#“DO not go on that mission Charlie WILL die for NO fucking reason. DO NOT.”

[cup01d]

I script I remember the plot because its funny. I'm tweaking out trying to prevent people from dying and hinting at relationships. they all think I'm insane though

scripting that i forget the plot is kind of a risky move bc what if i go insane thinking percy died in botl when he goes missing for two weeks

[saintsenara]

more unhinged plz one for every weasley

Ginny/Lucius

Ron/Dumbledore

Fred/Voldemort

George/Trelawney

Percy/Narcissa

Charlie/Wormtail

Bill/Severus

Arthur/Sirius

Molly/Myrtle

cheers anon, glad to see you've still not turned from your evil.

lucius malfoy/ginny weasley

i think if you're going to do the classic independent!harry "ginny is a gold-digging slut" nonsense, you ought to commit to it properly and have her trying to wheedle her way into the will of a rich older man who canonically tried to kill her. revenge is a dish best served while looking fabulous in diamonds he paid for.

albus dumbledore/ron weasley

i am on the record as a great supporter of the early 2000s fan-theory that ron is time-travelling dumbledore. so i back this because fucking yourself is what any reasonable person would do if they found themselves thrown decades into the past.

lord voldemort/fred weasley

they die reasonably close together, and i'd put cash on fred not wanting to go on while george still lives, so why shouldn't they hook up to pass the time in purgatory?

sybill trelawney/george weasley

people who have suffered traumatic losses are often vulnerable to charlatans, with "psychics" very prominent among them. why shouldn't george believe desperately that she's genuinely receiving messages from fred from the beyond?

narcissa malfoy/percy weasley

i absolutely believe that the ministry would demand the malfoys catalogued their estate so that it could be sold off for reparations after the war, and i also believe that percy is exactly the sort of jobsworth [who owes kingsley a lot for not having him sent to prison for his collusion with the regime] who'd end up being sent to do this. being forced to spend hours on end shut in a room with a sexy older woman who keeps disputing your figures? hot.

charlie weasley/wormtail

i have an enormous amount of respect for the common headcanon that charlie is on the ace spectrum, but that doesn't stop me also having time for the idea that he might prefer the company of dragons in the salacious sense instead...

rats aren't giant lizards, obviously. but any port in a storm...

severus snape/bill weasley

you just know they were screaming in each other's face at any and all order meetings, and that they could probably have achieved the same effect by just banging on the kitchen table.

sirius black/arthur weasley

i genuinely back this one. i know that fandom likes to focus on the tension between molly and sirius in order of the phoenix, but it's clear in canon that the older weasleys assume an enormous amount of responsibility for sirius' wellbeing during the year he's trapped in grimmauld place. i think you can very easily picture all sorts of circumstances in which arthur and sirius end up discussing the mission they've found themselves on together - especially ones which would lead to sirius' canonical belief that arthur is a brave and principled man who understands that "there are things worth dying for" - before a romantically-roaring fire...

myrtle warren/molly weasley

flopping. myrtle would call her roast chicken dry.

[nevermindirah]

part 3, "Kid": How every character in The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood relates to the main character, Nile Freeman

Stop writing people calling Nile "kid" 2k4ever

Andy calls Nile a baby one time, minutes after first dreaming of her. Andy then calls Nile "kid" three times, all to her face, all in the first few hours of their acquaintance. Booker calls Nile "kid" once, on the porch outside the bar. That's it. The context for these lines is super interesting, and calling Nile "kid" in fic doesn’t make any sense without the original context.

When Andy, Joe, Nicky, and Booker wake up from first dreaming of Nile, Joe and Nicky immediately start sharing facts they noticed, and Joe starts sketching. Booker is in his feelings but he contributes a few things to the saying-facts-out-loud rally.

Andy is 100% in her feelings. She starts the conversation with "No, not another one." Then once the boys have gathered a bunch of facts and Booker says "I felt her die" Andy comes in with this:

Andy: [stares at nothing straight ahead, voice is remote, detached.] She’s a Marine. [Joe and Nicky look up together.] Combat. Or near combat duty. Afghanistan. [Shakes her head slowly, wearily.] It’s been over two hundred years. [Whispers, anguished, buries head in hands.] Why now?

Got it. Joe and Nicky are the competent soldiers, Booker is the semi-competent drunk, Andy is the boss. Andy is the fucking depressed boss. It's in this context that Andy, having analyzed the information her direct reports just gave her, made the determination that Nile is a Marine in Afghanistan, and let her team have a brief back-and-forth about whether to change their plan to go retrieve the new one before announcing the decision that is ultimately hers to make, refers to Nile as a baby.

Andy: Get to France. Use the Charlie safe house. I’ll meet you there. [Joe examines his sketch, blows pencil-dust off it. She stares at Booker.] Find Copley. [Joe tears out the page and hands her the sketch. Andy stares at it.] Jesus. She’s just a baby.

Andy's metric fuckton of I AM BEYOND DONE just leaps off the page/screen. Keep that existential exhaustion in mind as we see her early interactions with Nile.

Nile: [stands, panting, regards Andy suspiciously.] Who are you? Andy: I lead a group of immortals. An army, I guess. Soldiers. Fighters like you. [softer tone.] Look... [Andy steps toward her; Nile steps back.] You’ve got questions, kid. I get it. [tiny smile, small nod.] You want answers? Get back in the car.

Andy: [lightly] And I was the one who cut your throat. Right? [stares at Nile, who stares back, then looks away; she has no answer for that.] Listen, kid. You already believe in... [points upward, follows it with her eyes.] You should just keep following that illogic. [Pulls her jacket over her shoulders as a blanket, turns on her right side, back to Nile, lies on the pile of duffel-bags like a reclining chair.] You’re already on board with the supernatural. [Speaks with eyes already closed; it makes no difference to her.] If I were you, I’d get some sleep.

[Nile stands slowly, glaring at Andy, sets her body as she prepares to continue the fight.] Andy: You really want to do this, kid? [Andy’s eyes are bright, her expression relaxed but anticipating; she looks like she thinks this will be fun.]

Andy is looking at this retrieval mission as something that must be done, but quickly and with as little disruption as possible to her team's ongoing mission to find Copley and protect themselves from exposure. And then here comes Nile Freeman, competent as hell, taking no shit, questioning everything, stabbing her and escaping a moving vehicle and just fucking fighting her at every turn.

"Jfc kid will you just get in the goddamn car" feels pretty reasonable in that context, yeah? At least from Andy's perspective. From Nile's, you're fucking right you're gonna ask some goddamn questions before getting on a drug-smuggling plane with someone who just shot you in the head.

It's worth noting that Andy doesn't precisely say "jfc kid will you just get in the goddamn car" — she says "I need you to get back in the car please." She says "can you please not do that again" when Nile fucking stabs her. She's exhausted and frustrated and just trying to get through this and back to her main mission, and from what we see of her so far she's generally gruff as a person, but she's not an asshole, and she’s really showing Nile some respect here, all things considered. I mean, imagine being this polite when someone stabs you. This is a tired adult trying to get another tired adult on board with a sensible plan.

Andy: Argh! [Andy grabs Nile’s knife hand.] Fuck! [throws it violently aside, forcing Nile back a step. With the knife still in her, Andy sighs deeply and looks at Nile. Nile recovers her balance and stares that Andy is hardly reacting to having a knife in her.] Can you please [grabs the knife with left hand, yanks it out] not do that again? [throws the knife on the ground.]

Once they fight on the plane, Andy never calls her kid again. Andy is already starting to regain some of the energy her long life has worn away from her after just 10 minutes on screen with Nile. Andy went into this retrieval determined to be someone Nile can rely on, and that still stands, but by the time they’re in France she’s realizing she’ll come to be able to rely on Nile too. She introduces her to the boys as Nile and that's that.

The only other time we hear the word "kid" in the entire movie is near the end, outside the bar with Booker.

Nile: Yeah. [takes a breath.] Talked to Copley. Said he could fix it. Make it look like I was killed in action. [nods gently to herself] My family will mourn, but, uh... [tiny shrug, head-shake.] ...they’ll be able to move on. It’s just like what we did with my dad. [sighs. Turns to look out over the water. Voice wavers.] I just really want to hear my mom’s voice one more time. Booker: [looks down, pauses, turns to lean next to Nile.] You’re a good kid, Nile. [looks at her, speaks earnestly.] You’re gonna be great for the team.

Sébastien le Livre, whose greatest tragedy is that his children disbelieved and rejected his love for them, would be very moved by Nile's concern and love for her mother. "You're a good kid, Nile," in the sense that she's honoring her parent in a way he, a bereaved parent, appreciates.

There's also the fun shippy reading that he's preemptively friend-zoning her because there's about to be several lifetimes between him and spending any more time with this woman he was having an obvious "oh no she's hot" reaction to over dinner in Goussainville, but I, a feral BoN shipper, like the first reading even better.

But the point is, calling Nile "kid" is an element of the movie that says a lot about the characters using that word. When it gets repeated in fanfiction, it says something about the author.

If you're reading this and reflecting "oh shit I wrote the team calling Nile kid without thinking about it at all beneath the surface" I have a really cool suggestion for you: just edit it. Or at least consider not doing it again. We all make mistakes. We all run with things that we pick up in canon or see in other people's fic that seem funny and harmless, and once we think about those things more deeply we might find that actually it's kinda fucked up, or not what canon was trying to say, or fine on the surface but not fine if it becomes The One True Fanon. Having characters who are either white, men, or both call the adult protagonist who's a young Black woman "kid" all the time carries a weight to it. Please let's let that weight fall off Nile's fully-grown shoulders.

Next up, orders, suggestions, assistance, and other flavors of mentoring Nile and/or telling her what to do. Credit and appreciation to StarWatcher for transcribing the movie here on AO3, all my line quotes are pulled from there.

[sagamemes]

quotes from tabletop games, part i.   thank you to whomever decided in the first game i was in to start collecting quotes being said during the table—here’s a sentence meme featuring 100 sentences that have been said out loud or written down during various tabletop roleplaying games i’ve acted as a game master for, or in conversations surrounding it. sentences edited to fit written roleplay better. it’s a mixed bag, y’all. tw:  implied sexual content and jokes, death and violence mentions.

❝  holy shit, /i'm/ the professional in this situation.  ❞

❝  i don't think there's a lot of water in her birth chart.  ❞

❝  you know how much I love goading you into bad decisions.  ❞

❝  [i/you] did faceplant.  ❞

❝  i hope you know this is all your fault, [name].  ❞

❝  wouldn't it be nice if you could bite it back?  ❞

❝  [person] could've bonked the knob to death.  ❞

❝  a little bit of making out in the cupboard is not a security threat.  ❞

❝  no-one else can see it, but [person] is definitely being haunted by an ex-girlfriend.  ❞

❝  she's a new yorker, leave her alone  ❞

❝  we've all known each other for about four hours and we're making goblins of ourselves.  ❞

❝  you’re laughing!  [name] is dead and you’re laughing!  ❞

❝  god, what a weird little man!  ❞

❝  i don't speak [fandom/media].  ❞

❝  because, of course, you don't immediately run out of blood in your head—  ❞

❝  technically shoes are skin without feet.  ❞

❝  if it helps, she does have a youtube channel.  ❞

❝  should we even play d&d, maybe we just do therapy instead.  ❞

❝  oh great, what can i do with a dead body?  ❞

❝  the man with no face is just a raccoon.  ❞

❝  or whatever the victorian equivalent of reaching into the fridge and grabbing a block of cheese.  ❞

❝  i do not acknowledge more men than i need to.  ❞

❝  he footless because he got paws.  ❞

❝  [i am/they are] intrigued by the bundle of scarves.  ❞

❝  i thought she landed on her wrists?  ❞

❝  i'm glad i didn't faceplant, at least.  ❞

❝  it is not resistant to bonk damage.  ❞

❝  my interpersonal skills are shit!  ❞

❝  is he made of bees?  ❞

❝  oh well, she's got one of those as well.  ❞

❝  —which is objectively the wrong way to eat books.  ❞

❝  no teeth, no feet. simply vibes.  ❞

❝  we're going to have to listen to soft ballet while we fight this thing.  ❞

❝  that was my third frowny face.  ❞

❝  puff puff pass but instead of getting high you have a coherent thought  ❞

❝  oh yeah, i killed your neighbour, didn't i?  ❞

❝  we're city kids, we know what traffic is.  ❞

❝  give me a gay vibe check.  ❞

❝  THE QUEEN IS MICE.  ❞

❝  doesn't matter which of us die because i'll see you all again on hell.  ❞

❝  you know how when a person's decapitated—  ❞

❝  i don't even have my eyebrows on.  ❞

❝  we will create chaos.  ❞

❝  i heard g-string.  ❞

❝  i have a masters degree in library science and i googled  ‘ feetless man ’ !  ❞

❝  am sad. want ham.  ❞

❝  you are the most powerful person in the room with that cheese tray.  ❞

❝  you'll wake up to something you don't wanna see  ❞

❝  buff mice.  ❞

❝  —but it would've been a sexy thing to do.  ❞

❝  THE GAME'S OVER! THE GAME'S OVER! WHY ARE YOU STILL DOING THIS TO ME?  ❞

❝  it’s mice mentality.  ❞

❝  i know the implication was not that we were little beans but shh...  ❞

❝  it's your turn!  ❞

❝  charlie's angels, more like [name]'s headaches  ❞

❝  it's me, the bitch who failed  ❞

❝  i'm really good at that! ... no, i'm not.  ❞

❝  i love this absolutely doomed party.  ❞

❝  unless someone wants to try to overpower two peasants.  ❞

❝  we don't make good leather.  ❞

❝  you could definitely be mistaken for a respectable person now.  ❞

❝  unfortunately, my alibi is dead  ❞

❝  you would not think that english was my first, and frankly my only, language.  ❞

❝  what the fuck happened to my music?  ❞

❝  [name], that's gay behaviour.  ❞

❝  i truly just want u to imagine putting a hand on a titty and feeling a sack of dust through the skin.  ❞

❝  we've conspiracy theory'd this ghost and now it's a feral raccoon.  ❞

❝  does the number of heads you have factor into how easy you are to hit?  ❞

❝  i wanna do something weird.  ❞

❝  are you trying to reason with a drugged cat?  ❞

❝  what die do i roll? the one with numbers?  ❞

❝  i'd avoid plants if i were you.  ❞

❝  i want to be the burger king of a ruined world.  ❞

❝  just because i can be charming doesn't mean i will initiate conversation.  ❞

❝  that scream didn't have an american accent.  ❞

❝  i guess he was just two horses in a trench coat in the end  ❞

❝  make meth, i dare you!  ❞

❝  holy shit, you read french?!  ❞

❝  i've already put down two frowny faces on my notes.  ❞

❝  [person/animal] doesn't have good stamina, actually.  ❞

❝  we've established that the bees are trustworthy, [name]!  ❞

❝  i can't find the fucking d!  ❞

❝  frostbite'll do that to you too. you're not so special.  ❞

❝  we laugh in the face of a vengeful god  ❞

❝  sorry, but for the sake of the mission, i gotta drown everyone.  ❞

❝  i don't know anything about... men.  ❞

❝  i didn't consider all the emotional implications!  ❞

❝  it's a little known fact, but the h in  ‘ goth ’  stands for hrt.  ❞

❝  thank you for giving me an opportunity to murder you.  ❞

❝  don't worry, i'm a very gentle dom  ❞

❝  i'm gonna stay riding it, then.  ❞

❝  just two dudes who may or may not have done a murder  ❞

❝  you can't even count on [name] for numbers.  ❞

❝  'twas the night before christmas and all through the house not a person was stirring, because they were all dead.  ❞

❝  how is that rat bastard looking?  ❞

❝  maybe [name], because he has rights  ❞

❝  maybe [name], because he has no brain  ❞

❝  i'm cruel but i'm not an asshole.  ❞

❝  we're just two cartoon dogs vibing in the fire.  ❞

❝  in the spanish dub, [person a] and [person b] kissed before [person a] left  ❞

[bakugoushotwife]

here’s a list of other wasted plotlines/themes that gege literally threw in the trash:

— megumi’s “full potential” that gojo pushed him to work on in season one. i mean overall he really had no character development. he ended the same as he began. the only thing he changed was accepting yuuji as his person to live for.

— am i high or didn’t kenajaku meet with other countries?? like. what was that about???

— yuuji….the main character….doesn’t have a domain expansion name. are we serious.

— why are we fuckin spending time on these wastes of air culling games players when we could be…exploring the uh. trauma the students we care about went through?? maybe…had a gojo funeral or any time spent talking about him?? like i find it nearly impossible to believe that yuuta or yuuji just. don’t say anything about gojo. megumi…maki, even fucking todo for christ sakes.

— i am so mad about the nobara comeback PLEASE tell me why he brought her back to do absolutely nothing. i’ll tell ya. shock value. once again—i’m happy she’s back, but she could have returned and caused a lot of damage to sukuna alongside yuuji.

— no sukuna backstory is atrocious. and for those of you that are gege meat riders i do not care. i do not care. since when have you seen a villain with no backstory. go on. work on that. because it’s incredible to me that we have the potential of a really sad and angry special sorcerer child growing up completely rejected and unaccepted turning into the strongest man that’s ever lived. there’s a lot to explore and it doesn’t have to change his core spirit of fighting for the love of the game. but his hatred for yuuji is so confusing at times because he praises everyone else and yuuji specifically just represents something he never was, i suppose with his loving personality and popular nature. but still like that’s his own bloodline essentially and would be cool to understand more about it and WHY kenjaku picked the reincarnation of his twin brother to create yuuji. like what was the reason.

— i feel clearly that the yuuji sukuna fight ended way too quickly. they finally were alone and it could have been the perfect time to play into those elements listed above.

