#(3rd condition for her loving him still is that she can still mess with him ofc)

[asofterepilogue]

I know that penelope saying "don't tell me you're not the same person, you're always my husband" is just supposed to be her saying that all she cares about is that he's odysseus and he loves her (and don't get me wrong it IS incredibly sweet and romantic and it makes me tear up a little)

but considering the first thing odysseus does in the musical is commit war crimes and then he just never stops at all, it tickles me to think that she's also saying he's always been a horrible little monster, she's always known, and she thinks the horrors are part of the fun.

[sleepy-grav3]

Obsessions - Family

A/n: So, a while back, I made this little thing about obsession speculations. Well, I made a few oneshots about that even further back and just found them. It's a mini-series that looks like it was attached to another fanfic plan? Well, I have no idea what the plan was, so I'm giving you this. There are 4 parts I made? This and the 3rd part are finished, but the 2nd and 4th are incomplete. Better together but still understandable as a standalone, you know?

Summary: Jazz has finally gotten through to Vlad in their therapy sessions. Danny is a bit on edge but relieved. Then Vlad has a talk with Jack and Maddie. Many things are shared.

TW: Unprofessional and very improvised medical treatment, mention of stalking, mention of attempted murder, intensified canonical death(s) (I made it so much worse, but it's not too detailed), hints at suicidal thoughts, hints as attempts, internalized homophobia, polyamory (I don't consider it a trigger but some people don't like it so whatever), mention of a dead kitten

Vlad/Maddie/Jack; Danny's obsession is Space and Protection; Vlad's obsession is Family; Liminal amity Park; Vlad loves animals; Amity is Danny's haunt and the people, animals, ghosts, and more sentient plants that live there are his people; Ghosts feel things more intensely and it's overwhelming for halfas who are also still alive and not built or used to it; ghosts are empaths, they know what other people around them are feeling

Danny was sitting on his bed with a needle and fishing line in hand, sewing a particularly long and deep enough cut from his last fight, when his door slammed open. He jumped, eyes wide, blood draining from his face, and heart entirely stopping.

He feared the worst, thinking about how to explain to his parents about such a large injury that couldn’t possibly be from bullying, but then he realized who it was. Jazz.

She was more frazzled, hair a mess and panting heavily. But thanks to ghost speak, allowing him to be the best empath a living person could be, he could tell she wasn’t scared or panicking. It was similar in intensity, but it was the opposite. She was excited and enthusiastic.

“I did it!” She laughed. Tears were springing forth from her eyes as she paced around, waving her hands around. “I actually did it! I-I helped him- I convinced- I- Holy shit, Danny! I did it!”

Danny sighed, shoulders slumping without the previous worry he harbored. He allowed his heart to beat once more, finishing his stitches as Jazz let out her excitement and… relief? No, it was satisfaction. Huh.

“It wasn’t- I didn’t think that- Wow! I didn’t know how it was all going to work because of how obsessions work and his seemed like it was leaning towards control but- But it wasn’t! And while the situation is a bit weird now, it’s- I got a breakthrough!”

Danny raised a brow as he looked up, having finished tying the knot and snipping off the rest while she spoke.

“Can I ask or are you implementing privacy protocols?”

Jazz took a few breaths, letting out a few airy chuckles.

“I-... No it’s…” She took another breath. “Vlad- I’ve been talking to him.” she quickly went to clarify once seeing Danny tense. “And yes, I’m fine. He hasn’t done anything. He’s sent me gifts and sent me a bunch of textbooks and all that- but nothing over the moon.”

Danny pursed his lips, making Jazz smile. He always hated how she’d slip in astronomy into the conversation to calm him down. She knew how it affected his ghostly side. It was like a sedative, a drug. It worked every time.

He was worried the addiction would grow like it had for other ghosts. Jazz stated that it was more like a prescription for a health condition. After that conversation, it clicked. She must’ve been talking with Frostbite. Damn her empathetic nature. It wasn’t even caused by some instinct (though he supposed that she may have a mother’s instinct with how she always saw through him).

“When did you…?”

“He wasn’t sure which place to get Maddie from and what would be best suited for them.” It took a moment for Danny to remember about Vlad's first cat.

“But why did he ask you?”

“He thought I wanted to be a vet. And yes, I did for a while just to be around animals. Always wanted a snake- but it wasn’t really… Anyway- The last time Mom talked about me before the incident, it was about me helping a friend with their grumpy cat.”

“Well, he went to the right person, I guess. He officially has 4 of them now.”

“Officially?”

“Remember the whole stray thing?”

It started with Danny finding a dead kitten in a parking lot. His obsession about protecting his people, including the animals and even some plants, had hit him hard. He ended up crying to Vlad about it when the older halfa saw him going on a frenzy to find all the strays in Amity to see if they were ok.

Vlad decided to join him and bought a whole building for the strays they've found. It's a play area open for adoption and just to hang out. But before that, he had to keep them in his mansion. He had to throw out his old wardrobe because of all the fur.

It was funny to think back on. Vlad spoiled them so much but refused to admit how attached he got to them even when he had 3 kittens climbing him, a surprise raccoon on his shoulders, and 2 dogs running circles around him.

“Oh, right.” Jazz snickered a bit before shaking her head. “After approaching him enough times while you were out, I was able to start talking with him. And now, he came to a conclusion!”

“And that is…?”

Jazz hesitated for a moment.

“So… how do you feel about hooking him up with mom-”

He opened his mouth.

“-and dad?”

He closed it, eyes now wide. Jazz pursed her lips, analyzing every micro-expression before falling back into therapist-brain when she found nothing.

“I know you aren’t comfortable with him after everything, but you must’ve noticed how he’s calmed down a bit, right? He’s trying and-”

“It’s related to his obsession. He has one.” Danny interrupted; Jazz could hear his slow relief sneaking in. “It’s not… You said it wasn’t control. It's... it's really not?” His expression held hesitant hope. As if he was trying to be careful not to get his hopes up.

Jazz smiled softly. “No, it’s not.”

Danny let out a small sigh of relief, slumping forward. Jazz could see the energy- something similar to adrenaline- drain out of him. He looked more tired now.

The exhaustion he carried was identical to that of a retired veteran soldier. It made a piece of her ache each time he let loose enough to show it. It made her wilt when she saw the similar expressions on his friends as well.

Val was an exception, but it was only because she acted like a military person during training rather than after war.

It made sense.

She hated how it did.

He looked up again, now with a more appreciative look. One that was thankful and genuinely happy.

“Congratulations on your breakthrough.”

“It’ll be a bit easier now, right?”

Danny let out a small chuckle. “Maybe.” He let out another sigh as his head spun a bit from the relief.

He could feel how fuzzy everything was starting to become as something in him twisted. He could feel his core amplifying whatever emotions he was feeling to the point he felt numb. The feeling made it harder to tell if he was breathing, it made it harder to stay in the moment.

He could see Jazz coming closer and he could only smile. He was happy. He was so happy. It felt like he was a step closer to completing something.

“Maybe…”

---

“Can we talk? Just the 3 of us?”

It was a few days after another session with Jazz when he finally convinced himself to talk with Maddie and Jack. Maddie looked at him more skeptically.

It was to be expected, and it made his core want to cry. But Jack accepted without hesitation, looking more than excited to see him. He smiled a bit, feeling his core mend itself with the acceptance alone that he received from Jack of all people. The very person he wanted to kill until about a week ago.

They shuffled to the living room where Vlad could finally sense Daniel in his room along with Jazz’s liminality along with him. It was always difficult to sense liminals, ghosts, or even Daniel in the household due to how much ectoplasm the scientists dealt with. It was worse than how difficult it was to track Daniel’s presence (ghost form or not) when he left Amity Park while Daniel out with his friends or at school.

It’s why he implemented cameras. He had deactivated them once the second truce came around, instead deciding to call Jazz regularly for updates. She was fully honest with him, it was relieving. It made his core hum with glee.

“So what did you want to talk about, Vladdie?”

Vlad took a shaky breath. He didn’t want to lie anymore. He didn’t talk about this to any of the children, but he didn’t want things to bite him back in the future if this worked out.

“Remember the proto-portal? The one we made back in college?”

“Yes?” Maddie confirmed hesitantly, feeling the tension of the room grow.

“Something happened to me then. I got a disease of sorts. It was fatal.”

The 2 of them stilled.

“But you recovered!” Jack exclaimed, though there was a growing puddle of fear. Of concern.

Vlad took another breath, eyes starting to sting.

“I was put into intensive care. They didn’t know what to do, it was a new field entirely. I kept getting sicker and sicker until they gave up and prescribed pain meds in dosages that should’ve been lethal near the end.”

Their hearts dropping was almost audible. Jack’s expression crumbled and Maddie’s became unrecognizable. There was too much weight in her emotions to try and piece together what she was feeling. He was too scared to find out. He was too scared to regret not saying the words “I wish” when his recovery picked up years ago.

He remembered the months during his recovery after he became a halfa. He woke up feeling a rush of so much that he felt numb until he could process it properly. He was still under immense danger of dying. He argued with the doctors, even begged, to go back into the coma he was placed into. He wanted to die without fear or any more pain.

They told him that he’d heal quicker if he was awake. That he was getting to the top of that hill. That he’d go downhill at top speed to his full recovery. He didn't believe them; he didn't want to hope. But heal, he did.

But it was so different as he did.

Too different.

He felt things so much more and it was so intense. His emotions were so strong that he couldn’t stand existing any longer in his lonely room. A room he thought he’d have to stay in for the rest of his life when his condition would go back to life threatening.

“I-” His voice cracked a bit, turning to Jack. “I thought what I felt for you was hate. That I blamed you for what happened to me.”

He wanted someone beside him then. He craved warmth he had only gotten from Maddie and Jack. The feelings he held for Maddie were so simple to understand at that time. It was socially accepted. What he felt for Jack was different. It was, in fact, much more intense. Shivers and goosebumps each time he remembered how Jack would hold him when he got a small injury or was out of breath trying to catch up to the athlete. He felt so small, so vulnerable.

“Vlad-” Jack started, his heart shattering from the fall and flowing through his voice. Vlad could see his tears at the edge of his eyes, ready to begin a stream.

To Maddie, he felt like he could provide whatever she wanted.

To Jack, he thought he felt like he was being treated like someone below him, that he needed to be doted on to be on par with the 2 of them.

But that wasn’t it.

To Jack, he felt like he didn’t have to shoulder any burdens. That he could be loved without truly doing anything in return, that he didn’t need to do anything but be himself.

“It only made sense in those times that it couldn’t be anything but. However…” He turned to Maddie and smiled softly. “It turns out that it wasn’t just you.”

He hadn’t understood it until Jasmine convinced him into therapy lessons. Practice, she claimed, she swore, she lied. She reminded him of how passionate ghosts were. How passionate he was and is.

It was then that he found that he loved Jack more than Maddie at first. That it was such an intense feeling that he confused it with hatred.

It didn’t help that their relationship would’ve been frowned upon then, that it would’ve been impossible and potentially illegal to seal the deal with a ring or even a simple kiss.

It took a moment for her to understand what Vlad was referring to. Her eyes widened, jaw dropping as she looked over at Jack before back at Vlad. Vlad nodded. She shook her head and took a breath.

“What? What do you mean-” Jack was still in the dark. Though, he always was the dense one. “You… You don’t hate me?”

“No, Jack. Though I hope that after this, you’ll be willing to give me a chance.”

“After- I don’t understand.” Jack turned to his wife. “What does he mean? The illness and ‘not just you’? What is he talking about?”

Maddie placed a hand on his shoulder, lips starting to wobble. She seemed to shake her head for a moment.

“He’s been-” She paused, eyes widening slightly before she let out a broken laugh. “He’s been obsessed with me for a long time. And… well, I guess you’re a target now too.”

Jack took a moment to process her words before his face flushed scarlet red. Though he couldn’t speak a word or react further. He simply froze up, making Maddie smile before her lips wobbled and dropped it.

“Are you normally so aggressive?”

The topic was obvious. It made Vlad hopeful that she’d listen.

“No. I was in denial and it had made me sick. For those of my kind, emotional and mental pain is like physical pain to the living. Denying my… my purpose for existing, my obsession, took a toll on me. Ghosts that attack Amity aren’t actually aiming to hurt people. They tend to go too far and forget how fragile living beings tend to be, especially humans.”

Maddie took a breath, looking down.

“They know.” It wasn’t a question.

“They know.” Vlad confirmed. Jazz and Danny knew about him from the very beginning.

Maddie took another breath.

“Why Danny?” Why did you obsess over him like you did with me?

“What- what about Dann-o?” Jack blinked back in.

“It was easier to get to him than Jasmine in my mind. Not only is he a male, but he was struggling with studies. There was also a sort of… connection I had with him. Perhaps it’s due to that portal downstairs. He has been exposed since the womb. Your children have not been fully human for a long time. Liminals at the very least, just as the city is becoming.”

“The city..?”

“Let’s just say that the ambient ectoplasm is the only thing blocking their signatures while that portal is only strengthening their liminality.”

“...”

Jack and Maddie seemed more sick. But Jack shook his head, getting himself back into the topic at hand.

“So- You-... You’re an ectoplasmic entity?”

Vlad swallowed.

“Yes… I’m what they’d call a halfa. According to a roommate, the long exposure from the proto-portal had forced my body to eventually adapt to it and learn to circulate and circulate it differently until it had… Halfas need to go through the process multiple times before they’re stuck as part of the living and part of the dead.”

“Vladdie…”

“I did not feel the final process. I was put into a medical coma. According to the doctors, I had flatlined multiple times and they had to shock me back plenty of times before I became what I am. I still get reminders, but that is a topic for another time.”

It was silent after that. Jack moved almost robotically as he came over, pushing up a sleeve and checking for his pulse. It was too feint to detect from there. He went for his neck next, looking up to Vlad in case he wished for him to give him space. Vlad didn’t fight back, so Jack started focusing on the pulse rate and translating it.

20 beats per minute.

It used to be a low average of 60-70 bpm. It had slowed over the years. He didn’t want to think what would happen when it finally stopped for good. It was already hard enough to remember he had to give a little thought of keeping some semblance of being alive when he was still so tempted to utter a wish.

Maddie came up next to him, lightly pushing him so he’d move enough to let her continue the silent physical exam. Once he did, she started checking his breathing. Then his reflex speed of his eyes in response to light. Then his joint reflexes.

They did all sorts of harmless tests, Maddie writing them down. After finishing the doctor check-up basics, they gave him some room. It made him both relieved and even more scared.

“Would a concussion show as a normal reaction speed?” Maddie asked.

Vlad blinked.

“Ah… No. While it’s much faster now, pupil dilation while concussed is the same as a normal person. Also, bleeding is less in volume, but I can self-heal.”

Maddie nodded and wrote it down.

“Do… Do ghosts have doctors? What if you get sick? We don’t know enough to help you if you do.” Maddie mentioned.

“What… What are you saying?” Please, please be what I’m thinking.

Jack placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling brightly.

“I think we have some time to make up! I’ll make some fudge!”

Maddie grabbed his shoulder before he could rush to the kitchen.

“I may be a little… on edge about this whole thing, but with time, I think we can be something. The 3 of us.”

Vlad’s eyes widened and teared up, his core practically squealing in delight. He felt as though his body was lighter. It felt easier to breathe, to make his heart beat, to- to exist.

All he needed to do was give it time. He hoped they’d be as accepting with Daniel as they were with him. And Danielle… They’d accept her too, won’t they? He hoped they’d forgive him about that. It wasn’t his… best moment.

He didn’t realize he started crying until he was pulled into a tight embrace by Jack, who had moved him onto his lap to comfort him. Maddie left them to it, deciding her next step.

She had traps to get rid of and weapons to recalibrate.

-----

A/n: Yes, Danny did faint. Why was that? Well, I'm not telling. comment what you think though. Hope you enjoyed.

Also, the next chapter or whatever, it's a dc x dp thing. I'll comment when the next chapter is up and add 2 links, a masterlist and part 2.

[almateantales]

An unsent letter.

(Inside a well-secured case, a number of pages fall upon breaking its spell. The paper pages look in perfect condition, despite the worn out appearance of everything else)

Date: April 3rd (no year).

Hello Yazmin… Or Yamn, I guess you’d like your nickname better. It's the end of the year and I find myself writing to you, a letter never to be sent. See, I’ve been thinking of something lately. About the past, and wondering if things could have gone better back then.

