a muffled mess came out of her mouth, Leo couldn’t understand anything. So, he just carefully grabbed her wrists and pulled them away from her despair ridden expression.

“Can you say that again now?”

Her wrists still in his gentle grasp.

“He got a name!”

Leo narrowed his eyes “I feel like I’m missing something essential here. Almost sounds like your son received a name and you, as the horrible mother that you are, are in despair over that.”

Y/N just rolled her eyes. Not even a chuckle. Yikes.

“No, you don’t get it. Big Mama gave Akira a stage name. The Samurai Blitz. Stupid name but that’s just Big Mama, I guess. Do you know what that means though?”

When Leo shook his head, Y/N sat up, never removing her arms out of Leo’s own hands. He was at this point rubbing circles with his thumb into her skin, trying to distract her a bit from her anger.

“Basically, that means Big Mama is sponsoring him. He is going to be one of the main fighters in the Battle Nexus and do you know what that in return means?”

Once again, he shook his head.

“I’m stuck with him! Knowing Big Mama, she will try to schedule fights between us, and you know me. I’d love nothing more than to beat the snot out of him but it’s just… frustrating!”

“Well, he is a newcomer, and you are like one of their star fighters. Just beat him up in the fight then maybe Big Mama will drop him?” Frankly he had no idea, and this sounded easier than it was, but he wanted to ease her anger and worries a bit.

“Maybe. I hope. Let’s just do something else so I can ignore this whole part of my life for a moment?”

“I came up with a new skating trick using portals. Wanna see?”

Y/N laughed, Leo has been trying to teach her skateboarding since this was apparently something she never did “Yes, of course. Go ahead, Master Leonardo.”

The next time Akira’s name came up was when Y/N and he had to fight for the next spot in the championship. Y/N really began to drill herself and basically trained every free moment. She was tense. Her temper short and downright petty at moments. Being frankly used to her being petty towards him, Leo tried his best to help where he could.

Leo wanted to watch her big fight but alas crime doesn’t like to call in to make an appointment.

When he did have time though he made his way towards the Battle Nexus, expecting to see Y/N in front of it after having texted her that he would be coming over. When he couldn’t find her, he snuck in to investigate the pre-fight locker rooms.

Y/N was still sitting on a bench. Her arms propped on her legs, leaning over.

“Hey, Y/N.” he almost whispered, trying not to scare her.

It took a moment for her to look up, her expression was somber. Leo couldn’t help the small pang of guilt seeing her like that. Wishing he could have been there for her fight since whatever happened made her upset. He preferred her smile much more than seeing her like this.

“Did you… loose?”

Honestly, it happens. She knows it. But he also knew that one loss wouldn’t hit her that hard. Sure, might be annoyed but this wasn’t the reaction he imagined on her. Something else happened.

“N-No…”

Now that confused him “So, you won? Why are you looking like someone just kicked your puppy?”

“Leo. He forfeited.”

“He… what? Why? That’s good though, right?”

She slowly nodded “Yeah. I guess. It’s just. We fought and suddenly he apologized and forfeited.”

Leo sat down on the bench in front of her “He apologized? For forfeiting?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. It felt like he tried to apologize for his comments before? But maybe not? I don’t know. It was weird. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. It’s just-“she stopped herself. Since her mask was down Leo could see her biting her lip. She was conflicted.

“It’s what?”

She shrugged “I don’t know. He was kind of sad. I worked myself up so much for this fight and then he just stood there all depressed and then he did this. I think I’m just still reeling from it all. I’m just confused.”

Not really knowing what to do, Leo moved to sit down next to her. Putting his arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him “Well. Let’s get out of here. To me this means you won and that means I’m treating you to some good grub.”

She leaned softly against him “Food does sound good right now.”

“Onwards! To Run Of The Mill Pizza!” he exclaimed, throwing his fist into the air as if he was about to run into battle.

“What did your dad do wrong that you guys are so obsessed with pizza? Or is it a mutant thing?”

“So, you are saying no to pizza?”

“No! No. Pizza is good.”