— and finally, probably my biggest one, no reason to believe the cycle is broken. they’re still going on missions like nothing ever happened. so gojo’s dreams that he does mention completely go to waste here and he truly did die, as a weapon for jujutsu society with the hope he would cause this change to come, for nothing. there is no change. hell. there’s a SUKUNA FINGER at the end basically pulling an AOT and TELLING us its all for nothing. he could reincarnate again. and if shit gets sweet for sorcerers after this and the next generation and somehow he comes back and they’ve gotten soft……good luck charlie. trauma affected them none??? choso—yuuji’s brother and the only family he had left died and he’s barely mentioned. they aren’t tired of fighting? none of them want a break? like PLEASE!!! megumi was SUKUNA!! NOBARA DIED!! GOJO DIED YUUJI SAW IT ALL AND NO ONE IS UPSET????

in my opinion, gojo’s storyline has been handled so so poorly i can’t help but think it’s intentional. it is not bad writing to kill a character—even a beloved character. i know most people will dismiss my criticisms because gojo is so beloved to me and so many others. i’ve said before that i don’t mind if he died. does it hurt? of course, and i would still cry and be sad about it. but there is a beautiful way to do it. with respect and honor for his legacy—for what he has done for your manga, the characters in it, and audiences worldwide. but no…gege chose the path of horror and disrespect. at certain points i’d say to myself, well. this is a dark manga. but essentially gojo is the only character that receives this treatment. since the beginning—since suguru left him, he’s been wondering if he mattered because he was a person, or if he only mattered because he was powerful and useable. we certainly fucking answered that question. he is a weapon and nobody ever cared about him at all!!!

and we knew he was being used—he knew he was being used, but he is selfless. so he did it for his kids. for megumi and yuuji and yuuta—he wanted them to be safe. in these flashbacks it’s exceedingly clear that he knew he would die. again—that’s not my issue. gojo dying to sukuna makes plenty of sense and it would hurt to leave it there. but to give us an afterlife scene where he’s presented a choice—north and south—that concept lead nowhere, that’s truly fucked up. to leave all the subtle clues and hints for no reason but to keep people reading and theorizing his return is fucked up. to continue to use his imagery to promote your manga when you know he’s not even honored in your manga is fucked up. we don’t get a funeral or a grave for him. no one’s spoken about him in chapters despite him fighting for hours against sukuna and damaging him so much that yuuji could win, nothing. yuuta wearing him like a costume and no one is horrified about it. i thought his students WERE different. they weren’t jujutsu society yet. that’s why gojo was their teacher—shaping them into better human beings. how am i supposed to trust in their future when it seems they’re just as cold and heartless as everyone before them? no one has honored gojo in any way since the moment he died. and they’ve forgotten about him. he spent his entire life fighting and no one can even say thank you. gege intentionally used gojo to promote the end of his manga because he knows that gojo fans make up at least half of his fanbase so had we stopped reading when he died, he would have lost a lot of traction. he baited us intentionally, cruelly, and something that transcends storytelling. i’ve truly never seen a mangaka have this sort of vitriol for one of their characters and the people that love him.

we spent the entire last chapter talking about some random fucking mission when we have several unanswered questions and concerns. i thought gege said he wanted this ending to be shocking and something you didn’t see in shonen? tying everything up neatly where no one has any trauma or grief for what they’ve experienced, everyone comes back to life except the one character you hate specifically and choso, defying your own power structures and having everyone laughing into the sunset is exactly how shonen ends so what in the fuck is he talking about??

let me disclaim, this is not megumi hate at all. i love him very much and i am so happy he’s back with the group but like. he shouldn’t be able to even walk. he tanked unlimited void for over 6 minutes whenever that length caused irreversible damage to sukuna himself. not to mention the countless black flashes. so what the fuck? he doesn’t mention gojo at all?? the first time he laughs in this manga is after he reads a note written by his dead fucking caretaker about his dead fucking father? like i don’t believe. random open ended kenjaku/suguru mention just to piss me off, an absolutely no mention of gojos sacrifice or how they’ll miss him. i’m sick to my stomach. gege defiled his memory both in the story and outside of it. wow.

P.S. SUKUNA CARED MORE ABOUT GOJO THAN ANYONE ELSE (SUGURU IS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS I MEAN HIS STUDENTS AND SOCIETY)

[chironshorseass]

idk if you’re still taking prompts but 7 angst for percabeth after BoTL but before tlo, thank you so much!!

idk what this is, but hopefully, it’s not too horrible bc I can’t bring myself to read it again lol.

“You should’ve said that yesterday.”

tw: blood

read on ao3

Plans don’t always go well. Annabeth should know; she’s a daughter of Athena. But one holds on to hope like it’s the last thing they have, even when accidents happen.

It was a frequent thing nowadays, for demigods to leave on missions as a desperate attempt to thwart off the titan forces. Annabeth understood the risks.

Percy did too, but he’d insisted that it was fine, that he needed to go.

He’d left with some Hephaestus and Hermes kids, intending to raid one of Kronos’ troops that had camped close to New York.

They hadn’t counted on the empousai, though. And because of this, most of the boys—including Percy—had nearly died.

But what else was new?

The thing was that...he didn't have to go. But he and Beckendorf had grown closer over the past year, so nothing could stop him from tagging along with the son of Hephaestus and the rest of the group. Maybe because he also felt bad that he’d missed out on most of the missions; he’d been absent for so long, lost in the streets of New York City.

Whatever the stupid reason was, he’d refused to listen to Annabeth, disappearing into the horizon with Blackjack and the rest of the pegasi.

He’ll survive, she’d told herself. If he really was the child of the prophecy, then…

This mission wouldn’t be the last thing he did. Or his last day on Earth. That title would likely belong to his birthday.

Gods, he’s going to die anyway.

But for now, he wouldn’t, at least not according to what she’d heard.

Thanatos would bide his time, hooded and standing at the doors between life and death, not yet ready to welcome Percy with his chilled breath.

Soon, but not today.

Still, it wasn’t like she’d been worried sick and then nearly threw up her lunch once the crew had arrived, a few yards away from the infirmary, bloodstained and battle-torn.

By all the extra load on the pegasi that she could make out from the distance, she supposed that at least they’d been successful.

Percy, however, was leaking blood down his neck, furtively trying to clamp it down with a bandana.

Soon, but not today.

He leaned against Beckendorf, his eyes baring clouds, fogged and lost. The son of Hephaestus helped him off of Blackjack, but still, he would’ve crumpled to the ground had it not been for Annabeth running to him like a madwoman. The grass crunched behind her; the others were right on her heels.

“What happened?” she cried, grabbing hold of Percy’s shoulders as his head slumped against her chest. She staggered back from his sudden weight, then righted herself.

“Hey, ‘Beth,” Percy said weakly, the words jumbling together against his lips and her shirt.

She looked at Beckendorf helplessly.

“Empousai,” he gasped, then made a hissing sound, pressing a hand to his back. It came back crimson red.

“You’re hurt!” she said as if it weren’t obvious.

Other demigods, Apollo kids mostly, rushed past her with medical supplies. But Will stopped next to them, breathing hard. He handed out ambrosia to Beckendorf and Annabeth’s waiting hands.

His eyes blazed, focused on something past her head. He waved frantically at someone, signaling them to come, and quickly. She whirled around and caught sight of Chiron trotting toward them.

“I’ll be back,” he breathed, giving them a nod as though they’d argued with him against it. He retreated a few steps, legs reacting to sudden howls of pain that echoed further back. “Just, just wait here. I’ll just…”

He dashed away, lost in the mass of pegasi and bodies that moved in all directions, shouting. In the chaos, Will was their only help at organizing it all—but she’d still tasted bile in her throat, not quite used to the way he ignored Percy and his mortal wound to the neck.

In a swift, mastered movement, Annabeth had made him chew on the Ambrosia. She’d been about to say something else—some words of encouragement—when a blur of curly brown hair nearly tripped her and Percy over. She readjusted him in her arms; Percy mumbled something incomprehensible, making her heart tighten.

“Charlie!” Silena called, flinging herself into Beckendorf’s arms.

He grunted in response but smiled through his obvious pain.

“Hey, baby,” he said.

She kissed him, but only for a second because Beckendorf had already pulled away faster than her sudden arrival.

Silena scrunched up her eyebrows. “What’s wrong?”

His concerned gaze leached into Percy, whom Annabeth could barely hold now.

Has he always been this heavy?

She followed her boyfriend’s line of vision and saw her friend standing in front of her for the first time. Her face morphed into shock, eyes widening. In a flash, Silena was there, hauling one of Percy’s arms over her shoulder. He was no longer conscious.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, the words tumbling into the pool that was now Annabeth’s fevered heart. “I didn’t...”

Annabeth could only shake her head. She had to get Percy some actual help. She pressed the cloth harder into his neck. It had to be the fucking neck.

“Will!” she shouted, voice hoarse. “Chiron!”

Panting, Beckendorf closed the distance, limping over to Annabeth. “I’m going to help the others. We weren’t so lucky on our mission, and...” He glanced somewhere past them. “Chiron’s coming our way. We have to—”

Silena inhaled sharply. “You’re bleeding, too? Why didn’t—”

“No time, ‘Lena.”

In an instant, Chiron was there, extending his arms out.

“Give him to me.” His voice was firm and urgent.

After all, the neck was a highly vulnerable place. A slit to the throat could end someone’s life in a matter of seconds. Percy was a demigod, and likely the cut hadn’t been too deep, or else he’d be dead by now. But still, she didn't know how much longer he could hold up.

Already she’d felt the tell-tale warmth of blood trickling into her skin, already she’d envisioned the life draining out of him. The sand of an hourglass raining, spilling down to the bottom.

;

They’d told her that he’d lost too much blood, that the claw wound had just barely hit an artery. But above all else, he was lucky. He’d survive.

She’d been there, hands washed clean from the rusted blood, sitting on his bedside in the infirmary and watching him sleep while her mind was wide awake. Will came and went, wrapping bandages and giving him fresh doses of ambrosia; Chiron did, too—as if none of this was his fault and he could pretend to care for injured demigods.

But she stayed. Stayed and watched.

Annabeth had forgotten how long she’d been there, staring at the blank walls, eyes unfocused. Will had poked his head inside for the final time and insisted for her to get some sleep; it was late. She’d shaken her head and refused.

Her eyes closed for a second, though it must’ve been longer than that, because, when she opened them again, golden light had already streamed through the window. It cast delicate shadows across the room. In her daze, she hadn’t realized that someone was calling her name, light as a butterfly.

Percy.

“Annabeth,” he repeated.

She blinked the sleep away to find a pair of green eyes watching her.

Though his hair was twisted and knotted, and his complexion was a worrying shade lighter, Annabeth thought that she’d never seen a more inviting sight.

“You asshole!” she gasped, lunging forwards with desperate fingers, hugging Percy tighter than she’d ever had in her life.

After a while, his head dropped back to the pillow to get a better look at her.

“Hey.” He grinned lazily.

There was a sweet wonder to his face—like he couldn’t believe she was here, waiting for him to wake up.

But her mind flashed to when his heartbeat had weakened, when scarlet red covered her shaking hands and she’d seen him slump into Chiron as their teacher dropped him here, in the infirmary.

“D’you have any idea how fucking worried I was?”

His brows knit in confusion. “What do you…” A hand flew to his neck, to his bandages. “Oh. That.”

“Yeah.” Her voice felt like rough sandpaper. “That.”

Percy winced. “Okay, okay. I can explain; that demon came out of nowhere, right? And I slashed and shit, but she still got me, and—”

“You could’ve died, Percy. You get that?”

“I know, I know! But I didn’t!”

She took a rattling breath and looked away. She suddenly felt faint; her lungs didn’t seem to gather enough oxygen. Everything was too overwhelming, too big and small all at the same time.

She was dimly aware of Percy saying something. Then, she felt the warmth of her hand in his. It helped bring her back, but barely.

“Hey. Hey, look at me, Annabeth. Look at me.” Reluctantly, she did as he said. “Breathe with me. C'mon—in two three four, out two three four...”

Annabeth didn’t know how long they stayed that way, anchored to the surety of Percy’s grip on her hand and breathing along to his rhythm, until she’d found a way back to her bearings.

“You’re okay. I’m okay,” he said, repeatedly.

She nodded.

“Talk to me.”

Here he was, the boy who had nearly died, consoling the girl who’d watched the whole thing.

She nodded again, and this time, she closed her eyes, taking in some of this new peace of mind Percy had offered.

He was safe, and they were alright.

Finally, she exhaled.

“How’re you feeling?” She bit her lip, remembering something, and then muttered, “Sorry. Didn’t really ask you that first.”

“S’okay.” Now that she noticed him, truly noticed him, she could tell how tired he was. “I’m fine. Just feel like mush.”

“Your neck doesn’t hurt? Will gave you some morphine.”

“Yeah, no. Everything’s kinda numb, I guess. Doesn’t hurt or anything.”

“You lost a lot of blood.”

“Hmm. Probably why I feel like mush.”

She felt a lump forming in her throat. Not for the first time that day.

“It wasn’t—Gods, Perce,” she murmured, not meeting his eyes.  “If you’d only seen it…”

“I know. I should’ve listened to you.”

“You should’ve said that yesterday.”

Annabeth didn’t realize that she was crying until Percy softly flicked his thumb across her cheek. He reluctantly moved it down to her lips, swiping at the tears that had already pooled there.

It wasn’t really something she planned to do, and in any other case would’ve embarrassed her, but she found herself resting her forehead against his. Maybe to steady herself. Maybe to feel his presence more, a spare hand combing through his locks.

She wasn’t so sure.

But still, she let herself close her eyes, enjoying this moment of quiet. Percy did too, sighing softly, rubbing her back idly.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, when they separated. “M’here.”

Her breath caught in her throat, just by how tender his touch had been, taking care of her when he was the injured one. How close they were at that moment. How her tears tasted like that time she’d kissed him, all salt and sweat and fervor.

Now, she was able to see the little flecks of blue in his irises, drink in all of his details like she was dying of thirst. They were so close that she was able to feel exactly when his breath hitched like hers had done just milliseconds before, how it smelled like medicine and chocolate cookies all in one.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said, not taking his gaze from her. “I didn’t listen to you.”

At least he acknowledged it. Again.

“No. You didn’t.”

His thumb still lingered on her face, a ray of sunlight that she greedily took only for herself, leaning into him. It ghosted around her skin, that trailing touch of his. And despite its warmth, it sent shivers down her spine.

His eyes never left hers. Roving, feeling down to her very soul.

He’d always been the one to break her walls, destroy the dam she’d carefully built for as long as she could remember. Poseidon wasn’t his father for nothing.

And as he grasped a stray curl that fell across her left eye, tucking it ever so gently behind her ear, she felt that water roaring all over her mind. The flood happened too fast, consuming every last restraint and denial that crossed its path.

Annabeth didn’t catch it until she risked a glance to his lips.

Gods, he’s so close. Too close.

In the blink of an eye, she was leaning in, intoxicated by everything about him. Percy caught the back of her jaw with his hand, guiding her closer.

Their breaths mingled together.

Her lips parted. Closer…

“Hey, how’s—oh shit, sorry!”

She repelled from him, electrified, and whipped her head to the screeching of the curtain rod.

Cheeks flushed, Will yanked at the curtains, closing them once again.

“Wait!” Annabeth glanced at Percy, whose eyes were wide. “Will, this isn’t—”

The latter hollered from the other side, “I can come later! To, um, change bandages! Be good!”

So close.

She wanted to slap herself.

No.

This wasn’t right. For a second, she’d forgotten what was at stake. Let herself be swept away.

Have you ever considered that he’s going to die?

He’ll leave you just like everyone else.

This was dangerous, letting herself taste what wasn’t meant to be.

“I—I’m sorry,” she gasped, standing up, an unknown force pushing her back.

Percy blinked, slower than usual. Probably from all the ambrosia and nectar and mortal medicine.

“Annabeth—”

He reached for her, but she was already backing away into the wall, stumbling over her wooden chair.

“No, I shouldn’t have…” She felt herself blush. “I don’t know, I...I should go.”

She scrambled towards the curtains, ignoring Percy’s expression awashed in hurt and shock.

Brushing past his bedside, he grabbed her arm.

“Please,” he begged, voice barely above a whisper. “Please stay.”

Blinking away her tears, Annabeth forced herself to look at him.

If I stay, you’ll leave me first.

But she didn’t say that, only shook her head and watched as those beautiful eyes of his creased around the corners with anguish. A part of her died a little at witnessing this. His was a heart worn on a sleeve that would soon fade away. She pulled her arm away, burned from his grip.

“‘Beth—”

“I’m sorry.” She swallowed, already tugging the curtain aside. “I’ll call Will.”

And she left him there in his injury, allowing it to be.

He didn’t deserve this, she knew. Not when she could enjoy the last moments with him, admitting what was in the open air between them. But they’d be one step into their ruined fate if that ever happened. If she didn’t stop.

Because she was like Tantalus, that lone fruit forever out of her reach.

He didn’t deserve this, but she didn’t deserve to have him, either.

[itswildwinters]

Hello lovelies and welcome to my October 2020 fic recs. These are the fics that I read these last few months. The main pairing is Louis Tomlinson/Harry Styles.

This is also an appreciation post to all writers out there. Thank you for contributing so much to the fandom, for making all these incredible pieces of work for us all to read!

I’m wishing you all a happy Halloween in advance!

If you check out any of those incredible fics below, don’t forget to leave kudos and comments to show your appreciation!

Enjoy!

From What I’ve Tasted of Desire by @evilovesyou 

When Louis moves to the small Scottish town of Fortrose to spend some time with his father, he thinks he's come to terms with the fact that the next two years of his life will be rainy and dull. That changes when he meets the ever-elusive Harry Styles in his Biology class and he makes it his goal to find out the big secret surrounding him and his family. Louis unexpectedly finds himself in the eye of a storm of secrecy, age-old myths, friendship and romance.

Twilight AU / Vampires / Werewolves / Slow Burn / Highschool & College AU

eyes off you by @soldouthaz

“Just promise me you’ll do whatever it takes to keep us all safe while we’re in there,” Liam says.

Through the crack in the door, Louis can just barely make out the broad curve of Harry’s back, the slope of his curls as they tumble down all sleep-soft and lazy, and the sharp twist of his arm - all leading down to where he’s got his pointer and middle finger crossed over each other behind his back.

“I promise,” he tells Liam firmly, “I promise.”

--

or; a charlie’s angels inspired fic where louis is the brains, harry is the charm, liam is the muscle, and niall drives the getaway car - and zayn is there, too. sometimes.

Action / Pining / Assassins (kill bad people)

Walls by Travis_Crux 

Following his line of sight, he frowned and shook his head, "What's wrong?"

"Wasn't your timer on your ring finger?" Liam asked, at that the Alpha immediately swapped the tumbler and looked down at his finger which sported a string of tiny blue flowers on the underside of his ring finger.

The two of them looked at one another.

"You could've touched nearly fifty people by the time you grew delirious," Liam advocated, always the voice of reason. "Comrades, nurses, doctors."

Sighing, he turned away and continued drinking the water. Literally, the only fucking thing remaining in the middle of a fucking war.

Or

Harry has his soulmate timer stuck at zero from the beginning of time but suddenly the fates show mercy and a lovely forget-me-not takes the place of his timer. In between finding his soulmate in a war camp and solving the puzzle of the charismatic doctor who is treating him, all he can hope for is to live.

ABO / World War I / Soulmates / Angst / Hurt-Comfort

works like a charm by @falsegoodnight

Ever since Louis joined the team in fifth year, a few facts have become set in stone.

One: Louis is the best chaser in Hogwarts.

Two: Harry is the best beater in Hogwarts.

Three: They do not get along.

So it’s really unfair of Liam to think that forcing them to spend time together as Louis recovers from his injury will make them the best of friends. The last thing Louis would do is get along with that git.

Harry Potter Setting / Porn With Plot / Enemies to Lovers

(quiet like a fight) fingers laced together by @letthemkissyou

It’s a thin hope, frail and as thin as the silver strands of a spider web, desperate in the way Louis keeps clinging onto it even when he’s already expecting and preparing for the worst. Maybe one day, he’ll have a home, a place where he can feel safe and sound, tucked away safely from the world that has the tendency to treat him horribly and then even worse, that maybe there will be someone in his life who cares for him, even if in the smallest of ways, and does not just use him for whatever they tend to need at the moment.