I recall that day more often than not, the seconds awaiting for the texts and explanations, the way you stumbled around your words as you made your point. I could tell you were nervous, and I was too. I let myself wonder sometimes how much of what happened afterwards could’ve been avoided, had the circumstances been different. It's been eating at my mind lately.

Years have passed now, and I see you remain as kind as ever. You've come so far too, it makes me proud to be around you after all this time. You have a life companion in Maerin, and as far as I've seen you're happy with Nive and Louis as well. I was surprised when I found out about Louis's participation, but I learned that you were not together and only formed a relationship with the same person, an axis. That's great, and I'm happy for you.

Still, when I found out I felt so… Strange.

I thought it was because of Louis, maybe I didn't move past my feelings for him after all? But that couldn't be it. While I would’ve liked someone like him as a partner in the past, it wasn't the end of the world if he didn't return my affections— It's been years, I moved on.

So why would I care about this situation, then? Thinking and trying to figure this out only made me more and more confused. Maybe I am just lying to myself and still like him after all? Jealousy isn't something to be ashamed of after all; it would be pathetic on my part, but emotions are nonsensical like that sometimes, right?

But I knew that wasn't it. I looked at a picture of them together, and didn't feel a thing. Not even a sign of envy, heartbreak or disappointment. If anything I felt happy looking at it, reading the description saying how happy he was with the love of his life. So it just wouldn’t make sense to say I’m jealous if that’s what’s crossing my mind, right?

Keeping that last thought in mind, I went to your profile to see a similar picture, of you and Nive happily embracing each other, you were giving her a kiss on her cheek while she laughed with joy. It was the perfect photo really, you both look so happy to be together…

That should've felt the same way as with Louis, but. It didn't.

Implications were now messing with my mind. How is that possible? It doesn't make sense, why now? Now that you've moved on with your life, and so much time passed. It feels unfair and cruel… It doesn't make sense! I rejected you saying I wasn't attracted to women. Then I spent half my teenage years infatuated with this boy who's now my best friend, got rejected and over it. I even had other relationships through the years. So why?

It isn't fair, neither for me nor for you. If I was you, I would feel insulted— the way I rejected you and left was awful, and now I dare to feel jealous of your loving, happy relationship? What kind of person am I? This feels so wrong and just… I don't know. Unfair, I guess. I feel stupid thinking about how long this has been going on without me noticing, nevermind the fact that I might be bisexual. Have I ever been attracted to other women? Was it only you? I can feel myself spiraling the more I think about that as well. I’d rather not.

The thought “I don’t know what to do now” crossed my mind for a moment, but I know there’s nothing for me to do in this situation, not really. Things should stay as they are, and you don't deserve to be bothered by something like this. I just needed to write about it, to get it out of my system in some way. You were right, this does help.

I’ll just keep writing if I feel like this again. As you said one time, I promise I will not let this burden you. You are still very dear to me.

I think that’s all I can say for now. I hope you keep living your life to the fullest, as happy as you deserve. I will be cheering on you from the sidelines.

-S.P.

[mypoisonedvine]

vignettes of a bond || alpha!bucky barnes x omega!reader

I originally wrote this in two parts for my sleepover but after I realized how long it accidentally became, I've reformatted it, added/changed a few things, and made into a oneshot!

word count: 3.1k

warnings: smut, angst, knotting, violence

June 2nd, 1943, 11:43 p.m., James Barnes’ bedroom

“I wanna do it, before I go,” he whispered against your skin. “But I know it’s wrong. It’s too cruel.”

“No, please,” you whimpered, “I want it. I want your mark.”

Bucky pulled back for a moment and you examined your Alpha’s face carefully, knowing it might be the last time for a long time. “I couldn’t bond to you and then leave you. It wouldn’t be fair… you deserve to find somebody who can stay, and be with you, and protect you.”

“All I want is you,” you whispered. “Please, Alpha… bite me.”

You saw him hesitate for a moment before he leaned in and sucked at your neck, building the anticipation before he finally sunk his teeth into your skin and you cried out, one single tear rolling down your cheek. “Mine,” he growled against your skin as he lapped at the healing wound, “my Omega. Forever.”

“Yours, only yours,” you agreed eagerly.

It wasn’t the first time Bucky had taken you, but that night he really and truly claimed you, left you a desperate begging mess, stretched out over his knot as he filled you over and over.

The next morning, you were still sore between your legs as well as on your new mark, and it took everything in you to be strong as you saw him off at the train station, waving goodbye and praying that your Alpha would return to you soon.

November 9th, 1943, 2:24 p.m., undercover SHIELD facility

“You promised Bucky you’d take care of me,” you reminded him with a little smile, wiping a tear from your cheek.

“I know,” Steve relented, “but we both know I can’t do that. Not in this state. But maybe I can protect you if I do this. Maybe I can protect my country. I owe it to everyone, especially Bucky, to try.”

You nodded. “But I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too. Come see me before I ship out for good, alright?”

“Of course,” you agreed.

December 27th, 1943, 8:32 a.m., your front porch

“You’re lying,” you gasped as you shook your head. “You’re wrong, no, it’s not true.”

“It is,” Steve promised as tears welled in his eyes, “I’m so so sorry, I saw it myself, I had to watch him fall…”

“It’s not true! He’s not dead!”

“I know he loved you so much. He talked about every day, he couldn’t wait to come home to you,” Steve remembered, choking up noticeably. “But he won’t. He’s gone.”

“You don’t understand, I know, okay? I know.”

“You’re in shock, I understand, it’s hard to lose your mate—”

“You’re a beta, you wouldn’t understand,” you dismissed; sure, he looked like an alpha now, but it didn’t make a difference. “Omegas, we know when our Alpha dies, we feel it, it kills us. He’s far away, but he’s still there, I still feel him!”

Steve held you as you sobbed, your body crumpling into his arms. Sometimes you thought maybe he held you too tight on accident because he was still getting used to his new strength; other times you thought he did it on purpose.

February 3rd, 1944, 12:00 p.m., undercover SHIELD facility

“Even when I had nothing, I had Steve,” you recalled shakily, “and now he’s gone too.”

“Is that why you’re volunteering?” Agent Carter asked you. “Because you’d rather sleep for a hundred years than live without your mate and your best friend?”

“I’m volunteering because my mate and my best friend died for SHIELD,” you corrected firmly, “and if I’m not willing to also, then I’m admitting I think they went to waste.”

“Steve told me you didn’t think Bucky was dead,” Peggy remembered.

You winced. “I’m not sure. But I know he’s not coming home again. I came here to give whatever I could to help find him… I was asked to participate in a cryogenics research study. If it helps him, then I’ll do it.”

She was about to get up, apparently satisfied with your final interview, but you stopped her.

“On one condition,” you added. “If James Barnes is found, alive or dead, wake me up to see him.”

She nodded, stepping out of the room and leaving you alone again.

May 8th, 2012, SHIELD headquarters

“Can you hear me?”

You slowly blinked awake, your vision taking a moment to catch up with your mind. You saw tubes coming out of your arms; you saw Steve above you, looking like the day you saw him last.

“Did you find Bucky?” you asked instantly. Why else would they wake you up?

“No,” Steve answered, seemingly a bit disappointed that that was your first and only question.

“Then put me back to sleep,” you demanded.

“It’s been 68 years,” he told you. “You’ve slept for 68 years. It’s time to wake up.”

And you did, more than you ever wanted to, because you realized you couldn’t feel him anymore. Your Alpha was gone. Worse, he probably died while you were asleep; he probably died alone.

One more time, like he had 68 years ago, Steve held you while you sobbed.

August 1st, 2014, 2:11 a.m., Avengers compound, Steve Rogers’ quarters

You ran into Steve’s room barefoot and still in your pajamas, barreling through the door and right into his bed.

“Steve, I feel him!” you rushed.

“What?” he groaned sleepily, looking up at you as he blinked in confusion.

“I feel him again, he’s alive,” you explained. “I know it. He’s weak… he’s hurting… but he’s there.”

“That’s impossible,” Steve shook his head. “It’s been too long, he would’ve died of old age anyways.”

“Don’t you want to believe it? Don’t you want to think he’s out there?”

“Do I want to think he’s alone and I didn’t save him?” Steve hissed. “No, I can’t say that I particularly do!”

“But we still can, Steve, we just have to find h—”

But before you could finish, the feeling left you, and you were just half of something again.

“Oh,” you breathed.

“He’s gone again?” Steve realized.

You nodded, biting your lip as it started to quiver. He sighed and pulled you into a hug. “If I could just see his body, and know it was over,” you whispered, “if I could just bury him, have a funeral…”

“We’ll have one,” Steve decided, “after this mission. We’ll put him to rest. He deserves that, and so do you.”

You nodded into his shoulder. It shattered you into a million pieces but it was still the better option, to try to let him go in whatever small way you could. He would always, always, always be your Alpha, nothing could change that, but a funeral would at least bring some closure.

That would have to wait until after your next mission though… and it was going to be a big one: tracking the elusive Winter Soldier.

August 3rd, 2014, 1:14 p.m., Lower East side

You were a few blocks away, helping civilians escape the firefight, when you felt it.

For one impossibly brief moment, you felt him, stronger than you had in nearly 80 years. He was here.

You instantly got up and ran like you’d never run before, finding the Soldier and Steve locked in a brutal showdown— but his mask was gone now, and you nearly fell to your knees at the sight of him.

“Bucky!” you yelped, but you knew he wasn’t there or you would’ve felt his presence. Your Alpha was somewhere underneath the shell that wore his face, and you needed to find him.

You ran forward just as Steve made a break for it, getting to him just in time to stand between the Soldier and his mission.

“Alpha, please,” you whimpered, clutching at his chest. A metal hand backhanded you to the ground.

“Out of my way, Omega,” he growled, stepping over you, but you grabbed at his ankles even when he tried to kick you away.

“My mark,” you explained hastily, pulling your shirt down some to make sure it was visible. “It’s yours. Do you remember? You gave me this. This is your mark on me.”

He stared down at you, seeming to be contemplating it, and you scrambled back to your feet and faced him.

“I still feel you,” you whispered. “I knew you were alive, I knew you’d come back to me. I could feel you, right here,” you explained as you took his hand and placed it on your chest. “Could you feel me? Did you know I was waiting for you all this time?”

His eyes were watering but he still seemed confused— stunned, more specifically, as you placed your hand on his chest.

“I’ll always be yours, Bucky. I’ll always be your Omega, no matter where you are.”

A stun gun took you down, an array of masked men appeared, and before he could really see you for what you were, he was dragged away and taken to be erased again.

August 3rd, 2014, 9:04 p.m., Avengers compound, medical bay

“I can’t believe we let them get away,” Steve lamented, resting his face in his hands. “I can’t believe they took him again…”

“They’ll be back,” you promised sternly. “They’re going to figure out what I am to him. They’re going to realize I could break his programming. And they’re going to come for me.”

“And when they do?” Steve pressed.

“We’ll be ready. And I’ll get my Alpha back.”

August 3rd, 2014, 9:04 p.m., temporary HYDRA operations facility

"The woman on the bridge... the Omega..." Bucky mumbled. "She knew me... she had my mark."

"No she didn't."

He furrowed his brow. "She showed me..."

Pierce sighed, glancing over to the HYDRA scientist who looked back at him sternly.

"She's too dangerous to be left alive," the man sighed, shrugging in his lab coat. "We can't deprogram a bond like that."

"We'll take care of her," Pierce promised.

Bucky launched from the chair, snapping his restraints like paper. "Touch her and I'll fucking kill you!" he bellowed, tackling his handler to the ground.

Pierce just laughed as another scientist jabbed Bucky with a needle, dosing him with something strong enough to kill any other man but just enough to knock out a super soldier. Pierce stood up and dusted himself off as he watched Bucky go limp and be lifted back into his chair.

"I can see the fight in your eyes, Soldier," he taunted as he leaned into his face. "I know you really would kill me, if you could. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, right? But don't worry about your mate, we'll make it quick and painless. Hey, maybe beforehand me and a few of the other Alphas will show her a good time, poor thing's been without her mate for 70 years... I bet she's raring to go."

Bucky's arm twitched as his eyes started to fall shut, a tear falling down his blank and motionless face.

"Wipe him," Pierce instructed to the scientist, turning and walking away as the electric whirr of the machine charging up filled the room.

August 11th, 2014, 3:53 p.m., SHIELD headquarters

Steve was impressed with how accurate and imminent your prediction was; HYDRA was hot on your trail and desperate to eliminate the biggest threat to their Asset. Knowing they were coming made it easier, but it was still a brutal fight.

You and Steve tried to stay together, but they were smart, they used the perfect bait to lure you away.

"Tell me where he is," you demanded from the HYDRA agent as you held a blade to his neck, "then I'll kill you."

"Isn't it supposed to be 'or I'll kill you'?" he frowned.

You shook your head. "Not the way I operate."

Opposite to the reaction you were expecting, he grinned widely. "He's here."

Your heart stopped.

"On the roof. He's here to kill you."

You dropped the knife and ran straight for the stairwell, ascending them like they were nothing and calling out for your Alpha.

You found him there, waiting, gun trained on you. Raising your hands in surrender, you yelled to him again.

"Bucky," you called across the windy roof, eyes nearly blinded by the bright afternoon sun. "Alpha."

"I'm not who you think I am," he yelled back. "I'm not your Alpha."

It hurt to hear it in his voice, but you knew it wasn't him. Cautiously, you stepped closer. "Before you left, you told me you didn't want to mark me and leave me behind," you recalled. "But I wanted it. I wanted to be bonded to you more than I'd ever wanted anything."

He could clearly see you were coming closer, he even tightened his finger over the trigger of his weapon, but he was waiting. You kept walking to him, slowly.

"I've never regretted it," you continued, "not even when I thought you were dead, not even when I had to spent a lifetime-- more than that-- apart from you."

Finally you were face to face, and you stepped closer until his gun was pressed right into your chest.

"You can shoot me now and I still won't regret it," you promised. "I love you."

Shakily, he lowered his weapon. "Omega..." he breathed.

"Your Omega."

He pulled you into him and you sobbed as you felt him come to life in your arms-- the real him, your Alpha, your Bucky. He held you close and breathed against the top of your head and it was like a dream coming true decades after you'd forced yourself to let it go.

But you'd never given up. And now you had found him again.

Agents started to come onto the roof and Bucky spun the two of you around, firing with his right hand and using the left, metal arm as a shield for you.

He carried you and you didn't even know where he was taking you, but it didn't matter. In his arms, you were home.

August 12th, 1:03 a.m., Avengers compound, your quarters

You hadn't stopped coming or crying for at least an hour. Bucky had all but split you open on his knot all night and he didn't show any signs of stopping.

He apparently intended to make up for lost time. And you'd lost a lot of time.

"Just one more, I know you can give me one more," he groaned furiously rubbing your clit as his knot began to swell again.

You could give him anything, as long as he asked for it like that.

You'd lost count of how many times he'd told you to come for him, and how many times you did it immediately.

"I can see how full you are," he whispered as he rubbed your stomach gently. "So much seed in you that your body can't hold it all."

You looked down and yep, you were distinctly bloated from his come alone; it made you a little dizzy to even look at it.

"The idea of you alone during your heats, no one to protect you, it kills me," he explained with a growl. "I won't let you go again. I can't."

"Then don't," you sighed. "Never leave this bed, fill me with everything you have."

"Did anybody ever help you through them? The heats?" he asked. "I wouldn't blame you, they can be so painful... I just need to know so I can make sure you forget about them."

"No, Bucky, never— I never let anyone touch me."

"Steve could've helped you, at least some..."

"He wouldn't have, he loves you too much. And I wouldn't accept anything less than you, ever. You're my Alpha. We're bonded. There's never anyone else."

That didn't seem to satisfy him, his eyes darting away as he swallowed. Your gut sank with the realization he probably wasn't being totally honest about why he asked.

"Your ruts," you gasped. "Were you alone for all of them?"

He shut his lips tighter.

"Bucky, it's okay, just tell me. I was asleep for 70 years, I skipped most of them, but you... you had to live through them all."

"They gave me betas, and omegas," he mumbled, "but I don't... I don't really remember. I know they wanted me to. They threatened to hurt me if I didn't, because they knew I'd go crazy after so many ruts alone, but I can't remember if I really did it. I remember... I remember crying, and begging for you."

"Alpha," you breathed as you felt new tears run over the stains of your old ones. "It's okay. Whatever happened, it's okay now. We're together again. Everything's okay."