At first Leo didn’t think much about all of this. Akira somehow might have changed his mind or someone else laid into him for being stupid. With his personality? Very possible. Or he simply didn’t saw any honor in fighting Y/N but if that was the case, he knew that Y/N would have caught on that fact and would have been even more angry.

Then Y/N told Leo that she met Akira in the Hidden City. A chance meeting apparently. And while she still grumbled about him acting all high and mighty the two did apparently start talking. After all Y/N was very much curious as to why he forfeited the fight.

It was then that a thought entered Leo’s mind “Huh, that sounds very much like what me and Y/N went through. Funny.” It wasn’t funny. Somehow it made him feel uneasy even.

Leo was on the phone with Y/N while she had to spend some time with her family, and he was busy taking care of his weapons. They might be mystical and stuff, but they still needed care.

“Ah, sorry. I’m busy on Saturday. Got a fight and you know how much I love my fights.” Her voice came from his phone that he had at this point on his desk.

“Oh, I know, Bruiser. Knuckles. Gym Bro.” He counted off more stupid martial arts related nicknames, making Y/N sigh.

“I swear. Give a man a bruise once and he will never let you forget it.”

Leo paused “Y/N. You gave me more bruises than I can count. You almost broke my wrist once!”

“Oh, don’t start this, Leo! It takes two to tango! Because of you I couldn’t use my right foot for like four weeks! You sprained it!” It was a bit funny how the static of the phone speaker mixed in with her loud exclamations. It really added to her mock anger.

“Alright! Got it! We both suck. Anyway, what kind of fight is it on Saturday? Thought there wasn’t anything scheduled for you then, Miss Champion.”

When Akira forfeited, her biggest danger to victory disappeared as well. To Leo it just made sense that she managed to reclaim her title. She was good at what she did, he knew from firsthand experience after all.

She hummed thoughtfully “Mhm, yeah. I’m just meeting up with Akira for a fight.”

Wait did he hear that correctly?

“You are meeting up with Akira? You know the guy that you love to complain about? The dude who insulted your whole family one time?”

Reminding her of this, she let out an annoyed groan “Yeah, I know! It’s just… Apparently things happened, and he wants to fight me in a less official manner. So, we decided on a neutral space to meet up and just fight. You know. For training purposes.”

This really reminded him of… well him and her. The exact same happened. The roof being a neutral space where they met up just to talk about whatever. When it all started, they also met up often to fight. Trying to figure each other out.

“Huh.”

“I don’t need to see your face to know that something about this isn’t sitting well with you. What’s up? I promise I won’t be stupid.”

“No, it’s not that.” He paused. He didn’t know what to say, really. It just felt weird to him. Something about this just rubbed him the wrong way “Do you want a referee? I could play one.”

There was an awkward silence. Maybe it was just awkward to him. He hoped it was.

“It’s not that I don’t want you there, it’s just… You know how he is not a people person and this kind of just feels personal? I don’t know. It’s a thing between the two of us.”

“Oh, yeah. Got it. No problem.” He chuckled. Trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach.

Luckily Y/N picked the conversation up again by talking about what she has been up to with her family as well as talking about her favorite topic, training. Soon the conversation flowed more naturally again.

He couldn’t let go of the weird pit in his stomach. It even stayed the day after. He just felt like there was something up with Akira. He said sorry, forfeited and now he searched her out? He seemed to have such a low opinion of ninja in general as well. Leo knew something was wrong, he just couldn’t put his finger on it.

But what he knew was that Y/N wanted to meet him on Saturday and he bet he even knew where. He sparred with her enough to know a lot of her favorite training places.

Maybe it was rude for him to sneak into the Hidden City to keep an eye on Y/N. Maybe it was petty even. But he just wanted to make sure she would be fine! Usually, his gut feeling was pretty accurate, after all. Besides he’ll stay far enough away that she won’t notice him. Even as a fellow ninja.

This wasn’t him not trusting her, this was him just being a worried friend. If anything, he didn’t trust Akira. At all. Y/N could be an ass at times, but she was also forgiving, and he feared that Akira took advantage of that.