Or, the one where Harry is gifted a hybrid and it's a whole new world for the both of them.

Hybrid Louis / Past Abuse / Fluff / Angst 

We’ll Cast Some Light (You’ll Be Alright) by fondleeds 

There’s tense silence, the whole room completely hushed. The other teams on surrounding tables look between each other. Then, Louis pushes himself away from the table noisily, chair scraping. His face is angered and crumpled, red at the ears. The door slams behind him as he rushes out. The surrounding teams look at Harry simultaneously.

“God, Simon is going to kill us if we don’t die on this mission first,” Niall moans into his hands.

-

There’s a standard procedure for this. Scan, track, kill. But with a solar eclipse and a Greater Demon with unfinished business looming, the path to keeping England safe from harm becomes complicated and shadowed by mystery and secrets. For Harry and his team, times have never been harder, especially when a few old friends turned foes show up. Harry is left with just over forty days to overcome the hurdle of tension between them and reconcile their past, and figure out just what Louis is hiding from him before it’s too late.

Demons / Enemies to Lovers / Violence / Angst / Fluff / Demon Hunters / Smut

Three Days in February by @mercurial-madhouse

“We have to get out of here, outside,” Harry whispered, turning his hand in Louis’s grip to hold on and pull them both to their feet. “And how do we fucking do that?” Louis hissed, carefully rising and pulling Harry to his feet before Harry could do it. His gaze darted to the front then back of the arena. “None of the doors are where they’re supposed to be.” “What?” Harry looked around again too, couldn’t see any doors, only knew that they must be there, somewhere. “How do you know?” Confusion slid over Louis's features. “Because we’ve been here before, Haz. It’s the O2.” The show. It must be the first night of their tour. They were too late; they were out of time.

Louis is cursed after a night out with the lads and the five have just three days to figure out what happened and how to break it before Harry and Louis both lose their sanity and maybe something more. Louis can hear everything Harry thinks and Harry isn’t sure he can keep his feelings for Louis a secret from his own mind.

Ridiculous amounts of banter and angst, a lot of Harry and Louis alone together, a healthy dose of OT5 friendship, and one very magical weekend.

Friends to Lovers / Fluff / Angst / Action / Adventure / Magical Realism / Hurt-Comfort / Slow Burn

Soaked In The Blood Of Angels by @crazyupsetter

The boy looks drugged, caught between a man who’s almost twice his size and a girl who looks like she wouldn’t even break a sweat snapping him in half despite her small stature, eyes closed and mouth open as he pants, arching up between them almost as if he’s trying to escape.

Normally, Harry would ignore it and continue on his search for someone to drink from, someone who wouldn’t mind his sharp teeth and rough hands. He’s seen plenty of boys like this one, ones who picked the wrong playmates, and if he stopped to rescue every single one of them he would have died from thirst a long time ago.

This one, though. There’s something about this one, the sheen of his bright blue eyes as he blinks slowly, looks around as though he doesn’t know where he is, the weakness of his hands as he tries to push the girl off of him and make his escape.

Explicit Sexual Content / Vampires / Incubus / Dubious Consent / Blood / Violence

The Compulsion to Find Love by Toomanytears

The most prestigious English third-level institution, Candling University, accepts omega students for the first time and Louis Tomlinson applies with bright eyes and brighter ambitions. There he encounters personal obstacles, traditional mindsets and a beautiful boy who inverts every prejudice Louis has ever known.

ABO / Omega Louis / Alpha Harry / Worldbuilding / Slow Burn / Fluff / Angst

Just a bit of work by missyoutoosweetscheeks

It was quite painfully pathetic, really. Twenty five, stable job, stable flat, stable mind (well, quite), a painfully non-existent love life with an even more painfully intact virginity.

Marcel didn't think his life was going to get better with his painfully aparent sociopathic tendencies to block anyone who showed interest in him.

Until, of course, he became Louis Tomlinson's next prey.

OR

In which Marcel is a virgin, and becomes his office's amorous co-worker's next big conquest.

Top Harry / Bottom Louis / Office Sex / Dubious Consent / Porn Without Plot 

Fuck U Betta by @jacaranda-bloom

There’s something about having Louis like this, exposed and desperate, that makes a primal urge bubble up from deep inside Harry’s chest. Desire mixed with something else, something unquantifiable. It’s the thing that makes them want this, need this. Nothing else will satisfy them or quench their thirst.

OR the one where Harry likes the thrill of the chase, Louis likes to be chased, and everyone gets what they need… in the end.

Porn Without Plot / Light BDSM / Top Harry / Bottom Louis

push you out, pull you back in by @behisoneandonly

Harry grips his head in his hands helplessly, yanking the base of his dark curls and squeezing his eyes shut.

“Fucking hell,” he whispers, knuckles turning white from how hard he’s gripping the strands of his hair.

“Hey, hey,” says the petite stranger in front of him, quickly standing up. “Stop, you’re hurting yourself.”

–

Or Harry hates feeling vulnerable. Louis is set on breaking through his tough facade.

College/University AU / medical student Harry / Fashion student Louis / Strangers to Lovers / Pining / fluff / slight angst / Hut-Comfort / Anger Management

might we be stardust stories by ryanreynolds

"It was easier being at war."

In which werewolves and vampires have been fighting each other for a century, and Harry and Louis' marriage is what's gonna bring peace to the realm. Hopefully.

Werewolves / Vampires / Arranged Marriage / Slow Burn / Falling in Love / Pining / Fantasy

Like Candy In My Veins by littlelouishiccups

“Um…” Harry said slowly after a moment. “Okay. That’s… this is… Let me get this straight.” He lifted up a hand and swallowed. “You told your family that you have a boyfriend… and my name was the first one you thought of?” “Harry Potter was on TV, alright? It wasn’t that much of a stretch.” Louis pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t believe he was explaining himself to Harry fucking Styles. He couldn’t believe he was stooping this low. “Forget it. I’m sorry I even thought about bringing you into this.”

Harry snorted. “What? Did you want me to pretend to be your boyfriend or something?”

(Basically the A/B/O, enemies to lovers, fake relationship, Christmas AU that nobody asked for.)

ABO / Fake-Pretend Relationship

until this blood runs cold by @soldouthaz

In a town as small as Louis’, everybody knows everybody and gossip spreads faster than the wildfires that rage on just outside their backdoors in the sweltering heat of summer. When something happens here everyone knows about it within seconds. Neighbors call neighbors and notes are left on doorsteps, old telephone lines ringing until there isn’t a single person who is left in the unknown.

So it’s definitely hot gossip when a vampire moves in across the street from him, the very same one who’s just become Louis’ boss.

Vampire Harry / Frottage / Blood Drinking

call you mine by @falsegoodnight

“I have a request.”

That’s what Louis Tomlinson says to Harry when he opens the front door a bit too aggressively. The latter feels justified after a round of annoyingly incessant knocking that was much too loud in the drowsy sludge of early Saturday morning.

“Zayn’s asleep,” is Harry’s tired, hoarse reply, irritation prickling at his skin. Less than a minute ago he was in bed, feeling perfectly content sprawled out on the mattress with the chilled air from the fan cool against his bare skin. And now he’s leaning up against the wooden door frame in nothing but his briefs because Zayn’s best mate decided that showing up unannounced at seven in the fucking morning was a brilliant idea.

“I’m not here for him,” says Louis curtly.

-

Or, Louis’ curious about how it feels to be bitten. Harry’s going to need more than just one bite.

Plot What Porn / Vampire Harry / Bottom Louis

your biggest fan by @soldouthaz​

Just like everyone else, Louis has a few habits that he can’t seem to break. Guilty pleasures, rather. His nails are perpetually short because he can’t quit biting them, the bottom of his shoes scuffed from tapping his foot constantly. Sometimes his leg gets a cramp from bouncing it so often underneath his desk. That isn't too bad, he reckons, just some average teenage coping mechanisms.

And also, occasionally, minor instances of theft.

Top Harry / Bottom Louis / Porn What Plot / Nerd Louis / Jock Harry

give me love by @falsegoodnight​ & @soldouthaz​

Despite being an omega, Louis’ always had a blatant dislike of alphas.

-

Or, Louis doesn't feel like a good omega, Harry doesn't remember how to be an alpha, and they figure it out together.

ABO / Alpha Harry / Omega Louis / Bottom Louis / Past Relationship Trauma / Slow Burn / Angst / Fluff

The Stars Look Very Different Today by @kingsofeverything​

For Harry Styles, child genius turned glorified spaceship mechanic, rescuing lost or broken down ships is a fairly common occurrence.

There’s nothing common about his latest mission, the ship, or that ship’s captain.

The last thing he expects to find in a distant galaxy is the one thing he’s been missing on Earth.

Space / Time-Travel / Science Fiction & Fantasy / Enemies to Lovers

The cat is out of the bag by 28sunflowers

Harry somehow gets himself stuck as a black cat on Halloween and needs help from Louis to change back into his human form.

The problem is: Louis doesn’t even know witches exist, much less that Harry is one. And there’s also the fact he thinks Harry is ghosting him after they had sex for the first time.

So the situations isn’t ideal. But it’s okay. Harry will figure something out.

Light angst / Witch Harry / Potions Accident / Fluff and Humour 

[phoebehalliwell]

Piper/Kyle, except it's an AU where Kyle's parents were never killed by demons, so he lived a perfectly normal, happy childhood and grew up to follow their footsteps into teaching and Kyle's a normal, maybe even a little boring archaeology professor who secretly dreams of having his very own Indiana Jones moment - up until the day he opens some dusty old chest and unleashes a demon that tries to kill him, and he barely gets away only to run into this petite brunette woman who proceeds to blow the demon the fuck up, and Kyle's never believed in love at first sight before, but he's pretty sure he can make an exception for Piper

wait omg mentally stable kyle au okay wait i gotta wrap my head around this kyle but not absofuckinlutely insane whatta picture omg. okay. i feel like he’s still gotta have this belief in the supernatural i feel like that’s a large part of the charm in literally any kyle dynamic with the sisters is Witch Who Gets It and Man Who’s Only Got Raw Data. there’s an appeal to that. seeing things from different angles all that. so we can say kyle ever good at puzzles has taken his parents notes and everything he knows and various texts and kinda pieced together okay magic does exist. but in this au he’s a professor and not an fbi agent so he can’t just walk around saying Magic Is Real because um he needs this job. also he’s never seen it. but like. the data does not like. like. like it’s real man like are you kidding me. and we’ll say he has one normal friend because he’s normal in this au and he’s like okay here me out tho magic is real and his friend is like ......okay. because like. it could be, i guess? i’m not gonna fight you on this. and kyle also definitely read a lot as a kid he reads a lot now and he’s always kinda like. like you know wondered what it might be like to be a man of action not someone stuck behind a desk all day seeing the world through books. so when he starts to see markers of the gathering storm,,, well. these are the times that make a man. he can either be a pussy about it and keep living his life through paper and ink, or he can follow his intuition. blah blah blah this leads him to get kidnapped by pirates which like. excuse me??? and kyle’s kinda kicking himself because he Wanted to be like a character in an adventure book and well like bada bing bada boom you get what you ask for. which. all due respect on his part. is smart enough to outwit them and escape. he might have dropped his wallet there tho. but when he goes back the same route wandering through the thick fog, all he finds is a solid wall of rock. so i guess he’s fucked in that regard. whoops. but!! magic is real. so that’s a dub. digs a little bit more into the blackjack cutting lore, maybe finds the x marks the spot on where their main hideout was, road trip to. seattle? i guess? port city that isn’t san francisco but is more reasonable to drive to that like. nola or boston. and lo and behold he finds it and find their documentation of the gathering storm accidentally trips a booby trap and jesus fucking christ pirate skeletons with sword which - respectfully - kyle is holding his own for the most part, not getting immediately worried, but there’s no way that would have lasted had the three skeletons not been blown to pieces. and he looks over and sees three brunettes and the one in the center is like who the hell are you? to which kyle really feels like He should be the one asking that question but after stammering out some kind of response about how he’s a professor and he was just looking for some soil samples something generic archaeological because hey. he doesn’t trust these women. he doesn’t know what side they’re on. and he’s not just gonna sacrifice the information he has on the gathering storm. and it’s obvious they don’t believe him, but they don’t kill him either. instead, the one in the center just says be more careful where you leave your stuff and tosses his wallet back to him.

and later at the manor paige is like we just let him go?? and phoebe’s like yeah how to we know he’s not a demon? he wouldn’t be the first to pose as a mortal in the mortal world (because phoebe went to the university to return kyle’s wallet because like it has is ID in it employee id all that under the guise of like. giving a lecture to some of the student’s there as the bay’s leading advice columnist oh hey is there a kyle brody here yeah haha he’s a friend of a friend anyone seen him no he’s on vacation right now? left real abruptly? and then immediately went into his office and touched every surface trying to get a premonition (au in which phoebe didn’t get her powers stripped) and concluded that he’s just Some Guy. like he like has friends and a nine to five and an apartment. so a guy). but piper’s like we don’t know. but we also don’t know what he’s up to or what his connection to the pirates was, which is why i cast a tracking spell on the wallet. and both phoebe and paige approve and in this au again phoebe didn’t get her powers stripped so in styx feet under it’s her and paige on mission and as paige is the one who cast the protection spell and as paige is also very stubborn and also refuses to let innocents die she is the one who gets to become death. she also has a very compelling relationship with death because like. she watched her parents die. and she’s prue’s replacement. the replacement for the dead girl. also fun paige/prue parallel! meanwhile right Should state in any piper/kyle au we just extend pleo’s divorce era by having him remain an elder and keeping that early s6 vibe. so piper’s definitely like a bit more neurotic than normal because you know things haven’t gone great for her and those pirates were warning about the gathering storm and honestly that better not be something that’s gonna hurt her boys because she really could not bear to lose another family member so she’s doing some digging which begins to imply that kyle knows more that he let on so where is he now? the university? great.

and kyle’s you know minding his own business in his office when the same woman practically kicks down his door and is like alright i’m gonna ask again who the hell are you and this time you better answer me honestly. to which: wow. like wow. she’s. she’s a force to be reckoned with and also kinda immediately gains points in kyle’s book for like a) kinda confronting him about knowing more because he’s pretty good at covering his tracks all that so if he’s been Found Out it’s by someone good and b) she also disintegrated evil pirate skeletons so like. 👍. But. he does not trust her for shit. no. absolutely not. he has no reason to. but piper’s not yielding blasts a hole in the wall near his head like quickly now or next time i won’t miss but kyle’s so fuckin stubborn he’s like 🤐 and piper’s. i mean, she can’t kill an innocent. she doesn’t know if that’s who he is, but she can’t run that risk. and kyle’s not saying shit, so she leaves.

then it’s the guardian angel episode where the charmed ones are there on instruction (though they don’t know what they’re looking for. maybe they were just scrying for information) and kyle’s there on a hunch and piper and kyle see each other and it’s um. mac charlie see each other from across the room reaction image. both like. what the fuck are you doing here? and in this one paige is still the one to get her guardian angel stolen and piper’s immediately on high alert because you know big sister/mom mode activated. but they don’t know what they’re looking for and kyle’s like it’s her guardian angel. and piper once again snaps to him firey look in her eyes but kyle’s really just trying to place nice here so he’s like guardian angels. they’ve been going missing being stolen whatever. he’s got the research on it. and piper doesn’t want to trust him but paige is really in grave danger. so, as the sister with the offensive power, she’s going with kyle, and phoebe has to make sure paige doesn’t like. pull a grams. (which for the record i do not accept prewitched as canon but like the elders definitely killed grams <3)

so blah blah blah piper’s now and kyle’s place which is ten times worse than his office because this is where he does his real work and he’s got all the guardian angel shit up and out and is explaining it to piper and it’s making sense but what catches her eye is something on the gathering storm that kyle left out now they’re talking about that they’re starting to realize they’re on the same side. blah blah blah save paige. next episodes what werewolf episode. skip. then!! idk paige still runs magic school right so she’s in the library and she calls piper and she’s like hey remember when you told me to keep an eye out on the gathering storm? and piper’s like yes yeah what is it? and she’s like well we’re inventorying the library and we have books on them and piper’s like that’s good news ! ? and paige is like yeah but we’re missing one. book five. in this something something series. and piper knows Exactly where that book is because she fucking saw it on kyle’s kitchen counter. so now she’s barging into kyle’s place which is getting to be a common occurrence at this point and kyle kinda wants to complain but this is by far the most interesting his life’s been ever and honestly? he’d be kinda bummed if piper stopped kicking down his door. wait actually scratch that you want my book no fuck you changed my mind. to which piper’s like look we’re looking for the same goal here right so give me the book because i have the rest of the series and this could be the missing puzzle piece and kyle’s like okay fine i’ve read the book cover to cover give me the rest of the series and i’ll get you your answers and piper’s like okay let’s get things straight here i’m the witch you’re some two bit archeology professor so when it comes to the handling of sacred magical tomes i’ll be taking the reigns here and kyle’s like fine then you won’t be taking the book. and piper’s like wanna bet and the next think kyle knows he’s hearing the door slam his book’s gone and he’s hearing tires peel out onto the street and he has no idea how she did it. 

back at the manor piper’s got her reading glasses on an volume one open and god this fucking sucks. so she makes phoebe take a stab at it and she hates reading it too. paige also starts it and is like respectfully no. piper’s the only one who did the reading in high school. this is her turf. but my god she cannot make it through all eight of these fucking books. So. she calls kyle. he has to come to the manor because there’s no way she’s giving him the books and there’s no way she’s letting him in magic school so. hi. welcome to the house. but!! by a contrived plot device!!!! a gnome has been shot in magic school this book was the only thing at the scene and paige wants to investigate further but she can’t just leave it out there so she brings it back to the manor she’s gonna cast some spell to find out if there are already spells on the book how to reverse it she just needs to find the spell first and like. there’s no way in hell paige ever wears an outfit with big enough pockets to keep the book on her. so she leaves it on the table. to which kyle asks how this is relevant to the collection. to which piper says don’t open that!! whoops. see, this is why i said we don’t let two bit archeology professors near magical books! piper/kyle charmed noir..............

[daandyli0n]

alright, i'm gonna assume you know some basics (William Afton = Purple Guy/Child Murderer, Henry = Will's Partner, Charlie = Henry's Daughter And The Puppet Child, and Cassidy = At Least One Of The Golden Freddy/Fredbear Spirits, And Is Also The Vengeful Spirit)

now, this post right here gives more context for this whole au, but it's basically an Everyone Survives au, But With A Twist. i'd read through it first so any of this will make sense.

now. the rambles i wanted to go on is specifically in regards to Sammy Emily's Death

(Samuel Emily, aka Sammy, is Charlie's twin brother who's only mentioned in the books. however, i like to include him 'cause i like him :])

now, in my personal timeline (of which i have my own au for, and is the timeline i base this au off of), the Missing Children's Incident happened in May-June of 1982, around a year prior to the bite of '83. it started with Charlie's death and ended with Cassidy's. this time around, none of the kids die, but they do get injured.

most of the actual plot of this au, and i kid you not, started because Cassidy kicked Afton in the dick so hard that he died (because Springlocks). no joke, that's basically what happened.

it still fucking traumatized the hell out of them!

now, at this point, it's 1985, around three years since The Incident that ended in Afton's death. of course, he ends up possessing Springbonnie (who i've personally renamed O'Hare, for multiple reasons), and we basically get Springtrap WAY earlier. not that anyone really knows about that yet.

after Fredbear's closes down, O'Hare and Fredbear are moved to Freddy's with the main crew.