You wiped his tear away with your thumb, holding his face tightly, weaving your fingers into his long hair.

"I'll always be your Omega," you promised.

He leaned in closer to you, kissing your cheek before pulling back a little. "It's faded," he whispered as he ran his thumb over the mark on your neck. "The last time I saw it, it was still fresh."

"It's older, sure, but it's stronger than ever, Bucky."

August 14th, 10:12 a.m., Avengers compound, residential area kitchen

Steve's eyes went wide when he came into the kitchen for breakfast and found you there, steeping your tea. "Surprised to see you out of the love nest so soon," he smirked.

"It's been three days, I don't think that counts as soon," you scoffed.

"It does to him," Steve frowned. "He's asleep, isn't he?"

"Yep."

"I know he wouldn't let you out of his sights if he was conscious," Steve chuckled.

At that moment, you heard Bucky call your name and run out into the hall, only a bedsheet covering his groin as he appeared in the doorway. You spun around and smiled when you saw him come running towards you, embracing you with his free arm.

"You should've told me you were leaving, I got scared when I woke up without you," he admitted weakly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry!"

He pulled back and clutched your face in both his hands. "I'm waking up next to you every morning for the rest of my life, you understand?"

You nodded dutifully. "Yes, Alpha."

"One hand on the sheet, please, Buck?" Steve winced, looking away.

“Whoops,” Bucky groaned, reaching to cover himself as you laughed softly.

“Let’s go back to bed, baby,” you decided quietly, taking Bucky’s (free) hand in yours and waving goodbye to Steve, who was already making his way as far out of earshot as possible.

[natasha-in-space]

Do you play Stardew Valley? If so, RFA and the Minor Quartet (as I once told @rfaromance , Rika gets to join the boys in their club lol) in a Stardew AU? (LOL that rhymed)

I decided to categorize them in different professions so that I wouldn't go too off course with my thoughts! Writing this just really made want to pick up my Stardew Valley save...

Yoosung

Shepherd. We all know that Yoosung has a major soft spot for animals. And what better way to incorporate that than to give him some friendly barn friends to take care of? His lighthearted demeanor is sure to earn the trust of every furry friend that he decides to take under his wing, and all of his animals are always in pristine condition. It's a hard work, but he enjoys it to the fullest. He knows everyone's personality and gives them goofy names (some of which are definitely suggested by Saeyoung). Yoosung also loves cooking, and that way, he always has some natural produce at his disposal! It's not just human food he focuses on, his sheep and cows get occasional treats as well. Does he maybe spoil them a bit too much? Maybe. Will he stop? Of course not!

Zen

Blacksmith. I don't know, it just fits him for some reason. I bet you he's the most popular blacksmith in town, with everyone gathering around his shop to gawk at his work and his gorgeous looks all the same. I mean, can you imagine Zen tinkering away at various geodes and tools with his hair tied in a messy bun and his muscles seen clear as day due to this job being a physical one? Yeah, that's a dangerous thought to have. There's just something about Zen wielding a sword or any metal tool that's just so flattering to me. He prides himself in his work and you don't have to worry about him messing anything up. He's ready to play the knight in shining armor for you any time!

Jaehee

Tapper. What can be better than a warm latte with some homemade maple syrup? That's literally the only reason why I chose this profession for her lmao. I imagine her working part time as a tapper, stocking up on all that she may need for her cafe and putting all that she foraged to good use. Still, her maple syrup latte us definitely one of her most popular drinks, simply because it is so incredibly delicious.

Jumin

Mariner. Kind of an odd choice for him, but I can imagine Jumin getting really into sea life! Thing is, he won't be catching anything for profit or food. A super out-there idea, but I want him to establish an aquarium. This way, Elizabeth the 3rd can have her fun with all the fishes, all while the townsfolk gets to enjoy the beaty of marine life in a safe and educational way. I'm bending the game's rules here, but I just really like the idea of Jumin enthusiastically talking with his friends about all kinds of marine life for some reason.

Saeyoung

Defender. Saeyoung is definitely the type who loves the thrill of discovering new areas and going out on adventures. Stocking up on items, observing new creatures, figuring out clever ways to get to his goal... That's definitely up his alley. On other days, he most certainly spends some quality time fishing. We know how much he enjoys that! I honestly see him being very multifaceted, since it eventually gets boring to repeat the same routine over and over again. So, it's not unusual for him to try out new things in order to just relax and have fun with his loved ones.

Jihyun

Artisan. Another odd choice of mine. There's just something about our thoughtful artist spending his time on carefully creating the best of the best wines, cheeses ect. It's an art in and of itself. He finds beauty in creating something with your own hands, and what better way to incorporate that than to pursue an artisan profession? His first tester for his products is definitely Jumin and you can find them chatting absentmindedly over glasses of wine quite often! In his free time, Jihyun focuses on his paintings, channeling his admiration for the peaceful world around him into his art.

Saeran

Agriculturist. Yup, a pretty obvious choice for sure, lol. What better way for Saeran to spend his time than to grow crops and take care of his personal garden? That has 'Saeran' written all over it. His garden is always neat and tidy, and his plants are in pristine condition. They're more than just plants to him, though. He loves his flowers and crops with his whole heart, and you can find him telling them stories and caressing their leaves with an affectionate smile on his face every once in a while. Needless to say, the plants reciprocate his love wholeheartedly. His garden is flourishing, and so is our cottagecore husband.

Rika

Gemologist. Rika has a keen eye for details and beautiful things. I actually think she'd enjoy taking care of and researching about all different kinds gems and minerals quite a bit! I don't think she'd venture mining, though. Rather, she'll get her produce from second hands or Saeyoung and take over things from there on. She has a bright smile that can charm every customer that comes into her shop, and the way that she speaks about every individual gem will capture all of your attention right away. Finding beauty in even the blandest of minerals is something worth admiring Rika for. She's often giving away pretty gems to kids visiting her shop to stare at gawk at the colourful stones. Bringing a little magic into everyone's mundane life is a job she loves with all her heart.

Vanderwood

Lumberjack. I don't know, they just seem like the type to enjoy their peaceful alone time in the woods where no one will bother them too much. It's a physical job as well, so we know they're up to the task! Vanderwood is a master at orienting the forest and finding the best places to chop down some trees. They do make sure to keep the forest clean and healthy, though. After they get enough produce, they'll leave some time to take care of the wildlife and check if anyone messed things up here or there. Just imagining them relaxing on a freshly made stump after a hard day at work, closing their eyes and listening to the quiet sounds of the forest around them... Yeah, it makes me smile for sure :)

[anischa22]

Meet the Prince! Clavis Lelouch 🐆

After Luke, here's the next suitor :

The 3rd Prince of Rhodolite Kingdom, member of Chevalieris Faction. His route will be released this fall!

Arm of coat : Leopard

First impression of him : he do remind me of Mitsuhide ... I'm sure many player will like him!

His voice actor is Kenji Nojima. known to voice Mamoru Chiba (Sailor Moon .... Wait, really? Tuxedo man?), Kita Shinsuke (Haikyuu!), Albedo (Genshin Impact) and many more

Eggplant Prince. Always with a mysterious (or dangereous?) smile. He's quite charming and very confident about that, so he's sure all girls will fall for him. Then when MC rejected him, Clavis immediately does anything to make MC 'fall in love' with him lol. The harder MC refused, the more excited Clavis tried 🤣

Clavis was first introduced as Chevalier's closest person. Where there is Chevalier, there is Clavis. Then is Clavis an admirer of his brother? ... Haha turned out to be the opposite! Everyone knows that Clavis hates Chevalier, including Chevalier himself. So Clavis will do anything to beat his amazing brother including by always being Chevalier's side. But other than that reason, Clavis likes Chevalier's unconventional thinking and the chaos after that. Furthermore, Clavis is allowed to do whatever methods he wants when Chevalier tells him to do something. So ofc Clavis love by being Chevalier's side 😂

Then, Clavis known for his fondness for pleasure & entertainment. The fun that Clavis is referring to is not the unusual one, but set a trap that causes chaos such as throwing banana peels, digging holes in the garden, throwing pies, releasing rats in castles, sending threatening letters and many more! His mischief is so random!🤣 And the target is random too. Make Sariel's headache increase three times than the normal 🤣 Predictably Clavis will make a mess if he gets bored or things are too calm lol. Luckily, his prank didn't get people killed (and maybe that's the reason why no one took hard with Clavis prank and they got used to it).

One more thing that stands out from Clavis is his gentleman nature. He behaves like an ideal prince very well that makes anyone forget that the third prince is a living chaos. In some situations it will be shown that Clavis being kind to MC by encouraging her (and to be honest I melted for him!). Later it's known that everything Clavis does (ofc most of them are pure mischief) has a good reason. Makes no one will be able to hate this prince

Sadly, Clavis is still very mysterious. What we all know are the 3 things above. Is he really a gentleman in a mischiefs mask or vice versa? No one knows what's in Clavis's mind. Sometimes i feel sad when see Clavis being kind, but others think maybe Clavis is up to something. I mean, what if Clavis really cares? Poor baby eggplant Clavis

Clavis is not recommended to anyone who doesn't like mischief guy, more or less same as Mitsuhide. Maybe you can't stand Clavis with MC as if he just toying with MC. But he has the same popularity potential as Mitsuhide. Really can't wait for his route!

Btw, I'm just remembered that Clavis often appear in important events! Idk, its just like ..... something tense happened, then suddenly Clavis -with a big smile- appeared and helping the suitor! So many times he appears nowhere that I was not surprised anymore and just shouted "yeay! Clavis save the day!"🤣 He's also the prince who often visits MC's when she's not Belle anymore

I'm sure people who appear the most on his route later will be Chevalier and Jin. But of course we can't expect Chevalier to talk about Clavis' past, so this must be Jin's job to explain Clavis condition to us😂 or maybe Sariel, who have mutual hate with Clavis (and maybe Sariel can take big part there as a possible route that will be released after Clavis)

Clavis sees his other sibling as cute bro or... his toy. But because most of his siblings are immune to his pranks, then he's aiming to another people, nobleman, maids, servant, knight, citizen or enemy. Usally the one who fall for Clavis's prank the most is Yves (poor Yves), even though he would rather annoy Chevalier but since Chevalier is too strong, Clavis is looking for a new target, and he's found the MC!

Ah! Clavis, together with Jin and Nokto, known as 'Lady-killer Princes'. If Jin likes big boobs, then Clavis prefer woman thighs *cough*

Since I only have eight Clavis expressions, i will give you one of Clavis card that I have! No, it's not that I was aiming for Clavis card, I'm just too lucky to always get Clavis every time i gacha 😅

Here, Prince Clavis Lelouch already waiting for you ...

Next will be the sadistic bureaucrats, Sariel!

[smaidjor]

good morning yall today i bring you some last life predictions (that will almost definitely be proved totally wrong, but shh).

anyways so i want to talk about who i think has a good shot at winning

1. Lizzie

Okay so i haven't been watching her pov but @captainpuffyappreciation tells me that Ren is extremely loyal to her, which could definitely work in her favor, and it seems like the rest of her alliance is too. She's the queen after all. Lizzie's clever, still has 3(?) lives, and has the loyalty of multiple other people. The one pitfall is, of course, that Cleo may be out for her blood, but Cleo's grudge is mostly against bigB and now that Cleo is on green again, they have a lot less to worry about.

2. Pearl

This one's a pretty obvious choice- she has the highest life count on the server besides Tango. This could prove an obstacle, as she could get targeted, but even if she loses one of her lives she'll still have three, and I think she's a good candidate for other reasons. For one, Pearl is very smart, as we've seen previously. Secondly, I'd say she's in one of the least likely to fall apart alliances on the server. She and Scott have been loyal to each other from day one and coordinate on almost everything; there's not been a big secret that either of them have kept from each other, to my knowledge. She and Scott are also two of the few people on the server who don't owe Scar anything, which could be a very important advantage depending on how things shake out.

3. Scott Smajor

You know I have to put him up here- I love Scott's videos, and I genuinely think he stands a fair chance at getting pretty far in the series. He's got a strong alliance with Pearl, as I was talking about earlier, and Cleo's also a very strong addition to their alliance. His, Cleo, and Pearl's alliance is one of very few where lives have been voluntarily shared with the other members permanently, in strong contrast to say, the Southlands. Additionally, Scott is clever, a scarily good liar, and ruthless in a way we didn't really see from him much in 3rd life; killing Grian's dogs was a pretty cold-hearted move, even if they were a threat, and I think that willingness to do whatever is necessary to might serve him well. Usually, I'd be worried about ruthless characters losing their friendships/making too many enemies, but since his alliance is already so strong, it's less of a concern for him.

4. Scar

Scar is...interesting, to say the least. He has almost no alliances formed from genuine friendship, and now has only one life, but Scar's thrived under those conditions before. He almost won 3rd life through a combination of his own cleverness and Grian's life debt to him, and now many more people own him a life. Those contracts could definitely save him. Could they ensure he wins? Maybe, maybe not. When the people he's given lives to return to red, there's no guarantee that they'll honor their word, but I imagine at least a few of them will. The only way I can see Scar going out of the series right now is if he tries to mess with the wrong person (Scott and Pearl come to mind) and gets killed in retribution, though to be fair he could also stumble on a trap or die to mobs or some other means.

tl;dr: Lizzie and Scar both have people who owe them a life, and Scar is clever and good at swinging his weight around. Lizzie could win off the loyalty of the fairy fort, and Scar could win off the contracts he's had people sign. Pearl and Scott also both stand a fair chance; their alliance is very strong and they're both clever and capable of being ruthless.

[lantsovsupremacist]

tiberias (cal) calore vii: illicit affairs

i’m only on the 3rd book so a) pls don’t spoil you’ll break my heart and b) my perception of the characters has only been developed to this point so if you come for me do it with the correct context lmao!!!

you knew what it was.

leaning your forehead against the cool metal post of your bed frame, a shaky exhale escaped from your lips. you wished just like that lost breath, you too could leave behind your body and with it, mind. a few minutes was all you needed, really; some semblance of relief.

even with your door shut tight with a deadbolt, the danger contaminating the palace lingered outside of it. you were not foolish enough to deny the cracks it could slip through. you would give any adversary a worthy fight, though. you could not afford not to, especially now.

for the first time in your life, you had truly encountered a problem that you could not use your abilities to maneuver out of. as much as your lungs screamed and your legs ached to run, you could not. being a swift, your first instinct was always to run. your speed always gave you the advantage in pursuit.

a familiar knock at the door broke you from your trance of pity. you stood up, sniffling as you ran the back of your hand across your nose and mouth. the action of clearing your throat sounded more like a whimper, but you managed as you gathered your skirts and headed for the door. you pushed down the nausea and wrung your hands to settle yourself.

your fingers shook on the deadlock before you pried the door open. the amount of weight on the wood, the length of the echo, and the momentary pause before the second, lighter knock gave away the identity of the person on the other side. you were in his arms before you could take another breath.

despite offering you the comfort you had craved all morning, his touch triggered the sobs caged in your chest. perhaps, it was because your heart was only safe in his hands. but, without the key to let them out, they messily tore through and paved their own path.

a year ago, your greatest worry would be the shame brought to your family on account of conceiving a child out of wedlock, let alone to the crowned prince. now, it seemed the impending war took precedence. you could have laughed; a red threatened your livelihood. a girl, really.

you were always careful, and it did not even happen very often. both you and the prince were very busy people, after all. send offs and reunions.

“we can fix this,” cal murmured into your hair.

“no, you don’t get it,” you broke out with a defiant shake of your head, “there’s nothing to fix.”

he pulled back, stroking your hair and pushing it behind your ears. your golden strategist was at a loss. your heart fell further into the pit of your stomach. you chewed on the inside of your lip, desperate to look anywhere but his eyes. yet, in the space of the same moment, you never wanted your gaze to leave his.

“i won’t leave you,” his warm hands ran up your arms, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake, “and i won’t let my father have a say in any of it.”

“it’s not the king i am frightened of,” you admitted with a sour taste in your mouth.

cal nodded with a grimace, “then i’ll be sure she is controlled until the end of the month.”

but who could control the queen who could twist minds? you chewed on the thought to avoid choking on it, forcing it down in distaste. both cal and yourself needed time neither of you had the privilege to claim.

cal communicated the importance of waiting until the traditional queenstrial to propose publicly. while the larger part of you agreed with this position, a small piece of your heart reserved for crippling doubt and senseless paranoia wondered if he was stalling for a different reason. if you could at any time expect desertion, it would be now but true to his word, cal had done no such thing—a loyal soldier until the end.

