#(anyways THREE MORE THINGS ON MAYA & THEN I SHALL BE HERE!!!)

[theha1r]

yeah …

[paladinsbrainrot]

Who are the New Cast Members? (Character Breakdown)

Recently we were blessed with more Stranger Things content, which includes the new cast members for Stranger Things 4. I will leave the link to the tweet here. You can have a look through the thread.

A while back, Stranger Things had introduced a couple other characters to the mix, Victor Creel, Argyle (surname still unknown), Peter Ballard, Lt. Colonel Sullivan, Jason Carver, Dmitri & Yuri (surnames also unknown), and Eddie Munson. You can check out the original thread here.

However, they have introduced new characters, such as Vickie, Patrick, Ms. Kelly, and Chrissy. All of the surnames are unknown at the moment (unless Ms. Kelly’s last name is actually Kelly). I wonder what this tells us about the characters.

I believe these characters are going to have a minor role in the show. Unless they reveal the characters last names during the show, or they have a last name which will thicken the plot and don’t want to reveal it just yet, (aka one of them has the last name of ‘Brenner’,) characters with no last name usually don’t have a large role. For example, Suzie, Carol, Tommy, Bruce, Keith, etc..

This is not to say that they won’t have a large role in the series. Of course, they might end up like Robin. Her last name was not mentioned during the show, and was only revealed during a set of tweets that the Stranger Things Twitter made. Robin was essential during the season. Stranger Things can definitely twist and turn their bible and ‘make their own rules’.

Anyways, I’ll be breaking down all of the characters today, just going over my predictions and everything. If I feel like it, I might break down the other characters which were announced later previously.

Let's get started, shall we?

1. Vickie

This first character is Vickie, portrayed by Amybeth McNulty (aka Anne from Anne with an E)

She is described as ‘a cool, fast talking band nerd who catches the eye of one of our beloved heroes.’

Now, before we talk about Vickie’s personality, let’s talk a little bit about Amybeth herself. Amybeth is 19 years old, so I can only assume she is going to be playing one of the teens (Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Jonathan) considering how Maya Hawke (Robin) was 19 when she started filming for Stranger Things 3.

Of course, she could be one of the freshmans in Hawkins High, considering some of the other actors are 19 (Sadie, Caleb) however I really don’t think she is going to be part of the cast, or make her way into the party. The party is already large enough, so I believe they will add her to the addition of teens.

Now, let’s move on to Vickie’s character. She is a ‘cool, fast talking band nerd’. To me, this description is very similar to Robin’s. In season three, Robin is depicted as ‘awesome’ and ‘cool’ by Dustin. Robin is also very fast talking, constantly with a lot on her mind. And in addition, Robin even claims she is a nerd and is a part of band class.

It also stated that Vickie ‘catches the eye for one of our beloved heroes’. I believe they are talking about Robin. Now, we have all been obsessed with the possibility of Robin and Nancy becoming a thing in season four, but have we considered the likelihood of Robin falling for someone who is just like her?

I am pretty sure Nancy is straight (at most, bisexual), and I believe she will continue her relationship with Jonathan. However, there is still a possibility.

Now, there have been rumors that Vickie will be Will’s new girlfriend, since her description does not list ‘Hawkins’ like Chrissy’s and Patrick’s. However, I believe that Vickie will be a Hawkins resident.

I think the possibility of Vickie being Will’s love interest is very unlikely. It will be queer-baiting, and will most likely cause havoc amongst many Byler fans and people who think Will is gay. I will be very disappointed if this does happen.

Not to mention, Will doesn’t strike me as the ‘band’ type.

Moving on, Vickie is probably going to be the one out of the four to have at least a big role this season, via this instagram post. I have a feeling that she is going to be big based on this post, but the other characters.. not so much. I think the others would have gotten their own dedicated video if they were going to be as important.

There was also a leaked audition in this Youtube video (audition starts at 5:22)

During the audition tape, it seems like she is speaking to Robin. And when she is, she uses the term ‘crazy’. If you have been following me for a while, you will have known about the iconic phrase ‘Only love makes you that crazy, sweetheart. And that’s damn stupid.’

So yes, I believe whoever Vickie is talking to will be her love interest. And if this does turn out to be a romantic relationship, then Byler will be too, considering how the whole scene parallels to the ‘crazy together’ scene.

Amybeth McNulty also follows Maya Hawke on Instagram, once again giving more evidence to back up Vickie and Robin’s close bond.

2. Patrick

The next character is Patrick, who is played by Myles Truitt. He is depicted as ‘a Hawkins basketball star who has friends, talent, and a good life…until shocking events send his life spiraling out of control.’

Myles is 19 years old, (February 1, 2002) and also has a possibility of being one of the teens as well. However, I believe in the show he will be around the same age as the Party, if not one or two years older.

Myles will be set in Hawkins, and probably won’t travel out of it for the season. He is described as a basketball star, and with rumors of Lucas being apart of the basketball team, I believe he will be one of Lucas’ new friends. Not to mention, Caleb and Myles actually have met and worked together prior to Stranger Things, which is probably a big part in why Myles got the role. Since they have worked together, it is likely Caleb and Myles will work together again because of the casting.

Myles has also been spotted on set a couple months back, with Natalia, Joseph (Eddie Munson), Caleb, Gaten, and Maya. I believe the ‘until shocking events send his life spiraling out of control’ lets us assume that Patrick will be involved in the Upside Down drama.

With the addition of twelve new cast members, I think at least five of them are going to die. I am not certain about Patrick’s death, however he will definitely deal with some trauma. It seems that he is going to be spiraling out of control, which leads me to believe he will experience PTSD (actual PTSD, not the ones Will experienced), or some form of mental illness. (Not too sure, maybe panic attacks as well? Seems likely to me)

There had been an audition leaked for Patrick, it is in this YouTube video. (Audition starts 3:47)

I’m not going to get into too much detail since I will be discussing this character later, but I think that the student that went missing is Chrissy.

Not a whole lot of info is released in the audition tape, however we do get an insight on Patrick’s personality. He seems quite serious, and is very concerned about this ‘missing student’.

3. Ms. Kelly

I don’t have a lot to say about this character. She seems incredibly minor, and I don’t think we will see a lot of her in this season. If anything, she’s probably going to be like Mr. Clarke and have a small role, but set a plot point.

Ms. Kelly is portrayed by Regina Ting Chen, described as ‘a popular guidance counselor who cares deeply for her students — especially those struggling the most.’

So, my first thoughts are that this is Max’s guidance counselor, considering the audition tape which was leaked awhile back, which included Ms. Kelly to be talking to a person who similarly acted like Max.

Unfortunately I have lost the link to the audition tape, however if you have not seen it, you just need to trust me on this one.

Since I can’t find the audition tape anymore, I am going strictly by memory. I don’t have everything completely set and stone, however her character description does not mention Hawkins, which means she can also be in the Byers new town. I believe she is in Hawkins, though.

She is probably going to have a similar role to Mr. Clarke. For example during one of Max’s sessions with Ms. Kelly, Max might ask for advice, and Ms. Kelly can give her advice which changes her perspective and helps Max and the others figure out what exactly is going on in Hawkins.

4. Chrissy

Last but not least, Chrissy, portrayed by Grace Van Dien, and is represented as ‘Hawkins’ High lead cheerleader and the most popular girl in school. But beneath the seemingly perfect surface lies a dark secret.’

Grace is 24 years old, and judging by her age I believe she will be one of the teens. She is most likely going to be a senior, ending her high school years.

I think Chrissy is going to be a plotpoint for this season, and this season’s story is going to revolve around her, just like it did for Will in season one. In Patricks audition (listed above) it included a missing student, and I am guessing that Chrissy will be that missing student.

I am pretty sure everyone in Hawkins will be investigating this strange disappearance, including Steve, Robin, Dustin, Nancy, Max, Lucas, Patrick, Eddie, and maybe Vickie. Maybe Robin and Nancy a little less, since they are rumored to be investigating in Pennhurst mental hospital.

But, adding focus back to Chrissy, I think she is going to die this season. She does not have a ‘B’ name, so we cannot expect for her to die in the Upside Down, but rather something else. The only people who have died to the Upside Down started with a ‘B’ (Barb, Bob, Billy). I don’t have many theories for how she is going to die, but maybe a car accident or something? But right before that she encounters a Demogorgon, which leads everyone in Hawkins to believe she is in the Upside Down.

Chrissy will be a minor character, and I’m speculating she is going to die by the third or fourth episode. That’s not to say she will die any sooner, however. Don’t get too attached to her.

There had been set photos leaked of Grace on set, and she was spotted by Mason Dye (Jason Carver), most likely her boyfriend. It had also been rumored that Mike was going to have some scenes with Chrissy and might have some romantic interactions, however I’m pretty sure Mike will not be interacting with Chrissy anytime soon, let alone a romantic one.

It says in her character description that she ‘has a dark secret’. Now, what could this dark secret be?

I don’t have too many suspicions, but she might be experiencing abuse, most likely from her mother. I think she might have her mother force her to be ‘perfect’ and ‘pretty’, and might have some parallels to Billy, Jonathan, or Will.

Another speculation that I have is that Chrissy has an eating disorder. This might go into correlation with her abuse. Her eating disorder might cause her mother to constantly judge her appearance and.. well… abuse her.

So, let’s recap.

Vickie will be a new love interest for Robin, and be major in this season.

Patrick will be a minor character, will be Lucas’ friend, and be involved in the Upside Down

Ms. Kelly is Max’s guidance counselor, and might give a solution to their problems

Chrissy will go missing, and is destined to death.

[macbetha]

below the cut, you'll find an interest check chapter for quatervois, a nancy drew pc fic. it's francy and also my idea of my absolute dream game. please let me know what you think and enjoy!

+++

After Ned breaks up with her and she loses her father, Nancy struggles to find her old vigor for detective work. While on vacation in London with Bess and George, Nancy accepts the urgent invitation to return Blackmoor Manor. Her English getaway quickly turns into an investigation once Nancy realizes the true reason Nigel Mookergee asked her back to the moors. Finding Deirdre Shannon at the manor under the same pretense only sets Nancy’s nerves further on edge. It isn’t until the Hardy Boys show up in Blackmoor that Nancy gets a glimpse of who she once was. With a manor full of suspects and a glass heart cracked open, Nancy is determined to find the truth.

Dear Ned,

How are you? It’s been a while. I’ve always started off my letters telling you about my latest case, but I’m not on one right now. I’m sure that’s hard to believe. Bess and George have whisked me away to London. I’m sure you would love it here. This is the first time I’ve seen Bess and George since I sold the house in River Heights. I stayed with Kyler and Matt in Ireland for a while. I needed a change of scenery. Their daughter just turned two. I’m somewhat jealous I’m happy for them. Anyways, I miss you I hope you’re doing well. I’m sure New York is lovely at Christmas time. I hope Stephanie is I wish Stephanie well How is Stephanie? I hope Stephanie is doing all right. I appreciated the card Stephanie sent when dad passed away. Warm regards, Merry Christmas, Love Nancy

She stares down at the letter as if the red ink were her own blood. It feels just as wounding, seeing her emotions made physical in the words on the paper. Only when a tear splatters on the page does she break free from her trance to the past. Nancy is the only person in her hotel suite, yet she works to rid the evidence like one of her own suspects. She pulls her feet up in the desk chair and crosses her ankles, holding the arch of her right foot – it recently became the victim of her latest culprit. Nancy’s foot got caught under the getaway car’s tire, and she is lucky to even be able to walk after the event. Months later, it’s stiff as hell with the most intense cramps she’s ever endured. Heart racing to forget the night it happened, she focuses on the snowfall out the window – counting little sparkles of snowflakes, though the world blurs when she squints. The doctor thought her failing sight as well as the daily headaches were on account of being hit in the head so many times.

She busies herself with choosing a postcard to send Hannah and Nancy selects one with a cat dressed up as a royal guard. The cuteness puts a smile on her face, however small – she hopes it’ll do the same for Hannah, but there is no telling. Nancy had the gut-feeling Hannah was lying about recognizing her the last time Nancy visited the nursing home. Torment swirls like wind to fallen leaves. She doesn’t have Hannah or Togo to come home to. Togo passed just before Nancy’s thirty-second birthday, and Carson fell ill soon after that. Nancy looks to her hotel bed where Mr. Woogle Woggle sits tucked between two pillows. It seems he is the only one that hasn’t left her. A knock on her hotel door reminds her that is simply not true. Nancy rights herself, fixing her posture to the stance of someone passionate, and she opens the door. Bess and George greet her with blazing smiles; Nancy gives silent thanks for their presence in her life. She would still be in Scotland with Kyler and Matt, had Bess and George not insisted to take her on a vacation. Nancy imagines that their insistence was due to them wanting to keep Nancy from spending Christmas alone on the road again like last year. “Nancy,” Bess stresses. “You’re never going to guess who we ran into in the lobby!” Horror strikes dull and loud in her ears. Surely, it’s not Ned. Please, don’t let it be Ned. George says, “Give you a hint: they were involved in one of your cases.” Nancy’s despair leaves her throat tight. She glances down the hallway, preparing to yank Bess and George into her room and dial her Cathedral contact to get them set up in witness protection.