Sammy, Charlie, and Cassidy are fifteen now. Sammy is interested in robotics, and manages to convince his father to let him work as a technician at Freddy's (place hasn't closed down yet because No Dead Kids). Sammy is working alone one night, and y'know, everything's going well...

..until he realizes that O'Hare is, inexplicably, on and moving around.

long story short, Afton uses some of O'Hare's voicelines to lure Sammy back to the Prize Corner/Puppet's Room, and strangles him to death using string meant to restring the Puppet. Sammy goes on to possess the Puppet (Marionn) instead of Charlie. he was only fifteen.

the next morning, Henry, Charlie, and Cassidy come by to check up on him, and they all find employees gathered around a crime scene: his body next to Marionn's box. Henry and Charlie take this as well as you think they would. Cassidy stays in the main party room where all of the animatronics, feeling just generally...uncomfortable.

one thing that's important to note at this point: Cassidy is a huge believer in the paranormal, and they've had the sneaking suspicion that Afton isn't actually...gone, y'know?

well, while standing in the party room, they hear a small noise, like an animatronic quietly moving. uncertain of what they heard, perhaps thinking they were jut being paranoid, they look up at the animatronics. and they freeze.

O'Hare is looking at them. right at them. like he's trying to peer right into their soul from where he stands on the stage. and maybe it's just the lighting, but he looks like he's got blood on his hands.

and this, this is the moment Cassidy knew. knew that Afton wasn't gone, that he was still here.

and it is also at this moment that they come to a realization: will he hurt someone else?

how long until he does?

(in other words, the start of Cassidy's decades long mission to Get Rid Of Afton, No Matter The Cost)

Doc how interested are you in Fnaf lore?

if so, would you like to hear about an au of mine?

i'm in a rambling mood

I love lore! But fr I know some fnaf story (my partner likes it a lot) but ive never played the games and ive never even seen one of the books so yaa. BUT! Feel free to ramble! I like listening and learning about stuff ppl like <3

[shakespeareanwannabe]

New Beginnings

Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia x F!OC/Santiago Garcia x Rebecca Cooke

Summary:  A year after leaving Colombia, Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia returns home, ready for something...more.

Warnings: References to death and PTSD, swearing

A/N: Hi everyone! I was blown away by the response to ‘Protective Instincts’, so I wrote a sequel that’s based off of part of one of clarke’s headcanons. This was so fun to write, and I’m really wanting to write more about Bex and Pope, and Pope and Frankie, and the baby, so I’m hoping you all enjoy this as much as you enjoyed the first one! If you want to be added to the tags, please let me know. I just used the tags list from ‘Protective Instincts’ for this one.

                                                    **********

In…Out…In…Out…

It was stupid.

This was stupid.

Why was he nervous?

He was being creepy. He needed to stop that. It was creepy enough when he stalked Tom down to the last condo he was showing and waited outside by his truck, scrambling to come up with a witty, cocksure line to make his old commanding officer laugh.

This…this was different. There were no ulterior motives this time around, no lies, no cash-grabs. Just an honest man who knew how badly he had fucked up, preparing to go hat in hand to the only person he thought would still give him another chance.

Would he still give him another chance?

In…Out…In…Out…

Of course he would, this was Frankie they were talking about. The man who, after he got their commanding officer killed, still cupped the back of his head and pulled him into a hug that was both amical and familial. The man who had always, always, had his back. Ride or die since day one. He wouldn’t hold Colombia against him…

Would he?

In…Out…In…Out…

They had parted ways fairly amicably, their farewell consisting of that hug that had almost brought him to his tired knees and back slaps and “take care of yourselves”.

Then again, Frankie had never wanted to go on the mission in the first place. He’d gone because Pope had used every tool in his repertoire to get his best friend to join him. And, when it had gone sideways, Pope had been able to see the exact second when that switch in Frankie’s brain switched from “civilian doing recon” to “soldier on the battlefield”. After so long away, after years of therapy and good old-fashioned love, Frankie had become a newer, better version of himself, and Pope had torn it all away with the promise of money that would benefit Frankie’s family.

But they had parted ways on good terms, right? That meant everything would be okay.

In…Out…In—

There he was.

Pope sat forward in the front seat of his new truck, eyes eagerly following his best friend’s movements.

Frankie was pacing the length of the porch, a baby perched in his arms. Even from where he was parked, Pope could hear the crying.

It probably wasn’t the best time. If Frankie’s kid was crying, then Frankie’s senses were probably all strung out. Plus, it was 6:30, so it was probably close to dinnertime. Frankie needed a schedule to help keep the wolves at bay, and he always ate around 6:30.

He should probably go. Dinner and a crying baby would have his friend all over the place. Not exactly good timing for the apology and ask of the century.

He should go…

He needed to go…

He couldn’t do this…

He needed this but he couldn’t drag Frankie back into his bullshit…

When Yovanna had told him, tears in her voice, that she couldn’t take it anymore, that he needed to go home, his mind hadn’t gone to a place. He wasn’t going to go back to his mother’s country of birth, or his father’s. He wasn’t going to go to Texas or Maine or New York. He was going to go to South Carolina. He was going to go to Frankie. The ballast of his ship, the eye of his hurricane, the—

“Santi?”

Pope hadn’t even realized he had been walking until his boot clipped the bottom step of Frankie’s porch, alerting the pilot to his presence.

“Hey ‘Fish,” he replied, a little too brightly.

“Jesus, man…” Frankie adjusted the whimpering, no longer crying, child in his arms and pulled Pope into a one-armed hug. “What are you doing here?”

Pope listened to the question, hunting for even a hint of suspicion or anger, and found none, only genuine curiosity and warmth.

“Was in the neighborhood…”

Frankie fixed him with a piercing look. “Thought you were headed to Australia to see a girl about a life?”

Pope shrugged. “Didn’t work out.”

Frankie nodded lightly. “Huh…” He looked down at the baby in his arms, no longer crying. “You settled now, mijo? You’re not gonna make Mamá tear her hair out by crying again?” The baby blinked up at Frankie and cooed, one chubby hand extending to pat Frankie’s beard. “Alright, kid. Let’s get you back to Mamá. Give me one sec, man.”

Frankie disappeared into the house and Pope took a deep breath. He still didn’t think he should be doing this, considering last time he interrupted his friend’s life, he had nearly gotten them all killed, but he couldn’t deny the calming effect Frankie was already having on him. Already, he felt like he could breathe easier and his heart wasn’t racing.

Frankie had always had that sort of effect on him. The cool, calm, and collected pilot versus the hot-headed, shoot first and ask questions later lieutenant. Their friendship, their bond, shouldn’t have worked. Like fire and water, oil and vinegar, they never should have gelled the way they did, but they did. Santi brought Frankie out of his shell, encouraged him to take control and step up when they needed his voice of reason. Frankie cooled Santi off, reminded him to stay grounded, to stay alive to fight the next fight, that he was still human underneath all the Kevlar and camo.

Frankie tempered Santi’s fire, and Santi boiled Frankie’s water. A perfectly balanced pair.

“You gonna take a seat and stay awhile, or are you gonna bolt?”

Santi turned back towards the door, not even realizing that he had been standing there with one foot on the porch steps while Frankie had been inside.

“That an invitation?” Santi accepted the beer that Frankie held out towards him and sat in one of the wooden chairs set out around a wrought iron table.

“You don’t need an invitation, cabrón,” Frankie scoffed quietly as he took the other chair and collapsed into it, cracking open his bottle and taking a long swig.

Santi nodded hesitantly. “You never know…things change.”

Frankie’s eyes jerked towards him. “They don’t change that much,” he replied with a warm firmness in his voice that somehow set all of Santi’s nerves at ease.

“So, that was the new baby, huh?” Santi nodded towards the house. “How old is…he?”

Frankie nodded, a small grin on his face. “18 months. Mateo James Morales.”

“Cute. And Charlie?” Santi had met Charlotte King when he had a brief month long leave and had crashed at Frankie’s old apartment. Charlie and Frankie had only been seeing each other for a couple of months, but it was clear that the physiotherapist was good for Frankie. She had that same fire that Santiago had, but in a way that cleared away all the bad shit in Frankie’s life, making room for all the good to come, instead of destroying everything in its path, the way Santi’s did. That, plus her kind heart and no-nonsense attitude, made her a perfect match for Frankie. It only took minutes of being in the same room with the two to feel the love they shared for each other and, because of that love, Santi came to love her too. Anyone who could make Frankie happy was a saint in Santi’s books.

“She’s good. She owns her own clinic now, which is nice. She sets her own prices and her own hours, plus she gets a cut of all the business that comes in, so we don’t really have to worry about money. Plus, she’s a lot happier now that she can spend more time at home with Mateo.”

“And you,” a warm voice added. Charlie stepped over the threshold and sat on the arm of Frankie’s chair, wrapping her free arm around her fiancé’s shoulders as she cuddled Mateo close with her other arm. Frankie craned his neck up to place a gentle kiss on her shoulder and Santi looked away.

He didn’t begrudge his friend his happiness at all. Frankie deserved it after helping Santi wade through the muck and grime over the past decade and a half. But he wanted exactly this. The family and the home and the warmth and the love.

“Hey Santi,” Charlie called, her warm eyes sparkling as she reached across the table to squeeze his hand.

“Hey Chuck,” he greeted with an impish grin, causing her to laugh.

“Wow, it’s been a while since anybody has called me that.”

Santi grimaced. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

Charlie shrugged delicately before passing Mateo to his father. “You can make it up to me by staying for dinner. I’m making that mushroom chicken that you liked so much last time.”

“That’s alright, I don’t want to impose—”

“Hey, cabrón. What did I say about invitations?” Frankie interjected, his harsh tone at odds with the silly grin on his face as he bounced his son up and down on his knee.

“I—”

“It’s settled. You’re staying,” Charlie ordered, a soft smile on her face as she stood. “Keep Mateo busy while I cook, flyboy?” She bent to nuzzle Frankie’s nose before placing a sweet kiss on his lips.

“Sí, mi amada,” Santi heard Frankie whisper softly before Charlie stepped away and disappeared inside, winking at Santi over her shoulder as the door swung closed. The boys sat in companionable silence for a few long minutes. Santi was desperate to say something, anything, for things to feel like they used to, but that wasn’t Frankie. Frankie was always content with silence, especially between friends. He didn’t need to fill up silences with platitudes or useless trivia. If he found someone he could sit in silence with and feel fulfilled, that person became incredibly important to him. He and Santi used to have that, and they could both feel the ghost of that bond floating just overhead, desperate to possess them again. But after a year apart, and the way they had left things, neither knew if they were capable of such a relationship again.

Luckily, it was Mateo who broke the silence, giggling loudly as he reached across the table towards Santi.

Santiago’s eyebrow cocked up as he glanced from the baby to Frankie and back again. “Friendly kid.”

Frankie chuckled. “Gets it from his Mamá.” Frankie considered his son for a moment before looking up at Santi. “Here.” Frankie stood and moved around the table, placing Mateo into Santi’s lap before he could refuse. Santi’s hands immediately came up to steady the chubby baby that had suddenly been plopped in his lap, eyes wide open in shock.

“Frankie, what the f—”

“Watch it, man. Young ears,” Frankie replied loftily, waving at his son, who was giggling and squirming in Santi’s lap.

“It’s not like he’s gonna remember,” Santi scoffed. Mateo was shocked into silence by the voice, only a questioning coo escaping the baby’s lips as he craned his neck around to look at Santiago. The baby and the soldier stared at each other for a long moment before Mateo squealed excitedly, clapping his hands, and grinning up at his father’s friend. He began babbling excitedly and crawling around to face him. He reached out to grip the neckline of Santi’s t-shirt and used the leverage to start pulling himself up to stand.

“Frankie…” Santi peered around the baby to stare at his friend, who was seemingly unperturbed by the events unfolding in front of him.

“18-month-olds learn about one or two words a week, hermano. If the F word is one of Mateo’s first words, I’m telling Charlie it’s on you.”

“And…uh…this?” he asked, Mateo now eye-to-eye with him and pulling at his greying curls.

Frankie sighed and sank deeper into his chair, pulling his cap further down on his forehead. “Just don’t drop him.”

Santiago sat stock still as Mateo tugged at his hair, pulled on his ears, and ran his hands up and down Santi’s stubbly cheeks, giggling all the way. Finally, the baby huffed and slapped his hands down on Santi’s shoulders and stared into his eyes.

The quiet slap could just as easily have been a thunderclap.

Santiago was transfixed.

This wasn’t some kid from a village in Colombia, or a baby that he happened to smile at in Afghanistan. This was his best friend’s son, his brother’s son. As close to his own flesh and blood as he had at the moment. A child born of love that relied on Frankie and Charlie for everything. A child who, if he hadn’t been such a dumbass, wouldn’t have spent the last 18 months not knowing his face. A child who might, if Santi was lucky, grow up calling him Tío Santi.

Santiago drew in a shuddery breath and gently pulled Mateo into a hug, giving the child lots of time to voice his displeasure, but it never came. Instead, the young boy cooed and rested his head against Santi’s shoulder. Santi blinked back the tears that had unexpectedly pooled in his eyes and met Frankie’s gaze across the table.

His old friend, his best friend, gave him a soft smile and an understanding nod as he watched his son bond with his uncle for the first time.

                                                    **********

“So, Santi, I’m not gonna lie. I was surprised when Frankie told me you were outside,” Charlie commented as she placed the last serving dish down on the table and took her seat next to Mateo’s empty highchair. “I thought Frankie said you were living in Australia now.”

“Didn’t work out,” Santi deflected, watching as Frankie entered the room after putting Mateo down to sleep.

“Her loss, man,” Frankie comforted lowly, giving Santi’s shoulder a squeeze as he sat down next to him and pulled the dish of chicken towards him.

The adults quietly passed dishes of roasted chicken smothered in mushroom cream sauce, mashed potatoes, almond green beans, and strawberry spinach salad and began to eat.

First bite, Santi groaned. “Oh my god, Charlie…”

Charlie laughed brightly. “You regret staying away for so long now, bud?”

Santi nodded; eyes closed in pleasure. “How hasn’t my boy here gotten fat with you cooking like this?”

Frankie chuckled under his breath. “Who says I haven’t?”

Charlie smiled lovingly at him and reached across the table to squeeze his hand. “You’re definitely not, handsome. But even if you were, I’d still love you.”

Frankie pressed a kiss to the back of her hand before releasing her to eat their dinners. “She does her best to keep me in shape. Hiking and swimming and shit.” Santiago winced at the thought and Frankie nodded commiseratingly at him. “Well, at least your knees haven’t given out on you yet, man.”

“If you were in the area, I’d get you set up at my clinic, Santi,” Charlie added. “I don’t know how much good it would do, but there are some exercises and stretches that might help ease the ache a little.”

Santi swallowed his bite of chicken and washed it down with a gulp of white wine before clearing his throat. “Actually, that’s kind of why I’m here.”

At his announcement, both Charlie and Frankie looked at him, dinners abandoned.

Santi swallowed down his nerves.

In…Out…In…Out…

“I, uh…I found a house about ten minutes away that I was thinking of buying,” he stated in an even voice that belied his nerves. Charlie set down her fork and Frankie turned his whole body to face him. “I sold my company in Colombia,” he explained, meeting Frankie’s eyes for a long moment. In actuality, he had sold his stash of weapons to the police force and taken a fairly large payout from the private contractor he had been working for. “And I worked for a security firm in Australia while I was there. But now…” Santi shrugged. “I just think it’s time for something permanent. But I didn’t want to buy so close to you guys without talking to you first. I know there might be some hard feelings, or that you might not want me around Mateo, but—”

“Santi, will you shut up please?” Charlie stood and marched around the table to stand in front of him. “Get up.” Santi glanced over at Frankie who just shrugged and jerked his chin at him. Slowly, hesitantly, Santi stood in front of his best friend’s girl and prepared for the worst.

Odds were, Charlie knew all about Colombia. Santi knew that Frankie didn’t keep secrets from his lady, and didn’t begrudge him at all, but he knew that this could only go badly.

Charlie didn’t want Frankie to go on the mission in the first place. The team had returned one man short and without the promised money. Frankie would have returned home carrying all the guilt and blood that he had worked so hard to shed since his honorary discharge. And the person who dragged him back in was now asking to live in the safety of their shadow.

Santi wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to see him again, never wanted him to hold her child again, never wanted him to see his best friend again, never—

Santi melted into the warm arms that embraced him, one around his back and the other coming up to cup the back of his head, pulling him down to rest against her shoulder.

When Frankie had told him that Charlie was pregnant, Santi was shameful to say that he laughed. Spitfire, no-nonsense Chuck was gonna be a Mom? Are you kidding? She could match the squad drink for drink, curse for curse, any day of the week. She bullied men twice her size into following her exercise regimen for a living, twisting and manipulating their bodies into working properly again. Yet, now, Santi could see that there had always been a touch of motherhood to her. Her warmth and her kindness were what had drawn Frankie to her in the first place. Santi loved her for that, but now he loved her for so much more.

Finally, she pulled back and, much like her son, rested her hands on his shoulders and looked directly into his eyes. “If you even thought of moving somewhere else, I would take you out at the knees myself, bud.”

Santi chuckled, and if it was a little watery, nobody mentioned it.

Frankie stood and wrapped Santi up in a hug, pulling back only to say, “Welcome to the neighborhood, hermano. Mateo’s lucky to have his uncle around.”

                                                    **********

Santiago cleared his throat as he approached the front desk. The red-haired receptionist looked up and greeted him with a smile.

“Good afternoon, sir. How may I help you?”

“My name is Santiago Garcia. I’m supposed to have an appointment with Charlotte King?”

The receptionist tapped a few keys and nodded. “She’s just with a patient right now, but if you’d like to take a seat in our waiting room, she’ll be with you in a moment.”

Santi nodded and thanked the lady before moving into the small purple alcove off the reception desk and took a seat.

It had been a month since that dinner, and Santi was settling into his new routine nicely.

The sale of the house had gone as smoothly as it possibly could have (meaning, not at all), but the small old colonial style house was officially his and he loved it, despite it being quite the fixer upper. In fact, he loved it because it was a fixer upper.

At Frankie’s urging, Santi had reconnected with Benny and Will, who had taken it upon themselves to become his construction crew. Whenever Will wasn’t giving a speech or Benny wasn’t losing a fight, they were at the house, doing whatever needed to be done. Every Wednesday and Saturday, when he wasn’t teaching flying lessons or spending time with his son, Frankie joined them. Friday nights, he had dinner with Frankie and Charlie. Every Sunday, the whole crew got together and hung out at Frankie’s house. Charlie would cook something delicious, Santi would sit with Mateo in his arms, the Miller’s would do the dishes, and Frankie would hover around them all, making sure his family was safe and happy. It was everything Santi had wanted when he moved back home and more.