“and if they don’t chose me?” the secret fear you had harbored far before you had even become aware of your current condition felt a traitor to expose to the boy who had given you everything, kept every promise he could.

he studied your face carefully to ensure he held your full attention (though he was foolish to ever think otherwise), “make them, my dear.”

despite the event’s purpose of selecting a bride for the princes themselves, all of the noble houses knew the eldest had little choice in the matter. while your relationship with cal was not overt due to the inherently illicit nature of the affair, servants were known to talk. even in your deepest frustrations, you could not necessarily blame them.

his confidence in you was endearing but what other choice did you truly have?

you pulled away from his arms and lingering stare, wrapping your arms around your middle. pacing the length of the room, you suppressed a bitter laugh, “and then what? when a baby is born after less than eight months? and that’s to say we can persuade your father to rush a royal marriage.”

“let them talk,” his fingers twitched at his sides and you caught the scent of smoke, “nobody will be able to do anything.”

he thought he could protect from anything. sure, there would be little opportunity for any political action after a marriage was solidified but rumors would swirl. born into the pressures of eyes always watching you, they did not cut deep, but a queen needed a reputation demanding of respect. you did not want to be cruel but you decided that if need be, you could.

you wanted so terribly not to cry but willing it away only drew your focus to it more. you did not think the act made you weak but you would rather avoid the complete exhaustion it often caused. you were already so tired. but, some things were inevitable.

cal caught on before you did, “baby,” his voice was croaky, maybe laced his emotion of his own, “please don’t cry.”

you giggled at the irony. it was watery and your voice was nearly gone but it was there. confusion spread across cal’s features. you studied his face as he began to understand. a slow, crooked smile spread across his freckles and indicated the transition.

“suppose i could have chosen better words.”

“mhm.”

you had not noticed he was slowly rocking you in his arms. calm rushed into your senses. cal radiated your favorite kind of warmth. he monitored his body temperature around you, never too hot but always comfortable. it reminded you of home. he was your home. he smelled of pine and dying embers.

now nearing nineteen, you met the prince at fourteen. your elder sister married sooner than your parents expected, hastening your introduction into political meetings as a representative of the swift house of nornus.

who could blame a young and inexperienced teenage girl for falling in with a powerful, older boy who dared throw her an extra glance. what began as a benefit to palace life at fifteen soon turned into a vice. it was easy to tell yourself that you could stop any time you desired but you were addicted to the way he touched you, the way he tasted, the way he spoke your name.

for a while, you were foolish enough to believe he maybe even loved you. when you turned sixteen, you understood you were a pastime for the prince. so when at seventeen he told you he loved you, you did not believe him. he was gone for service quite a bit and your training schedule stole away any time for secret meetings when he was home. you began to purposefully avoid him but the withdrawal from the high that was cal left you dizzy.

when he did not make a move to find you, you tried even harder to move on. you had both made a mess of your hearts, left bleeding and shattered on the floors of the palace. you watched him escape the palace more often, always finding another place to be. one night, however, you followed him. you told yourself it was curiosity that caused you to slip out of your covers and into a warm coat, a coat you would not have needed if you left with him.

you caught up easily with your inhuman perception and speed and yet, he still saw you coming. he always did. that night, you wandered through a village and blended in. that night, you could be normal. he helped you clean up the mess between the two of you and things were different but the same again. they were better. you still took the long way to his room and pulled him into hidden corridors but the longing stares across meetings reignited.

you cleared your throat, “when you returned from delphie.” you tone held the pace of a simple comment, not the answer to the unspoken question pressing down on both of your minds.

cal turned his lips into his mouth and nodded, taking a deep breath, “i remember.”

it was a good memory, a good time. slow and gentle and loving. rane had worn you ragged sparring evangeline from sun up to sun down. you enjoyed the younger classes attending for the exposition but your muscles felt like weights lodged into your body and your breath had not yet fully returned after running circles around evangeline.

usually when one of you returned from an excursion outside of the palace, you wasted little time in attaching to every piece of each other. but, you were both exhausted—exhausted but greedy for the attention of the other. it had been a month ago, nearly to the day.

you and cal never discussed the prospect of children. even if one of you did not favor the idea, there was no choice in the matter. cal, as a future king, needed heirs, and if you wanted to be queen, you would have to bear them. but, you did want them and secretly, you knew cal did, too. it was more than a superficial requirement.

cal always looked at you, found you in a crowd, so it was hard to study him in secret. when he was with children, however, all attention transferred to those at his feet. it was then you saw him fully relax, the weight of his crown falling off his back. he loved them. you loved him more for it.

“and i don’t regret it,” he continued, dipping his head to place it gently on your shoulder. he kissed you neck once, twice, and then dropped his head back down.

[timextoxhajima]

Love Me A Little Less: Chapter 2 - Auction

LOVE ME A LITTLE LESS CHAPTER MASTERLIST

Member: (3rd person pov) arranged marriage au with Lee Juyeon

Genre: angsty wangsty

Taglist: @hyunvelies​ 

“You no longer own me.”

The guppies in the tank that spans nearly half the space of the wall flush around, their brightly colored and flared tails gently wading in the water. Juyeon gently taps on the glass, the yellow guppy swimming towards him instead of away. The shelves are stacked with books on marine life and nature, posters of the Northern Lights dawn the walls if they weren’t covered in the latest Apple commercial poster. 

He hears the hurried footsteps before he hears his assistant, who is huffing by the time she’s at the door of his office. “Anything urgent, Miss Young? Forgive me if I imagined I told you that I would be unavailable until after lunch.”

“Sir, I think you should see the news. I know why your parents aren’t in office today.”

“What?” Juyeon finally pulls away from the tank, worried eyes scanning his assistant. She’s well-dressed, has short hair and ruby cheeks. She looks like she belongs in high school. “Anything serious happen? An accident?”

“Um, no, it’s just--”

Ring ring

Lee Juyeon turns to the phone set on his table, then side-eyes Young Jin Seol, feet turning toward the device. 

“No, sir! Wait, before you--”

“Hello?”

“Good morning, Mr Lee. We’re calling from The Board to request your availability tonight for a press conference regarding today’s updates.”

Juyeon scoffs gently, standing straight up and resting a hand on his hip. He turns to look at Jin Seol, eyes filled with caution, as if they meant to say I told you not to pick it up.

“I’m sorry but... what updates?”

“The change in ownership of HERA & ARTEMIS and the marriage.”

There’s a brooding uneasiness in his gut as he processes the heavy word. In the world of corporate under The Board, the word ‘marriage’ is nothing but a contract.

“Remind me who this concerns?”

“You, sir. The marriage between you and Kim Jang Won. The Board would like your presence during a press conference to address the marriage as well as the following change in ownership of HERA & ARTEMIS.”

It’s like Medusa has just stared him straight in the eye, for Juyeon fails to respond in any way possible. 

“Uh... sir? Hello? Mr Lee Juyeon?”

Jin Seol rushes over, able to hear the voice on the other end calling out to him. She grabs the phone and presses it to her ear, eyes plastered to Juyeon, whose lips seemed to be whitening. “Hi, this is Young Jin Seol, Mr Lee’s assistant. He’s not feeling very well now, so I’ll get him to give you a call later regarding the press conference, if that’s alright.”

“Oh, um, of course. But we’d like to have details settled by 1pm later, Miss Young. If it’s not too troubling to relay the message to Mr Lee.”

“Rest assured, he’ll...” Jin Seol watches Juyeon trudge to the couches sitting before the tank, sinking into the soft cushion and pressing his fingers into his closed lids. “I’ll make sure he gets back to you by then.”

Juyeon can feel the skin on his chest stretch when he sucks in a deep breath. The nonsensical thoughts start to crowd his head in the most logical way possible, if that was even possible. Luckily, the only thing he could hear was the bubbling of the oxygen pump in the tank.

He hears Jin Seol return the phone back into the phone set before he finally opens his eyes, vision a little blurred from the pressure of his fingers. 

“I could schedule them in straight away but I have a feeling you’d want to talk to your parents first, Mr Lee.”

Juyeon brings his palms down to his nose and mouth, lips perpendicular to his index finger and his thumbs under his chin as he focuses on the table before him. The white tulips in the vase have already started to brown. 

“Schedule them for lunch at 11 and I’d like to be left alone from 12.30 to 1. I’ll call The Board myself afterwards,” Juyeon notes the coldness in his voice, an element he doesn’t even recognise much. “My parents and I have alot to talk about.”

The Director of Chang’s Funeral Services personally flips open the file, turning it and sliding it across the table to the siblings sitting opposite them. Mr Chang would’ve shat himself if Kim Jang Won had come alone - she doesn’t have the title ‘Hera’s Princess’ for nothing. It’s a good thing ‘The Prince of Artemis’ had come with her. But maybe that’s just it, isn’t it? 

What if he pulled out a gun and shot me right now?

Younghoon’s eyes conscientiously process the printed words on the document, his sister a little too over the edge to be paying attention to anything. 

“We-- Um, carried out an investigation and realised that the bodies were... well... mismatched.”

Younghoon listens, but his gaze is still on the carbon print. The file was labelled KIM JO-PIL but the papers in the folder belonged to someone else. Someone else’s body. A common city address. 

“Have you excavated the body?”

“In progress, Mr Kim. They should be calling any time now for after identification.”

“I don’t suppose you have the documents for Kim Jo-Pil? The ones that were supposed to be in this folder?”

“The thing is... I remember seeing the documents. My colleagues have too. The people in charge of your father’s burial saw it too. But... if it’s not in this office then frankly, I’ve got no clue where it would be.”

For the first time in 3 hours, Jang Won actually looks somewhat understanding, sympathetic, empathetic. Younghoon shuts the file and slides it over to Jang Won when she sits up in her seat. 

“If you don’t mind, we’ll take the file and contact the deceased’s family. When’s that body identification phone call coming in?” Then the 3-hour streak is lost, and Younghoon sighs exasperatedly, out of her peripheral vision. “Taking mighty long for a simply body identification, no?”

Flustered, Mr Chang fumbles for the phone set sitting in the corner of his desk, hurriedly dialing a number. 

“Where do you think he ran to for 2 years?” Jang Won squints at the deceased’s information. “Why 2 years?”

Younghoon runs a hand through his hair, probably worth about half a million Korean Won. “You ask me as if I know any more than you do.”

Mr Chang is finally talking to someone. Jang Won’s focus fixates on something familiar at the bottom of the page. 

“That’s because maybe you do,” Lifting the file, she points to the bottommost section.

LAST OCCUPATION: 

PHOTOGRAPHER FOR ARTEMIS ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

“It’s your company and subsidiary. I’m surprised you don’t recognise the name.”

“I might own Artemis but I don’t personally know all 278 employees. If he’s a photographer and I don’t recognise him, that means he’s in another department. Women, or children or product. I’m only listed as a model under the ‘Males’ department.”

There’s a silence in the air that allowed Younghoon to hear the gears churning in Jang Won’s head. The appearance of Kim Jo-Pil, 2 years after his supposed death, has just dragged both his children and everybody else related into a mess of a puzzle. But Younghoon has no doubt his sister can find all the pieces, much less draw the connections. 

There’s a reason why she could build HERA & ARTEMIS from the ground up.

Mr Chang finally hangs up, sighing heavily as he looks at the powerful siblings over the rim of his glasses. “They’ve confirmed. The body in the coffin you saw your father in belongs to the man in the document.”

Younghoon chortles in disbelief. “Right then. So our father did die, but someone managed to swap the bodies before it was lowered, and then proceeded to keep him alive for the next 2 years.”

Jang Won flips and finds a portrait of the dead man. “Question is... who?”

Younghoon stands up first, thanking Mr Chang and tapping Jang Won as he turns for the exit of the office. The Director doesn’t even get a chance to bid his goodbye when Jang Won leaves, behind Younghoon. 

Escorted by four bodyguards, the siblings walk side by side with her heels clicking against the floor. Upon reaching the first floor, the lift doors ding open into an array of reporters hustling outside the entrance. 

“Get them out of my face before I ruin their lives!”

The guards rush before them, hurriedly trying to disperse the crowd. Jang Won pulls out her sunglasses, covering her eyes. 

“Time-wasting assholes.”

The shouted questions are loud and intrusive. The short distance of a few tens of metres feel like a mile from all the shoving and yelling. The flashes refuse to cease, but they’ve been in the spotlight for so long, it just gets annoying. 

BREAKING: KIM YOUNGHOON AND KIM JANG WON SPOTTED AT CHANG’S FUNERAL SERVICES - KIM JO-PIL CONFIRMED TO HAVE BEEN SWAPPED OUT BEFORE BURIAL TWO YEARS AGO

Juyeon turns into the private room the restaurant manager has led him to, leaving him at the door whilst his parents gawk at the headlines blasting on the screen mounted to the wall. There’s a picture of Kim Jang Won and her brother getting into a car right below the headlines. 

“Quite a mess, isn’t it?”

Both of them whip around to see the young man standing by the door, pushing himself off the frame and strutting into the private room. The whole fit he was wearing could buy a short vacation. His father reaches for the remote and shuts off the television. 

“I expect nothing less from Kim Jo-Pil, given the history of HERA & ARTEMIS. It was just a matter of time before his daughter took over and turned it into a multi-billion name,” His mother sings, fingers around the base of a glass of wine and carefully swirling the blood-red liquid. 

Juyeon sits, and a waiter comes by to fill his glass with wine. The gentle whir of the air-conditioning in the room is the only source of noise, other than the waiter taking his leave. Juyeon picks up the glass, raising a brow as he brings it to his lips. “I expect nothing less from my own parents when they are about to put me up for a certain type of contract,” He pauses, the glass in mid-air. “Say... a marriage.”

His lips meet the curve of the glass and he takes a sip. 

“We wanted to tell you before we agreed, but--”

“But the money’s more worth?” He winces from the alcohol in the wine, frowning and offering a sarcastic purse of his lips. “I can imagine. All that stuff you have at home... you know, grand piano worth five million, a kitchen big enough for a herd of horses-- oh, not to mention the actual stable of horses... Yeah, I guess... I guess I could empathise with how you needed more than those. Planning a re-deco? I might know some great architects.”

“Juyeon...”

“No, no,” Placing down the glass, he waves his hand. “Let me put things into perspective for you. After all, gotta make the homework I did on my way here worth it right? See if it’s correct.” 

Juyeon clears his throat and cracks his knuckles, knowing that his parents are offering him the most miserable looks they’ve ever given him in his life. 

“The Board announces Kim Jo-Pil’s return. HERA & ARTEMIS goes back under his belt, leaving Kim Jang Won, current owner and might I say, the very reason why HERA & ARTEMIS is as good as it is today, jobless and absolutely helpless in a ditch. The Board then passes a rule, one which I have never heard before in my life, maybe because it’s never happened before, but... in order for Kim Jang Won to re-obtain some kind of ownership or at least some part of HERA & ARTEMIS, she must marry a name attached to The Board. And the two of you, seeing how rich and successful Kim Jang Won has made HERA & ARTEMIS, snatched the offer up first and put me on the stage... for auction.”

“Auction...!”

“Correct me, will you? Because that’s exactly what I think you did. What, becoming the next director of Apple-Korea isn’t enough for you? Owning the Korean branch of one of the largest tech companies in the world isn’t enough-- you must have a fashion-retail company?!”

The entire room falls into heavy silence. The waiters knock before entering with some seafood appetizer. Juyeon sucks his lips between his teeth, nibbling anxiously on his bottom one. 

“Juyeon...” His father waits for the waiter to leave. “We... we just wanted the best for you. You know how powerful the Kim family is. Any remote connection to them will do us good. It’ll do you good.”

He scoffs and rubs his forehead with his index and middle finger. “I really have no clue what’s going on in those heads of yours sometimes.”

“I don’t know why you’re so against this, Juyeon. It’ll be helpful to you in your future!”

“As opposed to what? Wanting to be a marine biologist? Wanting to study the waters and nature? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

Thinking that his father would hush his mother, Juyeon is surprised when he doesn’t. 

“Wow, really? Nothing?”

Silence. 

His mother picks up a fork.

“Very nice to know that you’re treating me like a piece of property instead of your son.”

Juyeon pulls the napkin off his lap and stands. 