He found her at the Hidden City beach with Akira. The two were just casually chatting. He could sometimes see the two cocking one of their eyebrows up accusingly. And for a while they just stood there talking. He wasn’t close enough to hear anything, but he could tell both were somewhat tense. Both had their hands each on their own sword.

Suddenly Y/N’s hands moved to remove her hood and mask. Leo couldn’t fathom why she would do that. Not to Akira. Hell, it even took a while for her to show her face to his brothers.

And then both shook their hands with a smile. Letting go to walk a few paces back. She got her sword out and Akira followed suit.

Both fought with only one sword, but each had their own stance. Akira’s exuded more aggression while Y/N’s was more defensive.

And then they dashed at each other.

Their sword making immediate contact. Akira wasn’t deterred, trying to push with his strength and weight against Y/N. In return Y/N pressed once with all her strength at his sword, giving her the chance to jump back a few feet.

Akira immediately pursued her. Striking at her with all he got but Y/N being nimble dodges his strikes. Jumping around him, flipping over his head to try to strike his back.

The two almost fell in a bit of a dance. Their swords making contact every now and again. Y/N moving around Akira in fluid motion while he attacked with powerful and precise blows. Sometimes she would throw throwing stars towards him to distract him, but he was able to block them with his sword, not scared to use his feet or shoulder to push her.

While their fight was impressive and interesting to watch how both were able to work off of each other, Leo’s attention was on something else.

They were smiling. Both looked focused when they started out but as they kept going, getting a sense of each other’s fighting style, smiles snuck onto their faces.

They had fun and Leo did not like that. That was something he and Y/N used to do. Meeting up at a quiet place to fight. Test each other’s mettle. It’s how they got to know each other! It’s how they became friends. It was their thing. Hell, this was one of their first places they met for a sparring match.

Leo ducked down behind the rock he was hiding. Grimacing. He was jealous, wasn’t he? Of Akira? No, what Y/N and he had was special. They worked hard to earn each other’s trust, their friendship being stronger for it. But here the two were, fighting each other like how Leo and Y/N used to do and smiling with awe and excitement in their eyes. What was this all about anyway?

Was this even the first time the two fought like that? Y/N would tell him if she met up with Akira, right? Why wouldn’t she? Well, she did say this was something personal.

He hated it. The mixed feelings and the uncertainty and the worst part of all of this was that normally when he was conflicted like that he would go to Y/N with it. He can’t possibly go to Y/N right now. But then again, maybe she’d understand? This was horrible. Annoying. He wanted to bash his hand against the surface of the rock.

A few hours later, when Y/N returned to her own apartment, she didn’t expect to see Leo standing in front of her door in his casual human get up. She didn’t get any texts from him on her phone as well, so this was definitely a surprise.

“How long have you been standing here?” She asked, her keys hanging uselessly from her finger.

Leo gasped in surprised, he was too deep in his own thoughts that he didn’t even notice her walking up to her own home.

“Uh, wha-?”

“How long have you been waiting in front of my home? Also scoot so I can unlock my door.” She was light on her feet. Acting like she just came back from a grocery run instead from a fight with an incredibly annoying person she should dislike.

He did as she asked so she could let herself and Leo into her apartment. He had been in here a couple of times. A few of those times the two might have broken a few things when they began rough housing a bit. Rest in peace coffee table. You held their snacks bravely until both Y/N and Leo jumped up on you.

“Not long. Wanted to check up on you. How was the battle? Did you commit manslaughter?” Not his finest work, it still made Y/N chuckle, making his heart beat faster in relief.

She walked with Leo into the kitchen, pushing off the hood and mask, grabbing some things out of the fridge to make a sandwich. In a silent question she held the bread into the air.

“Not hungry.” He settled down on the chair at her kitchen table. He was a bit unsettled that she didn’t immediately start to complain about Akira like she used to.

She moved her back to Leo, now concentrating on preparing her food.

“No, by the way. No manslaughter committed. Just a fair fight. Won this one, though.” She sounded happy. Naturally but she didn’t gloat like Leo expected her too.