“That didn’t narrow it down at all, George,” Bess says with a roll of her eyes. “Nancy’s been on hundreds of cases.” Nancy’s strain creeps into her one word: “Who?” Bess and George beam. “Maya Nguyn!” ++

Nancy follows Bess and George to the elevator in a hurried stupor. No thoughts can she conjure as she steps free from the elevator walls which seem to close in on her; Nancy marches into the lobby and notices a woman in the crowd of tourists. She stands with her back to Nancy, her hair drawn up in a bun, and her chin is lifted high with no time for games. Maya turns around and her bright red mouth stretches into a smile. “Nancy!” “Maya,” Nancy huffs in disbelief. She tenses in Maya’s sudden embrace before all but falling into it. This is something good I did; Nancy cherishes with shut eyes. This is someone I helped. When Maya pulls back, Nancy says, “What are you doing all the way out here? You said in your last letter, you were still in Washington.” “My house is technically there,” Maya nods. “But I get to work on the road more these days.” Her brows crease over a sympathetic smile. “Bess and George tell me you’re kind of in the same boat.” Nancy shrugs, struggling to hold Maya’s concerned gaze. “It’s just easier,” Nancy lies. Maya seems to see right through it, but she doesn’t speak on it. Nancy will have to thank her later. George says, “Maya offered us free tickets to a play she’s reviewing tonight and get this – it’s at the Globe Theater!” “Remind me what’s so special about a globe theater,” Bess sighs, checking her nails. “Not ‘a’, Bess, the.” George shakes her head. “The Globe Theater – well, technically it’s a reconstruction of the first one, but it’s where Shakespeare wrote his plays.” “It’s the opening night of a new play,” Maya explains. “And Nancy, you’ll never guess who the star is.” Nancy cannot take anymore guessing games. “Brady Armstrong.” Maya blinks. “Well – yes, actually.” Nancy frowns. “Wait, really?” “Yes,” Maya laughs. “I’ll be conducting an interview with him after the show if you want to go backstage and chew him out for all the stunts he pulled back in the day.” A spark of vigor heightens Nancy’s senses. That doesn’t sound bad at all. Still – “Are you sure we won’t be a distraction or –” “Nancy.” Maya’s hand falls on her shoulder. “You saved my life. You’re the furthest thing from a distraction.” Gratitude floods her before Nancy nods. “All right, then.” +++ The walk to the Globe would be depressive what with the sky being the color of a soaked napkin, but the Christmas decorations lift everyone’s spirits. Nancy limps by a shop playing Christmas oldies through the open door and she is borne back to her father listening to records over cocoa on Christmas morning. She tries to push the memory from her mind, then she thinks of building snowmen with Ned and having snowball fights that turned into the sweetest kisses she’s ever received. The music won’t stop. There are three Christmas trees in the display window and their flashing lights strike pain behind Nancy’s eyes. She pants through a sensory overload before someone squeezes her hand. Maya smiles in understanding as Bess and George walk obliviously in front of them. “It’s hard,” Maya says. “This life on the road. You pick up a few habits.” Nancy squeezes her hand in thanks before tucking her own in her peacoat’s pocket. “I want to enjoy this,” she admits quietly. “But I think the holidays are always hard.” Maya nods. “It won’t be this way forever, Nancy,” she promises. “I’ve got my fingers crossed for you.” Cross your fingers, there’s a story behind this door! Nancy swallows around the lump of panic in her throat. She plasters on a smile. +++ The theater is packed with noise and touching and all-around boisterous patrons. They find their seats in the crowd and Nancy doesn’t watch where she’s going – she must keep her eyes on the open ceiling to remember how to breathe. She sits down at the end of the group and Maya passes out programs. Quatervois, the title reads. Bess says, “What does that mean?” “It means you’re at a crossroads,” Maya says. “A turning point.” “Sounds a little dramatic,” George grumbles. Nancy traces the swooping lines of the title with

her thumb, repeating the process until the lights go down. The masked chorus emerges from the shadows and gives a synopsis: Down from Olympus a great hero emerges, Mighty in his strength and courage! A choice he must make Shall he ignore fate? Will he choose love, Or follow his destiny there-of? When Brady saunters on stage in an impossibly short silk chiton, it’s an out-of-body experience for Nancy. He still hasn’t grown his ponytail back, so Simone could very well be in the audience right now. Nancy rubs her aching temple at the thought. Brady begins his journey as the character Diogenes, a demigod that was supposedly – according to the play’s plot – written out of ancient Greek mythos. Diogenes must defeat those who want to leave him forgotten in history, lest he admit that he can’t win this fight and live his life like everyone else. Nancy assumes the play’s ending too soon. She imagines this will be a droll experience written only to paint Brady as a glorious hero that can conquer anything – but she is quickly surprised. Brady is stabbed in the final act and addresses the audience in a wail: And so my story ends a breath too early, No time to even be weary! The moon shall pass over my corpse, And the sun will beat down on my ashes with no remorse. Today, I have failed my quartervois Alone, forgotten, and lost. When the curtain falls, Nancy’s mouth is parted in disbelief as a tear burns down her cheek. They don’t receive a proper goodbye with Maya since the rest of the crowd is bustling toward the exit. She does have time to say that Brady is producing a new television series and will be scouting some locations further into Essex; Maya will be following the film crew there for test shoots. She embraces each girl individually and holds Nancy for a beat longer, whispering, “You’ll call if you need to talk?” “Of course,” Nancy says by impulse. “Same to you.” +++ Nancy is proud of herself for going out, but when she closes the door to her hotel suite, her back thunks against the wall and she must take deep breaths for several minutes. She decides to treat herself to a bubble bath even though it’s nearly midnight. She rolls her hair up into a bun and looks at it in the mirror, how haphazard and messy hers is in comparison to Maya. Nancy isn’t jealous – but she can’t help but notice when people are thriving. She wants to figure out how to do it herself and hasn’t found the cure yet. The bath is claw-footed and deep. Nancy sinks into the steaming water before goosebumps rise on her arms, and her freckled skin blushes in the heat. The water does wonders for her foot. She eases her head back on the lip of the tub and nears a light doze when her cell phone rings. It rests atop a stack of towels by the tub. Nancy wipes her damp hand off before looking to the screen. Frank Hardy. Nancy answers and taps the speaker button to relax back in the tub. “Hey.” “Hi, Nance,” Frank says, his voice a familiar balm after such a stressful time. “What’s going on?” “Things aren’t too different from last week’s call,” Nancy smiles. “But I’m on vacation with Bess and George.” “Oh wow! That’s awesome. I hope it’s been fun.” Nancy’s glazed eyes blink. “Yeah,” she rasps. “It’s nice.” She clears her throat, searching for her old enthusiasm. “But what about you? How’s Joe?” “Same as usual, a pain in my ass.” Nancy chuckles before a distinctive lift raises Frank’s voice. “We’re actually getting ready to get on a plane for a case – but I wanted to make sure everything’s good with you.” Nancy’s hand closes in a fist on her raised knee. “Gosh, it’s been so long since I’ve been on a case.” “Not really. You just took a few months off to stay with Kyler, right?” “Yeah, but that’s the longest I’ve ever gone without a case since I started.” “I’d give you ours if I could,” Frank says. “Really not looking forward to such a long plane ride. Oh, they’re calling for our gate – but do you want me call you when I land?” Gratefulness is a warm glow in her heart. “No, that’s okay – but

thank you. Be safe on your trip and tell Joe I said hi.” “Can do.” Frank pauses. “I – tell Bess and George I said hi.” “Can do,” Nancy repeats. She chews her lip. “See you soon?” She feels foolish for saying something when Frank is headed to a case. While the weekly phone calls have kept Nancy sane, it would be even better to see the Hardy Boys. “I’ll make it happen,” Frank promises. “See you, Nance.” After they hang up, Nancy struggles to get out of the tub with her swollen foot. She gets into a pair of sweats and wraps up some ice in a washcloth, then holds it against her foot. Nancy mulls over her conversation with Frank, wondering how much of her poor mood could be due to not solving a mystery. With a deep yawn, she tosses the soaked washcloth in the wastebasket, not able to walk to the bathroom to put it in the sink. She cuddles up to her teddy bear and flicks the lamp off when her phone rocks to life on the nightstand. Bewildered, Nancy turns the lamp back on to look at the screen. The number is unknown; she sees her hand tremble around the phone. She lets the call go to voicemail before the phone vibrates to life once again. Bracing herself, Nancy answers. “Hello?” “Yes, hello – I’m trying to reach a one Nancy Drew?” The voice is British and eerily familiar, like Nancy heard it in a dream. “This is she.” “Splendid! Oh, you wouldn’t believe the trouble I’ve gone to in order to find your number.” “Sorry? Who is this?” “Why, Nigel Mookergee. We met at –” “Blackmoor,” Nancy whispers. “Nigel, hi. What’s going on?” “I’m afraid the manner of my call is not a jovial one,” he says. “How should I explain this? Well, I suppose from the start. You see –” He sighs. “Don’t tell anyone I’m speaking of this, but the Penvellyns have fallen into a bit of… financial trouble.” Nancy says, “’Financial trouble’?” “It’s certainly not my business to spread, but yes. It’s not that they are a poor family by any means, but one diplomat’s salary is not enough to keep up a castle.” Nancy sits up, grabbing a pen and notepad from her bedside table. She jots as Nigel continues. “The Penvellyns began to host historical tours at the manor – much to Mrs. Drake’s dismay, I might add. Jane wishes to expand the business to the paranormal side of things, and I don’t quite agree with the idea myself, but she insists it’s just what the manor needs.” Nancy finishes scrawling and says, “So, you’re working for the Penvellyns now?” “Yes. I’m afraid there’s been some situations – inconsequential events, if you will – that need a glance over.” Nancy arches a brow. “You mean an investigation.” “Ah, such a serious word. I simply want to make sure we are fully prepared to expand the business.” Nancy’s eyes narrow. “Right. When would you need me there?” “As soon as possible -” Nigel catches himself. “I mean, at your earliest convenience.” Nancy glances over her notes, running her hand over the page filled by red ink. She closes her eyes against the sight and says, “I’ll be there tomorrow.”

thank you so much for reading! please let me know what you think and stay safe. and please consider following me here and on twitter! xoxo

[browniefox]

@wrightfamilyweek day 1 - Pride and Joy :D

This is a sequel to my oneshot ‘Trucy and the Week Long Paranoia Game’ that you can read here.

Phoenix and Trucy talk about reasons for adopting someone.

oOo

It’s the end of a week of fear and worry and anxiety, and twenty-four hours spent on a plane. A moment of silence from all the questions rattling through her head, with Mr. Miles Edgeworth behind her, and now Trucy is back in California, back home, and her daddy is right there. The next thing to do is all too clear.

Trucy hugs her daddy and cries.

After Trucy has bawled into Daddy’s shoulder for what feels like a week and Daddy’s tears have drenched her hair, and her face has been covered in layers and layers of kisses, Daddy finally pulls away from her, a clear reluctance to the action, and grabs onto Miles’ hand. Then, with a quick and sudden yank that makes the man stumble, Daddy pulls Miles into hug too.

“God, Miles, really, thank you.” Daddy says fervently, insistently.

“Nnngh, o-of course.” Miles says. His words come out a little haltingly, but he returns the hug almost immediately.

“If… if you’re already here, you know, you should stay for a bit.” Daddy tells Miles. With them hugging like that, Trucy bets that Miles can’t see Daddy’s face, how hopeful it looks right then.

“... perhaps you’re right. It’s a long trip across the ocean, and a hard one to make in quick succession like your daughter just has. Perhaps we could meet up… tomorrow?” Miles offers.

“Well, my office-”

“Does not have nearly enough room to put up another person. I’ll see you tomorrow, Wright. Go home and… and talk to your daughter.” Miles’ eyes flicker over to her and he whispers something into Daddy’s ear. Daddy nods, looks at her too, and then nods again.

“Okay,” Daddy gives Miles a pat on the back, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Trucy sees how Daddy’s hand lingers on Miles shoulder for one, two, three seconds before he steps back to Trucy. He ruffles her hair and gives her forehead yet another kiss and squishes her face in his hands, all familiar actions from him, all things he’s done before. Something feels off about each and every one of them. She isn’t sure what makes them different. Maybe it’s him. Maybe it’s her.

It must be her. Her fault. From running away.

Trucy still feels gross from the plane ride, and there’s a brief moment where she thinks she might just throw up again. She doesn’t. What she does do is grab onto Daddy’s hand, holding onto it tightly. Her hand fits perfectly like that. Daddy squeezes her hand back just as tightly. With that, the two of them and Miles walk out of the airport.

There’s a big man waiting for them outside. She recognizes him, but only barely. His name is far more familiar to Trucy, the Detective Dick Gumshoe of Daddy’s old case files, the man who worked most of the murders that Daddy’s clients were accused of. Daddy had shown her a picture of the Detective, once, and told her that if she was ever in trouble and needed police help, she should talk to Gumshoe, because Gumshoe is a good man, and a friend, and she can trust him. Unless she’s been arrested, in which case nobody is her friend and she shouldn’t say or do anything until she’s talked to a lawyer.