“Oh, and uh... Don’t wait for a wedding invitation. You’re not getting one.”

“Juyeon!” His parents collectively exclaim in disdain, eyes widening as he struts towards the exit and out of the room.

“What? You auctioned me off! You no longer own me, right?!” 

Juyeon huffs angrily, hands running through his hair and ruining his own efforts of waxing his hair. He enters the lift, multiple staff members looking at him stride into the metallic box, confused. His fingers search for his phone in the pocket of his blazer, the device buzzing non-stop from the headlines and messages and emails from broadcasting companies and companies he couldn’t give two shits about. 

But when the lift doors open and he sees the  Kim Jang Won standing right outside with the same suit and sunglasses he had previously seen her on TV with, his eyes widen with a mix of surprise and distaste. 

“Well, if it isn’t Kim Jang Won... or might I say, my fiancé?”

“My dad couldn’t have done this on his own. I have a theory, and multiple plans to fix this mess of a shitshow, so I’m here to figure out if you wanna be in on it.”

Juyeon scoffs and shoves his hands into his pockets, stepping out of the lift and staring down straight at her. He attempts to search for her eyes through the chocolate-brown shade of her sunglasses, but fails. 

A tiny smirk crawls unto her lips as she pulls it off, her bright, sparkling, manipulative eyes ignite some flame in Juyeon. 

Because that’s just how smart and cunning Kim Jang Won is.

“I know you don’t give a shit, Lee Juyeon. About The Board, about the marriage, about Apple.”

He chuckles, teeth wiping his canine teeth as he pulls his shoulders back. “So you Googled me. Should I be impressed?”

Then his phone buzzes and he pulls it out in a bid to display some kind of disinterest. 

Young Jin Seol [12.13pm]: The tulips are here! [photo]

He blinks, eyes travelling from the screen to the most powerful figure of his generation under The Board.

“If I could find this out from Google, I think you should revisit your privacy logistics,” Kim Jang Won squints one eye and raises her brow. “I’m not here to confuse you or piss you off, Lee Juyeon. I’m here with an offer, to save both our asses. I want HERA & ARTEMIS back but I cannot do it if I have no link to it.”

“What’s in it for me then? It’s not like you can buy me a degree in marine biology.”

“I can’t but you could have the freedom to do so. I’ll pay for you to start your own company. Whoever said you needed a degree to do what you wanted to do? In this world... all you need is money and a little bit of brain... but!” She points to him her sunglasses. “You don’t have to worry about either because I’ve got that covered. All I need you to do is get down on one knee -- willingly -- for the whole world to see... and I’ll give you your freedom.”

Juyeon sucks in a deep breath so hard that he wheezes and Kim Jang Won could not be any more satisfied with herself. 

[theleftovertaco]

April Fools

I’ve always wondered if April Fools existed in the wizarding world. I’ve come to the conclusion for this fic that it doesnt so the reader can introduce the Weasley twins to it. Chaos ensues. This takes place in harrys 3rd year and the twins 5th year. Technically you would be in 5th year as well, but your gender nor house are specified.

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-

You were writing your potions essay in the quidditch stands when an identical set of loud voices brought you out of your trance.

“Hey, short stack.” Fred and George flew up to your section.

“Oh look, it’s the demonic duo.”

George smirked, “Because we’re so devilishly handsome?”

“No, because your both so ugly that even Jesus couldnt save your face so satan had to take you.” You heard two squawks of indignation but continued on.

“Also, I’m not that short. Y/H is average.”

“Ah,” Fred sat down to your right, “but your shorter than us, so your short.”

“Everyone’s shorter than you two beanstalks.”

“You’re still short.” You stuck your tongue out at George and he mirrored you.

“What do you two want?”

“I’m hurt... always assuming we want something..” Fred trailed off.

“Yeah, we can’t have a conversation with our best friend?”

“I feel betrayed.”

“Depressed.”

“Cheated!”

“Is our friendship a lie?”

“Enough!” You giggled out.

“You don’t have to need something, but you stopped in the middle of practice for a reason.”

“Well... Gryffindor team likes to listen to music when we practice right?” Fred leaned in and put his chin on your shoulder.

“Ok and?”

“Well, all we have is Celestina Warbeck music and your muggle music just is much better than ‘a cauldron full of strong, hot love’”, George sung that last bit.

“So we wanna know if we can borrow your CDs and player?”

“Flawless impression. Yes you can use them, I’ll bring them out next practice. Though honestly, I really ought to get you one of your own so you don’t have to keep asking every time u want to listen to music.”

George hummed in agreement next to you.

“Maybe that’ll be your birthday gift. When is it anyways... I’ve known you two for almost a year and you never told me.”

“It’s in about a month. April 1st.” George confirmed.

You let out a bark of laughter. “Yeah, that checks out.”

You got a rare pause of silence.

“What do you mean ‘that checks out’?” Fred looked honestly confused, and so did George.

“Are you both messing with me? You have to know what holiday is on April 1st right?” They shook their heads no.

“Really? Hold on a second let me ask Hermione if she knows anything. ‘Mione!” You got her attention from a few stands over and she jogged over to the three of you.

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, can you answer a question?” She nodded and you continued, “ without saying it out loud, you know what holiday is on April 1st, right?” She nodded again.

“Yea, why is that relevant?”

“Because they don’t!” You motioned frantically to the twins behind you and Hermione shook her head.

“Do not tell them they don’t need another reason to go around causing more chaos.”

“Oooh,” Fred lifted up his head in interest, “this sounds interesting. What holiday is on April 1st that we don’t know about?”

Hermione shook her head as Harry flew over and dismounted. “What’s going on, practice is over, why aren’t you lot leaving?”

You turned to him quickly, “Harry, without saying it, you know what holiday is on, April 1st, right?” He nodded before realizing what was going on and started laughing.

“Don’t encourage them Harry!” Hermione pushed him slightly.

“Why not? It would be funny to see what they do with that.”

Fred and George were getting frustrated, “With what?”

“Don’t tell them, Y/N!”

“Tell them, Y/N!” “Tell us, Y/N!”

“Ok ok I’ll tell you!” You conceded and Hermione threw her hands up in exasperation and left to collect her bag.

“On two conditions!”

Fred and George whispered to each other for a second before turnin to you and nodding.

“Of course.” Said George with a sly grin.

“What are these conditions?” Fred finished for him.

“Number 1. When I tell you the holiday, I get full immunity from the days effects.”

“But of course.” They spoke in unison

“Number 2. Anyone asks, I had nothing to do with this.”

Fred shrugged, “That’s fair. So, what holiday is on April 1st?”

You grinned before replying, “April Fool’s!”

“What is April Fool’s?” George’s eyes went wide.

“A holiday dedicated to playing pranks on people. Muggles prank their friends, family, teachers, principal. In my primary school one of my friends put a bunch of live chickens in a teachers car.”

They looked at you with pure glee.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” Fred and George each planted a kiss on you cheek and ran off.

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-

Fred and George dropped into the library chairs in front of you two weeks later.

“So we were thinking.” Fred grinned from the chair closest to you.

“And since you were the one to tell us about this glorious holiday, you should be part of the celebration.”

“No.”

“Why nooooot?” George whined, setting his chin on the table and looking at you with his best puppy eyes.

“I’m not going to get in trouble for a holiday and besides, its your holiday. You don’t need me interfering.”

“But we want you there so you should do it, right? And you wouldn’t be interfering. Please?” Fred joined his brother in puppy eyeing you.

You sighed and nodded in agreement.

“Yay! So we were thinking that maybe we could pull something minor on each of the teachers and then something major on the whole school. What do you think?”

“It could work, but you would have to tailor it to each teacher. Snape can’t stand background noise and high pitches, McGonagall hates being even remotely interrupted, Flitwick can’t stand his bookstack being messed with, and Lupin, for whatever reason, doesn’t like fish.”

“Fish?” George tilted his head like a confused puppy.

“Yeah, he thinks they’re gross or something.”

They both nodded before Fred spoke up, “Ok, so what are you suggesting?”

You thought for a moment before responding, “For snape, I have this little old transportable music player. We could charm it to follow him around and play a bunch of kazoo noises in the background. The more he tries to get rid of it the higher pitch and louder it gets.”

“Ooh, I like that. What else?” George nodded for you to continue.

“We could find a spell where every time McGonagall tries to speak, she gets interrupted by, I don’t know, a horn or something? Flitwick I don’t really have anything.”

“I like the way you think.” Fred grinned and added in, “ . We could turn Lupin’s class into a tiny lake and fill it with fish while he’s up in his office?”

George nodded, “And we could make Flitwick's stack fly around the room while he’s on it?”

“You’re both evil. It’s fantastic.” You high fived them and the three of you left to enact your plans.

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-

The next two weeks were a never-ending whirlwind of prank planning and late night kitchen runs, but finally the three of you were done. The plans were set up and now all there was to do was wait.

First class of the day was McGonagall’s and the three of you walked in trying to wipe the grins off your face.

“Good morning class, please turn to-” *HONK* Your professor whipped her head around to see where the sound was coming from to no avail. She shook her head and continued on.

“As I was-” *HONK HONK* “Where is that noise coming from?”

The class stifled laughter as she ran around looking for the origin of the honking.

For twenty minutes.

“I swear to” *HONK*

“Oh for the love of” *HOOOOONK*

Eventually McGonagall grew tired and dismissed the class half an hour early.

Snape was next on the hit list.

Your professor strode into the classroom, looking obviously annoyed. A tiny radio followed after him playing a nonsense tune with kazoos. The class  burst into laughter but was promptly shut up by a particularly harsh glare.

The next hour was trademarked by Snape repeatedly trying to destroy the radio physically or through magic while he had the class make a healing potion. The noise just got louder and louder and when the bell rang for the last class before lunch Snape barked at everyone to “GET OUT NOW”.

At lunch, you, Fred, and George each grabbed a sandwich and an apple and were about to rush out to have time to set up Lupin’s prank when Harry, Ron, and Hermione stopped you.

“The radio in Snape’s class, who’s bloody idea was that?” Fred and George pointed to you and Ron responded with a high five.

As you three left you could hear Hermione reprimanding Ron for encouraging you.

Lupin’s class took time to set up, but he always took lunch in his office and rarely opened the door.

The three of you placed a tiny device in the center of the floor, rushed out of the classroom, and waited.

You heard a loud BANG and then a stream of curses before running off to hide.

By the time you three returned for class, a student had opened the door to find Lupin taking refuge at the staircase and yelling that class was cancelled for the day and to read Chapter 17!

This brings us to Flitwick’s class.

The plan for his had already been enacted. Since when the three of you stepped into his class, he was clutching onto  Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 and yelling out instructions while also asking that someone help him down.

You three took pity halfway through class and found a ladder for him to use.

The four pranks had gone off without a hitch, now you just needed to pull of dinner and everything would be perfect.

Fred and George snuck into the kitchens and as food was being prepared to go out, they placed a few drops of a specialized potion on about half of the platters.

So they reconvened with you at dinner.

You each sat there, and then you waited as people dug into their food.

After about thirty seconds the chaos you had been waiting for occurred. Half the Great Hall turned into various zoo creatures, all frantically running around the tables and crashing into people. The human half of the hall was torn between laughing and running.

They ultimately settled on running.

As everyone cleared out of the hall, the students were ushered back to their respective dorms, and the three of you escaped to the kitchens.

As soon as the portrait entrance was closed, the three of you looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

“AHAHAHAHA- OH that was BRILLIANT!” You half screamed.

“Did you see the look on Sprouts face when Snape turned into a peacock? A PEACOCK!” Fred screeched, nearly on the floor.

“I don’t know if we could ever outdo that!” George replied, who was on the floor.

Eventually the three of you calmed down and you caught your breath to reply.

“Knowing you two, you could. Before we leave, come on. I got you something.”

You brought them over to a table in the middle of the kitchens where two cupcakes and a CD player was set up, along with around 10 CDs next to it.

“I completely forgot about that!” Fred exclaimed.

“Thank you so much!” George and Fred leaned down a little to hug you at the same time.

“Uh, guys, getting a little crushed here.”

“Right, sorry.” George detangled himself from the hug.

“I’m not, gonna keep crushing you.” Fred squeezed tighter.

You laughed and hugged him back.

“Happy Birthday.”

[svtwritess]

Hello.. could you do a scenario where fem!reader had an amnesia when dating with jeonghan then start remember things with joshua? I was recently addicted watch tiktok trend with don't wanna cry as bgm but no one make it as a scenario so I thought you could pull it off.. the genre angsty but fluff with good ending in the end? with joshua if it could make sense.. thank you so much if you decide to do my request!💞 But I understand if you couldn't do it since i think my explanation weird..

warnings: graphic content (car crash, coma), amnesia

word count: 4.3k

genre: heavy angst, fluff maybe if you squint

pairing: jeonghan x female reader, joshua x female reader

It all happened so fast. One minute Jeonghan was the love of your life, and the next you didn’t even know his name. 

You were driving home from an event one night, a fancy one that his company held. You were both dressed to the 9’s, him in a tux and you in the most luxurious dress you’d ever had the pleasure of wearing. The two of you laughed as he drove, his hand on your thigh and your hand on top of his. You’d had an amazing night, everyone was so kind to the both of you and Jeonghan had the best time showing you off, announcing you as his girlfriend to anyone that would listen. 

The both of you had had a few drinks, though Jeonghan had eaten plenty and insisted that he was okay to drive. Anyone else who would have driven the two of you home had been drinking as well, and you trusted Jeonghan. Neither of you knew how big of a mistake you were making. 

As Jeonghan drove, more carefree than he normally would’ve been due to how happy he was and the alcohol, with only one hand on the wheel, he lost control. Once the rain started pouring, Jeonghan had forgotten to turn on his headlights, the slick road causing the car to swerve in all of the wrong directions, and eventually the front of the car was slamming into the railing on the side of the road. Jeonghan’s airbag had ejected in perfect time, but yours had gotten stuck. You flew forward, head hitting the dashboard in front of you, then the window next to you, before finally slamming back against your seat. 

You were unconscious after the first blow, the other hits to your head only further worsening your condition. Though you were almost glad you were knocked out, as the sounds of Jeonghan’s screams would’ve shattered your heart. He remembered how warm the tears that streamed down his face were as he called for help, barely able to get the words out or even remember where he was. 

When the police cars and firetrucks arrived, you were both rushed to the hospital. Jeonghan cried the entire way there, his eyes not leaving your still figure in hopes that you would wake up. You never did. 

Upon arriving at the hospital, he begged and pleaded to be put in the same room as you, though as you were to be treated differently, the nurses refused. His body and mind were tired, no longer allowing tears to fall from his eyes. He just laid in the mediocre bed he was provided, lifeless. His friends and family had come to visit, beyond happy that he was okay. When they asked about you, though, tears started falling again, even though it hurt. 

His head was pounding no longer from the impact, but from how hard he had cried. His eyes stung from how dry they had become. He was miserable. 

Jeonghan was discharged from the hospital two days later, but he didn’t leave. He asked the first nurse he saw what room you were in, and when she didn’t know he asked another. And another. And another. Finally, the man who was assigned to you in the intensive care unit took him to see you, and Jeonghan broke down at the sight. He fell on his knees by your bed, grabbing onto your hand in hopes that you would feel his touch and miraculously wake up. 

The doctor said that there was no way to tell when you would wake up, that it was only a matter of time. Jeonghan nodded, saying that he could handle that. He knew he could.

After two weeks he started sleeping at home, though he cleared his entire schedule so he could go and sit with you. He would read to you and talk to you, hoping that there was an off chance you could hear him. He told you how much you meant to him, how much he loved you. He cried more often than not, and after a few days he stopped trying to pull himself together whenever a nurse or doctor came in. 

He slept in your room every day, an unbelievable pain in his back because of the way he had to curl up on the only chair in your room. It was worth it, though. This was his fault, and more than anything, he wanted to be there when you woke up. To apologize. To ask what on earth he could do to make it up to you. To tell you he would never hurt you ever again. 

On the 5th day of the 3rd week of your coma (Jeonghan remembered), you finally woke up. Your eyes were glazed over in confusion, most of the wounds from the accident had healed. Even if they hadn’t, you still would’ve looked beautiful. 

Jeonghan promised he would keep his composure when your eyes opened, but when it happened he realized there was no way in hell that was going to happen. 