Leo furrowed his brows “This one?”

“Well technically we fought before in the arena. This was just the first time we actually finished it.”

“And he actually was fighting fair?”

She chuckled “Yep. He did. He does take his honor seriously after all, even if his people skills say otherwise.”

“And you are okay with all of this? Not wondering what’s up with his sudden change of mind and all? It is a bit suspicious, right?”

This time Y/N finally turned around, her brows furrowed as well but out of confusion not anger “Leo, what is going on? If you have something to say, then just say it.”

He huffed, hesitating for a moment. What did he want to tell her? There was a lot actually but nothing too coherent. There were emotions that swirled around in him, unpleasant ones. “I don’t think you should meet up with Akira alone like that. Could be dangerous.”

“What?” She was genuinely confused at his statement. It did kind of come out of nowhere.

“Sure, he didn’t pull anything this time but who knows what will happen next time. Are you sure he isn’t taking advantage of your good nature?”

She scoffed “What? You think I’m that stupid to let something like that happen? Besides, I know a few things about him now. Don’t get me wrong I’m still kind of pissed at him for certain things but his behavior makes sense now, you know?”

At this point Leo was bouncing his leg. Nervous but also anger slowly making their way to the forefront of his mind. She was just dismissing these valid worries without a second thought! What possibly could he have told her to make her change her mind like that.

“Are you certain he didn’t just dish you a sob story, so he had an easier time to get on your good side?”

Leo flinched when Y/N suddenly slammed her hands on the table. He must have hit a nerve.

“Oh, because you would know, right? You talked to him and heard his side of all of this, right? Leo, I didn’t forget all the stupid things he said but I’m ready to move on!”

His eyes traveled to her hands that were slowly forming into fists “Why, though? Why does he deserve that?” It was a simple question.

To her though, she looked at him like he just said something incredibly stupid “Are you- Are you serious?”

Leo leaned forward, his eyes firmly locked onto hers “I am. I think this all is a huge mistake.”

She let out a huge sigh, as if she was trying to release the emotions that were slowly building up inside of her “May I remind you that if I hadn’t been so gracious to offer my hand to you first, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation? I know what I’m doing! I’m being cautious! You are acting like he will kill me!”

Leo threw his hands into the air “He is from the Hidden City! There are yokai around that threaten and do eat each other when they just make weird eye contact with each other! But right, you work for Big Mama, as if you’d have actually a good sense when it comes to people from there.”

“Oh, fuck you, Leo! I probably know more about the Hidden City and its people than you! The hell is your problem!”

He groaned, feeling like they were going around in circles “If you’d listen to me you would know! Just listen for once! I’m positive that Akira has some sort of- of- of hidden agenda!”

Y/N laughed in disbelief “Oh my god, you have lost it! What could he possible do with me that would be beneficial to him like that? If anything, we both know he is your typical honor boy, he wouldn’t pull anything weird! This is all so hypocritical of you! You were not long ago in Akira’s shoes yourself! If I would do as you said I would also have to cut contact with you, you absolute idiot!”

At this point, both were raising their voices. The tension was getting worse by the second as both stared angrily at each other. Leo was just trying to warn her, but she just ignored everything he said!

“Hey, you know we both worked on trusting each other! We put actual work into it! Do you think a nice walk and sparring match at the beach is enough?! Come on! Use your head!”

“I am! That’s why I’m so frustrated with you because you-“ she stopped yelling at him, her eyes widening as realization hit her, “The beach? Leo. How did you know that?”

God damn it. He screwed up. Big time.

“You- You watched us! You spied on me! I knew something felt off!” Her voice cut right into Leo, guilt settled down in his gut like a heavy boulder.

“No! I just- I had to be sure he didn’t try anything… I had one of those feelings and-“

He barely managed to stumble through the sentence before Y/N cut him off, shaking her head “No! That is not a good enough reason to fucking spy on me! I can understand you not trusting Akira, but you clearly don’t even trust me! You just said that we worked on building up this trust but, Leo, what trust? Not only do you not trust me when I want to work on getting past this animosity I have with Akira, but you also felt the need to spy on me as if I didn’t know how to defend myself if push came to shove! I know what I’m doing!”