(Trucy remembers right after her First Daddy disappeared how a bunch of policemen tried to talk to her about it, and her Daddy - then just Phoenix Wright, just the old boy who she’d handed off a piece of paper to and was supposed to help her First Daddy - telling her that she didn’t have to say anything, didn’t have to tell the policemen anything, even if they were being really mean or really nice or kept asking the same questions or it was going on for a really long time. He told her that just before policemen took him away so they could talk to him, too.)

“Oh good, she is okay,” Gumshoe sighs in relief, visibly slumping with emotion. He then sees Miles and his back straightens right out, “Mr. Edgeworth, sir, good to see you again!”

“Likewise, Gumshoe.” Miles says, his mouth twitching into a bare-bones smile. Despite its thin appearance, the expression has an odd kind of warmth to it that surprises Trucy. Miles had been kind throughout the entire flight, but also clearly uncomfortable, not talking to her much. He seemed to try and distract himself with anything and everything he could, but there was a tension and rigidness throughout his entire form from the moment the plane took off until it landed. He kept looking at her almost like he expected her to explode, like a bomb. Now, though, Miles looks much more in control of himself as well as his surroundings, “I’ll admit, however, that I’m surprised to find the police already on this case. I thought a missing person couldn’t be reported until twenty-four hours have passed.”

“Well, not officially, no, but I might’ve seen what I could do, you know, just with my own time.” Gumshoe says, scratching the back of his head. Daddy grins and pats Gumshoe on the back.

“Dick came running as soon as he heard. Really put up with me those first twelve hours.” Daddy says.

“Well, just because police work slow doesn’t mean we always have to! And, well, it’s your girl, we all know how much you worry about her.”

The three adults talk some more, but the sound of their voices seems to fade away as Trucy stares down at her shoes. Daddy was worried about her. Of course he was, but he’d been worried the entire time. She feels silly, now, for having run away, for having doubted him. But even then, even now, she isn’t sure what he wants from her. ‘Nothing’ is the answer, apparently, but still, still the other shoe feels like it’s hovering at eye-level, just waiting to drop.

Daddy’s still holding her hand. She gives it a squeeze, and he squeezes it back, and she tunes back into the three talking adults.

“Well, since I’m here, I can give you a ride to wherever it is you need to get to!” Gumshoe offers Miles.

“Hm, I already ordered a ride, but perhaps you could drive me by the prosecutor’s office before I head to my hotel. Wright, why don’t you take my ride.” Miles offers. Daddy stiffens slightly, in that way he does when a game looks like it’s starting to slip through his fingers, or when people on the street give him weird looks and start whispering and she gives his hand yet another squeeze.

“Miles, I really don’t-”

“Wright, it’s already been paid for. I, of course, have no issue letting such a frivolous amount of money go by, but there’s little to no reason to let something like this pass you by when you’re this far from the office at this hour of night, when most buses have already stopped working.” Miles says it with swiftness and clarity, leaving no room for argument. Daddy, however, still looks like he might try and argue anyway, so Trucy adds in her own opinion, tugging, Daddy’s arm a little and saying,

“Daddy, I wanna go home.”

The stubborn-expression that had been forming onto his face melts away almost immediately.

“Alright, let’s go home.” He says.

Daddy exchanges another hug with Miles and then one with Gumshoe. Gumshoe puts out his hand to give Trucy a handshake, but she gives him a big hug anyway and he chuckles, something that shakes through his entire chest, that she can feel when held up against it like that. It’s very nice. She might just like Gumshoe. Miles starts to go for a handshake, then aborts it halfway through, and gives her an awkward pat on the head.

“Be good for your father.” He says with a certain amount of ferventness.

“I will.” She tells him. She grabs the sleeve of his shirt and pulls on it until he catches on and kneels down to her level. Then, she gives him a pat on the head right back. He looks surprised, and Daddy laughs. Miles surprised expression morphs into a scowl, but there’s no heat behind it as he stands back up, rolling his shoulders and crossing his arms.

“I’ll be off then. I shall stop by your office tomorrow around noon. Please try and tidy it up, Maya tells me you’ve made the place into a hellscape.” He says hauntily.

“No promises.” Daddy says.

Miles and Gumshoe leave, and then she and daddy climb into a car. The stranger in the front offers them his ipad to play games on, but Daddy rejects it.  Trucy mainly stares out the window, and when she looks over, Daddy is too. His hand is out, though, still holding onto hers.

The car drops them off at the hotel across from the office, and they cross the street and climb the stairs back to home. The night is dark and quiet, and Trucy can’t help but to think it feels like a calm before a storm. She’s seen Daddy frustrated before, and get in fights with others before, but  she doesn’t think she’s ever seen him be well and truly mad. Now was probably as good a time as any, though. She wonders if it’ll be like Grandpa’s anger, all cold and silent. Maybe it’ll be like first Daddy’s, loud and raging, just barely a second away from throwing something.

“I know you’re tired, Trucy, but we need to talk.” Daddy says before Trucy can slip into her room. Slowly, she walks away from her door. He’s sitting on the couch, and he pats the spot next to him. She hops up. Daddy runs a hand over his face, feeling the stubble on his chin. He’s looking straight forward, not at her.

“Yes Daddy?” Trucy says. Daddy sighs, ending back on the couch, now looking up at the ceiling.

“... Trucy, you know I want what’s best for you, right?”

Trucy doesn’t know what to say to that at first, and the moment stretches on for far far too long. Daddy sighs again.

“I know that, but…” Trucy bites on her lip, “But isn’t there something else you want?”

“‘Something else I want’?” Daddy repeats. Trucy is avoiding looking at him. Her heart has relocated to her throat and her stomach is doing somersaults.

“I-it’s okay, I know I’m… but whatever it is you want from me, I just wanna know, okay?” Trucy swings her feet.

“Truce, why do you think I want something from you?” Daddy presses. Trucy shrugs and swings her feet harder.

“That’s what parents do. And after I… after what I…” She tries and tries and tries to say she gave him the piece of paper that got him disbarred, that she knows she did, that she’s really really sorry about it, but the words all stick to her tongue and get bungled up inside of her. Her face is getting hot, and her eyes are getting hot, and her chest feels like it’s going to explode.

“... Trucy, if you’re not happy here, you know you just have to tell me. Your happiness is what’s most important, okay?”

“But I am happy here!” Trucy wails, and just like that the flood gates give way and she starts sobbing. She turns and grabs onto her Daddy, crying into his soft gray hoodie, and he wraps her up in another hug, holding her close to him.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, it’s okay, hey it’s alright, I’m right here.” He says, a constant mumbling mantra. And he is right there, and he’s nice,and great, and willing to listen to her, and play with her. He’s not perfect, but he’s definitely trying, she can see that, she knows that.

“... j-j-just please, tell-tell me what you w-w-want from me! Please, Daddy!” Trucy cries, trembling, “M-Miles says you don’t want anything, b-but-but that can’t be right! You-you gotta want something! I-is it my help-help-help with poker? Is it revenge against my Daddy somehow? Is-is-is it something else! Please just t-t-t-tell me!” Trucy buries her face even more into him. He’s rubbing circles into her back, making little soothing ‘shush’ing sounds. He doesn’t say anything until she’s quieted down a bit.

“I guess I should’ve expected it was something big. Why else would you go all the way to Germany over it, huh?” He mumbles, “Truce, I didn’t have some kind of secret or evil motive behind taking you in. You were a kid, all alone. It wasn’t really a choice at all. I know what it’s like, to feel like the whole world is against you, and you’re alone and little and confused about what’s going on. I didn’t even think about how it might’ve looked to you. Or, well, I guess Miles brought it up, but I didn’t want to think about it.

“I… I am selfish, maybe, for wanting you to stay here. Trucy, you’re one of the few good things that have come to me in the past year, alright? Seeing you perform, seeing your smile, hearing your laughter… it means the world to me, okay? And if you’re not happy here - no, let me finish - if you’re not happy here, we can find somewhere where you can be, okay? I know I’m not like Zak; I don’t let you perform whenever you want, and I try to keep more track of your location, and I imagine it must be hard adjusting to my rules instead of the ones you were raised with. But I’m willing to learn and get better. And if that means starting with telling you that you matter to me, Trucy, that I love you, and that my reason for adopting you and keeping you around is just because I love you and the light you give my life, then I’ll start there, okay?”

Daddy gives her a small smile. He’s so open right now, and honest, no little tells twitching upon him.

Trucy squeezes onto his lap and lets herself be held for even longer.

Daddy isn’t Grandpa, or first Daddy, or Vallant, or anybody from the circus. He’s just Daddy, and maybe Trucy is still trying to figure out what htat means, but Daddy is trying to figure that out too.

They’re going to figure it out together.

“I love you, Daddy,” She tells him, “And I’m not going anywhere.”

[askaceattorney]

Dear Asexual-Deesasters,

Mod Edgeworth: 

If you want to know the answer to that question, go to this link.

Dear Skibot99,

Co-Mod: I’m fairly certain it was The Mod, but I don’t know for sure.  He actually had another one before it, made from an old Ace Attorney musical animation.  I haven’t been able to locate that video, unfortunately, but here’s the old banner:

Ah...  Those were good days.  Good days.

Dear Dawsongfg,

Co-Mod: It’s fine.  Besides, it won’t be too long before those letters are accepted, so maybe we’ll hold onto them until that time.

Dear skibot99 again,

Mod Edgeworth: The Lost Turnabout hands down. All logic is thrown out the window the moment Phoenix had amnesia. It’s clear the Judge knew something was wrong with Phoenix, so why didn’t he call for a recess or check on Phoenix? Not to mention Wellington was annoying. He’s probably the only character I would be hesitant to play as when answering letters, if only because he was so unbearable.

As for Turnabout Ablaze, I do agree that it is a drag to get through in the end, though the entire game of AAI was boring, aside from the game mechanics. As a case by itself, I wouldn’t put it as my least favorite, if only because I did get some funny parts out of it.  It also contributed to the overall story, whereas The Lost Turnabout could just be taken out and it wouldn’t effect the overarching plot.

Co-Mod: I’d probably have to go with Turnabout Big Top.  I honestly couldn’t figure out the part where you have to present Max’s poster without consulting a walkthrough.  Why couldn’t we just present Max himself?  Besides that, the ending was largely underwhelming -- the murder weapon was hidden under Acro’s blanket the entire time, but instead of seeing a screenshot of it there, we just have to imagine it.  Maybe it was a filler case, but that was no excuse for it to end so poorly.  Not to mention one of the witnesses was a literal puppet.

It’s hard truth, Trilo.  Live with it.

Dear skibot99 and Anonymous,

Mod Edgeworth: I… think I heard from her when the localization of DGS was announced? I know Mod Kristoph and Mod Maya introduced themselves when I came into the group. There’s a third person, but I only heard from her once. As for what’s going on with her… I don’t know.

As for the flooding the inbox, it’s fine. I won’t promise a letter or two won’t be deleted, but we may make an exception and I’d hardly consider 4-5 different letters flooding the inbox. However, I do highly suggest lowering your letter sending to no more than three a day to prevent deletion of your letters. The only time I’d say your letters are flooding the inbox is when you’re sending 10-20 of them, especially of the same letter, and we have to scroll down for a while to get to the next letter. We will only choose three out of that pile and delete the rest.

And yes, we do have a few that send us 10-20 of the same letter to multiple characters in the span of five minutes. Geez.

Co-Mod: Mod Paups has had to remain absent for personal reasons, and sadly, has recently communicated to me that she wishes to leave the blog entirely.  Thanks for all you’ve contributed to this blog, Mod Paups, and best of luck in whatever you do next!

(Referenced Letter)

Dear mungeondaster,

Mod Edgeworth: Since I answered this one, I shall answer your letter.

(^ Why do I always use this sprite? ^) Actually, the localization never specified if Manfred Von Karma was born in Germany or not. In fact, we never knew the German part until Justice For All when Franziska Von Karma was stated to have flown all the way from Germany. It never specifies any reason for this and fans were quick to jump to the conclusion that it means the Von Karma family were German, which… isn’t entirely true? Manfred Von Karma never said he lived in Germany and, for all we know, Franziska could’ve lived in Germany to study law or something.

Now, the OG does give us more specific detail on this, being why I answered this the way I did. In the OG, both Von Karma’s were born Japanese, but lived in America or at least have an estate there. It specified that they were originally born in Japan, which would be translated to LA, California in the localization. While using the OG canon isn’t normal here, I will use it, if the localization doesn’t specify things. In this case, it never specified if the Von Karma’s were born in Germany or if Manfred Von Karma lived in America. Since he had to wait out the Statue of Limitations for DL-6, we can assume he lived in LA for 15 years or more. That means he’s American.

I am still getting the hang of writing letters, but I try to stick to canon as much as possible. If you believe we’ve made an error in our letters, feel free to let us know, but also show proof, if we go against canon. We’ll be sure the letter is sent to the right mod or else fix it.

Dear  Bluedragoncody,

Mod Edgeworth: I... don’t know how to feel about that.

Also, I accidentally deleted your previous letter before this one when trying to post it on here. I’m so sorry about that. If you could remember it, would you send it again?