“Hey, Santi, sorry about that,” Charlie greeted as she appeared in the doorway of the waiting room.

Santi stood up and gave her a hug. “No worries, Chuck. I know you’re busy.”

Charlie smiled and gave him a friendly pat on the cheek. “If my staff starts calling me Chuck, I’m blaming you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” he teased as he followed her out into the gymnasium-looking clinic. Long massage tables were set up around the periphery of the room while a series of gym apparatuses took up the bulk of the middle. A giant machine sat half-hidden behind a partial wall, and Pope could smell chlorine in the air.

At the end of the square gym was a long hallway, the therapy pool built into the wall on one side and a row of consultation rooms on the other.

Charlie pulled back the curtain on one of the consultation rooms and ushered him inside. Santi slid himself onto the massage table while Charlie sat on the circular rolling chair.

“So, listen…” Charlie began with a sigh. “I tried like hell to change things around and shuffle some patients up, but I wasn’t able to fit you into my schedule.”

Santi felt his heart sink a little. He wasn’t looking for a miracle. Hell no, his last ‘miracle’ surgery had only made things worse. But he had been hoping for at least a chance to live without chronic pain. “No worries, Chuck. Honestly. It was nice of you to—”

“Would you shut the fuck up and let me talk, please? Jesus, Santi, you’re worse than Benny sometimes,” she huffed, rolling her eyes. “I can’t fit you in with me, but I can get you in with Steve. We met when we were doing our DPT program, and he co-owns the place with me. You’ll like him.” Charlie met Santi’s wary gaze and smiled. “Listen, Santi. If you’re not comfortable with him, I’ll see what I can do about fitting you in with me sometime next month. But, please, give him a shot? For me?”

Santi felt himself soften and he grinned, nudging her knee with his foot. “Is that how you landed Frankie, Chuck? You flash him those puppy dog eyes?”

“The puppy dog eyes may or may not have played a part in getting him to put a ring on it. Then again, that might have been the three days of on and off labor to bring his son into the world,” she quipped as she rolled to the door to stick her head out through the curtain. “Hey, Steve! Your new patient is here!”

A shadow crossed the curtain as Charlie stood up, winking at him as she whispered, “You’re gonna be fine, hun.”

The curtain opened and a hulking man blocked a good portion of the light streaming down from the fluorescents. Stepping into the room, Santi blinked for a minute to let his eyes adjust, not even seeing Charlie slip out of the room.

The man was big. Bigger than Will and Benny, which was saying something. Not tall, but broad and muscular, a sleeve of tattoos decorating both arms. Bald with a gold stud in his ear.

What the fuck was Charlie thinking? This dude looked like he was about to break his legs, not help fix them.

Steve (and sweet Jesus, his name was Steve? Did his parents even think before naming him?) took the stool that Charlie had been sitting on and straddled it, rolling over to the table Pope was sitting on.

“Hey, man. I’m Steve,” he grinned brightly, holding out a hand for him to shake.

When their hands clasped, Pope understood why Charlie thought they would get along.

“Where did you serve?”

Steve laughed. “Two tours at a VA hospital in Germany after I got my Bachelor’s degree. Couldn’t afford to get my DPT without Uncle Sam footing the bill. How’d you know?”

Santi laughed. “Spent the last 14 years shaking hands with the brass. It gets pretty easy to tell who has a military handshake and who doesn’t.” At Steve’s questioning look, he continued. “Delta Force. Been all over kingdom come.”

“Ah, so you served with Frankie, huh?”

“Known ‘Fish ever since basic. Been close ever since,” Pope nodded.

Steve nodded with a laugh. “Yeah, I’ve got a couple like that. I’m sure it’s different because we never saw a battlefield, but I get it. Knowing you’re on the same side, being with the same people for years, it forges something.” Pope nodded thoughtfully for a moment before lapsing into silence. “So, I’m guessing all that running around for the good of our nation did some pretty serious damage to your knees, huh?”

Pope smirked, thankful for the out he was being given as he dove into his medical history.

                                                    **********

45 minutes later, Steve led Santi out to the main gym and pointed at one of the massage tables along the wall.

“Go hangout there for a minute. I’ll grab the printout of those exercises I was telling you about and a couple of cryo cuffs.”

Pope nodded and settled himself onto a table as Charlie guided her patient onto the table next to him.

“So, how did it go?” she asked as her patient unsteadily eased herself onto the table.

“Oh c’mon, Chuck, you know you were right.”

She shrugged with a tiny smirk on her face. “Well, yeah, but it doesn’t hurt to hear it every once in a while.”

Steve returned and Pope spent the next few minutes setting up his first appointment time, going over the home stretches Steve was giving him to work on, and allowing Steve to wrap both his legs in puffy blue leg braces that he then filled with ice water.

“Alright, man. Hang out here for as long as you want. Just give me a call when you’re ready to go.”

“Sure thing, thanks Steve.”

Pope gently lowered himself onto his back, head cushioned by a thin pillow as he allowed the frigid water to wash away the ache in his knees.

“…Alright, turn over onto your tummy and I’ll get the heating pad for your back,” Charlie informed her patient.

“Oh, you’re actually being nice today and letting me relax to finish off the session,” a playful voice responded, slightly muffled as she turned herself onto her stomach, facing away from Pope so he could only see her hair.

“I’m always nice,” Charlie snarked with a smile as she moved to the steamer and removed a thick heating pad, quickly wrapping it in a cloth and draping it over her patient’s back.

“Don’t let her fool you,” Santi piped up, grinning at his friend. “Charlie’s an awful human being. Stole my best friend and everything.”

The responding giggles sent shivers up his spine as the patient turned her head towards him and he met her eyes for the first time.

“Don’t I know it,” she teased, but Santi barely heard her.

Warm, provoking eyes were framed by long dark lashes that just skimmed her cheekbones when she blinked. A small smile played across full lips, framed by soft looking skin. In short, she was stunning, even with her sweat soaked brow and her slightly hitched breathing.

In…Out…In…Out…

“Yeah, okay Santi,” Charlie’s teasing voice pulled him from his stunned reverie. “I’m so awful I was about to ask if you had dinner plans. You could come see your best friend and your nephew, but I guess I’m too awful of a person to do that.”

“What’s cooking?” he asked, pulling his eyes away from this woman who had definitely caught him by surprise.

Charlie shrugged. “We were just gonna order some pizza and wings. Frankie texted me and said Ben has some sample tile for you to look at for your bathrooms. Will offered to bring beer.”

“Sounds good.”

“Sweet. Now stop being a dick and tell everyone how wonderful I am.”

“Yes ma’am,” he called, laughing under his breath as she sauntered away. He brought his eyes back to the woman lying next to him and found her watching him with an amused look that was peeking out through the space between her hair and her shoulder. “She isn’t that great,” he joked.

She laughed again, and Santi found himself scrambling for another witty comment so he could hear the sound again.

“Trust me, I know,” she responded, adjusting her arms so that they still pillowed her head, but she could now see properly. “She’s been beating on me for weeks.”

“That sounds like Chuck,” he laughed.

She giggled again and Pope preened under her gaze. “Oh, I am so calling her that now.”

He winced with a smile. “She might actually kill me if you do.”

“Oh well, we don’t want that,” she smirked, raising her head a little. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure physiotherapists have to follow the whole ‘do no harm’ thing too. I’ll make sure she can’t hurt you.”

“Thanks, I feel much safer now,” he smiled softly, crow’s-feet crinkling happily at his eyes. He reached a hand out into the empty space between their tables. “I’m Santiago, but most people just call me Santi.”

She smiled and shifted so she could free one of her arms to shake his hand. “I’m Rebecca. It’s nice to meet you, Santi. What are you in for?”

                                                    **********

Tags list (open): @darksideofclarke, @writefightandflightclub, @eternallyvenus, @rae-rae-patcha, @himbopoes, @sophoclese, @phoenixhalliwell

[mistersshelby]

Finn having a twin sister who he gets into all sorts of trouble with and the two nearly drive Tommy and Arthur into an early grave

hey hi hello this took me soooo long but i hope you guys like it, please let me know what you think!!!

questions, comments, concerns

masterlist

It was a known fact that of the Shelbys, you and Finn were most likely to get everyone killed. It probably shouldn’t have been something to be proud of, but everyone was so bloody serious all the time, they had to admit that without you and Finn life would be peaceful, sure, but boring,

There was the time when you were eight and encouraged Finn to steal John and Arthur’s guns during a meeting. The meeting had been interrupted by Charlie running in, out of breath, yelling that two Shelby devils were running around his yard firing guns at each other.

When the two of you heard Tommy’s voice thundering across the yard, Finn had stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide with terror, but you? You kept giggling and fired the gun one last time, grazing Finn��s arm.

Tommy cussed out John and Arthur for leaving their guns out in the open and then told you and Finn that the next time you tried to kill each other he’d let you.

Finn didn’t talk to you for a whole week until you stole a knife for him he had been eyeing at the shop down the road.

There was the time when you were twelve and got both you and Finn kicked out of school. You had told Finn a boy had been pulling on your hair and to do something about it. The next day Finn had taken a knife to school, cornered the boy and pulled the knife on him.

“If you ever even think about touching my sister again, I’ll cut you. Understand?”

The boy had nodded profusely and Finn looked down with satisfaction to see that the boy had wet himself. He had immediately told an adult, who had then called Tommy to have him come get the both of you.

“Why me?” You had asked the teacher, “I didn’t pull a knife on him.” 

She shook her head at you, “We all know Finn doesn’t come up with these bright ideas on his own.”

Tommy didn’t speak to either of you as he drove you home. Once inside, he motioned for Finn to give him the knife.

“I wasn’t gonna hurt him,” Finn insisted as he handed it over, “Just wanted to scare him so he’d leave Y/N alone.”

“Which one of you wants to explain to me why I was forced to leave an important meeting to pick the two of you up from school?”

You frowned, “They didn’t tell you what happened?”

“They did,” Tommy stared you down and it took everything in you not to shrink away from him, “But I want to hear it from you.”

You looked down at the floor, “The boy who sits behind me in class kept pulling my hair. He wasn’t afraid of me because I’m a girl, the teacher wouldn’t listen to me no one cared, so I asked Finn to scare him, that’s all.” Tommy was quiet, “I’m a Shelby too, you know. I won’t let people walk all over me just because I’m a girl. You wouldn’t let people walk all over you.”

“You are not me.”

“Why? Because I’m a girl? I’m sick of you lads thinking because you have a cock–”

“No, Christ, not because you’re a girl because you’re twelve, you’re just a kid, Y/N.” Tommy sighed and looked at Finn, “Finn, you can go. Stop bringing your knife to school.” Finn looked hesitant to leave Y/N, but after an impatient look from Tommy he left. “What are you trying to prove?” He asked, curling a finger under your chin and tilting it up so you looked at him.

You jerk your chin from his fingers and he sighs, letting his hand fall back to his side where he reaches into his pocket to grab his cigarettes. “I see the way you all treat Ada.” You start as he lights one. You wonder what he’d say if he knew the reason he was always running short was because you had been pick pocketing him, stealing a couple, and then running to Charlie’s yard to smoke them with Finn. “I’m not like her. I don’t want to sit on the sidelines while the rest of you fight. I don’t want to be stuck in the gambling den while you all sneak off to get into trouble. I want to be like you.”

Tommy took a long drag and then sat down on a chair, craning his neck just a bit to meet your eyes, “You’re a fuckin’ Shelby, you know?” He pointed at you with two fingers, his cigarette between them, “Just as much as me, as Arthur, as John, as Finn. Just because you’re a girl doesn’t make it any different–”

“Spare me the excuses Tommy, the girls in this family have very different roles than the men in this family, let’s not pretend any different.”

“Let me finish.” He said, though his eyebrows rose at your interruption, his only indication that you were toeing the line of outright disobedience, “If Ada had ever come to me and expressed that she wanted to learn how to shoot and do the things we did, I would have let her. As I will let you.” You tried not to show your elation and Tommy could tell so he smiled at you, “You have nothing to prove to me, you know. You can stop trying to act tough around me. I know you’re tough. Tougher than the rest of us, I think.” He cupped a hand around the back of your neck and pulled you to him, crushing you to his chest in an act of affection you rarely got from him. “Just stop getting in trouble in school, okay? I can’t keep picking you up in the middle of the day.”

You froze for a moment, face pressed against him, but you finally reached around and held him tight, grateful to let go of the weight you’d been carrying. 

***

Now you’re eighteen and Tommy held to his word. You and Finn were regularly sent out on missions together. When Tommy sent the two of you out for the first time, the rest of the brothers had protested, even Finn wanted to coddle you, but Tommy put his foot down, gifted you with your first gun, and sent you on your way. 

“Tommy, Arthur,” You said as you opened the door to the private room in the Garrison, Finn on your heels, “Can you give us something fun to do? We’re bored.”

“You want us to send you out on a dangerous task because you’re bored?”

You and Finn exchanged a look and nodded, “Yeah, exactly.” Finn said.

Tommy and Arthur also exchanged a look and Tommy raised his eyebrows, “Yeah, fine,” He said sighing, “Send them.”

“The bar down the road,” Arthur started and the two of you nodded eagerly, “Go sack it. But don’t be starting any other trouble, ya hear? They give you trouble, you leave.”

You stood, taking the glass of whiskey from Tommy’s hand and knocking it back before handing the empty glass back to Tommy, “Thanks brothers,” You say, smiling sweetly, “Let’s go, Finn.”

“If I get word back that the two of you did anything other than what you were asked, I’m confiscating your guns and no more peaky blinders work for a few months.” Tommy said as you both began to leave the room.

“We’re adults now, Tommy, you can’t keep punishing us like kids.” You said.

“Start acting like adults and I’ll stop treating you like kids.”

You rolled your eyes and headed out of the Garrison. Finn caught up and threw an arm around your shoulders, “If we don’t fuck this one up, maybe they’ll stop putting us in time out.”

You smiled at your twin and let him pull you closer, “Or we do it our way and they finally see we were right all along.”

Finn chuckled and ruffled your hair which prompted you to shove him away and lecture him again about touching your hair.

You and Finn were reckless, it was true, but sacking a bar was something the two of you had done for Tommy so many times you had to switch it up. If that meant causing trouble for your brothers, so be it.

The two of you waltzed into the bar and it immediately quieted. This had to be your favorite part of being a Shelby, the way fear spread through a room like the plague at the sight of any of you. Those who had seen you grow up had the sense to be afraid of you, as well, despite your gender. 

But sometimes people slipped up. Sometimes they scoffed at your pants and high heeled boots paired with your long hair and makeup. And sometimes you slipped up too. The difference was, when you slipped up, people died.

The first time you and Finn had walked into the Shelby house declaring that you had killed a man who dared cross you, Tommy had simply nodded and said, “Next time you ask me first.”

But you never asked. If people had the dim wit to cross you, a Shelby, they would pay the price and you would deal with the consequences from Tommy later. And eventually people stopped crossing you, for the most part, they showed you the same fear and respect they showed your brothers. 

“Two whiskeys, neat.” Finn ordered and surveyed the bar.

“Should I be worried that the two of you are here?” The bartender asked as he slid over your drinks. You quite liked him, he had never given you that up and down look of distaste that most people did. Had never asked stupid questions about your clothes or how Tommy felt about you putting your nose in men’s business. He was different, and it wasn’t all due to fear.

“Yes,” You answered honestly, “But no one will be hurt.”

He nodded, “You’re gonna sack the bar.”

“We’ll give you a cut of the money if you cooperate.” Finn said.

“Okay,” The bartender said calmly, “But you should know those men in the corner,” He nodded towards a booth near the door, full of men who were eyeing the two of you carefully, “They won’t let the bar go without a fight.”

You couldn’t help the smile that spread across your face, “If it’s a fight they want, it’s a fight they’ll get.”

But Finn was frowning, “Y/N, maybe we should go back to the Garrison and tell Tommy, we’re clearly outnumbered—“

“If you want to back out of a fight Finn, by all means, I’ll handle this myself, but I’m not going back to cry to Tommy.”

“We could die.” Finn said lowly, “They’re bigger than us and there’s more of them.”

You only smiled at him, “Where’s the fun if there’s not a little risk?” Before he could respond, you held your gun up and fired at the ceiling and spoke over the few screams, “This bar is now ours, by order of The Peaky Blinders. I suggest you all leave.”

“Fuck.” You heard Finn curse before he took out his gun and cocked it.

Patrons dutifully filed out, but the four men in the corner stood, “Big words from such a tiny girl. What if we don’t want to leave?”

He was playing with you, you knew, “Then I hope you like the smell of burning flesh.” You smiled sweetly and pulled out matches.

Bless his heart, your partner in crime, Finn walked behind the bar and started dousing the floor with alcohol. You made a mental note to apologize to him for this later. Because the two of you could do this, you would best these stupid men.

There was a bit of fear on their faces, knowing they couldn’t stop you from lighting this place up unless they shot you. Something you had learned about men was that they would always hesitate to shoot you.

But what you didn’t take the time to consider was that they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Finn. And while Finn was pouring alcohol all over the bar, depending on you to watch his back, one of the men lifted his pistol, “You idiots talk too much,” and he fired.

You heard Finn scream and before you could let the panic choke you, you shot back. Being a girl, you always had to be ten times better than any man who came along in order to be taken seriously. As such, you could shoot a man through his head every time even if he was moving up to thirty feet away. You hadn’t really wanted to kill anyone tonight, but shooting at your twin was a line that could not be uncrossed. You shot the man who shot Finn and the man who called you a “tiny girl” and waited to see what the other two would do. Predictably, it was enough to get them to run away.

“Fuck, Finn, I’m sorry.” You said, running to him when they were gone, the door still swinging behind them. Assessing the damage, you saw he was hit in his shoulder, an easy fix and not the first bullet he’d taken. It made you feel like passing out with relief.

“You were supposed to be watching for me.” He ground out through the pain.

Knowing he was alive didn’t make you feel any less guilty, “I know, I’m sorry, it happened so fast, I didn’t expect them to–” Police were driving down the road, heading here. Someone had snitched. “Fuck.” You swore at the same time Finn saw them. He scrambled off the floor as you ran to grab all the cash from the drawer.

“Just fuckin’ leave it, Tommy’ll kill us if we get caught!” Finn was yelling, getting ready to toss a match on the bar once they were safe.

“I’m coming.” You insisted, you didn’t go through all of this and get your twin shot with nothing to show for it. The police were getting out of their cars.

“Y/N!” Finn was more insistent now and you slammed the drawer shut, running over to him.

“Go out the back,” You shoved him out, “I’ll shoot it up we don’t have time, go.” You said when he tried to pull out the matches. Once you saw he was gone, you shot through the front windows to delay the cops just a few more seconds before shooting at the floors where Finn had dumped the alcohol and watching it go in flames before sneaking out the back. You snuck around the back of some more buildings, following the river to Charlie’s yard and then to the Garrison where you assumed your brothers still were and could help with Finn’s wound.