Finally, Leo stood up as well, he might tower over Y/N by a good few inches, but she didn’t look intimidated at all. She just kept staring right into his eyes, silently challenging him.

“I do trust you! I really do! I was just-“

Again Y/N interrupted him, which infuriated the turtle even more “You are such a hypocrite! At first you are trying to forbid me from hanging out with Akira when you never once took the chance to talk to him yourself and now as it turns out you spy on me! Have you done this before? Was this even the first time? It’s so obvious you are just grasping for straws at this point!”

When Leo tried to open his mouth to retort, Y/N was faster “You are such an ass, Leonardo.”

Leo growled as his frustration finally reached the boiling point “I was jealous, okay!?”

This time when Y/N opened her mouth it was out of shock. No sound coming out of her as she processed these words.

Leo clenched his jaw “Okay, here. I admit it. I was jealous! I did have a bad feeling about him, which is why I followed you, and then I saw you fight and… and I couldn’t help but think that was our thing! And I know it’s stupid! It’s just- Fuck. Y/N I’m crushing on you hard and when I saw you two fight, I was just- I was scared, okay? I was scared I’d somehow lose you!”

Y/N was sometimes opening her mouth as if trying to say something only to snap her jaws shut again. She was visibly fighting with herself as she searched for the right words, no doubt overwhelmed with this whole situation.

Leo acted ridiculous, hurt her trust in him and then just suddenly dropped this bombshell on her. That was a lot. When her eyes glazed over in unshed tears, Leo’s feeling of guilt pulled even heavier on him.

He took a deep breath, trying to ground himself again. Most of the hot air seemed to have left both of them.

“I’m genuinely sorry, Y/N. My emotions took the better of me and I didn’t fight that at all. It all started because I had a bad feeling when it came to Akira because I thought he would do something but at the beach I realized I was jealous. The worst part is, I then took me frustration out on you of all people. I wanted to talk this through with you but… emotions… You don’t deserve this.”

God, he was an idiot. What did he expect to happen? He knew what the problem was. He was the problem from the very start and here he tried to push it on Akira and Y/N. That was unfair. That’s not how friends should treat each other. He broke the trust the two worked so hard on establishing.

He really was a hypocrite and an ass.

“I’m gonna leave you be. This is my fault not yours. If you want to talk this through, I’ll be there. If you don’t wanna talk to me for a while or at all, I can understand.”

Y/N was still standing in the kitchen like a statue. Her wide eyes following his movements as he suddenly went from angry to sad. Suddenly admitting to what was the underlying issue here. She knew that something else must have happened since this argument from the start was weird but this, she did not expect.

When she didn’t react, Leo slowly turned around and took a few steps to walk out of her apartment, but a warm hand landed on his arm. Stopping him in his tracks.

Surprised Leo turned around to see Y/N standing right in front of him.

“Y/N?”

Instead of saying anything she just pulled Leo into a big hug. Wrapping her arms around his neck. Confused by this, frankly undeserving, display of affection, Leo couldn’t help but stare at her as she let out a soft sob mixed with a chuckle.

She let go of him to wipe at her eyes, her other hand still laying on his shoulder “God. You are stupid.”

He couldn’t help but let out a chuckle himself “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“We really need to work on our communication.”

“Well, I do, for sure. This time this is all on me, but I’m, uh, you still want to be friends? Even after this stupid thing I pulled? Because I can understand it if you need some time for yourself and all.” Even after the hug he was still surprised by this. He was overjoyed if this was the case, but he still expected her to take a few days for herself to sort through this all.

The smile on her face softened, her eyes were now full with an unexplained warm expression Leo couldn’t pinpoint. He just knew it was far removed from the expression a minute ago when the two were still arguing.

“You remember when I told you, you will always be my number one?”

He nodded.

Instead of answering him, Y/N laid her arms back around his neck and slowly pulled him down, while she leaned up. Planting her lips softly on his own.