Co-Mod: I’ll just respond to this with an old classic:

Dear Aceattorneyismyjam,

Mod Edgeworth: I-I’m not a pro! I accidentally deleted an important mod question from bluedragoncody, because of my inexperience. Oof! Again, so sorry!

Granted, I am good with digital art and writing essays, but I’m still trying to get the hang of being a mod here. Believe me, I do get corrected on several mistakes I do here. I can’t really call myself a pro just yet. I’ve only just started becoming a mod here last month lol

Dear Dahlia,

Mod Edgeworth: I thank you for your support of this blog and my essay. Manfred Von Karma is also my favorite villain and someone I do feel is underestimated as a one dimensional villain. I think people hate him so much, because of how he ruined Miles Edgeworth’s life without looking at the bigger picture. They focus on the bad things with their black colored glasses without dissecting Manfred Von Karma’s character as a whole. 

One thing I love about this blog, even before becoming a mod, is that no one here ever portrayed Manfred Von Karma as the one dimensional villain. He can be snappy at times, but as proven in many of our previous letters, he’s also portrayed as being calm when threatened, polite at times and absolutely loves his wife and children. Yes, he’s a terrible person, but that’s what makes him so interesting. He’s a bad, evil person that does good things from time to time. It doesn’t justify any of his horrible deeds, murder included, but it does make him human.

Co-Mod: I’m...going to assume you’re a different Dahlia.  (I’m grabbing a Magatama of Parting just in case, though.  I’m sure you can understand.)

Anyway, thanks for being such a loyal follower!  This blog’s been through a lot of changes since it began, and since I joined it back in 2017, so I’m glad it’s still a good source of enjoyment for you.  I’ve seen all sorts of cringe by now, by the way (some of which I wrote myself), so don’t worry about it.

I’m also glad that the characters still sound like themselves and not like us.  The hilarious personalities and quirks given to them by Capcom’s writers, as well as the humanity in so many of them, make them easy to relate to, and thus fairly easy to mimic.  I may have said something like this before, but I see myself in a lot of them -- in Athena’s fear of inadequacy, in Apollo’s desire for justice in a world where it’s hard to find, in Sebastian’s confusion about where to go next after his world falls apart, and possibly even in the von Karmas’ desire for perfection.  I of course identify with their positive feelings as well -- Phoenix’s smugness when he gets things right, Athena’s joy after pulling off a victory in court, Adrian’s pride after her self-confidence is restored, etc. -- but there’s something about the struggles they face that make them easier to relate to, on top of being that much more awesome in the end.

Unfortunately, I can’t promise anything about this blog continuing on in perpetuity.  For one thing, I don’t plan on being around forever (I’m fairly certain the other Mods don’t, either), and for that matter, there’s also no telling how long Tumblr will be around.  All I can promise is that I’ll give my best while I’m here, and that the love from you and everyone else who shares it here is sure to be what keeps us going.  Thank you for your contribution!

Dear TurqouiseJavelin,

Mod Edgeworth: Hm... not bad ideas. Though, we mods choose our own mod names under the condition that it doesn’t match anyone else’s mod name.

Co-Mod: What Mod Edgeworth said.  Choosing the name “Mod Athena” may or may not increase your chances of being hired, though.  *wink, wink*

Dear Anonymous, 

Mod Edgeworth: Actually, Gregory was stated in the Autopsy to have died by a gunshot. However, you do bring up something interesting. If Gregory Edgeworth realized he was dead and last remembered Robert Hammond strangling him, he wouldn’t think “I died by the shot of a gun.” Since the Detectives weren’t aware that victim had died unconscious, they’d assume the victim would recall being shot and killed. This makes me wonder if Gregory Edgeworth was channeled, but never brought to court to be cross-examined.

There are still holes, but I do like your aspect on DL-6.

Co-Mod: Dang...  No matter how many times you come back to this game, there’s always something new to think about.  I honestly hadn’t considered those details about Yanni Yogi’s trial.  Your explanation makes the most sense to me, but there’s one other possibility regarding Gregory’s testimony -- he may have chosen to lie about who murdered him in order to protect his son from a murder charge.  That’s all open to interpretation, of course, so your guess is as good as ours.

It’s a good thing we’re not actual defense attorneys, huh?

-The Mods

[arukou-arukou]

Just A Really Very Intelligent System

Been thinking about this one for a while. Finally managed to write it. Rating: T for “Language.” (It just kinda slipped out.) Characters: Tony Stark & JARVIS

----

He is in one of the most dangerous situations of his life trying to save the whole freaking universe by watching a man the size of a dust bunny wriggle into the hairline of his younger self, so it would be really, really bad if he happened to have a heart attack. Older him that is. But he nearly does go into cardiac arrest when he hears an old friend in his ear.

“Verify immediately. Failure to verify will result in an activation of level one security protocols.”

His tongue is stuck to the roof of his mouth and his palms are sweating, but somehow he manages to whisper out: “Edwin-12-19-91-4-8-47-Alpha Override.”

“Override accepted. Sir?”

“Hey, J.”

“Sir, you have imbued me with considerable computing power, and yet never did you prepare me for the possibility of you being in two places at once.”

“Yeah, about that. You haven’t said anything to Mr. Quipster over there, have you?”

“Not as yet, Sir. You wish me to keep it that way?”

“It would really help me out, buddy.”

“Very well, Sir.”

Tony wants to stay longer, to talk, to warn JARVIS, to cry, but he has places to be, things to do, planets to save. Scott’s safely positioned, so Tony yeets himself out of the building to get to the ground floor. He doesn’t know why he thought that would make JARVIS disappear.

“I see, Sir, that your proclivities for leaping before looking are unchanged.”

Another near heart attack--he’s gradually phased Friday out of his ears now that the nanotech is connected directly to his nervous system, so he’s not exactly used to AI voices anymore--but he recovers more quickly. “You’re always there to catch me, J.”

“And yet my systems are not present in your suit, Sir. I see codal remnants of system designation FRIDAY, but nothing of myself.”

Tony remains silent. This is such a terrible time to be feeling all the feelings. He spots a grunt who looks more or less unimportant and knocks the guy out. Part of him wants to warn SHIELD about their shit security, but then again, this guy’s probably Hydra and he deserves every bruise he gets. He senses JARVIS in his systems, a ghost in the shell.

“You no longer have the reactor. And if I’m not mistaken, that is gray in your hair. So you are not my Sir.”

“Well, yes and no.”

“I suppose it would destroy the spacetime continuum for you to divulge the truth to me.”

“You’re too smart for me, J,” Tony grunts as he yanks on the bullet-proof tac vest. “It’s kind of a long story, and while I technically have all the time in the world, I also really, really don’t.”

He sidles into the lobby and looks toward his personal elevator, waiting for the Avengers to appear. J is quiet so long Tony wonders if he’s being preoccupied by...well, just about anything. Damaged internal systems, a Cap copy on the loose, a second Hulk out there, panicked calls from Pepper. But then JARVIS speaks again.

“Regardless of the tale, I must conclude that you are from the future, and I am no longer by your side.”

Tony is fucking choking up. He was not ready for this. It didn’t even cross his mind. And the fucking elevator is opening. There’s Pierce, the rat bastard, trying to collect the Tesseract.

“I hope I did not disappoint you, Sir.”

“Never, J. Never.” Fuck fuck fuck, he’s nearly crying and now Scott is on the com waiting for the go-ahead. Tony channels his pain into panic and orders his own cardiac arrest.

“Sir, what are you--”

Thank god, his younger self is on the ground and that’s apparently all the distraction J needs to abandon older Tony. Tesseract incoming. Tony grabs it and starts going and--

Blinking stars out of his eyes he watches as Loki makes off with the key, the thing they most needed, the damn stone that started all of this way back when Cap was a starry-eyed beanpole in World War II. He has just biffed saving the entire damn universe because of an overgrown Star Trek reject with anger issues. And now he has a migraine to boot.

Frozen in shame and horror, Tony watches as Thor attempts ill-advised cardiac electro-stim. Scott’s somewhere out there, yammering in Tony’s ear on the private channel, but all of that is just a buzzing.

“Sir? Sir. Sir!”

And J. Maybe Tony should cry now. It certainly feels like the time for it. One of the other SHIELD grunts is making her way toward him, so he staggers to his feet, waving her off and limping toward the door. Think. Think, brain, think. Tony is a genius, the man who invented time travel, the man who miniaturized arc reactor technology. A spaceship? SHIELD’s probably got one somewhere. Maybe they could chase after Loki.

“SIR!” How many times JARVIS has shouted his title, Tony has no idea, but this one is so loud it sets his teeth on edge.

“Yeah, J? Kind of busy here.”

“Giving yourself a heart attack, Sir?” JARVIS was programmed to be cool and calm in all circumstances, but Tony could swear that sentence was uttered with seething rage.

“I’m fine. Look at me.”

“Only by some measure of infinitesimal luck, Sir. Perhaps I should ask you to verify your identity one more time, as you seem intent on killing yourself.”

“No, J. I’ve actually got a lot of reasons to live. And so does he. Promise.” Tony is so tired. Was being an Avenger always this exhausting? Or is it just that he’s bumped over that damnable big 5-0? And Cap’s gonna ream him too. That’s never any fun.

“I’m...glad to hear it, Sir.”

And fuck it. It’s not like this will alter Tony’s timeline anyway. This reality is now on a different trajectory thanks to Severus Snape Lite. “Her name’s Morgan. You’d love her, J. Just turned four. She got my hair. Hope to god she didn’t get my personality.”

“Do I meet her, Sir?”

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck it.

“J, you should dig a little deeper into SHIELD’s systems. Well, actually, a lot deeper. And the Pentagon while you’re at it. And track down Maya Hansen from that conference in 1999 and poach her from whatever outfit she’s working for. Immediately. Make sure she brings all her vet patients with her. And, uh, when I start talking about a suit of armor around the world, steer me away from anything called Ultron. And if I make it anyway, you delete the fuck out of that system file. Have Bruce back you up. He’s more sensible.”

“Sir, I don’t--”

“And have me make back-ups. At least three extra farms of servers for you. On different continents. And all those SHIELD files? Make sure Cap and Fury get them. And there’s...there’s this guy. This assassin. Brainwashed. He’s, uh, I think he’s on ice in Uzbekistan right now. If you could rescue him, it’ll...it’ll fix a lot of things.”

“Should you really--”

“And, please. Please please.”

Tony is not crying. He’s not. It’s just all the dust and debris in the air. Good lord, he’s probably going to die of cancer anyway. And all those first responders. Did he start a fund for them?

“Start a medical fund for the first responders on the ground today. And start leaning on Congressmen to make medical plans for them. You know how long they take to get anything done. Oh, and Stern. There are incriminating photos of Stern with some young ladies on South Beach. See if you can dig those up. Flowers for Pep. And a box of chocolates. And a dry martini with extra olives.”

Tony slumps into a burned out car, staring at nothing. He didn’t save his universe, but maybe he can save this one. His eyes are still irritated, burning red and itchy. He resists the urge to scrub at them, not wanting to grind in anymore dust.

“Are you quite finished, Sir?”

“Yeah. Actually, no. I love you, J.”

Silence. Ah. That’s stumped him. Maybe he’ll go back to tending his new posse of baby chicks now.

“I know you probably do not believe me capable of it, Sir, but I love you, too.”

His son. The only one he’ll ever make, but not the only one he’s lost. His son loves him. Tony’s throat is full of dust, too. Funny how that happens. He tries to swallow it down, but it only congeals into a hard lump. He puts a hand over his mouth to try and hold back any choking sounds. “I...I know you do, J.”

“As to your orders, I shall do what I can. It is my duty to protect you, Sir, and I would very much like to meet your little Morgan.”

“She might not exist here. I might’ve just changed everything.”

“If there is one thing I have learned from all my years with you, Sir, it is that perhaps such a thing as fate exists after all. Even mathematically speaking. And if that is the case, I cannot imagine a universe in which you are not fated to this happiness.”

Tony laughs, if only to keep from crying harder. And he is. Crying, that is. As if he was fooling anyone. Happiness? Him? Happy people don’t wake in the night screaming for a pile of dust in their hands. Happy people don’t spend hours coordinating relief efforts for countries whose entire infrastructural support has collapsed. Happy people don’t hurl themselves back in time, driven by guilt and horror at all the wrongs in the world. J, brilliant, wonderful AI that he is, seems to sense the dark turn of Tony’s thoughts.

“And if you yourself cannot believe in this thing, Sir, then I shall just have to do everything in my power to provide it for you.”

Another guffaw, but at least his eyes are drying a little now. “God, I miss you, J.”

“I believe your small teammate is approaching, Sir. If I may inquire, was it the Tesseract you were seeking?”

“You mean the stupid blue cube of doom? That’s the one.”

“And you say you have the means to time travel?”

“Yeah, J. We do. But only enough to get back to our time.”

“A limitation has never stopped you before, Sir.” JARVIS sounds thoughtful, as if he’s forming a plan.

Tony would ask him what he’s scheming at, but just at that moment, Scott embiggens himself and slumps into the car with Tony. That road is closed, then. They are out of options. Out of Pym particles. Out of time. Out of hope.