He rushed to your bedside, grabbing your hand, your name falling off of his lips incessantly as he sobbed. He started apologizing, but you only furrowed your eyebrows, an almost fearful look in your eyes. He noticed, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He just wanted you to hear him, wanted you to talk to him, wanted you to know how utterly horrible he felt about everything. 

The nurse’s kind voice told him that they had to ask you some questions to see how you were doing, to see what you could remember. Jeonghan thanked the man and asked if he could wait outside of the room, and though it wasn’t normal, the nurse could see how distressed Jeonghan was. He told him yes and Jeonghan let out a breath of relief, thanking him before moving to sit beside your door. 

But before he could get past his I’m sorry’s, he was being dragged out of the room. He had completely lost it, screaming, crying, begging for the nurse to let him stay, but despite his fight, he found himself outside the door, on his knees again, defeated. 

There were no chairs or benches, he sat on the floor. He even laid down at one point, the linoleum floor doing nothing to comfort him. Though he didn’t expect it to, he knew only one thing would really make him feel better; you feeling better.

Eventually the doctor came out, Jeonghan hurrying to stand on his feet. He knew he looked a mess, but he couldn’t bring himself to care as he asked the doctor how you were doing, if he could see you. Jeonghan will never forget the doctor’s words. 

“She’s got retrograde amnesia…” the doctor had sighed. “Are you her boyfriend?” he asked and Jeonghan nodded, mouth too dry to form words. “It doesn’t seem as though she remembers you. I’m… I’m deeply sorry. You can go in whenever you’re ready.” 

All Jeonghan wanted to do was scream and cry, to beg whatever higher power there was for forgiveness, beg them for you back. Beg them for the you that remembered him back. But all he could do was stand there, in shock, disbelief. Could he even handle seeing you when you didn’t know who he was? Would you ever remember?

Then he remembered.

He did this to you. Literally all of this, every part of it was his fault.

She deserves better than me, he thought. How selfish can I be? he pondered as he turned on his heel, calling Seungcheol to come pick him up so he could leave the hospital.

“Hello? Is this Yoon Jeonghan?” the familiar voice asked through the phone.

“Yeah, who is this?” 

“My name is Joshua, I was a nurse at the hospital. I was, uh, assigned to take care of Y/N.” he said casually, a stabbing pain in Jeonghan’s heart upon hearing your name. 

“Okay, what’s this about?” Jeonghan managed to get out, mouth now dry, heart pounding in his chest. 

“I just… I remember how hard everything seemed to be for you, and the doctor mentioned that she didn’t remember you, but I just wanted to let you know that she’s doing okay. She’s great, actually. She’s getting discharged tomorrow.” Jeonghan’s pained heart was suddenly swelling to the size of his chest. A few weeks ago, there was no way he’d be able to see you and have you asking him “Who are you?”. But he had taken some time, taken some time to heal, and he was ready. He was finally ready to see you, and he wanted to more than anything, even if you were nothing to him.

“R-really? Do… Do you think I could see her? Would she even agree to see me do you think?” Jeonghan asked, talking so quick he was almost stumbling over his tongue. 

“Yeah, I think so.” Joshua said hopefully. “Do you know the coffee shop right next to the hospital?” 

“Yes.” 

“I’ll make sure she’s there around noon tomorrow.” Joshua told him, and Jeonghan felt a weight of relief lift off of his shoulders. 

“Thank you…” Jeonghan breathed out, “Thank you so much.” Jeonghan’s voice was as sincere as ever, tears swelling in his eyes. Joshua said a simple you’re welcome before ending the call. 

Jeonghan fell backward onto his bed, warm tears falling down the sides of his face. He called Seungcheol to tell him the news, crying from excitement. Seungcheol asked him if he was sure he was ready to see you, if he could handle it. Jeonghan replied by saying he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t care. He needed to know you were doing well, even if it was a totally new life you were living, with no recollection of him at all. 

He looked around, fearing that how hard his heart was beating against his chest was visible from the outside. At first he didn’t see you, but when a familiar looking man stood up, his hand resting on your back, Jeonghan’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest. 

The more he thought about it the more he knew he couldn’t handle it, seeing you, talking to you, but he shoved that feeling deep down as he opened the door to the coffee shop the next day. 

He began to call your name, but before he could, the man he now recognized as Joshua was stepping in front of him.

“Don’t…” he started, “She’s still not used to not remembering people.” Joshua guided Jeonghan to a small, two person table, but his eyes never left you. You looked amazing, just as you always did, as you sipped on your coffee, making conversation with the girl you were sitting across from. He didn’t recognize her. 

“Who’s that girl? The girl she’s with?” Jeonghan asked as he sat down, eyes not leaving your figure as he tried to make out the expression on your face. 

“She’s just another nurse from the hospital.” Joshua sighed. “Jeonghan I need you to look at me. There’s some things I need to go over with you before you talk to her.” Jeonghan used every ounce of willpower in his body to tear his eyes off of you before locking them onto Joshua’s kind brown ones. 

“Why are you here? You made it sound like she’d be here alone…” Jeonghan said as kindly as he could. He had no issue with Joshua, in fact he’d always been kind to him, but Jeonghan wanted to talk to you. Not him. 

“Well, she would’ve been. That’s one of the things I need to talk to you about.” Joshua let out a long breath as Jeonghan looked at him expectantly. “She doesn’t remember your relationship. Any of it. She might think that you look familiar, but any romantic or… sexual relationship you may have had, it’s just gone from her mind, and I know that may be hard for you to understand. You should just avoid saying anything about your past with her, because she’s not going to understand and it might frustrate her. It’s going to be hard for you, because for the most part she’s still the same person, but you just have to remember that she doesn’t remember you.” Joshua explained sweetly and Jeonghan nodded. “Now this is gonna be difficult for you, I know that, and I hope it’s not too much to ask for you to stay calm.” 

Jeonghan’s heart fell into his stomach. What could be that bad that made Joshua warn him like that? 

“A day or two after Y/N woke up, she pretty much returned to normal, but we kept her in the hospital for about 3 more weeks just to make sure the injuries weren’t worse than they seemed, to make sure she’d truly be okay on her own. She also started, um, flirting with me I guess? Initially I just ignored it, just doing my job as required, but the more time I spent with her-”

“Don’t fucking say it.” Jeonghan said through gritted teeth. His hands were balled into fists on the table, knuckles turning white with pure and utter rage. He screwed his eyes shut, doing his absolute best to not lose it in the middle of the quaint coffee shop.

“Listen if I thought for a second that she remembered you, I would’ve never even thought about her that way. But every day the doctor would ask her what she remembered, who she remembered, and your name never came up, even when she was asked if she remembered dating someone, she said no.” Joshua avoided Jeonghan’s gaze, which was for the best because Jeonghan was glaring daggers at the slightly younger man. “But I think you deserve to see her, to know her, have a relationship with her even if it’s just a friendship. Like I said, she’s the same woman for the most part, so I think you guys would get along, but only if that’s something you’re up for…” Joshua trailed off. Jeonghan scoffed. 

“No, I’m sorry…” Joshua said softly, “And we haven’t had sex or anything, by the way. Nor really supposed to do things like that with patients...” his voice was almost inaudible. Jeonghan appreciated the other man’s honesty, but that didn’t mean he liked what he was hearing. 

“You start fucking my girlfriend then have the audacity to tell me how I should go about our new relationship?” At first, Jeonghan was nothing but pissed. This Joshua guy had no right! Who the hell did he think he was?

But then he realized. It was his new relationship with you, not the old one.

“She’s not my girlfriend anymore… is she?” Jeonghan asked, his voice low and humbled. He looked into Joshua’s eyes, and for the first time that day, Joshua saw nothing but sadness in his eyes. 

“Can I just talk to her now? Please?” Jeonghan pleaded, and after thinking for a moment, Joshua nodded. He stood up from his chair and walked over to you, placing a gentle hand on your back and bending down, saying something by your ear. You hesitated for a moment, then nodded, bidding the girl you were sitting with goodbye before walking over to where Jeonghan sat. 

Jeonghan’s heart was beat faster and faster as you approached him. You were wearing one of the dresses he had packed for you and left at the hospital, and God you nearly took his breath away. You looked as if nothing had ever happened; none of the wounds you’d gotten in the accident scarring, no trauma in your eyes. You looked… happy. Really, truly happy. 

Jeonghan wanted to stand up to greet you, but he felt as if his legs might give out, so he stayed sitting down. 

“Hi,” your sweet voice was like music to his ears and his heart fluttered; he didn’t realize how much he missed the way you sounded. 

“H-Hi.” Jeonghan said, mustering a smile as you sat down next to Joshua across from him. 

“Joshua said that I know- well, knew you.” you told him shyly and he nodded, trying not to be creepy with his staring, he just couldn’t take his eyes off of you. 

“Yeah, you did. You’re my, or, you were my girlfriend.” he twiddled his fingers on top of the table, trying to read the look in your eyes. You seemed surprised.

“Oh, really? Was it serious?” you asked innocently, not at all knowing how much your words stabbed Jeonghan like knives. You didn’t remember, and you never would. 

“Yeah I, um, I never told you, but I was planning on proposing…” his eyes finally left your face and he stared at his hands, the pain suddenly becoming almost unbearable. 

“Oh, yeah that sounds really serious,”  you let out an airy laugh of disbelief, “I’m sorry I don’t remember you.” your words were genuine, and as selfish as it sounded, they just weren’t enough for Jeonghan. 

“Yeah, me too.” he sighed, leaning back in his chair. 

“Are you the one who… who crashed the car?” Jeonghan’s eyes widened at your question. “I-I don’t remember the accident, but they just told me that’s why I don’t remember a lot of stuff.” you looked at him shyly. 

This is my fault, the voice in Jeonghan’s head reminded him. If it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t be here right now. We’d still be together. She’d remember me, she’d love me…

“I am, and I’m sorry. I know that’s not gonna make up for everything you’ve been through, but if I could change how it happened or change our places, I would do it without a second thought.” he told you. Even though you didn’t know basically anything about him anymore, you could tell he meant it. 

“Jeonghan?” you asked and his head snapped up, wishing he could replay the sound of you saying his name on an endless loop after having not heard it for so long. “That’s your name, right? I think that’s what Joshua said.” you laughed shyly and Jeonghan nodded. 

“Y-yeah, that’s my name.” he encouraged and you smiled at him. 

“I can tell you feel bad, but it’s okay. I wish I could remember you, but I’m glad I don’t remember the crash. I think life would be a lot harder if I did. And if it makes you feel any better,” you turned to look at Joshua and took his hand in yours, “I’m really happy.” 

Jeonghan didn’t know what to say, let alone what to feel. Everything was so confusing. He wanted you to be happy, but he wanted you to be happy with him, because of him, but he had to keep telling himself that you didn’t even know him. Joshua was right. The hardest thing was seeing you exactly how you were when you were together, but having to remember that you had no memories of him at all. And of course he had to keep reminding himself that it was his fault, and you deserved to live your life the way you now wanted to, not the way he wanted you to.

“That’s really good, Y/N. You deserve it.” he smiled at you, though inside he was dying. Accepting what had happened was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever have to do and it was going to take time, but he would be okay.

“I think we’re gonna head out now,” Joshua spoke up, “Y/N still has some stuff to get from the hospital.” you and Joshua stood up first and soon Jeonghan followed, not wanting your time together to end. 

“Thank you for staying with me at the hospital. Again, I don’t remember it, but Joshua told me that you were there and I think it’s really sweet.” he smiled at you, unable to believe how kind you were being. It shouldn’t have surprised him, though. You were always that way. 

“No need to thank me. I wanted to…” he trailed off and a slightly awkward silence fell over the three of you. “If not I get it, but do you think I could, uh, give you a hug?” it felt so strange asking such a thing, and Jeonghan was sure it sounded strange, but he was relieved when you nodded. 

You stepped forward and reached your arms up, wrapping your arms around his neck. Jeonghan hesitated for a moment before wrapping his arms around your waist. He couldn’t believe he was finally holding you again, making tears swell in his eyes once more. He hugged you tighter, your scent and the way your body pressed against his feeling the best way familiarity could feel. Though for you, it felt like hugging a stranger. He smelt good and his body felt nice against yours, but that was all. 

Even after you removed your arms from around him he held onto you, that was until Joshua let out an awkward cough from behind you. He begrudgingly let you go, heart shattering when you bid each other goodbye and he was forced to watch you leave the coffee shop with Joshua, his hand on the small of your back. 

He nearly fell back down in his chair, sitting there for a moment to try and collect himself. He may have looked okay, but he was a fucking mess. His mind was jumbled and his heart ached, but he supposed this was his karma. This was the universe getting back at him for what he had done. 

Jeonghan didn’t see you very often, but Joshua was good about keeping him updated. Part of Jeonghan felt like your life now was none of his business, but the other part of him felt that since he was still in love with you, he had the right to know. Maybe not the right to know, necessarily, but he wanted to know, so much so that it felt like a need. He knew you were okay, but he wasn’t ready to let you go. 

Joshua told him about your first few official dates and the funny things you had said or done. He told him about new tastes that you acquired, whether it be food or fashion or something in between, and new hobbies that you’d picked up. After a few months, Jeonghan fearfully asked Joshua if he’d slept with you yet. He said yes. Jeonghan held back the urge to throw something. 

He couldn’t fathom the fact that someone else was taking you to dinner, bringing you coffee in the morning, holding you whenever they wanted, kissing you whenever they wanted. He couldn’t believe someone else was sharing a bed with you, bringing you to the height of pleasure the way that he used to. There were some things he thought he’d rather not know…

After a few months of hearing about your life with Joshua, Jeonghan had politely asked him to stop calling. He told Joshua that if anything serious happened to you or if you died or something to let him know, but other than that he felt like he was ready. He was ready to let you go. 

After a year and a half, he finally began dating someone else. He was constantly comparing them to you, but when Joshua called one day telling him that you were engaged to him, Jeonghan truly realized that there was no going back to you, ever, and he realized that he needed to start seeing the people he dated the way they actually were, not they way they were in comparison to you. 

He thought about you all the time, of course, but with time you were the main character of his mind less and less. The less he heard about you, the less he thought about you.

There was one time when he saw you at the grocery store. You looked beautiful, dressed casually in a pair of sweatpants, a loose t-shirt, and a pair of sneakers that he’d bought you what felt like ages ago. He didn’t say anything, though. He just admired from afar. 

About another year went by and Jeonghan’s phone was buzzing. Joshua had sent him photos from your wedding, and even after so much time, Jeonghan’s breath still caught in his throat when he looked at you. You looked angelic, the way he always imagined you would look when he married you. But he didn’t cry, he wasn’t even really that upset. He was sad that he didn’t get to live his life with you the way he always wanted to, but he recognized that you were getting to live your life and that he, too, would get to live his. 

You never told anyone, not even Joshua, but no matter how happy you were or how amazing your life was, something always felt like it was missing. Joshua was perfect for you and treated you better than you thought you deserved, but each night when you laid down to go to sleep, you wondered what was out of place.

Joshua always told you that dealing with amnesia wouldn’t be easy and that it might frustrate you sometimes, and he told you to come to him if you had any questions, but you never did, specifically because you knew you would be asking about Jeonghan. You’d only met the man once, but you couldn’t help but think that he was the missing piece from your puzzle. 

You seemed to remember everything but him, and you often wondered why. It made you upset, angry, and you even cried about it. Joshua held you when you did, but you refused to tell him why you were upset no matter how bad he wanted to know. You eventually got over it and stopped letting it make you sad, but you still wondered. 

For him, you would always be the one that got away. For you, he would always be where your mind wandered when you thought of what could have been.

a/n: hello anon!! thank you so much for requesting this, i usually hate angst because it’s so sad and this is so sad but it was a very interesting request so i couldn’t help it ,, i’m sorry if this stinks or makes no sense, my eyes hurt from writing so i haven’t gone back through to edit it like i normally do LOL but i really really hope you enjoy!! 

[kaypeace21]

What was the first moment or scene that made you suspect or realize Will can alter reality? 🙋🏾‍♂️

Hi, anon. :) I think it wasn’t 1 thing in particular but an amalgamation of things. S3 was probably what made everything ‘click’ in my mind. But there were A LOT of things in prior seasons that made me scratch my head - such as the connection/parallels of certain human/nonhuman characters to Will. And I was trying to figure out-what the narrative explanation was for all of this.