What?

Leo was happy, overjoyed even, as she suddenly kissed him, but he was equally as confused at this point. He didn’t deserve this.

Y/N broke the kiss off “I really meant it when I said it.”

“But- I just- I was so- Why?”

“I’ve had a crush on you for ages, numbnuts.”

Finally, the heat rushed to Leo’s head. He was sure that his blush was obvious at this point and together with his flabbergasted expression, this must look quite amusing.

“I screwed up though…” He almost whispered.

She nodded, agreeing with him “Yeah, but you apologized and call me crazy, but I know that I can talk this through with you. We used to literally beat each other up multiple times a week and we managed to get through that. I’m willing to work through this as well. Are you?”

Of course, he was. Leo nodded. In awe at her forgiveness but also still reeling from her own confession.

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. I’m really, really sorry.”

“I know.”

Suddenly Leo laughed “Oh my god, you like me!”

Y/N burst out into laughter as well “Yeah, I do! Glad you caught up!”

“Can… Can I kiss you?”

She let out an amused snort that he knew she thought was embarrassing but he thought was adorable “Yeah. You can. Let’s chill out today and tomorrow we can talk about all of this.”

He didn’t give her a proper reply. Instead, his hand flew towards her neck, pulling her up against him again, placing his own lips softly on hers.

[hirazuki]

It’s his Yule gift to himself ^^ 

Mairon: Sir, for the the last time, we are not calling it Melkortopia! Gothmog: Mairon, calm down, your blood pressure.

Look, it took exactly 21.4 meetings to settle on a name for the new place and now that it’s decided, Mairon is not going through that again.

(I don’t celebrate anything, but Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to those who do!)

Bonus:

Also, this is kind of like. headcanon central here, so some notes for anyone who cares below the cut! 

I’m very partial to the whole “corrupted” elves as the first orcs deal, but I also find the idea of Melkor Mairon (because let’s be honest, who would it be) enacting a subtler corruption and having some Avari as spies acting for him very appealing, and think that these two ideas can and should coexist.

I like to think that Mairon tried for years to get Melkor to see the merit in winning the Avari to their side in general but Melkor was disinterested and didn’t even try, constantly worsening their relations, and eventually he just threw his hands up and went, FINE. NEVERMIND. DESTROY THEM OR WHATEVER.

Even though Melkor does have associations with heat, volcanoes, etc., I think of him as primarily ice/cold/darkness (especially since that contrasts nicely with Mairon’s fire element aspect), so while Utumno would probably need some kind of light source indoors for (at least) his more mundane servants to be able to see what they’re doing, I headcanon that it’s more in the sense of ice crystals or rock/gem lights or something (i.e. light with no heat) plus because that’s also +200 misery points to Mairon because I interpret him as hating the cold ♡. (Whereas Angband is all torches and firelight; once Mairon ends up running things, he’s like, Melkor is away; this is the perfect opportunity to install CENTRAL HEATING.)

I headcanon that, prior to his crown with the silmarils, Melkor didn’t wear one; felt he didn’t need one, his power alone was enough for everyone to recognize his might, and he went without the trappings of rulership in general, being more characterized by his unconventionality, chaos, and freedom. All that changes with the taking of the silmarils, when he starts wearing a crown, staying within his fortress with few exceptions, etc., becoming more weighed down by such things, and he suffers a fundamental change in character. 

Mairon, however, does wear a circlet. As a relative latecomer to Utumno, compared to some other beings, and rising through the ranks to become Melkor’s right-hand man, I like to think he faced some challenges to his authority (from outright opposition to some low-key grumbling), so he made himself a physical indicator of his position. (I also like to think that this attitude resurfaced a bit once Utumno fell and Mairon got put in charge, making his early days of leadership very rocky; but eventually, everyone came to respect him as a leader in his own right... making Melkor’s eventual return also a bit awkward ^^;).