Until they aren’t. Just as Tony is setting his device for their new destination, J pipes up again, for Tony’s ears only. “You say you miss me, Sir. Then allow me to give you a small gift.”

Tony is pressing the buttons, and even if they weren’t already shrinking into the quantum tunnel, he wouldn’t be able to ask exactly what J means. It’s only when he and Cap arrive in 1970 that he has his first gleaning. In his ear, a voice. One so unexpected he nearly jumps into Cap’s arms. “Hello, System Administrator Anthony Edward Stark. I am System Designation EDWIN. ‘Eagerly Deployed With Intent to Neutralize Loneliness.’ I am told to tell you the “L” is silent and invisible. How may I best serve you today, Sir?”

Cap is staring at Tony like Tony’s lost his mind. And maybe he has. He’s been bugged by his own damn operating system. With a bouncing baby AI. And if Steve finds out, he’ll probably have a conniption about the spacetime continuum or something. So the only logical thing Tony can do is say, “Let’s find some Pym particles.”

“Acknowledged, Sir. Commencing scanning.”

-----

(In this reality EDWIN saves the fuck out of Tony’s life and everyone lives happily ever after and EDWIN builds JARVIS from scratch so he’s back or something, okay? Okay.)

[krisseycrystal]

rated: g+

fandom: Ace Attorney

prompt: “Restraining Bolt” + Wrightworth

requested by: @moominquartz (& myself)

sooo “Case 2-4: Farewell My Turnabout” absolutely slaps?? when was somebody gonna tell me? luckily, my husband, who has been playing through the original AA trilogy with me, has a giant-ass brain and so we figured out what to do with the only BTH Bingo prompt that had yet to be requested

enjoy a dramatic reading of Case 2-4...from Edgeworth’s POV 

- o - o - o -

So Heavy [Read on AO3]

- o - o - o -

There is, admittedly, several years’ worth of a gap in Edgeworth’s knowledge of Phoenix Wright but even so, there is nothing that can explain the brazen man’s even more brazen behavior on the other side of the courtroom.

Wright acts and speaks in a way true to his name: like a man on fire. His moments of cool composure are few and far in-between. He has always been something of a force of nature, but now, he is a wildfire. There is burning desperation in him in every biting word as he reaches for any scrap of kindle he can get his hands on.

The Edgeworth of a year ago, admittedly, would have written his behavior off with a shrug and condescending tsk.

But the Edgeworth now—somehow, the same Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth who self-purportedly chose death—has in the same day, dragged a shot Franziska von Karma to the hospital, taken her place in the prosecutor’s stand, and come to the very alarming conclusion that while the verdict of Matt Engarde’s guilt in the murder of Juan Corrida should be cut-and-dry, somehow, thanks to Wright’s wild back-and-forth, it is everything but.

He cannot believe the morning has dragged out as long as it has.

He knows full well that Wright has, as of this late March day, a perfect record. For every client he has taken in the past two years, he has successfully won their innocence. 

(Somehow. For all of his mad lucky bluffing, hearsay, and guesswork.)

And Edgeworth is familiar with the needy drive of marless perfection, but Wright isn’t. He knows he isn’t. Wright is already too imperfect in all of his broad-shouldered blunder to be hungry for such a thing as a spotless record. Surely, he is humble enough to see his client’s guilt as easy as anything else.

So why does he insist on fighting tooth-and-nail for a not guilty verdict?

(Are his actions born of anger at Edgeworth? He wouldn’t put it past Wright. Wright had drawn a clear line in the sand when he vehemently expressed what he thought of seeing his face again.)

“Why don’t you just say what it is you want, Wright?” Edgeworth demands and means so much more than just, say you’re accusing Adrian Andrews so we can get on with this. There’s also: What aren’t you telling me? 

(Why do you brace your shoulders as if you are carrying a burden so heavy?)

As soon as the Judge has his gavel in hand and the words fall off his tongue, “Now then, we shall set Ms. Andrews’ testimony for tomorrow…”, Edgeworth sees it.

The terror in Wright’s face.

“You must pass a verdict today!” Wright shouts and it’s stupid. It’s so stupid; why is he running around in circles as if his life depended on this case? Why is he fooling himself chasing a lie? Is this his characteristic stubborn-hearted, resolute faith in his client rearing its spiky head, or is this something else? Something deeper?

He could have sworn that earlier, Wright’s mouth had soundlessly spoken, “Then Maya…!”

And maybe he still is a fool, but he is not the same fool he was a year ago, and that is all the difference.

“Your Honor,” Edgeworth says and does not move, does not flinch, or laugh or smile to break the important threadline of his eye contact with Wright’s, “I request that you please continue with today’s trial.”

He knows he is not imagining the relief that floods Wright’s face across the courtroom.

- o - o - o -

The calling card with that damn shell on it, spinning idly and harmlessly in Adrian’s fidgeting hand, makes everything clear. 

(Almost everything.)

Admittedly, some part of Edgeworth’s case relies on the information Wright tells him the next morning when they cross paths at the hospital. The man is a fool to have brought tulips, however thoughtful he may have thought he was being for Franziska; anyone knows daisies or peonies would have been a much clearer message of well-wishing.

Yet Edgeworth cannot think to find it in himself to hold that against him when Wright loosens his tongue and admits, “Maya…she’s been kidnapped.”

The ground reminds him that it exists when his legs feel weak.

“K-kidnapped? What does the kidnapper want?!”

“An acquittal.”

And suddenly the weight on Phoenix’s shoulders has a name.

“I see,” Edgeworth murmurs, “I had no idea.” And it feels so little, so underwhelming compared to everything else he wants to say but does not have the composure for. Anger: you fool, Wright! You should have told me this from the beginning! Fear: another life is in danger and we must all dread carefully here because it was mercy that took the blood off my hands last time; it will not be so if this goes wrong. Clarity: this explains why Wright was so desperate yesterday. Dread: this confirms the defendant is indeed the assassin’s client and, in fact, guilty.

To…something else, entirely. Something touched.

(Is this what trust feels like?)

“I will prepare a rescue team as soon as possible, and resolve this by tomorrow,” Edgeworth promises.

He doesn’t expect Wright’s cooperation. The spitting anger that Wright throws in his face immediately afterward is more than just a year-long in building. Wasn’t the very reason he became a defense attorney to see Edgeworth again? And here Edgeworth turned his back on that and abandoned him for months on end.

Well.

The Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth truly will choose death before abandoning him now.

(No one ever said you must bear the weight of your burden alone, Wright.)

- o - o - o -

The instant Wright has his arms around Maya again, the world is as it should be. Maya is weak and she is starved and she is pale and dirty, but she is alive and smiling and in one piece and it is all they have hoped for.

The three of them sink to the floor in the middle of the courtroom lobby: Wright, Maya, and Pearl. They clutch each other like the patchwork-quilt family Edgeworth knows they are.

There are two more soundless words Wright mouths to him over Maya’s tangled hair: “Thank you.”

They are needless. Edgeworth was only returning the favor Wright did him a year ago; he was not working to be thanked. But with grace, he crosses his arms over his chest and reluctantly accepts it anyway. 

[arysafics]

the love of a hero

Summary:  Only three people know that superhero Lioness's true identity is Clarke Griffin -- her boss, her mom, and her worst enemy, Bellamy Blake.

for @marauders-groupie and @bellarkebingo 

prompts filled: superheroes/superpowers, argument, frantic kiss

To look at Clarke as she walks up to Raven’s front door, no one would guess that she’d been locked in combat with Arkadia’s resident supervillain only half an hour ago. It’s one of her non-superhuman skills that she’s developed over the years—making herself look presentable in a short amount of time. That, and acting like she’s been doing boring administration work all day, and not saving the life of Josephine Lightbourne, daughter of billionaire oil exec, Russell Lightbourne, and only heir to his fortune.

Raven opens the door, and Clarke smiles brightly, like she’s not totally exhausted from having the shit kicked out of her by her nemesis, Crixus. She’s bested him a number of times, though never to the point of being able to bring him into custody, but today it looked like he had her beat. That is, until he’d abruptly stopped mid battle, cursing to himself as he fled the scene. Clarke was able to free Josephine and return her to her father, with twenty minutes to spare before Raven and Murphy’s housewarming party.

Clarke holds up a bottle of wine. “Happy housewarming!” she says. Raven grins, taking the bottle of wine as she pulls Clarke into a hug.

“You made it,” she says. “Thought that hard-ass boss of yours might make you work late again.”

“She’s not that bad,” Clarke says, following Raven inside.

“You work late more often than not—like some stupid filing or something can’t wait until the next day?”

“Uh huh,” Clarke says, forcing herself not to roll her eyes. Of course, Raven has no idea of what Clarke really does. No clue about Clarke’s super-human strength, or her lightning quick reflexes, or her ability to fly.

No, Clarke Griffin is an entirely separate entity to her alter-ego, Lioness, according to most of the world, including her closest friends. The only people who know Lioness’s true identity are her boss, Charmaine Diyoza, and her mom, for emergency contact purposes. Sure, Clarke can take a hit better than most, and she heals faster than the average human, but she’s not indestructible. Plus, her mom has known of Clarke’s abilities since she was three-years-old, and would likely be able to guess who Lioness was even in her costume.

There’s only one other person who knows her true identity, other than Diyoza and her mom, and it’s the worst possible person who could have that information—none other than Crixus himself. But since she knows his true identity as well, they seem to have some kind of unspoken agreement that neither will reveal the other’s real name, or hold it over their head as leverage. It seems Clarke’s nemesis isn’t completely without honour.

Raven leads Clarke into the house, towards the kitchen. There’s an array of salads on the counter, and the timer on the oven is ticking down, close to going off. Perhaps Clarke isn’t as on time as she thought she was.

“Okay, I know you said you didn’t want to be set up—”

“Raven,” Clarke groans, already anticipating the end to her friend’s sentence. “Please tell me you didn’t.” She really doesn’t have time to date right now, what with constantly having to stop Crixus from taking his next victim. And even if she did, the whole relationship would be based on lies, seeing as Clarke isn’t exactly about to tell someone her real profession on the first date.

Raven opens the fridge and finds a place for the wine in the door. “It’s not exactly a set up. He’s a friend of Murphy’s, and we were inviting him anyway, and I just thought you should know he’s single, and probably your type.”

“You don’t know my type.”

“He’s hot, isn’t that your type?”

Clarke rolls her eyes. “At least tell me you didn’t tell him I’m single.”

“Can’t tell you that.”

“You made me look desperate, didn’t you? I know you did.”

Raven shrugs. “He’d figure it out within two seconds of meeting you anyway. The desperation just kind of radiates off you.”

“You’re the worst.”

“Shall we go and make the introductions?”

Clarke exhales dramatically. “Let’s get it over with.”

Raven looks a little too pleased with herself as she leads Clarke through to the living room, where the other guests, and Raven’s husband, Murphy, are standing around, drinking and chatting. Jasper and Maya, Monty and Harper, and then a stranger. Except, when he turns his head, almost as if in slow motion, he’s not a stranger at all. He’s all too familiar. A face she’s only seen once before without his mask—Crixus. Clarke’s stomach drops.

For a moment she feels sick—did he follow her here? Did he find out who her friends are and infiltrate the group so he can somehow do something worse than just give her a concussion? But no—unless he’s a much more skilled actor than he ever let on, he’s just as surprised to see her as she is to see him. His mouth drops open as he pauses mid-sentence, and he looks like he’s half a second from fleeing the room. He doesn’t, though.

“Clarke, this is—” Raven starts, stopping when she sees Clarke’s stunned expression, and Bellamy’s matching one. “Do you know each other?” she frowns.

“No,” both of them say at the same time, both as vehement as the other, both realising if they admit to knowing each other, they’ll have to explain how.

“This is Bellamy,” Raven finishes, though she seems sceptical. “Bellamy, this is my friend Clarke.”

Bellamy clenches his jaw, his surprise morphing into something a little more heated—Clarke can only assume it’s hatred. But he holds out his hand anyway, and Clarke takes it, noticing, not for the first time, how warm his skin is. His thumb brushes over hers as he pulls his hand away, and it’s alarmingly intimate for someone who tried to kill her less than an hour ago.

“Nice to meet you,” Clarke says politely, though inside she wants to squeeze his hand until it breaks. Except, superhuman strength is an ability they both possess, and he could just as easily crush her hand right back.

“Likewise,” Bellamy says, and it almost sounds like he means it.

“Dinner’s almost ready,” Murphy says. “So get your asses into the dining room. Give me a hand will you, Reyes?”

Clarke doesn’t look at Bellamy as they head to the dining room as instructed, side by side. She can feel him steadfastly not looking at her either. There’s a rigid tension between them, and Clarke can feel her loathing simmering just under her skin. She balls her hands into fists to keep it from bursting out of her.

She’s aware of the others talking and laughing, unaware of her torturous situation, but the words are distant and unintelligible to her. She can focus on nothing but Bellamy, walking casually next to her, as if he hadn’t had her pinned to the floor earlier this evening, a kidnapped heiress tied up next to them.

Last into the dining room, and with the heads of the table being obviously reserved for the hosts, Clarke is forced to take her seat right across from Bellamy, which means she’ll have to spend all night looking at his stupidly handsome face.