When the two of you burst into the bar, Tommy saw you first and for the first time in a while, the anger on his face when he spotted Finn genuinely scared you. “Everyone out.” He said loudly. There were groans from the patrons, but they didn’t need a second command, no one wanted to cross Tommy.

“What happened?” He said deathly quiet, his gaze pinned on you.

Arthur guided Finn away so they could take out the bullet, “Why do you always assume it’s my fault?”

“I asked you a question.” He said, ignoring you. He was running out of patience with you, you knew. 

You sighed, “There were four men at the bar who I assume were from the gang whose territory the bar was in, they weren’t going to let us take the bar. Finn wanted to come back to get more men, I told him we could handle it ourselves.”

“You thought you could take on four grown men yourselves and you didn’t listen to your brother. When the fuck are you going to learn? When you get Finn killed? When you get one of us killed?”

Tears were burning the back of your eyes and you couldn’t meet his stare, “I’m sorry.”

But Tommy just kept going, “Did you get Finn shot because you were running your big fucking mouth again? Knowing they wouldn’t shoot you? But you forgot about your fuckin’ brother, didn’t you? The one who always looks out for you, but you never return the fuckin’ favor?” Tears poured down your cheeks in earnest now, but Tommy didn’t care, you needed to learn, “You only ever think about your goddamn self, you constantly think you have to prove yourself when no one here doubts your abilities except you—“

“That’s not true—“

“Like fuck it isn’t! Everyone in this family, in this shit hole of a town knows what you’re capable of, but you still think you need to raise the stakes, why? Because deep down you know you’re the only fuckin’ person holding yourself back.”

“Tommy, come on, that’s enough.” John said softly behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder. You still stood tall, chin lifted, though your body trembled with silent sobs.

Tommy shrugged John off, “You’re done being a blinder. Maybe I’ll reconsider once you learn to stop being so fuckin’ selfish.”

“Tommy, please—“ You were ready to beg, he couldn’t kick you off.

“No, I’ve given you chance after chance, you won’t learn until you get one of us killed and I’m not willing to risk that any longer. Be grateful that I’m sparing you the guilt of being responsible for one of our deaths.”

Then Tommy stalked away from you to go check on Finn. John gave you a sympathetic look and a squeeze of your shoulder before doing the same. You wanted to see Finn, but doubted he wanted to see you either so you left. You wandered around Small Heath aimlessly by yourself all night, trying to figure out what you were going to do. Eventually you wandered over to Aunt Pol’s.

When she answered the door and took in your red face and puffy eyes she only pulled you close to her chest and let you sob.

A while after, when you had finally calmed down, she sets a cup of tea in front of you, “Tommy can be harsh sometimes, but he only does it because he loves you, you know?”

“I know he’s right,” You take a sip of the tea, your insides warming, “I just don’t know if I can fix it. What if all this time, my whole life, all I’ve wanted is to be like Tommy. What if I’m nothing like him and I never will be?”

“Sweetheart, you are nothing like him and you never will be, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of your story. You toughen up and you get back out there and you listen to your brothers. They know what you are capable of, they will never think less of you because you’re a girl, so you need to get that out of your head.” You stared at your teacup while she spoke, feeling numb, “Have you ever thought that maybe Tommy is trying to save you from becoming like him?”

Your eyes snap up at that and you frown, “Why would he do that?”

Polly shakes her head, “Tommy hates himself, Y/N, hates how selfish he is, how he can never let anyone in, that anyone who gets close to him always gets hurt. That is the last thing he wants for you, but it’s clear you’re following in his footsteps. And that’s why he kicked you out. To save you.”

You sat back and pondered this for a while and eventually Polly left you alone, kissing your hair as she went to bed. Maybe you were too much like Tommy, maybe Pol was right. Leaving a note for Polly so she knew not to look for you, you headed to Tommy’s office, knowing he was still probably awake this late at night.

“How’s Finn?” You asked as Tommy bent over his desk, writing something that seemed very important.

He looked up at you, “He’s fine, sleeping.”

You sat in the seat across from him, “Aunt Pol says the real reason you kicked me off the Blinders was because you think I’m too much like you and you want to spare me from a life of self loathing.”

He began writing again, “Well, Polly has always seemed to know my ulterior motives even when they weren’t clear to me.”

“So she’s right, then?”

“It doesn’t matter, doesn’t change anything.”

You sat back and listened to him write for a few more moments, “I love you, Tommy. I don’t think I say it enough, but it’s true. I think of you more like a father than a brother most of the time. I just– I want you to know that even when you think no one needs you that I need you.”

He stops writing and looks you over, “Polly was wrong.” He starts, and you raise your eyebrows, “I don’t want you to be less like me, I want you to be better than me. I’m so hard on you because I think you could run the company one day and I want you to be ready. Do you understand?” You nodded and he picked up his pen, “Good. Now go get some rest, you have a lot of self improvement to do.” You stood and headed out of Tommy’s office door, but he called out to you while you were in the doorway and you turned, “I love you too,” He said, “More than you know.”

You smiled at him and nodded before closing the door behind you and heading off to bed.

[mythrilhusk]

Korosensei Never Dies -Chapter 9

Words: 2,140 Ao3 Version Chapter 8 (Last)

TW: threats of violence, heavy (but short) discussions of death/murder

Quackity scowls blearily at the returning heroes. He and the other Ducklings were up the whole damn night trying to work out infiltration plans after Bad gave them the location of the laboratory and then peaced out with his team of scammers. Bad won't be returning again, but thanks to him, the Ducklings missed the whole rescue mission.

It's summer vacation, so everyone ought to be home anyway, but Philza promised to teach them fighting, and by the goddamned stars, Quackity is determined to make the old man follow through. 

Philza steps tiredly into the classroom. His bloodshot, baggy eyes go wide in surprise as he sees all the students gathered there. Quackity salutes him with a smirk. Ranboo hides in the shadows of the door, watching Phil with worried sulkiness. 

"Kids, I need a favor." Philza collapses into a chair, hiding his face. "I know you want him dead. But- please. Wait a bit." He hesitates and then continues in a ragged voice, "Purpled hit him with a neutralizing agent. He- he can die, again. I'm begging you all, please don't tell anyone or try to kill him until our time is up." 

"Why should we??" Quackity demands, realizing immediately with a confusing mixture of delight and horror that Technoblade has been rendered vulnerable. Does this mean their plan to sneak into the lab is pointless now? "I don't know." Philza hiccups. He's crying. The tears burn a hole through Quackity's delight. "I don't know, dammit. Please, just wait to kill him at the end of the year. No, better, kill both of us then, I've done the same terrible things as he has! I should be punished too, goddammit, why is he the one to suffer for both our crimes??" 

"I'll wait." Quackity leans back. "I'll fucking wait till time's up, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up my revenge." 

"I'll wait too!" Tommy cries. "I'm the fucking king of procrastination!" 

Sapnap and the Ducklings follow Quackity's example. The others follow Tommy's example. Together, the class proclaims their willingness to postpone Techno's death. 

Philza rubs his eyes and takes the handkerchief Tommy stole from Wilbur to offer him. "Thank you, kids." 

"We still get fighting lessons, right?" Quackity asks with a scowl.

"Yes, of course you do. You've all earned them." Philza smiles tremulously. "Ranboo, Techno, you can come out." 

Ranboo steps into the light, blatantly normal-seeming, so unlike the nightmare Tommy and Charlie described. He hovers beside Technoblade as the former terrorist limps through the room to reach his desk. He seems so small and frail without the mutation-induced strength. He looks so weak. Quackity could put a bullet through his head right now and he wouldn't be able to dodge or absorb it. 

But Quackity sees Philza watching Techno with worried, fond eyes. He thinks of Sapnap. Of Techno eating the goddamn grenade to save Sapnap. 

Quackity decides he can wait. If he kills Technoblade right away, after all, Philza won't give anybody fighting lessons. 

And if Philza doesn't give them fighting lessons, then who the fuck is going to wreak vengeance on whatever motherfucking scientists created the mutants?

++++

Niki and Jack watch through binoculars as their enemies spar with each other in the clearing outside the remote school building designated for Class 3-E. "Dang." Jack says. "They're not bad." 

"They can't fight a bomb." Niki grins. 

"Much less ten." Jack matches Niki's toothy smile. 

"Did you get the supplies?" 

"Yes, ma'am." 

"Good work, Jack." Niki drops lightly from the tree. "We can proceed with the operation Smithereens in a week." 

"Awesome." Jack chuckles darkly. "Do we really want to give them that much time, though?" 

"We need to get them acclimated to the bait, first." Niki taps her fingers to her lips. "This will go wonderfully, Jack, don't worry. That loser class won't be a threat much longer." 

++++

"Sir, Purpled is dead." HBomb reports, wincing nervously in apprehension. 

"The fuck he is, I told that bitch to get me Technoblade, and by god, he'd better do it!" Schlatt tips a whiskey bottle into his mouth, gulping the burning liquid down. He lowers it and peers at HBomb. "Unless somebody fucked up again." 

"He must have, sir." HBomb grasps the lifeline eagerly. "The neutralizing agent was nowhere near his body." 

"What?" Schlatt says calmly, his tone barely warning of the torrent of rage he's about to unleash upon the poor unwitting HBomb. "Where the fuck is it, then?" 

"Our clean-up team found the crushed casing nearby!" HBomb continues to dig his grave. "So-" 

"So he found it, and destroyed it." Schlatt snarls. 

HBomb nods quickly. "Y-yes, but-"

"Do you know how long it took to make enough neutralizer for one dart??" 

"Months, sir, but-"

"And you're telling me Purpled fucked up badly enough that somehow that goddamn mutant knew about the dart and destroyed it." 

"Well- see, we have reason to believe Dream is involved!" 

"Damn it!" Schlatt bellows and smashes the whiskey bottle on the table. His hand starts to bleed and sting from the shards. "HBomb." He growls, trying to pretend he's still in control; he needs to still be in control. "Why the fuck is that motherfucking spider involved?? I gave him a mutant already, why the hell does he want to steal mine??" 

"I thought you'd want his help!" HBomb squeals. "So I let him know we're trying to hunt Technoblade down!" 

"Fuck this, fuck you, you motherfucking imbecile, you complete and utter moron, why the fUCK WOULD YOU BETRAY ME LIKE THIS??" Schlatt roars. 

HBomb cowers, hiding ineffectively behind his broom. "I- I'm sorry, sir, but I thought-"

"Well, there's the fucking problem, yeah, bitch?? You thought. I do the thinking here." Schlatt reaches for his gun. "You want to know what I'm thinking, HBomb? Do you want to know what I'm thinking of, right fucking now??" 

"Pl-please-" HBomb whimpers, staring into the barrel as it aims between his eyes. 

"I'm thinking you're fucking useless to me, HBomb. And you know what happens to useless whiny bitches like you, right?" 

"Please don't kill me!" HBomb sobs. 

"Ahh, whatever." Schlatt lowers the gun, too furious to admit he can't bring himself to actually pull the trigger and become a murderer. "Leave my sight and don't fucking show your ugly mug for a week." 

HBomb scurries away, leaving Schlatt to bind his bloody hand, alone in the sterile laboratory. 

++++

Getting beaten up would have been bearable. Being bullied mercilessly would have been completely deserved. But being completely and utterly ignored for days on end breaks Eret like a goddamn crusher.

The more he thinks back on her actions, the guiltier she feels. During the sparring classes, they copy Philza's moves alone, behind everyone else working with partners. When the class decides to camp in the forest for the rest of summer vacation, Eret sets up his tent several meters away from the rest. She stands back and watches their former friends banter and laugh as they raise their own tents. 

"Hey."

Eret almost jumps at the low voice of Ranboo addressing her. Turning, he faces the mutant, clenching her hands to hide the trembling. "Yeah?" 

Ranboo steps up next to them, gazing into the smoking campfire amidst the scattered tents. "Why are you scared of me?" 

"You- you already know why." Eret stares at his hands. Out, out, damned spot.

"Um. I don't really remember, but yeah, okay." Ranboo sighs. "I- I don't think I'm sorry." 

"Neither am I, apparently." Bitterly laughing, Eret grips her chest as the sharp pain of grief blossoms. 

"I think you are." 

"What do you know??" Eret lashes out, shoving Ranboo. "If everything had gone according to plan, it would all be fine!" 

"But you still wouldn't have any friends." Ranboo replies calmly. 

It hurts that he's right. Eret knows he's right. They turn away, hunched and close to tears. "Why am I scared of you?" She mutters in a low, desperate voice. "Because I know. I saw what you are. I know you- you killed Purpled." 

Ranboo frowns. "Techno killed him." He says it so casually. Techno. As though the bastard wasn't a mass-murderer and terrorist, bestowing violence in the name of anarchy and blood. "What do you think I am?" 

"A monster." Eret snaps, rounding on Ranboo, who backpedals with surprised fear in his eyes. "You're a monster. You might not remember. Your friends might pretend to forget. But I know." 

Ranboo gathers his composure and stands his ground, forcing Eret back a step. "If I'm a monster, and I protected my friends... what does that make you?" He turns on his heel and storms away into the trees. 

Shattered and lost, Eret can only watch him disappear. 

++++

Karl slips a briefcase under the table to his contact, who takes it and gives it a little shake. His contact then slides a folder over the table. Karl snatches it and stuffs it in his backpack. The two remain in silence for a moment longer. Karl leaves first. 

Once out of the main school's cafe, he runs all the way through the woods to the Ducklings' treehouse. Echoing footsteps crack twigs behind him as he reaches the gang's base. 

"Hey, what's that?" Fundy doesn't even bother trying to hide anymore as Karl climbs into the treehouse. 

Karl pulls the ladder up. "None of your business." 

"C'mon, we're in the same class!" 

"You're not a Duckling." 

"I can help!! Pleassse?" Fundy begs. 

"Who the fuck is bugging you, Karl??" Quackity sticks his head out the window. "Fundy?? Get the hell outta here." 

"That was HBomb you were talking to!" Fundy cries desperately. Karl groans and hides his face in his hoodie. "I know that guy! I used to work for him!" 

"Where?" Quackity asks. 

"Some laboratory in the capital!" Fundy cries. "I was shadowing him for a potential internship!" 

"Let the ladder down." Quackity orders. Karl sighs as he obeys. 

"Fine, but I don't trust you." 

"You don't have to." Fundy gives a smug smile as he leaps up the ladder. 

Karl enters the treehouse and sets the blueprints down on the table. Sapnap and Foolish stop painting Connor's hair and gather around with Quackity and Fundy. 

The laboratory blueprints spread across the table, promising revenge. Karl looks up and sees the hungry fire in Quackity's eyes. He looks to the side and meets the molten steel in Sapnap's gaze. 

Quackity draws his dagger and sets the point on the blueprints. "Whoever the fuck's been experimenting on people, let's fucking find them and end their pathetic lives." 

++++

Technoblade slashes the saplings with a rapier, taking out his frustrated fury on the innocent young trees, ignoring the twinges of pain. He shouldn't be this weak. 

Even before Schlatt started experimenting on him, he was stronger than this. He was powerful. The best fighter, the best tactician, the best at strategy. Now his body is frail and hurts merely to move. 

He tries to snarl, but his breath catches in his throat, fear slithering roots into his chest. Irrational. He's being irrational. Technoblade isn't afraid of anything. 

Except perhaps the pale blue of scrubs, the glint of scalpels, the searing agony- No! Technoblade scowls and tries to shove the flashes of terror and hunger and bitter, helpless rage away. 

Philza approaches him with a cup of tea. Technoblade flinches away, unable to look at the man he failed, the friend he abandoned. "Techno?" Philza sets the tea down on a fallen tree and presses a hand to Technoblade's shoulder. 

"Who am I, Phil?" Technoblade begs. Weak. The old Technoblade would never beg, would never cry. 

"You're my friend." Philza answers. 

"Why aren't I dead?" 

"The kids agreed to keep it a secret and wait until the year is up." 

"Phil. It's not going to last forever, Phil, you need to kill me soon. I can feel the damn resonancy in my chest. I don't know how long you have, but you need to kill me before I destroy the world." 

"Techno." Philza's voice shakes. "No. Techno, we'll find something."

"Find what?? It hurts, Phil. It hurts to move, it hurts to talk... I've killed so many people, Phil, I deserve this, I deserve to die! Kill me, please. The kids are too innocent. They don't need to be turned into murderers like me." He thinks of Quackity, the blazing fire. He thinks of Ranboo, the gentle nightmare. Of Tommy, the merciless sunshine. Each and every student. They deserve better. 

"Technoblade." Philza grips Techno's chin and brushes back his hair. "I deserve death as much as you. But I'm going to keep living. There's still people we need to kill, Techno, there's still governments to dismantle! We can't end now! We'll find a cure. A real cure. I promise." 

"I don't want you to die." 

"Ditto, mate." Philza embraces Techno gently. Techno wraps his arms around his friend, afraid to let go.

[nymphadoratonqs]

heheh of cOURSE I'm asking 002 for nymohadora tonks😍💖💖💖😂with that beautiful username change of yours!!!!!

AAAA i’m finally making my 15 year-old self’s dream come true and unashamedly becoming nympahdora tonks in my spare time  😂

002 | Give me a character & I will tell you

• How I feel about this character:

As you can probably tell, she’s my favourite. 😍  I mean, I love Remus Lupin and I will protect him with all I’ve got, but Tonks is my main girl and it’s time I’ve let the world know all about it! haha

• All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Mainly Fleur and Remus! But, as I said when I talked about Fleur, I don’t think those are necessarily mutually exclusive. I think there are multiple possibilities and I truly believe people can love more than one person at a time, and that sometimes monogamy and a bourgeois family unit are not the way to go to make someone truly happy. 

• My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Tonks and Charlie are my friendship OTP! My headcanon is that they were friends at Hogwarts and had a great time taunting one another over their House’s Quidditch matches. In the best “queers band up together” spirit, I think they would have had some experiences to share since I see both their mums as fairly conservative in their own ways, too.

• My unpopular opinion about this character:

Where do I begin? 😂 I disagree with a lot of people in the fandom, especially other fellow Wolfstar shippers, about a great load of things when it comes to Tonks and Remadora. I don’t see her as a manipulative person who “forced Remus into a relationship he didn’t want to be in”, as I’ve seen people put it before, and I think that there’s a misogynistic and a biphobic tone to that interpretation of her character. 

It’s also unfair to Remus to assume that he could be conned into a relationship because she was shown as the one who pursued him (and because of that scene in HBP where they argue about it in front of Molly), or that she “hooked him by getting pregnant” (!!!!). The way I see their relationship, Tonks saw through Remus’ deep insecurities and self-loathing and called him out on his bullshit. The “too old, too poor, too dangerous” speech is the essence of his character to me. He really thinks he’s not good enough for her, and that he would be harming Tonks by being in a relationship with her, as much as he wanted it. This only gets confirmed later on in DH when Harry calls him out for wanting to ditch his wife and unborn child to go on a mission. To me, that is Remus trying to cover his urge to punish himself for having gotten something he wanted and didn’t think he deserved by denying himself love and a family. It’s almost a suicidal move (no one can convince me he wouldn’t be out there jumping in front of hexes if he had gone out to fight with the trio), and I don’t think he was thinking clearly/coldly when he decided to leave. 