I went back and forth on so many Avari color schemes, but, as usual, ended up defaulting to my favorite dark elf palette, which is Morrowind’s Dunmer XD

[neverchecking]

me, reading all the posts about the barbarian armor lately: >:D hehehe I've started a revolution

hehe I'm so glad my brain rot was well accepted, it was eating at me for SO long so I'm glad others enjoyed it xD

ALSO fanfic-fairy-fountain !!! you are so real for the thoughts about cal <33 I've only played parts of his game so I didn't even know if you could get different armor in it,, but him with the barbarian armor?? and being so blushy and shy when reader asks to help paint him?? AMAZING YOU'RE SO BIG BRAINED <33

we've established that sage makes pretty sounds,, but he absolutely does it because he knows it makes the reader putty in his hands,, (like the way I'm so down BAD for feral gremlin sage is unfathomable xD ) BUT CAL,, cal makes pretty sounds because he just feels SO good and he can't possibly contain himself, his head tosses back and his eyes scrunch up and he just whines when your hand drags along his v-line and dip into his skirt to toy with his cock (side note: cal I am on my knees, let me hear you whimper just ONCE pls <3 xD )

and I am all for the idea that reader helps cal out with the paint because he plays up the whole inexperienced thing xD sage and wild know the design by heart and can do it in just a few seconds if needed, but poor cal needs your help :( reader gives in to his lil pout cause he's so sweet <33 (ALSO I can so see cal giving wild and sage a scheming look when it works, because he might be less experienced and such, but I just know he knows what he's doing HAHA )

dear god, and the way wild and sage would absolutely notice if you trailed the handprint on cal just a lil bit lower,,, if the palm of your hand inches just a tad closer to his cock and the purple fingerprints barely peek out of his skirt, they ABSOLUTELY are going to lose it xD reader?? why is there a handprint on cal's upper thigh?? that's not a part of the armor?

reader, wiping purple paint away from their hands and grinning as cal blushes: idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ oops I guess I messed up a lil ;)

triplet threesome in barbarian armor when??? (hehe I jest,,, or do I?? XD)

(also this is so off topic, but all your posts make me wanna make a side blog for this omfg xD my LU brain rot is INSANE right now hehe)

ALSO lastly,, the idea of reader having their own set of armor?? or perhaps gifted to them by the triplets after all of their fun?? mayhaps there's a bit of a scuffle as they fight over who gets to paint on you –– sage plays up the experienced card,, he's had the armor so much longer now (twice he's found it!) he obviously knows how to do it better,, but wild and cal would throw a fit xD

I would love to move onto another brain rot because I've been in my twilight and time hours lately, but I keep coming back to this <333 your anons know what's up xD

– moonie <3

Moonie! Welcome back <3

You have certainly started something.

Sage absolutely only makes the noises because of what it does to poor poor reader. (Im so down bad too it's horrendous actually) CAL IS MY PERFECT BABY BOY- And he's making noises because he can't stop them. He doesn't have the experience. He's just crying out, begging for you both to not stop andf to stop because it's just so much. (CAL MY LOVE JUST ONE CHANCE-)

Cal plays the inexperienced card, but he probably could do it all on his own. He's just slower about it. But Reader doesn't need to know a bout it. CAL HAS THE CUTEST PUPPY DOG EYES I JUST KNOW IT- (Also, he is so rubbing it in their faces. Just because he's a virgin does not mean he doesn't know how to pull the strings.)

Wild and Sage are FOAMING AT THE MOUTH- It's a wonder Cal survives the night actually fhonhfnbf (He does it by sleeping with Reader that night)

Reader gaslighting themg gfofnbf

Sage/Wild: There's no paint on the thigh??

Reader: Yes there is, you guys just forget it all the time :)

HIFBFF TRIPLET THREESOMES ARE ALL MY BRAINROT RN

(Spoiler: Yall remember that Ceres and Aaliyah thing I posted? It's making a comeback soon bc that's my hyperfixation rn)

(DO IT BESTIE I'LL FOLLOW IN A HEARTBEAT NFOBFF)

The reader only gets the armor from the triplets wanting to see how far they can take it odlbfbfgf They all get their own paintbrushes at some point govngfong