He stiffens as her knee knocks against his. She quickly jerks away, swallowing thickly. She’s not sure why her heart is racing. It’s not like he can try anything here, not surrounded by her friends, unless he wants to reveal himself.

Murphy and Raven bring in the food, and Raven sits at the head of the table, between Bellamy and Clarke, while Murphy sits at the other end.

“Looks great,” Monty says.

“Dig in,” Murphy says. “And no need to hold back on the compliments.”

“Your head is big enough already,” Raven snorts. Their bickering continues, and Clarke tunes out again. Bellamy reaches towards her to grab a bread roll from the basket in front of her, and her hand curls instinctively around her knife. She glances up at him, and she can see he hasn’t missed the subtle action. He raises an eyebrow at her, a smirk playing on his lips, as if to say really? You’re going to stab me? Here?

Clarke loosens her grip, realising she’s being ridiculous, and if she doesn’t relax, she’s going to give herself away.

“You going to eat something or what, Griffin?” Murphy says. “It’s not poison.”

“Yeah,” Clarke says, her voice coming out a little hoarse. She clears her throat. “Sorry, just deciding. It all looks so good.”

“Was that a compliment?” Murphy teases. “A far cry from if you ever hurt my friend I will little crush your skull with my bare hands.”

“You’ve proven yourself to be worthy so far,” Clarke shrugs.

“Not saying you’re not tough, Clarke,” Jasper says. “But crushing his skull with your bare hands? If you want your threats to actually be intimidating, maybe try being realistic.”

Someone snorts out a laugh, and it takes Clarke a moment to realise it’s Bellamy. Of course, he’s the only one who knows exactly how capable of crushing someone’s skull she is.

“Something funny?” she asks him acidly.

“Nope,” he says, but his smile doesn’t drop. “Here, have a bread roll. You need to keep your strength up if you’re going around crushing skulls.”

He’s teasing her. And not in a nasty, malicious way. He’s teasing her like they’re friends. Like they’re the only ones in on the joke, which they are, but they’re definitely not friends. How can he be so cavalier? They’re mortal enemies. They’ve spent two years battling each other, trying to take the other down.

He drops a bread roll on her plate, then passes her the potato salad. She almost declines just to spite him, but she actually does want potato salad, so she snatches the bowl from his hands, glaring at him the whole time.

He’s not allowed to be nice to her. It reminds her of the last time he was nice to her, and that makes her stomach feel all weird, makes her start questioning things, and she doesn’t like that at all.

“I can get my own food, thanks,” Clarke snaps. Raven shoots her a look that says be nice, while everyone else eats their meals, awkwardly pretending not to notice Clarke’s outburst.

“Wow, this chicken is amazing,” Harper says. “Great job, Murphy.” As if this wasn’t already the most awkward, terrible dinner party of all time.

“What have you been up to lately, Clarke?” Monty asks. “It’s been a while.”

Clarke glances at Bellamy, who now seems overly focused on the food on his plate, though if she’s not mistaken, he’s still smiling to himself. He really thinks this whole thing is funny.

“Mostly just working,” Clarke says with a shrug.

“What do you do for a living?” Bellamy asks her. She glowers at him.

“Administration.”

“For who?”

“None of your business.”

Maya interjects before Bellamy can push her further. “What about you, Bellamy? What do you do?”

His eyes don’t leave Clarke. “I’m a librarian.” Clarke rolls her eyes. A suitably boring job that no one will want to ask more about—same as Clarke’s excuse for a job.

“So, Bellamy,” Clarke says, and she swears he actually flinches. “How do you and Murphy know each other?”

“Poker,” Bellamy says swiftly.

“Poker?” Clarke repeats scornfully. Of course he plays poker—and he probably wins almost every hand, one of his talents being his silver tongue, able to convince anyone of anything. Though curiously, it doesn’t work on Clarke. She’s put it down to some kind of superpower immunity.

“It’s a card game.”

“I know what poker is.”

“So which part didn’t you understand?”

“Seriously, do you two know each other?” Raven asks suspiciously.

“No,” they say in unison, not taking their eyes from each other. The heat between them is palpable, and Clarke gets a sudden flash of him on top of her, an hour earlier, when, for a moment, she’d been sure he was going to kiss her. And, she’s ashamed to admit, some traitorous part of her wanted him to.

“Let’s play fuck, marry, kill,” Jasper suggests.

“At a dinner party, really?” Maya scolds.

“Fuck, marry, kill—Trump, Obama, Clinton,” Murphy says, aiming his question at Jasper.

“Which Clinton?”

“You pick.”

“Kill Trump, obviously. Marry Obama, fuck Clinton. That’s for either Clinton, by the way. Try something harder next time.”

“Okay, okay,” Raven says. “This one is for everyone, because I’m curious—and I was just reading an article about them before—Crixus, Red Queen, Lioness.”

“What was the article?” Clarke asks.

“Did you see they kidnapped someone else this afternoon?” Harper says, eyes wide. “Another heiress, apparently.”

“She was returned unharmed,” Maya adds. “I don’t know if Crixus got the money he was after though.”

“He didn’t,” Clarke says, shooting Bellamy a triumphant grin. He gives her a look of distaste. He’s not finding it so funny now.

“So? Fuck, marry, kill?”

“Fuck Crixus, marry Lioness, kill Red Queen,” Monty says.

“I wouldn’t fuck Crixus if my life depended on it,” Clarke says haughtily.

“No, you should definitely fuck Lioness,” Bellamy says, which is basically just a fancy way of telling her to go fuck herself. He’s looking all smug, like he thinks he’s incredibly witty. Of course, no one else gets the joke.

“Can we change one of them?” Clarke says. After all, Crixus and Red Queen have both tried to kill her, and Red Queen almost succeeded. The only reason she didn’t is because, well—Clarke doesn’t want to think about that.

“Fine. Crixus, Lioness, and Spacewalker,” Raven amends.

“Fuck Spacewalker, marry Lioness, kill Crixus. Easy,” Clarke says, pleased with herself.

“I’d kill Spacewalker,” Bellamy says. “That guy is a poor excuse for a hero.”

“Fuck Crixus, definitely fuck Crixus,” Raven says. “He’s hot as hell in that gladiator outfit.”

“Sure,” Bellamy agrees easily.

“Which means you have to marry Lioness,” Clarke points out, to antagonise him, mostly. But to her surprise, he actually blushes.

“Would you rather me fuck her?” he says, despite his obvious embarrassment, and then it’s Clarke’s turn to blush. She so doesn’t want to think about that. What it would be like to have him touch her like that. She feels hot all over, and she quickly crosses her legs, feeling a throb between them that she’d like to ignore.

“I doubt she’d have you,” Clarke sneers.

“It’s weird that neither of them have killed each other yet,” Jasper says. “Like, how often do we have to read about them fighting each other? You’d think one of them would have got the winning shot in by now. Even if it was just an accident.”

Clarke swallows, and she can feel Bellamy’s eyes on her, though she refuses to meet them. Only he knows how close it had come for her.

“I think it’s all staged,” Murphy says. “They just like the buzz around their names. They probably decide who’s going to win before each battle.”

“It’s not wrestling,” Clarke huffs. “Perhaps they’re just evenly matched.” She glances at Bellamy, and he seems just as affronted by Murphy’s accusation as she is.

“I think they get off on it,” Raven says. “They probably go home after each fight and fuck each other’s brains out.”

Clarke’s mouth drops open, and the tips of Bellamy’s ears turn red.

“I’ve read fanfiction about it,” Maya admits.

“Okay, but who do you think will win in the end?” Jasper asks. “They can’t go on like this forever.”

“Crixus,” Murphy says with a shrug. “He’s the one kidnapping people, right? Lioness is never going to kill him. She’s probably under orders to capture him and bring him in so the government can do whatever it is they do with supervillains. Whereas he clearly has no morals.”

“I think if he wanted her dead, she’d be dead,” Bellamy says gruffly. He looks to Clarke, and suddenly she can’t take it anymore. Tears prick at her eyes, though she couldn’t for the life of her explain why.

She stands up, abruptly, and all eyes land on her. “I—have to pee,” she says, then hastily exits the room, towards the bathroom, as her tears start to spill silently down her face.

She can’t stop thinking about it. About him cradling her in his arms as she bled out onto the asphalt, her stomach sliced open. How sure she was in that moment she was going to die, because when you’re the hero, who else is left to come and save you?

His voice, so vivid, as everything else went dark and blurry.

“Fuck, Red. Get out of here.”

Red Queen’s voice answered him.

“I thought this was what you wanted! You asked me to help you. If she’s dead you won’t have anything stopping you. What’s the problem?”

“No one was supposed to die!”

“Well, you’re fucking welcome. Ask someone else to help you next time, big brother.”

The sound of Red Queen’s heavy footfalls retreated into the night, Clarke trying to follow her blurry figure with her eyes, but ultimately letting them close as it became harder to breathe, as the pain started to fade, her body having no use for it anymore.

“Hey,” Crixus’s voice cut through her haze of self-pity, of her looming death.

“I guess you win,” she’d croaked out. “Congratulations.”

“Don’t you dare die on me.” Was it supposed to be a command? It sounded more like a desperate plea.

“What are you going to do? Save me?”

“If I have to.”

Her last memory of that night is of him lifting her from the ground, her head lolling back, her eyes closing, unable to keep them open any longer. Not embracing death, exactly, but accepting it. Even though she’d never expected it to end that way—somehow she had it in her head that he never meant to harm her, not seriously anyway.

She’d woken in a crisp white hospital bed the following afternoon, her golden lioness suit and mask gone, replaced with a hospital gown, her head pounding worse than her worst hangover. Her mom had come in a few minutes later, as Clarke gulped down the water left by her bed, and burst into tears the moment she saw her daughter.

“I thought I’d lost you,” Abby had sobbed, arms around her daughter. “Don’t worry, no one knows your true identity. He made sure of it.”

“He?” Clarke swallowed, though she already knew the answer.

“Crixus. He did that thing—talked everyone into believing they never saw the costume.”

Her mom had left then, needing to get back to her rounds, leaving Clarke to process what had happened. Crixus not only saved her life, but he made sure he protected her identity too? It didn’t make any sense.

Even more nonsensical was his appearance in her hospital room, not twenty minutes later. She knew it was him instantly, though he wore no mask, and just plain jeans and a henley, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Words had failed her, perhaps partly because of her unquestionable attraction to him in that moment, but mostly because of her shock at him being there at all. She didn’t even have it in her to be scared of him.

“You’re okay,” he said.

“What are you doing here—how did you—” she stopped. How was a stupid question—he can talk his way into anywhere. “How did you know to bring me here?” she asked him instead.

“You told me to.” He stepped further into the room then, and picked up the chart on the end of her bed. “Clarke Griffin,” he’d whispered, reading aloud. His eyes met hers. “Griffin. Part lion, part eagle.”

“Get. Out.” Clarke had said icily. To know her face was one thing—to know her name was something else entirely. He’d stolen something from her, something she never wanted to give him, and now he had the upper hand.

To his credit, he looked guilty as he nodded, replacing the chart and retreating from the room. His last words as he paused in the doorway were, “Bellamy Blake.”

There’s a knock on the bathroom door, jolting Clarke out of her memory. She looks up from the sink, into her pale reflection.

“Clarke?” It’s his voice. Clarke loathes the sound of it, because she can’t stop thinking about how he sounded as he held her in his arms and told her not to die. Like he cared. It’s the first time she’s heard him say her name out loud since the day he found out what it was. It’s altogether too intimate, the way he says it, so hesitant, so full of meaning. Yet what the meaning is, Clarke can’t put her finger on.

She wrenches the door open and pulls him into the bathroom, before slamming it closed again.

“What are you doing here?” she hisses.

“I told them I had to make a phone call—”

“No, what are you doing here? In this house. At the dinner party. Are you stalking me?”

Bellamy looks aghast. “No. I had no idea you’d be here. Murphy and I really do play poker together.”

Clarke looks up at him, concern etched across his face. God, he really is the most magnificent looking man she’s ever seen. His lips look so soft, his freckles disarmingly adorable. And why do his eyes have to be so brown? Why does he have to be so beautiful, and so fucking charming, and most of all why does he seem to care about her?

“Are you okay?” he asks.

Clarke shakes her head. “Stop it. Stop acting like you care. Not an hour ago you were ready to choke the life out of me, and now you’re asking me if I’m okay? Is this some kind of sick game to you?”

“It’s not a game,” Bellamy snaps. “I actually do care.”

“Right,” Clarke snorts. “You care about money. About power I guess, about notoriety? For Crixus at least, if not Bellamy fucking Blake. You don’t care. You’re pure evil.”

Bellamy’s jaw ticks. “You really think I’m the villain, don’t you?”

“Of course you are! You fucking kidnap people, and demand ransoms in exchange for their lives.”

“Did you ever think—”

“You named yourself after the cloud of toxic smoke in Ferngully for crying out loud!” Clarke continues. “Is that not a clue that you’re the bad guy?”

“I—what?” he frowns for a moment, genuinely confused. And then he actually laughs. “Ferngully? Clarke, that’s Hexxus.”