But I think what made me think of Will altering reality ...was  mostly how the media Will consumed affected the supernatural plot specifically .  And how the mf was connected to Will’s emotional state and “Will the wise”.Of course this is all unconscious on Will’s part-and he’s unaware. I won’t mention outside film inspos just what’s in the show- for this post.

s1: the demogorgans are connected to Will playing the game.Like how rolling the 7 in d&d caused him to be captured by the demogorgan in the game and real life. And how in the game the demogorgan is attracted to blood so it is irl. The weakness of the demogorgan being fire. And in a s1flashback- Will mentions Will the wise using fire powers against the bad guys. Duffers (in interviews) and Nancy saying the demogrogan was like a shark- and Will has a Jaws poster in his room. And in s1, Will watches poltergeist and is thrust into the same scenario as the little girl (being trapped in another dimension- where the mothers can only hear their voices and communicate to them through electronics ). The fact Will can mess with electronics similar to other psychics, and the monsters.In s1 Mr clarke describes the vale of shadows (later the upsidedown) as being created by “necrotic” (’dead’-zombie boy) and “shadow” (shadow monster/mf) magic.  

s2/3: Mike says he was Venkman. And Will is thrust into the same scenario as Venkman’s love interest.Dana finds a demon-dog in her fridge, and hires the ghost busters. And right before Venkman goes on a date with her she is possessed by the big-bad, Zuul, and is transformed into the gate-keeper (who controls demo(n)-dogs). Venkman proceeded to try to talk to the real Dana , ignoring her possessed form and eventually realizes how serious her condition is, is forced to sedate her. Eventually with the help of his team, Venkman closes the gate to Zuul’s dimension, rescuing Dana in the process. 

-In s2 Will also plays dig dug which is about underground mazes- so the supernatural underground caves are made in s2. And it’s a callback to the s1 d&d game with “troglodytes “ (cave men). And in s3 the Russians had the underground lab too - sort of being the troglodytes in a way.

-Will is called ‘zombie boy’ and in s3 when Will watches a zombie movie and writes a d&d story about juju zombies- the mf creates zombies and creates a monster resembling the thing (because when Will was writing his d&d story he was next to the ‘the thing’ poster in s3). When Mike hijacks Will’s d&d story saying ‘they’ll torch the chambers, sacrificing themselves killing the juju ’. Will gets angry and yells “Fine, you win.” And then Joyce and Hopper do just that- when they pull the lever, and Hopper ‘dies’ sacrificing himself, and the Russians literally are eviscerated.

-Will says ‘will the wise’ is a wizard ( writing on a music tape in s3 “will the wise-wizard mix’ and having his password for castle byers be ‘rhadaghast’- a lotr wizard.) In d&d Mindflayers are created by inserting a slug in a humanoid (like Will at the end of s1). And similar to Will’s s3 d&d story-Will says in s2 the mf drawing was for a story he was writing (which isn’t exactly the truth, but close to what is happening).The way they describe d&d Wizards matches Will/mf perfectly “Wizards are adepts and magicians . wizards are able to create spells of explosive fire, sparking lightning, subtle deception, and gross mind control. Their magic summons monsters from other planes of existence, predicts the future, and turns defeated enemies into zombies. Their most powerful spells can transform one substance into another, summon meteors from the sky, and open portals to other worlds”. Dustin says the mf uses it’s “highly developed psyionic powers for mindcontrol.” Nancy in s2 says: “So this thing is like a brain that’s controlling everything.” And accidentally calls the mind-flayer the mind-flamer ( WW had fire power).Hopper then says “So how do we kill this thing shoot it with fireballs?”And Dustin says “ No, No, fireballs you summon an undead army.”Referencing Will (fire)and foreshadowing of the zombie-esque people Will caused in s3.But Mike actually nails it on the head when he says, “If the brain dies the body dies … closing the gate will kill him(referring to Will).Because it’s not the mindflayers’ brain - it’s Will’s brain- that both Will and the mf share! 

Joyce  describes the tunnels Will draws as “like lightning” (a power Will the wise was shown to have in s1  and mf has in s2).And note in s1 we are told Lonnie taught Will baseball (and this was when Jon told Will not to mimic him)- and suspiciously there is a baseball and baseball-mitt next to the ‘shadow monster’ (mf) drawing in s2, and a bat (next to the ww drawing in castle byers in s3). Cause mf= ww.  Will lies and says the mf is just a sketch for a story he’s writing- but even if that’s not exactly true. The mf is still something he unconsciously created. And the mf comes in s2 during Will’s PTSD “anniversary effect” and in s3 everytime Will is thinking of his romantic feelings for Mike (why the mf shows up in the summer despite light being his weakness). 1st time it’s on one of their ‘movie dates’, 2nd time when Will is sad when Mike and El walk off together down the hill to make-out, , 3rd time right after he smashed castle byers after Mike says “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls”, 4th time (after the fight with Mike) when Billy is yelling to open the door (a trigger) and confides in Mike, 5th time when Mike asks him to go away so he can talk to El in the hospital waiting area, and 6th time when Mike says he loves El. 

-Susie in s3 references the ‘A wizard of Eathsea’ -it’s about a male wizard Ged (Will) who casts a powerful spell, but the spell goes awry and instead he releases a shadow creature! The new Archmage, Gensher, describes the shadow as an ancient evil that wishes to possess Ged. But the ‘shadow’ turns out  to be a representation of the darkest aspects of his personality. And the only way for the chaos to stop is for ged and the shadow to merge.

-‘the dark crystal’ movie poster in Mike’s room is about a race called urSkeks who inadvertently divided themselves into two separate beings; the violent, materialistic Skeksis, and the gentle, contemplative urRu. It was only when they merged back together as one could harmony and peace be restored to the world.

- Montauk Project’- The original title for Stranger things was “Montauk”- in reference to the Montauk Project. Where Duncan could “open portals to other dimensions-  and lets loose a monster from his subconscious.”

- In s1 Hopper says he likes the book cujo , that one of the guards is reading, and at the end of the book they replace the dog Cujo with a dog named Willie. A ref to Will creating the demo-dogs. The fact in s2 Chester (Will’s dog) died at the same time the demo-dogs appeared is probably not a coincidence.

- Susie has a wizard of oz poster & in s2 when murray mentions the supernatural he references the movie.He references Wizard of Oz by saying “people don’t like looking behind the curtain” (in the movie what was behind the curtain was a wizard-Will).

-in s3 Will & El parallel (sebastian & Atreyu from neverending story). Which Dustin references in s3.“Atreyu (who was deemed the ‘chosen one) is thrown  into the sea of possibilities (beach in cali). There he wakes on the shore of abandoned ruins (junkyard for El). There Gmork (The Mindflayer) reveals himself, having been lying in wait.He explains that Fantasia represents humanity’s imagination and is thus without boundaries, while the Nothing is a manifestation of the loss of hopes and dreams. And then latches his jaws onto Atreyu’s leg (like what happened to El).The Empress in the story later tells Atreyu, that despite being told he was the chosen one (he never was). And that it was always Bastian (Will) who was the chosen one -that could save them, all along! And that Atreyu’s (El’s) story, and “others” (the rest of the st cast) are following Bastian’s (Will’s) story all along, making them all part of his neverending story. The Empress tells Bastian that he has the power to save them using his imagination.”*Bastian has a bowl cut, appears to be a normal human, and from a single parent house hold. Bastian even temporarily goes evil after he loses his memories (just like Will).

IT ALL CONNECTS BACK TO WIIL!

* There’s also A LOT more evidence - like the many other correlations/parallels/eastereggs to Will and other human characters (El, Kali, Terry, Brenner, Max, Billy, Hopper, Alexi, Etc) who I believe Will created. As well as the parallels to Lonnie and the demogrogan(which in d&d is called “the deep father”).  I recommend reading my THEORY HERE for all that other evidence. It also includes the cited inspos  for the show there too (which i didn’t mention in this post). It’s a very long post-but I believe worth reading.

[crab-withaknife]

Amphibia and Fatshaming/Fatphobia

Starting off with a disclaimer, I think Amphibia is AMAZING and absolutely worth the watch, please support it as the 3rd season comes out. And it is not a bad thing to watch and enjoy this show in spite of these issues I wanted to address. Also, I am a fat person. Just so you know.

But basically, after rewatching the 1st and 2nd season for the third time through and having watched my favorite eps A BUNCH of times on top of that, I recognized some spots where there are jokes that arent respectful and play off the age old unsavory "fat character has a one liner about needing to lose weight" humor, as well as the poor treatment of a character that has gained weight due to emotional and mental distress.

To start out, I want to talk about Mayor Toadstool real quick. I would say that from my watching experience, Mayor Toadstool doesn't have much physical humor making his fatness into a punchline, thankfully, and is design is so similar to the other toads in terms of body shape that it could be written off as him just being shaped like a usual toad. However, Mayor Toadstool is one of the first season's antagonists(ish) and he is definitely portrayed as being greedy, and this can absolutely play into a fatphobic trope of "big fat rich guy, this is a negative trait" as fat stereotypes are often associated with greed and gluttony of some kind.

The fact that all of the toads are fat or in general larger and how they're treated in the show could be seen as an issue as well. Toads are naturally a bit bulkier than frogs in real life, and the toads are portrayed as more muscular as some of the kingdom's soldiers and enforcers, so there's definitely a design and narrative aspect to the choice to make the toads larger. However, the potential for harm in "the larger characters are treated as distasteful and they're called smelly multiple times in the show" is still there.

But basically, Mayor Toadstool's line in "Toad Tax" about needing to cut back on cricket nuggets and panting after chasing after Sprig (and this applies to Hop Pop's line about needing to cut back on beetle burgers in "Sprig Gets Schooled"), as well as Anne's line in "New Wartwood" about Mayor Toadstool being a cross between the monopoly man and a piece of fried chicken are both unsavory in my opinion. Mayor Toadstool gasping for breath and Hop Pop getting stuck in a gate is a moment of "its funny because theyre in a situation due to their fatness so they joke about how they shouldn't have let themselves get to this state." With the case of Anne's description of Toadstool, it's a moment of "Anne is saying a line you are meant to laugh at because she's comparing this fat character to a commonly-considered-unhealthy food item." Both of these scenarios suck. This kind of falling back onto humor involving fat characters loving food and it being seen as a gross obsession or a funny character quirk, or the characters or those around them joking about how they need to stop eating so much and the butt of the joke being their fatness (while blaming the character for basically "allowing" themself to become fat), is really harmful.

But the biggest issue for me is Grime in the episode "Toadcatcher". Like, Grime is my favorite, I think his design is wonderful, he's such a fun and charming character, and I love all the episodes he gets to star in. His treatment in "Toadcatcher" sucked actually.

I hate to bring up Marvel, but Thor in Avengers Endgame, with a lot of gross potbelly shots and being insulted for his condition and experiencing a total lack of compassion for his situation, is the closest example I can think of to compare this to with "A character loses their purpose, their people, and their home, and they gain weight, lose their edge, eat less healthy, and begin drinking because of this. It is played as a joke." Grime really suffers in this episode at the hands of Sasha, Yunan, and the episode’s writing as a whole. His reaction to the loss of Toad Tower is more extreme than Sasha's and his feelings of hopelessness and loss cause him to stress eat, to gain weight, to feel unmotivated and become less active, and to drink (bog grog seems like its basically toad beer). Braddock addresses this as "a rut" and is comforting to Grime when she explains that they all wanted to try and help him get off his feet with some action, but this isn’t what he needs; Grime is not receiving emotional support from the people around him, just attempts at reviving the old motivation he had before losing his purpose and his soldiers.

Sasha, Yunan, and the episode's writing are overall really unkind towards Grime's character regarding his weight gain and inactivity. Sasha makes fun of him and berates him, Yunan's shock at his condition is played for a joke because of how much he has "deteriorated", and Grime is written as a belching, sloppy, lazy, unmotivated (in a negative way) mess who lost sight of who he really is ("what happened to the Grime I used to know" from Sasha). All of this is either comedically written to mock how he has "let himself go" (blaming him for his current condition as well as implying that him being fat in general is a bad thing) or, in serious moments, the characters' reactions aren't ever proven to be coming from an unkind and incorrect mindset during the episode, so the audience is meant to take Sasha and Yunan's reactions as the guideline for their own reaction to Grime's physical and emotional state.

The episode uses physical comedy to show Grime panting, falling down, and running into things as he and Sasha run from Yunan, and his current condition is never shown any compassion outside of Braddock’s one line, though Sasha’s plan that they carried out was not coming from an emotionally understanding and supportive mindset that one in Grime’s emotionally compromised position would need. His fatness is treated as an obstacle to their escape and something to make fun of, and Sasha is never proven wrong for her anger and frustration with Grime for not training and for being unmotivated. Sasha's reaction to the events of Toad Tower is discussed and addressed between the two of them, but Grime never gets a sympathetic gaze on his side of things and instead his condition is mocked until he regains his motivation and trains to regain his strength.

TLDR, Grime's fatness and his physical mental and emotional state are all treated so poorly in "Toadcatcher" in terms of how the other characters react to him and how the show portrays him. Outside of this episode, Toadstool has some potential for uncomfortable underlying negative implications in his design with the whole fat rich person issue, and his and Hop Pop's lines about food are unsavory and fall into a gross stereotype of fatness coming from overeating and being the fat person's responsibility to fix by eating less. Amphibia has some incredible writing and characters, but the use of fatshaming and fatphobic and unkind humor is something that's important to recognize and be critical of.

[joachimnapoleon]

"One is not a king to obey.”

So as I’ve mentioned on my blog before, there are very few surviving letters from Murat to his wife, mainly because Caroline was in the habit of destroying most of her received correspondence, and Murat rarely kept copies of the letters he sent her. But, I recently picked up Albert Vandal’s book on the Murats’ reign in Naples (covering only the years 1808-1812), and made the happy discovery of the inclusion of the full text of several letters between the two that I haven’t found published elsewhere. One of them is the letter below, which I’ve seen quoted in bits and pieces. 

For brief background/context: this letter is written while Murat is in the middle of his ultimately unsuccessful campaign to take Sicily; Napoleon has been breathing down his neck and interfering in the affairs of Naples lately; their relationship has been a mess for the past year and is steadily getting worse (and in April, in their final meeting/quarrel before Murat left Paris, the Emperor snarled at Murat that he’d have his head); his mortal enemy Savary has recently replaced Fouché so Murat can feel the deck being stacked against him; and Louis Bonaparte has recently been evicted from his throne in Holland after finding himself at odds with Napoleon one time too many. Murat feels his own dethronement rapidly approaching.

This is an eye-opening letter. We have a very fed-up, stressed-out Murat here, ranting at length about how awful Napoleon is treating him, while assuring his wife at the end that he’s going to be good and do what the Emperor wants and he’s fine, everything’s fine, thank you very much. 

Vandal sums it up: Under the appearances of resignation his letter breathes only revolt.

Source: Albert Vandal, Le Roi et la Reine de Naples (1808-1812), pages 47-9.

*** 

[Undated, August 1810]

I will try to respond to your letter of the 3rd, my kind Caroline; you are perfectly right in everything you write to me, and I assure you that you have not thought anything about it which would not have greatly and seriously occupied me, and my system of conduct in accordance with my sentiments have always proven that I saw as you, but, without blinding us, I foresaw differently. But I am wrong, you foresee the same events as I do, but with courage and wise conduct, we must await with resignation and prepare in advance for events that are not in our power to prevent.

The Emperor accuses me of not doing what he wants, of not consulting him. You know the contrary, and I think I can dispense with responding in this regard; I have constantly strived to do his will. The Emperor blames me for what I did for Lucien*, I applaud myself for it and, if I were to do so, despite His Majesty’s defense, I would do it again; I cried for his fate as for that of good Louis.

How could the Emperor take the language he has towards the young Grand Duke of Berg, or at least how could he make it public? That was the most pitiful thing that could come out of his mouth. Louis is dethroned, wandering, sick, and the journals assail him with invectives!... He [the Emperor] thinks he is paying court to the French, he is far from succeeding by showing himself so ungenerous. What a report from Champagny! Holland is ruined for France, by France, and the Emperor has united it to France, and the motive is given her that she can no longer exist independently, because she can no longer pay her debts. This is the height of impudence. Today, he imposes onerous conditions on me, he makes me sign an unjust treaty and recognizes an even more unjust debt; he diminishes my revenues, crushes my commerce, paralyzes my factories, orders me to make a ruinous expedition, asks me for a navy, prevents exports, in short, he makes it impossible for me to bear all this enormous burden he imposes on me. He makes decrees as master, prescribes regulations in Naples as in Paris, and when the moment will have arrived and his policy or his caprice will have counseled him to make me descend from the throne, the Duke of Cadore will make another pompous report on the King of Naples, like he did on that of Holland.