I mean, no one concludes that Sirius is deep down a murderer who was just dying to go out there and off Peter when he went after him and ended up getting all those Muggles killed (even if he wasn’t the one who exploded them) – which was a very bad decision he made while highly emotional and, arguably, out of his mind. So why would a big chunk of the fandom collectively decide that Remus didn’t love Tonks and was just dying to break free of that “forced relationship” when he’s the one to make a decision out of fear, anguish and guilt that stems from his own self-hate? (Misogyny, that’s why.)

• One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

I really fucking wish she would have lived. There was no good narrative reason for her to die, only shock value, and honestly fuck that.

• my OTP

This one is hard! I do think that Remadora had great potential. I truly think that they could have worked through their issues with time and therapy (which I can dream about because everyone deserves time and therapy to help them have a better life) because I think she would have brought out the best in him. Tonks is a bright, clever, skilled and overall badass person. She’s also kind and loving (hello, Hufflepuff) and FUN and Remus is a Marauder, ffs! I can see him slowly learning that he deserves to be loved, and feeling freer and freer to be himself around her. They could have been so happy together, and having them both die in the end was shit. I’m still bitter about that.

BUT here’s the catch: no woman has to stick with a man while he takes his (well deserved) time to work through his issues. Tonks doesn’t have to be his Manic Pixie Dream Chick and lovingly guide him to a land of stable mental health where he can be the partner she deserves. 

And that’s where Flonks comes into the picture. Fleur may have her issues (like every human being on the planet does), but they wouldn’t get in the way of them making each other happy. I think they are both awesome witches (brave and bright and talented) and they would make a great Auror & Curse Breaker team. They could build each other up and have an amazing life filled with love and gay things and I would absolutely love that.

• a headcanon fact:

Throughout the years, the idea of Tonks being non-binary has grown on me. With the ability to morph your body, having to stick to what society expects from a female or a male body to look like and what that means to your own gender identity doesn’t seem like something Tonks would ignore, to me. As someone who’s seen rebelling against what’s expected from her (which, in canon, sounds a lot like “Not Like Other Girls Syndrom”, but I digress), I can see it as something she would want to explore about herself. 

Still, I think I still would have a lot more to learn before I could write a story that featured this headcanon. As a cis person, I believe I’m at a point where I still need to hear a lot more, rather than speak myself when it comes about gender non-conforming.  

Oh, and by the way, I was gifted a Flonks fic that features NB Tonks this year for Femme Fest and I really loved what Isa did with the headcanon. It was so meaningful for the story and it also shook me a bit out of my comfort zone in the best of ways. I really really recommend it!

[shanethvarosa]

Music Review: 2020

My blog has been a lot of things over the years, but it did originate as something I used to publicly review music; especially in the Visual Kei scene. Since I began the blog so many years ago, I had actually been hired to review Visual Kei and J-Rock music for an actual website: VKH-Press.com, work I am very, very proud of to this day. However, with not much news to comment on or work to critique, I haven’t been as active. Plus, personal issues always seem to stand in my way. However, I always take the time to discuss my passions at the end of the year. There were so many incredible releases, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and so I wanted to take the time time to discuss my favorite releases and, maybe, the not-so-favorites as well. Quick shout out to Bastille’s Goosebumps EP and Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News LP as I did not get to listen to them before I wrote up my lists, but were still excellent releases. See my thoughts below! 

Overall, there were about 75 albums or groupings of albums I listened to this year and split them between various tiers. Starting with the bad tier, there were actually only ten albums listed here and mostly just because they were seemingly unnecessary collection albums. For example, another Satsuki collection? Rides in ReVellion releasing two greatest hits LPs after only five years of work? Beyonce releasing The Lion King: The Gift again? None of those felt like necessary releases. There weren’t many albums that really screamed bad to me this year, but I really could not stand Vanessa Carlton’s “Love is an Art” or Justin Bieber’s “Changes.” The only other albums on this tier were just underwhelming compared to what I know the artist is capable of, but the “best bad tier album,” in my view, was The 1975′s “Notes on a Conditional Form.” 

The mid-tier albums had all sorts of reasons for being only mid-tier. They weren’t quite bad or outright unnecessary, but are mostly by artists who put out work that was nowhere near the caliber of their usual work or were re-releases or other collection albums. For example, Tove Lo’s “Sunshine Kitty: Pawprint Edition” or Man With A Mission’s remixes/b-sides/covers albums. Nice to have with good quality music, but I wish we’d just have had brand new EPs or LPs. 

The good-tier albums were all really excellent releases, but didn’t hit home the way anything on the “God-Tier” list did. Here, I’d like to share a quick top ten: 

10. Taeyeon’s “Purpose: Repackage” & Japanese EP, “#GirlsSpkOut” 9. Charli XCX’s “How I’m Feeling Now” 8. Miyavi’s “Holy Nights” & “Holy Nights: 2020 Lockdown” 7. TK’s “Sainou” 6. PVRIS’s “Use Me” 5. Buck-Tick’s “Abracadabra” 4. Katy Perry’s “Smile” 3. Alicia Keys’ “Alicia” 2. Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” & “Club Future Nostalgia” 1. Ava Max’s “Heaven & Hell

Without furhter ado, though, the God Tier Top 25: 

25. Acme’s We Are Visual Kei: Essentially a collection album of several songs that were b-sides that never made a full-blown album. This LP was loaded with some of Acme’s best work and shows that they are going to be here for a long time, despite Div not quite working out. Recommended tracks: Mononoke Requiem, Gekiyama Celluloid, Houkago no Shiiku 

24. Alanis Morisette’s Such Pretty Forks in the Road: Admittedly, a huge fan in the 90′s and loved her cover of Seal’s Crazy. However, before this album I didn’t really listen to much of her body of work and I can see why today’s youth might not listen to this album. It is very “adult” insofar as it deals with her struggles in marriage, parenting, religion, etc. Her vocal performance is exceptional and her song writing remains some of the best in the business. Recommended tracks: Smiling, Nemesis, Reasons I Drink. 

23. Niall Horan’s Heartbreak Weather: Not my usual cup of tea, but for some reason Niall’s music makes me feel softer than normal. He’s very cute and charming and his words are always so romantic. It feels more genuine than the music made by other members of One Direction and kind-of reminds me of earlier Taylor Swift writing, but from a male perspective. Recommended Tracks: Put A Little Love On Me, Arms of a Stranger, Still. 

22. K/DA’s All Out: I don’t even really understand what this is, but I love it. There’s something to do with League of Legends? Cartoons? International pop stars? Whatever it is, I’m totally obsessed. These songs just completely slap. Recommended Tracks: The Baddest, More, Drum Go Dum. 

21. Darrell’s Brilliant Death: This might even “officially” be a single, but there’s enough content to market it as an album. Darrell is a band formed from the ashes of Deathgaze and Ai’s solo project. Who knows why Ai didn’t just continue after his solo album, Confusion, but he decided to go back to the band-format with confusingly-named Darrell. This album is then, incidentally, mostly Deathgaze covers. It brings the production into the new era and gives you a lot of nostalgic love for old hits. Recommended Tracks: Brilliant Death, Evoke the World, Abyss. 

20. Alice Nine’s Fuyajou Eden & Kuro to Wonderland: Neither album was particularly long, in fact these were glorified EPs that could’ve been merged to one two-sided LP, but in either case... Both albums had something really special to offer and felt like a true comeback after years of name changes and finally going back to their original, kanji-styled name. Recommended Tracks: Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionary Blooming-, Testament, Replica, Glow. 

19. Mucc’s Aku: This album felt very long in the making after a series of weird singles that didn’t feel like they were going anywhere. Ultimately, a lot of those singles did not make the album including my favorite one: Taboo. The resulting album, though, did feel very cohesive and thematic and even featured one of this year’s heavy hitters: Hazuki. Recommended Tracks: Aku -Justice-, Memai, Ameria. 

18. Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts: This person is absolutely one of my favorite people in music. I’m pretty sure they have comeout as genderfluid/non-binary, so I want to stick with safe pronouns, just in case. However, they’ve always been a favorite and as they’ve come out as such a champion for the LGBT, I love them even more. The album though gave me a lot of hype for something very 80′s rock, but didn’t quite give me what I expected. All in all, the music was fantastic, just a little off-beat from expectations. Recommended Tracks: Gimme What I Want, Angels Like You, WTF Do I Know. 

17. Rina Sawayama’s Sawayama: I didn’t expect to fall in love with this girl the way I did. My boyfriend recommended “STFU” to me as kind of a joke because the song discusses a lot of Asian racism that I’m always criticizing people in my life for falling into, but then the song was so bad ass I checked out the album. There were so many different types of music on it and she really did a good job with all of them. Then, with the deluxe edition coming out and the hardcore club banger “Lucid” being involved... Just really brought it all home. Recommended Tracks: Tokyo Love Hotel, Lucid, Fuck This World. 

16. Amber Liu’s X: This was just an EP, but every song on it was great. Amber Liu was from f(x), a K-Pop Icon Group, but she always seemed like the odd one out. She was such a tomboy, so silly and funny all the time, and didn’t really behave like other Korean idols. I mean, really, she isn’t actually even Korean. I believe she’s Chinese American. In either case, the EP really noted some of her own personal strugles in the business and also remaining pretty fun at parts too. I saw her live in Philly before COVID-19 and she was truly excellent. Recommended Tracks: Numb, Stay Calm, Other People. 

15. Blackpink’s The Album: Not much of an album at only 8 tracks, but that’s K-Pop for you. I bet next year I’ll be putting “Blackpink’s The Album: Repackage” on my top 25 list. The quality of the music was pretty dope though, all things considered. It was a very solid debut effort with all of their previous songs being somewhere in the same lane as this one. I still kind of believe they are a reminder of what 2NE1 could have been, but they’re doing well enough on their own. Recommended Tracks: Ice Cream, Lovesick Girls, Pretty Savage. 

14. Hazuki’s Year Over All: Kind of a weird way to word it, but Hazuki basically released two albums this year in different formats. His work with his band, Lynch., was pretty magnificent. I’m not one to usually dwell on a Lynch. album. Their singles or featured tracks are what I usually get into, but the actual album (Ultima) really did a good job of showing how versatile Hazuki can be. His solo album, Souen -Funeral-, was an entirely stripped down, gothic orchestral album of Lynch. covers and other J-Hard Rock artists. Hearing it done like this was almost transcendental. Recommended Tracks: Xero, Idol, Ray, D.A.R.K. 

13. Sam Smith’s Love Goes: They had me scared that their album wasn’t coming this year once they pushed it back, back in May. Then again, at the time, an album called “To Die For” was probably super tone deaf. In any case, literally every single released for this album had me in love. So, when they all got included in the final version, I was thrilled. Sam gave us a bonus song after the album as well, but I can see why that one didn’t get on. In any case, this is a huge step up from “The Thrill of it All,” which I didn’t really care for. Recommended Tracks: Another One, Dance (’Til You Love Someone Else), Forgive Myself. 

12. Troye Sivan’s In A Dream: I love this kid. He’s so gay and so not shy about it and it really makes me smile. The EP comes after his last LP, Bloom, where the title track basically talks about bottoming for the first time and this new EP deals with a few other queer issues over weirdly produced beats that just... make sense. Recommended tracks: Stud, In A Dream, Easy. 

11. Matenrou Opera’s Chronos: Unfortunately, this band just lost their guitarist again. Their original, Anzi, was basically the most consummate guitarist in the visual kei scene that wasn’t Hizaki and he left them. Their sound wasn’t quite right since and they seemed to just get it back with Chronos when Jay left them. I guess we’ll see what they do next, but I think Chronos could be their last great release. Recommended Tracks: Chronos, Silence, Reminiscence. 

10. BoA’s Better: A very recent release that hasn’t had much time for me to digest. This is strange for me to put it so high on my list for that reason, but BoA is one of my all time favorites. She never disappoints me. This album was no different. It wasn’t exactly up to par with “Woman” or “Watashi Kono Mama de Ii no Kana,” but it definitely gave us some new and very iconic Queen BoA bangers. Recommended Tracks: Cut Me Off, Start Over, Temptations. 

9. Kesha’s High Road: A semi-step down from Rainbow, only because a lot of the same melodic elements and, sometimes, even beats were used on this album too. However, her vocal performance was outstanding and she even gave us a new dirty-pop song with some interesting indie-pop tracks to go with it. Plus, who doesn’t love a Big Freedia feature? Recommended Tracks: Resentment, Raising Hell, Tonight. 

8. Lady Gaga’s Chromatica: Anyone who knows me knows I don’t really love Gaga anymore. After all the drama with Madonna and her experimentation with “Joanne” I didn’t think I’d ever like her music again. However, she definitely won back big points for me on Chromatica. It was finally fun, weird, dancey, and then simultaneously emotional and I was really able to get back into it. She’s always had the voice, but on this one it also showed us that she still has what made us love her. Recommended Tracks: Rain On Me, Plastic Doll, Enigma. 

7. Koda Kumi’s My Name Is... Angel + Monster: She is, very likely, my Japanese Pop Queen. She always makes these absolutely outlandish bangers of dance tracks that have such a great attitude and beat and when she released re(CORD)... last year? 2018? Who can remember... I thought she could never outdo herself. Then she released “Lucky Star” and I was floored. I was a bit disappointed when they were only to promote a “My Name Is...” collection album, but then, to my surprise, a full set of new tracks came out just after that just blew me entirely away. Guess the last 6 albums must be pretty great, huh? Recommended tracks: Killer Monster, Work It!, Alarm. 

6. Grimes’ Miss Anthropocene: I’ve never been a big fan of Grimes, but when Violence came out I was really looking forward to whatever album this was going to end up promoting. The song is actual fire, but then the LP ended up being some kind of experimental Gothic Pop with Asian Pop influences I never expected. I doubt I’ll ever find something she does this good ever again, but it was really a musical light in the darkness of this year. Recommended tracks: Darkseid, Delete Forever, Violence. 

5. Kylie Minogue’s Disco: Admittedly, my draw to Kylie has always been that she is like some kind of Australian Madonna. Madonna being one of my all time favorite artists... In fact, number 2 for all women I listen to, Kylie has some big shoes to fill with her sometimes generic pop that she puts out. However, I haven’t really truly loved a Kylie song since “Get Outta My Way” and then this album comes out filled with tracks to love for the rest of time. Recommended Tracks: Miss A Thing, Till You Love Somebody, Magic. 

4. Chanmina’s Notebook/Angel: I don’t have really any way of knowing how popular Chanmina is in Japan or if she is as popular in the Japanese Queer Scene as she should be, but god damn does she know what she’s doing. Her music is raunchy, bitchy, and condescending at it’s highest and deeply personal at it’s most mellow. There is no “lowest.” “Notebook” was a two-sided album and “Angel” a strong follow up EP, but all the recommended tracks are from “Notebook.” If you have not listened to “Picky”.... go do it now, I’ll wait. Recommended tracks: Picky, Baby, Lucy. 

3. The Weeknd’s After Hours: Incidentally, I got into The Weeknd after someone said something shitty about him here on Tumblr! I took their likely-valid criticism and went to check him out for myself and I gotta say, I love his work. The beats are literally always on point and his voice is like silk. This album provided more than a few iconic songs and I always can’t wait to see what he does next. Recommended Tracks: Alone Again, Heartless, Blinding Lights. 

2. Halsey’s Manic: The singles and features she did between Hopeless Fountain Kingdom and Manic gave me such insanely high hopes and I was not disappointed. HFK was a strong album of course, but this was near perfection for me. I think the production of this alt-pop album was the star of the show because it wasn’t all one way, there were heavy-bass songs, interesting piano riffs, striaght up punk rock, all of it. She really made an album quite like it’s namesake. Recommended Tracks: Ashley, Killing Boys, Still Learning. 

1. Dexcore’s Metempsychosis: A newcomer to the visual kei and death metal scene, they’ve been putting out single after single for years in preparation for their extemeley long and multidaceted debut album. With a total of about 33 songs, the entire second disc was rerecorded singles from their early days and some even got new lyrical treatment. The main series of songs were, of course, also totally flooring and all of the recommended tracks are the new ones. If you haven’t checked them out by now, you have to! Recommended tracks: Cibus, Scribble, Period.

[girlbossblackbeard]

Oh, please. It could not be more obvious that Dean is going to save Cas from the Empty, return his love and they'll live happily ever after. There is zero chance Cas is permadead. The idea that this storyline is "homophobic" is a symptom of tumblr brain rot. I eagerly await all the crow you'll be eating in two weeks... though even when they're LHEA, I'm sure you'll find something to complain about. Gotta get those aggrieved victim woke points somewhere. As a queer woman tumblr is the worst.

Dang dude you sound really upset. Not sure if you're lashing out because you're worried or if that's just your personality but I'll try to give a better explanation of my thoughts to you and everyone reading this who have the same thoughts as you:

(Putting this under a read more bc this reply is long and for my potential spoiler-y thoughts for the last two eps)

1) I feel like I should clarify that I am, in fact, a destiel shipper and want to see them fully canonized. I'm fully caught up with the show too, not just a jaded ex-fan who left the show years ago and hasn't seen a new episode since.

2) If I recall correctly, none of the posts I made implied that Cas was permadead. The fact of the matter is that the audience has had to continually watch queer character after queer character die on the show, and it hurts every time. When a show like SPN fucks around with death so much, it's hard for fans to reliably have hope that a character will return. Look at Ellen and Jo, they died ages ago and their deaths stuck. It's lucky we got Charlie back (sorta) only to lose her again. While I don't think Charlie or Cas's deaths are permanent, it hurts to have to watch them die over and over again. And yes, it is homophobic to habitually kill off queer characters and also set up a scene where a queer character's love confession gets them sent to a bad place. However, I'm not going to shame anyone who found joy in that scene! It's great that people are able to find happiness with it. It does get upsetting when non-fans of the show feel like they're high and mighty because they don't watch it and actively make fun of people who do. I choose to find joy in all the memes that were created because of that scene.

3) this is where potential spoilers come in: unless something major has changed, I wouldn't expect Dean himself to rescue anyone from the empty. I'd wager a guess that God/people having disappeared is his #1 priority right now since Death is gone and there's not a lot of time to devote to that kind of mission. I could be totally wrong (and if I am, I'll be overjoyed by it!) but THIS is why I'm begging everyone to lower their expectations. That goes for people hoping there's an explicit "I love you" reciprocation on Dean's end too. There's very little time to tie up all these different plot lines in a satisfying little bow. Important shit will probably have to happen off screen too in order for everything to fit into the allotted time they have. We also have to keep in mind who wrote the next ep (bucklemming i believe, who have never given a shit about castiel) and have reasonable expectations about what Jensen would allow for his character, as well as the show runners and the network. There's a bajillion moving parts when it comes to making a show and you'll find that there are a lot more roadblocks than you'd expect. Not to mention how COVID fully fucked up production and shooting. I don’t know the exact legal residency/work visa situation with the cast, but when Canada shut its borders due to COVID that threw a HUGE wrench in the ability of the actors to actually go into the country and film their scenes. I’m just not sure how much Cas we’ll be getting to see in the next two eps because of that.