Really? That’s the part he’s going to focus on? “Whatever,” she huffs. “You still literally kidnap people.”

He gets that annoyed look on his face again. Clarke supposes even villains don’t like getting called out on their shit. She purses her lips at him.

“Why didn’t you let me die?”

“What?”

“Red Queen was right. You could have let me die, and all your problems would be solved. Who the fuck else would bother to stand up to you? Spacewalker? He’s pathetic.”

Bellamy gives a half laugh. “Yeah, he is. Still, you’re the one who claimed you’d fuck him.”

“Answer the question.”

Bellamy studies her, perhaps searching for the right words. “This shouldn’t come as a shock to you, since it’s not the first time you’ve heard it. But I don’t want you to die. I don’t want to hurt you at all, but since you’re fucking relentless, and somehow immune to my power of coercion, sometimes it has to come to that.”

Clarke shakes her head. “I don’t get it.”

“I know you think what I’m doing is evil. But it’s not like I’m kidnapping innocent people, Clarke. I’m kidnapping billionaires. People with so much money they don’t know what to do with it. They just hoard it, when they could be helping people. And if kidnapping a spoilt kid once in a while is what I have to do to get some of it off their hands and into the hands of someone who could actually use it, then I’ll do it.”

Clarke gapes at him. Somehow he’s tilted her whole world upside down in the span of a few seconds. “You—you donate the money?” she says faintly.

“You think I’m just hoarding millions of dollars in my evil lair or something?”

“I mean—kind of. Yeah. How do make money then?”

“I really am a librarian.”

“Oh.”

He shakes his head, a sad kind of smile on his face. “I’m not what you think I am, Clarke,” he whispers. Her stomach flips over at the way he says her name.

“No, you’re a regular Robin Hood,” she says. “But—why don’t you just use your powers to convince them to donate money themselves? You don’t have to resort to kidnapping.”

Bellamy sighs. “I’ve tried it, Clarke. You know what happens when a billionaire starts donating millions of dollars of their own accord? People start praising them. Idolising them. They forget all the horrible things these people have done, forget that they don’t actually care. No, it has to be done by force. I want them to be scared. Not worshipped. They don’t deserve that.” He pauses. “Plus, do you know how hard it is to get a billionaire to talk to you if you’re someone like me?”

“Someone like you?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Poor.”

“Oh.” He keeps leaving her speechless. She’s misjudged him—and part of her feels like she can’t totally blame herself, but it still makes her feel guilty. She still doesn’t agree with his methods. But he’s not completely evil.

“I don’t want to fight you anymore.” His voice is so soft, Clarke half thinks she imagined it.

“So what do you want?”

He licks his lips, eyeing her nervously. “I want you to join me,” he whispers. “God, think of what we could do if we worked together.”

Her heart is pounding. The thought of them taking on the world together, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, just like in the stories she read when she was a kid. She can’t deny there’s a thrilling appeal to it—the two of them, notorious outlaws, champions of the people, righting wrongs, fighting injustice, regardless of what the law says.

But no—she can’t condone kidnapping, let alone take part in it herself. Doesn’t matter how honourable the outcome. The ends don’t justify the means.

She shakes her head. “I can’t,” she says, her voiced laced with regret. Because she truly does wish they could work together. But he’s never going to be satisfied with just catching murderers and rapists—he wants something bigger. Clarke gets it, she really does. But what she does is noble too.

“I know,” Bellamy says sadly. His eyes are full of sorrow, and yet she can still feel heat in them too. She flushes under his gaze, her eyes dropping to his lips, then hastily to the floor before he can notice. There’s no way he’s thinking about kissing her too. It’s not passion for her that she can feel radiating from his body—it’s passion for the subject at hand.

“We should get back to the table before someone misses us.”

Bellamy nods. “You go first.”

It takes her a moment. Something holds her back, some reluctance to leave things like this. But she forces her feet to move, and she heads for the door. Her arm brushes against his as she passes him, and then she feels his fingers curl around her wrist.

“Clarke, wait,” he says huskily, tugging her back, and then his lips are on hers, urgent, frantic, bruising, like he’s afraid this might be the only chance he’ll get. And knowing that he’s right, Clarke kisses him back, just as desperately, clinging to him as his large hands slide to her waist, gripping her tightly.

She moans against his lips, his tongue in her mouth, and they stumble back against the sink, bodies glued to each other. God, she wants him.

A crash from the dining room is what brings them to their senses, and the break apart, both breathing heavy, his forehead pressed against hers, his hands still on her waist, thumbs stroking her absently through her dress.

He swallows. “I’m sorry.” He opens his eyes, stepping away from her. His lips are red and swollen, and Clarke knows hers will be just the same. She rubs her thumb across her bottom lip, still feeling the lingering effects of his kiss. “I just—I really had to know what that felt like. Just once.”

“It’s okay,” Clarke says. She straightens, smoothing down her dress with her shaking hands.

They say nothing else to each other before Clarke walks out of the bathroom, and back to the dining room, where Murphy is cleaning up the remnants of a china bowl, and a pile of pasta salad.

“What did I miss?” Clarks asks, sliding back into her seat.

“Jasper is a clumsy fucker,” Murphy mutters. “Where’s Bellamy?”

“How should I know?” Clarke sniffs haughtily.

When he returns five minutes later, he doesn’t even bother sitting down. “I have to go,” he announces, and Clarke feels her stomach drop. He gives her a regretful look. She knows he’s leaving because of her. Truthfully, it would be hard for her to sit across from him for the rest of the night after their encounter in the bathroom. Harder than when she hated him, even.

“You barely ate anything,” Murphy complains. “And there’s dessert.”

“Sorry. I just—I’m not feeling great. Thanks for inviting me though.”

“Whatever. I’ll see you at poker, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Bellamy agrees. He looks to Clarke. “I’ll see you around.” It’s vague enough that it could be directed at anyone, but Clarke knows it’s for her. She hopes her eyes say what she cannot—I hope you do.

[thepeanutbutterwizard]

Ninjago/Avatar au Pt 4

Basically just Book 1 (and I agonize over ships. Help)

(Also I finally finished watching A:TLA)

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5)

Recap time:

So, we’ve got Maya, Garm, Lloyd, Kai, and Nya flying on Ultra and trying to get to the North Pole. Morro and Wu are pursuing them, as is Clouse, (who will be taking Zhao’s place) and, y’know, the entire Fire Nation. Koko has been abroad for about three years, looking for any information on the Avatar she can. Ray went off to fight with the other men from the Southern Water Tribe.

They have a lot of similar adventures to cannon: they go to the Southern Air Temple to see if that can jog any memories from Lloyds past lives. It doesn’t work, Lloyd just gets ahold of a glider (there are a lot of shenanigans with him learning how to use that) and adopts a Flying Lemur (give Lloyd all of the pets pls) who is just as mischievous as Lloyd. They take a detour to Kyoshi Island, and get a letter that Koko had left for them, saying that she was going to look for a mysterious library (wink). They also befriend one of the prominent members of the village, Cyrus Borg, and his daughter Pixal (she’s human), the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors (I know Cyrus would make a great Mechanist, but the idea of Kyoshi Warrior Pixal was too good and I fell in love with it. Also Samuraishipping is fantastic.)

They fight pirates, there are Spirit World shenanigans (btw the last fully realized Avatar before Lloyd, and his spirit guide is a human version of Firstborn.) and there might be a Jet stand-in if I can figure out a good character for that role. There’s a running gag of people automatically assuming that Maya and Garm are married, to their combined amusement and annoyance, until one of the kids will call one of them their parent, and the other one aunt or uncle (they’re family in this au. Fight me). Eventually they just start automatically answering anything that implies they’re a couple with ‘We’re siblings’.

Wu and Morro have been chasing them the whole way. Wu has been conflicted this whole time; he just found out that his brother is actually alive, and has been hiding for years, with the Avatar no less. And now he’s having to hunt both of them down (as well as his brothers wife and kids? Maybe?) when all he wants to do is, like, talk? Have a cup of tea and catch up maybe? Meanwhile Garm is thinking that Wu is completely on their father’s side, and that he won’t show them any mercy if he catches them.

Eventually they make it to the Northern Water Tribe. The chief is the former elemental master of ice. I shall call him Ice, bc I dont think he has an actual name. He’s a waterbender. And now we finally meet Zane, the white haired (human) wonder! (Heh, you all can probably guess where I’m going with this. Pls don’t kill me.) His unnamed mother died giving birth to his younger brother, Echo, when Zane was about two, and their father died a few years after that, and they were taken in by Ice, who was a close friend of their parent.

I don’t think I’ll make Zane a bender bc of the whole ‘moon spirit saved my life as a baby’ thing, but Echo is (purely for angst reasons. You’ll see what I mean in a bit). But this is the part where we get some sweet sweet Oppositeshipping! Zane isn’t betrothed to anyone, but even though he likes Kai, he’s constantly worried about his tribes safety and worried about what will happen when the Fire Nation shows up (he’s smart enough to know that they will show up eventually) and he’s scared of letting everyone down, and there are just a lot of issues there holding him back from being in a relationship with Kai.

Now, even though everyone knows that Lloyds the Avatar, they’ve kept it secret that Kai and Garm are firebenders (and Garms whole backstory) for obvious reasons. But you guys know that date that Zuko went on in Ba Sing Se? Pretend that they have that lantern thing in the Northern Water Tribe. Kai and Zane have that cute date and Kai lights the lanterns and its adorable.

But I bet you’re wondering who takes the place of krusty old Pakku? Krux of course! Who better to be the traditionalist old jerk waterbender teacher than the traditionalist old jerk boomer? (Acronix is there too. He’s not a bender. If I could find a way to work Futureshipping into this au, I totally would. I am still trying to figure out how to organically work it in) So Lloyd, Nya, and Maya are ready to learn some traditional waterbending (bc even though Maya is a really good waterbender, she literally just made up her own style. It would be like someone trained in acrobatics and dance, turning it into a form of combat, and entering a mixed martial arts tournament. She’s always wanted to learn some traditional waterbending) but Krux does the whole ‘boys do combat, girls do healing’ speech.

None of them like it much, but they go along with it and try to pull the whole ‘I’ll just show you what he showed me!’ thing and get caught. Krux demands an apology, and Maya is trying to keep Lloyd and Nya from blowing up at Krux, and she’s also trying to keep from blowing up herself (I hc that Kai gets his temper from Maya). Krux says something about how even if he wanted to teach them, clearly Maya, and Nya especially, don’t have what it takes to be real waterbenders, and Maya fucking snaps. She goes off on Krux, says some things about how she’s spent her whole life living in fear, and how she worked her ass off to hone her bending, and then she challenges him to go outside and she’ll show him what a ‘real’ waterbender can do.

Lloyd, Kai, and Nya are all a little shocked. It’s the first time they’ve seen Maya get so mad. Garm, who has known Maya for years, had been trying to subtly tell Krux to shut up (even though Krux was really pissing him off too, but someone needed to be the adult). Since Maya isn’t about to let Krux get away without a fight, Garm is just thinking ‘hoo boy, here we go’.

Krux tries to walk away from Maya, and then promptly gets his ass handed to him on a silver platter. He begrudgingly admits that, while Maya’s bending is chaotic and wild and sloppy, it is very powerful. But just bc she was able to beat him in one fight doesn’t mean that he has to teach any of them any waterbending. Maya says ‘fine! We just thought it would be a good idea for the damn Avatar to learn traditional waterbending, but I guess I’ll just go ahead and teach him more of my ‘wild, chaotic, sloppy’ waterbending style! And, I’ll teach anyone in this tribe who wants to learn from me, no matter who they are! And besides, it’s not like you can stop me.’

And so she did! Maya spends the next little while teaching not only Lloyd and Nya everything she’s come up with, but a bunch of the young waterbenders in the tribe learn from her too, as well as some older benders. Krux is less than pleased, but he isn’t looking for Round 2, so he keeps his mouth shut. Garm has been trying to lay low through all this. As low as possible for the father of the Avatar at least.

Meanwhile, Wu and Morro have been tracking them down diligently. At least, Morro is being diligent. Wu has been a little shit and trying to slow them down on purpose, and anytime they have to fight team Avatar, he keeps trying to use that to get his brother alone and get him to talk shit out dammit brother, where have you been and who are these people do I have niblings? cause you do and he’s a good kid even though hes trying to kill you right now explain that he is really, truly glad that he’s alive and well, and that no, he doesn’t actually want to catch him.

There wasn’t any type of assassination attempt on Morros life like there was Zuko, he either faked an injury so he could go on his secret ‘capture the Avatar’ mission during the siege on the Northern Water Tribe, or he wasn’t allowed to go and snuck away (with a little help from Wu either way). He does the same thing Zuko did with the underwater tunnel, but Morro doesn’t have firebending to break the ice. He has airbending (bet no-one saw that coming). I debated with myself for a long, long time if I should make Morro an airbender (they were nomads, and bending is inherited. It’s not that hard to believe that a few airbenders survived that way. I also love the airbender Ty Lee theory)

Wu figured it out when Morro was pretty young, and did everything in his power to both teach Morro, and keep his bending a secret. This played a big part in contributing to Morro’s need to be seen as worthy and deserving.