There it is, there it is, my friend, what I will force myself to avoid out of love for you, for my poor children, but what will happen, if the Emperor continues to indulge in his false politics and always listens to the perfidious counsel of Savary [names rendered illegible] etc. You know it, you know the depths of my mind. Who loved the Emperor more, who served him better, and yet without cause he threatened to take off my head, and since, despite all that I have been able to write him, despite my sacrifices, despite everything I do here, he has not responded to me a single time, he remains silent and makes his will known to me by his ministers, sends me medals by his grand chamberlain and lessons by the Monitor. You know that all of this did nothing to me when I was sure of his heart. He sought, for example, to excuse the mission of Clarke’s aide-de-camp to Naples with the defense that the crossing be attempted with at least 15,000 men, but this order has not been revoked, it still exists; but his minister wrote to mine that the Emperor had deprived me of command of the army, he wrote it to the chief of staff, he wrote it to Marshal Perignon; would he have done so, if he had not wanted to bring me into disrepute, would he not have been content with writing it to me or having it written to me, if he had had his old feelings for me? What need did he have to make my subordinates know such hostile intentions? Finally, what is the King of Spain doing for him? Did he not guarantee him the totality of his kingdom; did he not guarantee it to the Spaniards? By what right are new troops sent to Westphalia? By what right does he want to introduce French goods to Naples for nothing and to tax those from Naples that are imported to France? I understand the reason for it, it is that of the strongest, if not that of the most just. I understand that he must be the master of wanting us to march in his system and that we must consult him for political or important measures that we have to take; he must be our Mentor and not our master; one is not a king to obey. Then, how could he tell the people that he had entrusted to the princes of his family that these princes must occupy themselves with the interests of the French before occupying themselves with those of their people? In truth, one cannot conceive of the motives or the purpose of such a maxim.

My dear Caroline, I would not finish if I wanted to find wrongs, but this would not achieve anything. Let us take patience, let us conduct ourselves in such a way as never to have any justified wrong and wait with resignation what it will please Providence to decide for our destiny. I am decided to do everything the Emperor wants and will want, and when I can no longer bear the burden, I will beg him to take charge of it. So, be without worry, I am by no means affected, I am calm, and it is only on him and for him, I say, that I may have fears, if he does not change the system.

--Joachim Murat

***

*The reference to Lucien Bonaparte is in regard to Murat sending a vessel to help Lucien escape from Italy and go to the United States; the vessel was captured by the English and Lucien sent to England. Murat had granted Lucien the ship without Napoleon’s knowledge or permission, and Napoleon was furious about the affair.

[writefightandflightclub]

Poke it (Poe Dameron x reader)

What is this? #9 of 14 prompt requests for my now semi-distant 500 follower celebration (sorry that they’re taking me an age to complete)!

Prompt / summary: “Let’s poke it with a stick” + “Do NOT poke it!” + “Let’s be honest. This isn’t the worst thing you’ve caught me doing”

(That 3rd line! I adore Pepperony and I wish I had a comprehensive list of the worst things Pepper caught Tony doing!)

Author’s note: This is just a quick one- hope it hangs together ok. The title is shitty, I’m sorry.

Word count: 1.4k

Warnings: mild sex references and content; references to nudity.

GIF credit: the fabulous @hupperts​ ​!

You stir awake in the interior of the cave as a precise whisper cuts through the relative darkness.

“Let’s poke it with a stick!”

Blearly eyed and still half-asleep, you try to shrug off the layers of sleep. All you can establish, at first, is that you’re surrounded by warmth. By blankets. By warm skin. Then a familiar scent wraps around you, explaining the embrace you’re held in. Poe. You’re surrounded by Poe, snoring lightly beside you.

Then, a second harsh whisper slices through the cave, and you register a flashlight beam trailing over the interior, unsure footsteps scraping along the floor.

“I’m gonna poke it.”

“Do NOT poke it, Rose! It’s probably just a rock.”

“You don’t believe that, Finn, or you wouldn’t mind me poking it. Besides, it was moving around! I heard it growl!”

Evidently, your rescue committe has arrived. “Hello?” you venture into the dimly lit cave. At that, Finn and Rose startle, seemingly colliding with one another and letting out a sharp shriek.They’re not very subtle.

Poe finally shifts awake beneath the blankets, at which point, upon observing the stirring, blanketed shape, Rose yells “AHHH! Kill it! Kill it! For kriff’s sake kill it!!”

“Don’t kill it! Rose! It’s us! It’s just us!” You exclaim, and a flashlight beam finds its way directly into your face. Groggily, you raise an arm to shield your eyes. You offer them a lopsided smile. “Major (L/N), accounted for and present.” Wait, is Finn hiding behind Rose?

Upon realising the mysterious shape is you and not some carniverous, cave-dwelling monster, Finn strides forward and you can just about make out relief washing over his features. “Poe?” he enquires, needing to know immediately that the Commander is also accounted for.

“I’m here, buddy.”, a gravelly, sleep ridden voice announces from behind you. Slinging a hand over your hips and giving you a reassuring and private squeeze beneath the blankets, Poe props himself up on his elbow and squints into the light as the beam now washes over his stubbled face and mussed, inky curls. 

“Thank kriff.” Rose starts, finally reassured and continuing the onslaught with the flashlight as she too paces towards you.

“Rose.” you warn. “Rose.”

She doesn’t heed you and, full of relief that the moving, growling shape was simply the two of you sleeping, she makes her way even closer. “What on earth happened to you two after the crash? We...” But then she comes closer than she would like. “Oh, Maker, my eyes!” she yells, the flashlight beam skimming over the underwear and clothing you have both strewn over the floor. Skimming over Poe’s shirtless form snuggled into yours.

Poe dips his head towards you while Rose swings her flashlight wildly around, providing a momentary distraction. “Oops.” he breathes, with zero genuine regret, before planting a quick kiss to the sweet spot on your neck that he learned all about lastnight. Your body hums with delight.

Finn’s beam follows the path of Rose’s next. “Maker! Are you two naked?!” Did you have...? No. Wait. I don’t even need to ask, do I? You had sex in a cave. You did. I know it.”

“Finn!” you scold, although he’s not wrong, and you tug the blanket firmly up to your armpits to avoid any unintended slips, as if you might be able to salvage some dignity after all. 

“We didn’t think anyone was coming for us, buddy. We may have got in touch with our feelings, some.” Poe defends, his voice momentarily hollowed out with the memory of exactly how stranded you’d believed you were. About the declarations which followed. “Besides, Let’s be honest, Finn. This isn’t the worst thing you’ve caught me doing. Not by far!” 

Finn sighs. “Whatever, just get dressed and meet us over by the entrance. You got your own light?”

“We got our own light.” Poe confirms.

“And (Y/N)?” Rose calls gleefully as she and Finn head out, “Hurry up, so you can tell me absolutely everything there is to know about this hook-up.”

“Rose!” Poe scolds, in a thin attempt at his Commander-ly voice.

The duo leave and Poe shields your eyes with his palm as he powers up the portable light. You swivel beneath the blanket to face him with a tentative smile, the memory of last night still fresh on your skin, on your lips, on your heart.

“Looks like we’re not going to die after all, honey.” He trails his fingertips lazily over your bare back. If you’re not mistaken, he takes a deep, steadying breath before speaking his next words. “Before we’re very unalone: any regrets about last night....?”

Your response is easy, certain. “I regret nothing.”

He can’t hold back the smile upon hearing your words, but he does make some attempt to tame it with a lip bite. He dips to press a soft, affectionate kiss to your lips and looks at you like he can’t believe his luck.

“How about you?” you ask apprehensively. “Any regrets?”

“I only regret that I didn’t have sex with you in a cave a helluva lot sooner.”

“Figures.” you nod, delivering him a warm smile and returning his kiss, momentarily letting it deepen.

“Come on then, Screamer, let’s get dressed and back to base so I can undress you again. Sound good?”

Oh oh. You hope that nickname doesn’t stick. You’d be more embarrassed, but he’d certainly seemed to enjoy how vocal you were last night.

“Yep. That’s emphatically fine by me.” You pick through the mess to find your clothes, tugging them on hurriedly and packing up the few supplies you had remaining. Once everything is gathered and you’re both decent you begin your trudge through the winding tunnels. 

“Wait a minute, though...” you pause as you pick your way out through the dark and towards the cave’s mouth. Poe’s hand is on your waist. In fact, he’s barely stopped touching you since he finally realised that you wanted him to touch you. “I gotta ask. What was the worst thing Finn’s caught you doing?”

Poe stops in his tracks for a moment, his hand still warm and reassuring on the small of your back. “I forget... D’sn’t matter though, you’re by far the best thing he’s caught me doing. Let’s dwell on that. ‘Kay?”

“Technically, he didn’t catch you doing me.” you clarify, for the record.

“A few minutes later and he would have.” Poe smirks, and his face remains mischievous as you enter the light of day. 

Rose is waiting keenly for you to emerge and greets you both with open-armed hugs and easy smiles. You both hold your arms out to Finn, expecting the same. “Nah, bro, I’ll get you later. I know where you two have been.”

You walk together towards the ship, and you allow yourself a sigh of relief. It had been touch and go there for a while. Then, before Rose can siphon you off for much needed gossip, you turn to Poe. “You’re the best thing I’ve been caught doing too, you know.”

His expression turns smug. “I could tell, sweetheart.”

“Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

He ignores your comment and continues with his self-satisfied train of thought. “Which is wild, because I haven’t even shown you mosta my moves yet.”

You filter on to the rescue vessel, greeting the pilot with gratitude and taking a seat with Poe, Rose, and Finn further down in the cabin.

If you’re honest, as relieved as you are to see your friends, you’re a little distracted wondering what other “moves” Poe might have to offer. Apparently, your lusty looks aren’t lost on your fellow Rebels, either. “Oh, for Maker’s sake, you two.” Rose starts. “Go. Get out of my sight. I’ll cover for you.” You and Poe exchange a glance, and Poe offers you a suggestive eyebrow, the gesture forming a perfectly phrased, unspoken question. He grabs your hand eagerly as your eyes shine in response.

“Thanks, Rose.” he calls, practically yanking your arm out of its socket with enthusiasm and he leads you towards an adjacent door.

“Just don’t touch anything!” she emphasises.

“And don’t let me catch you.” Finn promptly adds a condition. “And never tell me what happened in there.”

You throw a sidelong, helpless look back at Rose as Poe marches you away. “Tell me everything.” She mouths at you before you’re carried off. You give her a wink and turn towards Poe who leads you surreptitiously through another door and into an unused cargo store. His face splits into a grin. “And try not to scream.” He adds as he hikes you up on to the table.

“Oh, Maker. What have I let myself in for with you?” you chide fondly. However, as soon as you feel his touch on you, simultaneously loving and sinful, you recall; you regret nothing. Plus, this man’s not wrong. He has moves. Maker, the way his fingers are-

-Poe’s palm clamps over your mouth just before a loud moan spills from you. “Do you think you can keep quiet for me, honey?”

Nope. No regrets. You couldn’t unearth a single one if you tried. In fact, this might just be the best thing to have happened in a long while.

THE END

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[joe-maristopher]

«WandaVision»: 3. Wanda, dear, do we have a problem?

Boom! We have a mention of Pietro, Ultron, Shakespeare (ah, Vision's an ntellectual), neighbors with a slight horror in their eyes, unjustified speed of events, as well as the subtext "Wanda in her world is a king and the god". And yes, that awesome soap ads! The slogan is a reference to Wanda's newfound abilities, I think. I keep my eyes on Agnes and prepare an invitation for her to go to the evil characters' bench. You can't be sure of anything, but who knows, she is able use the situation for her own purposes and be a helper of Mephisto.

Let's talk about the kids and the speed of everything.

I've never been a fan of Billy and Tommy in the first place. I don't understand all the excitement associated with them, and I remember that everything ended after their appearence... badly. Besides. I've always wondered why Wanda rode into the magical wilds and didn't think/want to solve the problem any other way. Adoption, for example. Donor sperm. Something else. Why was it necessary to create such problems, taking pieces of Mefisto´s soul, and thereby laying a huge dynamite under her family?

Let's say, our Wanda goes with a different vector, without the insane desire of a crazy momma-wannabe, but the children are still demonic? Playing with Mephisto's shadow isn't for nothing, is it?

I can't help but notice that Wanda's pregnancy in the comics also appeared suddenly. I might have forgotten something, because I was laughing so hard while reading the pages, but it was like this, the quotes are not accurate.

Wanda: I WANT A REAL FAMILY WITH KIDS. WANTWANTWANT!

The magic poof!

And Wanda is on the eve of her confinement. I don't remember Vision's reaction...

Our Vision was as surprised as I was, because in normal life, it does not happen, even if you are a synthesoid (five points to Marvel for mentioning this term! Finally! We waited for the long time!). I felt like I was watching the Sims with their woohoo and three-day pregnancy. It was all very fast, and I couldn't even blink. I didn't like that part, honestly. Something is missing. I also don't like that Marvel didn't focus much on Wanda and Vision, and instead our characters existed for fast-paced development, plot tools for introducing the twins, and Geraldine-Monica's "deportation" beyond the bubble. In other words, long periods of time are reduced to the limit.

A small question. The child is already doing magic (and Wanda calmly allows)?

Creepy moment. Let's talk about Vision again.

I thought that my screen glitched or the cat walked on the keyboard, so I didn't notice... Wanda, we have a real problem... And a new question. In the opinion for the first two series, I posted a list of the questions and now it gonna be expanded. We're still walking in the fog.

So... Vision is an illusion? Highly likely! Who would give us a resurrected Vision, right? Marvel won't let us be happy, and neither will Wanda.-_-

But if Vision was an illusion, controlled, a Wanda's puppet, then why did he even begin to think about what was happening, to understand that something was happening? Why? And how many times has this actually happened, off-screen? Fic-writers, let's go! And I'm probably going with you.

I also remember Vision's face when their dinner went wrong. So what are you, Vision? And by the way, how much control do you have? The feelings are your own, aren't they? Yes, Marvel?! Don't mess with me here. Don't make the shippers angry, they're already traumatized by the comic book versions of Wanda and Vision.

A lyrical digression.

There is one more thing that I want to touch, connected with all above. A certain Twitter user previously guessed or knew the names by which Wanda and Vision will be in the series. Before the release of the series, I ask you to note. I'm talking about Illusion and Glamour. Back then no one took it seriously, but after the release of episodes, the account began to be studied almost under a microscope. There is a long history with the renaming of acc, creating new acc with the same info, it's not the point. The same acc wrote that what we see isn't Vision, but Wonder Man, who thinks he is Vision..

I have a confession. I can't stand Wonder Man and everything that goes with him, including his shenanigans with Wanda. I just hate this stuff. Who doesn't know: Wonder Man and Vision have a connection in the comics, Wonder Man's brainwaves formed the basis of Vision's, correct me if I am wrong. So, technically, they're kind of brothers. Difficult, you may say? It's comics, kids! In short, if it really turns out to be so — I will consider it a personal insult. I'm sorry, but I love Vision and I watch the show with him, not with someone else.

Also, in general, Marvel owed us one moment, and it's good if they remembered about it and give a serial explanation: for all the years of Endgame, you did not try to do anything with the Vision's body? Where is it? In what condition? Tony forgot and didn't remember Vision?

Screw it!

Okay, okay, I've calmed down. I return to the subject and stop burning with righteous anger.

Illusion or not, we know from the trailers that Vision will posibly receive an information about his death. I see how it can go: It turns out that Vision learns the truth, Wanda is not there to stop him, he decides to find out everything from Wanda, but the moment is not very good, because the agents of S. W. O. R. D doing their job, and Wanda is already in the berserk mode... And it ends badly.

Creepy moment. A sad moment. Give Wanda some cocoa and a warm blanket. Please.

That was full of pain. Wanda could try and run from her memories, or force herself to forget them, but they are coming back with suspicious questions from a stranger, with jewelry on someone's neck. Wanda's upset, the neighbors ara glitching (to Vision´s concern), and under the iceberg of family life with two newborns and a lullaby for them, there are the abyss, hiding... Creepy and painful.

I am kinda dissaponted with the 3rd episode, but still enjoyed some moments and still want to save Wanda from this darkness.