The only reason I've been saying all this and kinda bringing the party down is because I don't want to see fellow fans of the show get absolutely crushed when things don't pan out how they were expecting it to. It's much safer to lower your expectations and be overjoyed when things actually DO turn out how you wanted it to than to be overly optimistic and feel a crushing weight on your shoulders when things DON'T turn out how you want it to. I'm genuinely worried people are going to feel a lot of pain surrounding DeanCas because they're putting too much faith in the writers.

Anyway the other parts of your ask about eagerly awaiting me eating crow (which, again, if I'm wrong about everything above and we DO get a love confession from Dean? I'll have no problem whatsoever doing that! It's what I've been wanting since s4!) and the part about victim woke points or whatever are kinda weird and overly aggressive. If tumblr is the worst for you, there are plenty of other platforms that you might enjoy! The kind of energy you're bringing to this ask makes me think you'd have a great time on Twitter :)

[nelllraiser]

hell to pay | margot, remmy, & nell

LOCATION: a Ring base hideout. PARTIES: @g0t-ri5h, @whatsin-yourhead, and @nelllraiser SUMMARY: nell, remmy, and margot hunt down roy— charlie’s angels style, and the last nail is put into the ring’s coffin. CONTENTS: mild torture, violence

After doing in the other two big names of the Ring, this seemed like it would be a last step. The culmination of all her and Remmy had been working towards ever since they’d been holed up in cages beneath the Ring. Margot had told Nell and Remmy that this was where she’d seen Roy going in and out, and the witch was ready to turn the man inside out after what he’d done to herself, her family, her friends. She’d learned after Montgomery that the fastest way to escape danger was to eliminate the threat as soon as possible. The warehouse where Roy had been seen going in and out of seemed to be a treasure trove if the stills Margot had given them were anything to go off of. It seemed that the remainder of those trying to rebuild the Ring were holed up here as well. Nell knew that Remmy wasn’t all that interested in a massacre, so she’d brought something else instead, a nasty little curse she’d prepared beforehand, one that was simply waiting for the finishing touch to be brought into reality. That would be enough to make sure those responsible for the Ring never took an unwilling fighter again. “Are you ready?” she asked Remmy, crouched a good distance from the entrance to the building. Then she was speaking over to Margot in her remote location. “We’re about to go in. Is the camera at the front door still on, or can we start?”

This was going to be it, Remmy had told themself. This was the last thing they were going to do for the Ring. No more fires, no more prison breaks, no more shake downs. They weren’t sure they’d be able to do much more, anyway. And they hoped Nell understood, at least in some way, why they couldn’t raise their hand to others anymore. There was just too much of it, and they almost felt a yearning to be done. A need to be done. They’d put it aside for now, though, because no matter how they looked at it, this needed to happen. These people needed to be stopped, more than Remmy needed to solidify a vow of non-violence. So this would be it. The last hoorah. The last stand. At least...they hoped. They crouched next to Nell, eyes focused on the main entrance. They’d made sure to skip a meal before coming here, in case their strength was needed. And though hunger didn’t claw at them as badly as other times, they could feel the prickle. “I’m ready,” they said back to Nell, before listening in for Margot’s instructions. Whatever she was doing, they hoped it worked. They hoped no one needed to die uselessly today.

Margot had no idea why she was helping these two strangers. She had no vendetta or revenge plot like her accomplices, but this mission felt like the beginning of something. A gateway to a different world. What she was getting herself into she didn’t know, and while that fact scared Margot, it also spurred her on. Besides, she was in a safer place than Nell and Remmy at this moment. While they were on the frontlines, she was working from the comfort of her bedroom. Her set-up was a myriad of two computer screens she’d ‘borrowed’ from the AV club, her roommate’s gaming headset and a router she was using to tap the warehouse server. Margot could see the two of them crouching on one of the external cameras, just barely, invisible unless you knew they were there. “I’m ready if you are.” She told both of them, sensing their anticipation. Margot had managed to rig up Nell’s wireless headphones, and one of Remmy’s hearing aids so that they could all communicate. Margot was pretty confident that their transmission would be uninterrupted. “I’m going to cut the camera. But, get in quick, we don’t want them to catch on.” Margot executed the command on her keyboard. The camera feed that was showing them to her went black, and when it came back on, they were gone. “Goodluck.” Margot whispered. 

The moment Margot cut the cameras, Nell sprang forward from her hiding place, sparing a glance at Remmy to make sure they weren’t far behind. She sprinted the distance to the door as quickly as possible, thanking her natural speed as she went. Stopping at the door, she pressed a quick and urgent hand against the lock, muttering a spell under her breath as the door opened with a little click. Opening it, she ushered Remmy in behind her, closing it the next second. “Okay, we’re clear of the entrance,” she whispered into the modified AirPod Margot had made for her. “Do we know where the next camera is?” Already her heart was pounding, but it wasn’t from nerves. They were so close to what they’d been working towards ever since they’d been taken by the Ring, so close to finishing all of this once and for all. She could nearly taste it along with the knowledge that Roy was hopefully holed up here, ready for her to rip into him and make the piece of shit pay for all that he’d done. He wouldn’t be allowed to hurt her family, her friends, or herself any more.

Remmy followed close behind Nell. They were bred for this. Following, taking instructions, completing the mission, the task. They remembered how refined the world had been when they’d narrowed their focus down at the Ring. Too much had gone wrong there, they couldn’t let that happen here. So while they kept their focus on Nell, they let their eye wander around to take in their entire surroundings. No one was following, no one was up ahead. They pressed in close to Nell, crouched in the corner. Heard their voices clear through the speaker in their ear. Nell had her magic, Remmy had a taser they’d grabbed from Morgan’s drawer. If she knew what they were doing right now, she’d probably have their head. But they weren’t going to let Nell do this alone. There was no way. “The door is secure, there’s no one up ahead, either,” they muttered, turning to look down the hallway. “We know what room we’re heading for?”

Margot let out a deep breath. They were in. “There doesn’t seem to be a camera in the hall, not one on their servers anyway. You should be good to go.” Margot switched a few tabs on her computer. Squinting at the material she had pulled up. “Building plans I downloaded from city hall show a larger room through the corridor coming up on your right. Could be the place?” 

“Good,” was Nell’s simple answer to both Margot and Remmy, not seeing a reason to talk anymore than was necessary during a time like this. Carefully, she made her way up the hallway in the direction Margot had mentioned, barely daring to breathe as she crept towards the door on the right hand side. It wouldn’t do to have their cover blown so close to their prize. Every cell in Nell’s body seemed to be humming in anticipation, ready to catch the rats that were hopefully lurking on the other side of this door. “Do you wanna do this big or small?” She asked Remmy, knowing there were benefits to both ways. What she really was asking was whether they wanted to go in guns blazing or something more subtle. Whatever answer they may have, she didn’t hesitate to pull out one of her many hidden knives, tracing the tip of it along her thumb to create a pebble of blood. Wordlessly, she swiped it over one of her summoning tattoos along with a few mumble words of something that sounded vaguely demonic. In another instant, her three hellhounds she often called upon were assembled between herself and Remmy, ready for orders after being Summoned by her magic.

Margot’s voice was a comfort on the other end of the line. Knowing they weren’t going in blind helped calm Remmy’s nerves. They followed Nell down to the door that Margot pointed them to, stealing themself quietly against the wall when they stopped to gather themselves. They looked from Nell to the three dogs that had appeared, remembering them from the beach. Or, at least, what little they did remember from that day. That wasn’t something they wanted a repeat of. “If we go in big, there could be a fight. We should try and do this quiet. The less people caught in the crossfire, the better, right?” they suggested quietly. “And if things get out of hand, well..then we go big. Sound good?” A question doled out to both Nell and Margot, knowing it would be her responsibility to lead them out of here if things went sideways.

Once they had disappeared into the depths of the hallway, Margot had no visual on them. It seemed that this organisation had a habit of placing cameras sporadically and unplanned. This meant she did not see the curses that Nell had conjured up, or the three hounds that defied Margot’s rational beliefs. This was perhaps a relief; Nell and Remmy didn’t have time to catch her up at this moment. “Sounds good to me.” Margot spoke through her headset. She had her own plans if things went haywire, she just hoped the other two were as prepared. 

Scooby sniffed curiously at Remmy for a moment, as if wondering whether or not Nell had brought them the zombie as a snack. But the witch quickly gave the hellhound a stern look and shake of her head, and the pup was quickly back on task. As for less people caught in the crossfire...Nell didn’t entirely think that was a bad thing, but putting more deaths on Remmy’s conscious wasn’t something she was entirely willing to be responsible for...so a smaller entrance would have to do. “Sure...sounds good.” With another whispered spell, she unlocked the door separating them from their quarry, and inched it open. At first, there was no resistance, and as she stepped into the room with the dogs at her sides no one looked up from what they were doing, having no reason to think they’d been infiltrated. Most of the faces blurred past Nell’s eyes as she searched for one man in particular. The one she desperately wanted to rip limb from limb. “He’s not here,” she hissed, frustration getting the better of her as she found no familiar face. “Roy’s not fucking here.” 

He wasn’t there. They’d come all this way, and the one person they’d been looking for wasn’t there. Remmy could feel Nell’s frustration, her anger-- she’d wanted so desperately to punish the man that had poisoned her sister and her, and Remmy. They’d both wanted him to be there, and Remmy felt the pain of this loss after the realization hit. “Where is he!?” they asked, teeth grit, jaw clenched. None of the men had moved yet, pressed into staying where they were thanks to the three flaming dogs flanking them. “Where’s Roy? Why isn’t he here!?” they shouted, anger gnashing through their throat and onto their tongue. 

“He’s not there? I could swear—” Margot had been sure he would be there. She’d been watching camera footage for days measuring his comings and goings. Margot hadn’t seen him leave, but she supposed there could be some kind of back entrance she didn’t have eyes on. Her brow furrowed in annoyance and confusion.“Well, shit!” Margot threw up her hands. What were they doing all of this for if the ‘big bad’ wasn’t even there? Margot did what she could to recompose herself. “Is the plan still a go? Or is it over?”

“It’s not over,” Nell bit out into her modified comm through gritted teeth. It’s not fucking over. Nell’s own fury matched Remmy’s in an instant, and a frustrated growl was ripped from her throat as she advanced on the man that looked most frightened of the hellhounds. “Tell me where the fuck he is,” she began, tugging on the collar of his shirt to make him bow to her height. “Tell me where he is, and I might think twice about turning you into a dog snack for my friends here.” As if on cue, the hellhounds began to circle the man, nipping not so playfully at his heels. His body grew tense, and the effect of the demon dogs was instantaneous as he stammered out an answer. “I- I don’t know! I don’t know! He never tells us where he goes! Says it’s safer that way!”

Remmy watched Nell advance on the man that looked most afraid. She might’ve been small in size, but she was not small in stature. Her presence could fill an entire room. They kept their eye on the other two, who looked ready to run if the opportunity presented itself. One of them made to move, but Remmy sidled into their path, simply shaking their head, eyes sharp. They weren’t sure they’d hurt the man, but they would restrain him from leaving. They had to. They looked to Nell, feeling Margot’s frustration as well. “Now what?” they asked, ready to follow whatever instructions either doled out. “Do we just...go forward with the plan?”

Nell’s gaze burned into the man in front of her, jaw set in a stubborn and angry line that spoke of a determination that made her willing to do nearly anything when it came to getting what she wanted in a situation such as this. A sound of utter disgust was pulled from her lips as the man proved useless, and she released him from her iron tight grip. Then she spoke to Remmy, though the words were for the benefit of the whole room, a foreboding tone filling their syllables, letting the air of a threat fill the promise. “We go forward with the plan. Maybe they’ll be a little more willing to talk by the end of it. Just something to jog their memory” A snap of her fingers had an animal hide appearing in her open hand, summoning a curse she’d prepared at home specifically for this situation— it would only need the finishing touches. As she unfurled it, a circle drawn in blood came into focus, runes of all sorts filling it in a careful pattern. It was about the size of a bearskin when laid across the floor, and with the utterance of a commanding word in Latin, the nails on the edges of the skin drove it into the wooden floor beneath them, securing it in place.

“Now it’s your turn,” Nell said with a sharp grin to the man closest to her, roughly shoving him into the center of the set up and into the circle. “Don’t be shy,” she sweetly commented to the other few men in the room. “Go ahead and join your friend.” They didn’t have much of a choice as the hellhounds herded them onto the animal skin, snapping their teeth. Then began her chanting, more Latin repeated in a cycle as she circled the men like prey, watching them with hungry eyes. The hounds mirrored her in a counter-clockwise motion, making sure to deter anyone that might have been thinking about making a break for it. Once they were huddled neatly in the center, Nell drew the rest of the nails from her pockets, and went over to the last man who had stepped into the circle. Without skipping a beat, she stuck the very tip of a nail into each of the man’s shoes before straightening. Then, without hesitating, her own foot came down on the man’s left foot— her strong and fluid motion driving the nail clean through the flesh and sinew, effectively nailing him to the floor. A gasp and grunt of pain was wrenched from him, but Nell paid it no mind as she went on to the second of his feet, repeating the process. Then it was on to the next man, and then the third— each one growing more fearful as she went, their agony etched into their faces. They couldn’t move without forcefully pulling their feet from the ground along with the nails that had been hammered into them. They were trapped, unable to escape. Just like all those innocents had been underneath the Ring. Just like she had been along with Remmy. She couldn’t deny the perverse pleasure she got in knowing how thoroughly the tables had been turned, that they were now the ones welling with an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Finally, she got to the last man, and the first one she’d approached after entering the room. 

“I said I might reconsider by the end of this. So are you going to tell me what I want or not?” Nell offered him the chance to save himself from a similar fate the others had faced. For a moment the adam’s apple of his throat wobbled, as if he were weighing his options. “I don’t know where he is- I promise, I don’t. But I know- I do know…” He hesitated, and Nell grew impatient, lining the nails up along the tops of his shoes, foot poised above them. “I’m waiting.” That was all the incentive he needed to continue with his train of thought. “Roy’s undead! I’m not even supposed to know, but I heard it by accident! That’s something you can use, right?” he asked desperately, hoping the revelation had saved him. “Sure is,” was all Nell smugly said before jamming the nails through his feet, a wail warbling forth from him as she finished the job. Men like him didn’t deserve second chances. Not after all they’d done, not after all the hurt and harm they’d brought to the world. 

Remmy flinched with each nail that was driven into the men’s feet. This needed to be done, they told themself, this needed to happen. They knew this wasn’t going to end without someone suffering, but the pain the men experienced felt like nothing compared to the pain Remmy had felt in the ring. When the gargoyle had ripped them in half, when Jax had driven them to the brink of starvation, when Remmy’s own hands had ripped through Ben’s flesh. They felt a burning in their chest, their eyes, the back of their throat. A raw anger that they could taste. The smell of blood filling their head. Even if Remmy never wanted to hurt someone again, these men deserved this pain. They looked away as Nell drove the last nails in, clenching their jaw. They pushed their mind to focus on something else, wondering what Margot, someone outside of all of this, thought of what was happening. If she would still think of Remmy the same after they got out of this. 

Finally, Nell paused. Remmy looked over at her. “Undead,” they repeated quietly, “like me?” It was the only thing they could think of to say. Was the man who had done all of this just like them? Or was he a vampire? Or even something else? Were there other undead species Remmy didn’t know about yet? They swallowed the questions. “Undead means...he can still be stopped,” they said with a quiet realization to Nell. “It’s not over.”

If Remmy hadn’t been here, the men would probably already be dead by Nell’s hand and the teeth of her hounds. But she knew they hadn’t wanted more death involved in this, though she wasn’t sure whether or not she agreed with them. It was more complicated to know what the right choice was with every day that passed. What she knew at the most base level was someone couldn’t do any more harm if they were dead. It didn’t matter, though. She’d already made the decision to work with Remmy’s preferences. All that was left to the curse now was the finishing touch. Her own sacrifice. Pulling one of her knives from its hiding place, she dragged it smoothly, evenly along the mottled scarring of her forearm making a cut large enough to procure a good helping of her blood. Letting it fall onto the tops of the shoes of the men she’d just nailed to the floor, and once again moving in a circle, she spoke a final chant, focusing her mind into a thin line when it came to her goal, and what it was that these men would be carrying with them so long as they continued to live. When the Latin was done, she spoke it once more for those in the circle. Not for their own benefit, but because she wanted to see the blood drain from their faces as she told them the news. “You’ll never take an unwilling prisoner or fighter ever again. You’ll never cause harm to those that don’t deserve it. And you’ll never profit from another’s misery. Or there’ll be hell to pay.” As if she’d said their names specifically, the hellhounds growled their affirmation, adding their own promise to the end of her’s. 

Now it was done. The blood from Nell’s arm sank into the men’s boots, as if it were being sucked through the tops of them, marking them, following them wherever they’d go. Coming out of the near trance-like state of magic she’d been in, she turned back to Remmy, wrapping her arm in a bandage she’d summoned from home. “I don’t know if he’s like you. But you’re right.” Another satisfied grin spread over his lips. “It means he can die just like you or me. And then all this will be over.”

Margot heard screams, and chanting, and pain. The three together made her ears ring. What had she been pulled into? It sounded like some kind of satanic ritual, but that could just be the connection. Margot was sure that was it. Her modification to the ear pieces had malfunctioned somehow and she was experiencing some kind of feedback. “Hello?” Margot called out a few times, testing the connection. “Can you guys still hear me?”

Despite Margot’s assurances to herself that this was some kind of technical issue, the words “undead”, and “like me”, were unmistakably spoken by Remmy. Margot wasn’t privy to whatever they were talking about, and that was something she wouldn’t settle for. Still, she knew this wasn’t the time for an interrogation, at least not for her to conduct. “What’s happening? Is it done?”

The ritual made Remmy’s stomach churn, but it was a lot better than having to watch these men die. There was already too much death, even if these men deserved it, Remmy didn’t want anymore death. They didn’t want anyone else implicated in these deaths. The ring had taken enough from them, it would not take the part of them that wanted to do better as well. They would not give in. They looked away when Nell started chanting, backing into the corner, watching the door behind them to make sure no one else was coming, though they supposed Margot would warn them. They wondered if she could hear the chanting, if she understood what was going on. Nell had she didn’t know if Margot knew about the supernatural, but it seemed as if she didn’t care at the moment. That she didn’t mind implicating someone in this. No-- Remmy shook the thought away. Whatever happened, they would protect Margot, as thanks for doing this. They were pulling her into a dangerous world, but Remmy silently vowed they would make sure she was safe, protected. They could do that. They wanted to do that. 

Finally, Nell was done, wrapping her arm up and looking back over at Remmy. Margot’s voice chimed in on their ear pieces. “It’s done,” they said quietly to her, to Nell. “We’re done.”