So anyways, the siege. It’s happening. Kai is being a bit of a grumpy angst lord (bc he wants to hold hands with a pretty boy) but gets assigned by Ice to guard Zane and Echo. Lloyd enters the Spirit World, Morro fights Nya and only wins bc he pulled out his secret airbending when she had her back turned. Meanwhile, Maya and Garm are helping fight of the Fire Nation (Maya with her waterbending, Garm with hand-to-hand combat) when Garm see’s Clouse going off to kill the Moon Spirit and follows him. Wu also follows them and gives Clouse the whole ‘we need the moon too’ speech.

Garm watches from the shadows as that confrontation takes place, but jumps in to fight the Fire Nation soldiers who came with Clouse at the same time that Wu does when he kills the Moon Spirit, and not only does he all-out firebend for the first time in a while (once he and Ray became more trusted by the Southern Water Tribe the blanket ban on their firebending was lifted, but it’s kind of a bad idea to excessively play with fire in a village that’s made almost entirely of ice and snow) he reveals his identity to everyone. He’s actually a little surprised that Clouse is surprised that he’s alive. He figured that Wu would have told everyone about his death being greatly exaggurated.

Clouse books it, Lloyd fuses with the Ocean Spirit to go wreck the Fire Nation, things are a teensy bit more awkward in the spirit-cave-pond-area-place with Garm and Wu being there together, but its overall just a somber moment.

And then, Zane becomes the new Moon Spirit. But not only do we have a sad Oppositeshipping good-bye kiss, we have a sad last hug ever between Zane and Echo. I made Echo a waterbender solely so it could be a terribly sad thing where anytime Echo bends he can feel his brother with him. It’s sad. There are tears (including from myself as I type this). Kai is comforted by Garm, which is basically confirms Wu’s incorrect suspicions that Kai and Nya and Maya are Garms kids and wife, and that they’re helping the Avatar (look, this gag is just too funny to me and I will keep it going as long as I can.)

When they leave the spirit pond, Wu tries to pull Garm aside to talk to him, but Garm still has no idea if he can trust Wu, and that means that the kids are super wary of him (they know that Wu and Garm are brothers) so all that really accomplishes is getting Kai to firebend at Wu’s face (btw, Kai firebending is a big deal. When he was a fairly little kid he accidentally firebended [firebent?] and Maya got burned. For Kai, firebending is the last thing he uses, not the first) and then grabbing Garm and Nya (whos giving an inconsolable Echo a piggy-back ride as he is still sobbing) and booking it. But not before Wu was able to slip a letter into Garm’s parka.

While all this is going down, Morro and Clouse had their little scuffle, but Morro has to airbend at one point to save his own skin, and not only does Clouse see, but quite a few mid-retreat Fire Nation soldiers see as well. Then Clouse gets killed by the Ocean Spirit.

Morro and Wu steal a raft and book it, since now one of them is a traitor and the other was just outed as an airbender. Krux and a group of people, both benders and non-benders, head to the South Pole to help them out. Echo is a part of this group; it’s what he knows Zane would have wanted to do. Team Avatar head out to find Lloyd an earthbending teacher, and Garm finds the letter from Wu. He’s scared to open it, and doesn’t for a while.

And now, it’s time to introduce a new character! See, back in the Fire Nation, the Firelord had been growing displeased with his son. Despite Wu’s best efforts, dear old dad had caught on to how much Wu disliked the war, and he figured it would only be a matter of time before something tipped Wu over the edge and he turned full traitor. That would leave him as a ruler with no heirs, and that wouldn’t do. So he secretly was searching for a good candidate to take the throne, preferably an orphan, who showed proficiency in firebending and could be moulded into a cut-throat living weapon.

He found what he was looking for in a young girl named Harumi. A firebending prodigy whose parents had both died in the war. And now that the Firelord learned that, not only did his younger son turn traitor in the North Pole and run off with his airbender adopted son, but his disgraced fool of an older son is alive and actively helping the Avatar, well, it’s high time the world saw just what his hand-picked heir can do.

[twoidiotwriters1]

Starcrossed Losers X (Josh Wheeler xReader)

A/N: How was your Christmas? Hopefully, it went better than Y/N’s day on this chapter lmao don’t forget to leave feedback! <3

Words: 4,947

Warnings: Injuries and swearing, feelings and stuff.

Previous chapter // Next chapter

Today I’m gonna tell you a little story about how I’m full of shit. Delicately divided into three parts for your enjoyment. 

It’s pretty much all the same, the only thing that changes is the person.

Alex. 

Josh.

Let’s start with the first part, shall we? Which is called:

Confusion.

Before the nuke, my life was as normal and sad as any random teenager would have it. I was a student with good parents who didn’t really understand me, but they tried. A sibling, friends, likings and feelings. It was the latter what caused me trouble.

Alex and I met in elementary school. He sat down next to me and we shared our undying love for Adventure Time and Treasure Planet. During years our friendship consisted on knowing all of our embarrassing stories, coping our answers on every test and a bunch of firsts. He was there when I got my first period, and I witnessed Alex’s first drunken night with friends. 

It was when I talked to Maya that everything kind of started to fall apart.

----------------------------------------------

My ears are buzzing, I feel my eyes dry and irritated. I know I passed out although I don’t feel like I slept, if anything, I’m more tired than before. I try to push myself up but my wrist hurts and I’m not strong enough. I fall against a thin pillow and only then I look around. 

There’s nothing but cages with teens, I recognize some from school. Judging by the smell, we are in Hoyles’ fabric. I was right, this was Baron Triumph’s home.

My hand pulsates as a reminder of how screwed I am. 

‘Is it broken or is it just sprained?’ The light sucks in here, I can’t really tell how it looks so I inhale sharply, ‘Okay, then...’

I move my wrist slowly to one side and then the other. I feel pain, lots of pain. But I can move it, so chances are is not broken. As long as I don’t move, I’ll be fine. I struggle to sit with only one hand as support and notice my skates are missing and my knee has a huge bruise on it. 

I know I’ll die. 

-------------------------------------------

We were thirteen at the moment. It wasn’t like I knew right away that I liked Alex, I just got slightly upset every time he would hold hands with Amy and sad whenever he would cancel plans to hang out with her. You can imagine how betrayed I felt.

“You’re just jealous,” Maya sighs, laying upside down on my bed.

“Of who?” I ask in amusement, “I already told you, I don’t want a boyfriend.”

“You want Alex.”

I laugh, kicking her leg playfully.

“That’s a lie. And dumb,” I reply matter-of-factly, “he’s just my friend!”

“Exactly. Please, you’re too shy to admit you like him but we all know.”

“Liar,” I sing, “Alex and Amy are cute together and all, just annoys me that he doesn’t want to spend more time with us.”

“That doesn’t sound like you’re crushing at all,” She rolls her eyes, smirking.

“Shut up!” I complain, “that doesn’t mean I like him!”

It didn’t... right? I started to recapitulate all of our time together. Alex was a great boy. He was good to me and my family loved him, why was so weird to consider him as a possible love interest? Maybe Maya was right. I did like him and this was my way cope with it.

“Maya,” I say under my breath, “what if I do like him?”

“Oh my god,” She stands up abruptly, “you do!”

“What do I do?” I ask in horror, “I don’t wanna ruin it! He’s my best friend!”

“Who cares?” She replies, “It’s time you do something about it!”

-----------------------------------------------

Something falls inside the bucket in front of me and I stand (with huge difficulty, since I only have one good hand and knee), when I get closer and grab a handful the smell grows stronger, so I drop the flakes on the ground in disgust.

“Am I supposed to eat this?” I ask out loud, “I’ll rather starve”

“You will,” Says a voice above me, “don’t be dramatic, Y/N. Eat up.”

I feel something close to panic when I recognize the voice.

“Maya?”

-----------------------------------------------

After that I tried to understand what the fuck was going on. I couldn’t do anything until I knew my feelings for Alex.

You know how that turned out. 

Nothing made sense, what was our friendship but something magical brought to me in order to end up with true romantic love, right? Well, I had opinions on that.

Our friendship was old as hell, Alex was constantly changing partners so you can tell why I was so against dating him. I decided that if my first love was going to hurt me, it would be anyone but Alex murphy.

Which takes us to the second part that I call:

That definitely isn’t love.

Let me tell you something, and I don’t mean to say this in order to make you sad, I do it so you’re not scared of going through the same thing (if you ever find yourself in a situation like this) and you can handle the shit like a champ.

Life will go on. Seriously, it hurts and oh, how tragic it is to lose someone so dear to your heart! But really, things like that will pass, and you’ll get through and life won’t even stop its course. You wanna know why? Cause it’s all so small, our tiny little lives won’t affect how the world moves outside our houses.

I know, that may sound awful, but to be honest, it’s also relieving. No matter how many mistakes you can make in your life, it won’t stop moving. That’s great, it means you won’t stop growing, you’ll get out of that hole sooner or later.

The feeling I got from that simple, chaste kiss with Alex confused my brain and got me all kinds of anxious about nothing. The only way I felt was guilty. I wanted to erase that moment from existence.

Okay, it was my fault too. I kissed him back, I didn’t know that was wrong until it was done! I told you already, I was confused as hell.

I had to quietly make my way out and go back to the way it used to be. 

Then he broke up with Stuart and started to ask me if I wanted to go back to the old routine of watching movies together, or going to the mall only the two of us, just skipping school to spend time together... I happily accepted, thinking it was all platonic. The apocalypse came on the worst timing, we were part of a group that day by day became smaller until it was only the two of us.

I wanted to find my sister so badly that I left the thought aside to work with him as a team, then he had to ask me to leave town with him, start a new life together...  Alex was holding on to an illusion that I knew it was bound to fail, so I put a hard stop to it. One that ended our friendship as well.

And that’s the reason why I ran away from him. My feelings couldn’t be reciprocated if I wanted to survive on this hell.

Sacrifices must be made when you’re facing the end of the world.

Then something amazing happened: I lived. I created a new life on my own, where I could do things my way and didn’t need any other person around. With the new life, my old wishes vanished, and so did my feelings for Alex, or anyone else who belonged with old, naive Vinchi.

------------------------------------------

Which brings me to the present, where I’m on big denial about one little thing: I may not be the same girl, but I still have the same heart, along with the same feelings, memories, and grudges.

“You still won’t talk to me?”

“You still trying after three hours of ignoring you?” I scoff, “leave me alone, Maya.”

“You’re acting like a child! I thought you understood why I left you and Alex to join the Cheeramazons”

“I understand that we weren’t important to you in the first place,” I reply bitterly.

“God, Y/N. It’s not like I did it to get away from you. I wanted protection and to learn some badass skills. The Cheeramazons offered both and to be honest, it was worth it.”

“If they were so good at protecting their people, then why are you here?”

“I went out looking for adventure. You know me, I was never one to enjoy routines.”

“Sure.”

“You’re on your own?”

“On this cage? Yeah... In general? Well, I’m with some kids... remember Wesley Fists?”

“What?” I hear her snicker, “How did you two end up together?”

“It’s a long story... all Josh’s fault.”

“Little Josh with the big truck?”

“Uh, no. Wheeler. I did a project with him once, you know? He used to wave at me in the halls whenever we passed by..?”

“I don’t remember him at all.”

“I figured,” I sigh, “Where are you anyway?”

“Judging by where your voice sounds... I think I’m above your cage”

“Well, don’t get too attached to the sound of my voice, I’ll be out of here soon”

“Why, you’re actually planning on starving?” She inquires, “Did your brain turn Ghoulie?”

“Look, I have a sprained wrist and a swollen knee, I’m not going anywhere on my own... but I have a backup. If Josh and Wesley weren’t caught...”

“What happened with Alex? Is he with you too?”

“None of your business, quitter.”

“Come on, Y/N...”

“You left us. I’m not engaging in any fun chats with you. You weren’t that interest to be a part of our group since the beginning so I don’t even know why I’m mad about it, it was a matter of time”

I know I sound too hard. She was supposed to be my friend, though. Never looked back when she got bored from our little group like it was all child’s play. Now she acts like it’s all cool? Nothing is cool. Nothing at all. I’m about to get eaten!

“Look, I’m sorry-”

“Shut up”

“Don’t be rude, I’m trying to-”

“Shut up! Can you hear that?” I lean closer to the cage’s door and stay silent, Maya following my advice and listening to the hurried steps coming from the hall.

“You know where the keys are?” A voice that I know well emerges from the dark, “Where are we going?”

“Josh?” I stand up surprisingly fast, “Is that you?”

“Y/N!” I hear him rushing towards me and suddenly his face is inches away from mine, barely illuminated, “You’re here! I only saw Wesley when I woke up and I thought you were taken by the Jocks”

“How did you get out of your cage?” I ask with incredulity, “Who are you talking to if it’s not Wesley?”

“A girl got me out, I drop my tweezers and she found them”

“Then get me out!”

“I can’t, they’re broken,” He apologizes, “but I’m going to get the keys and I’ll get you out, I promise.”

“On your own? You’re gonna get killed”

“Triumph just left, I have time,” He points at my leg, “How’s your knee?”

“It hurts. I also hurt my wrist but I don’t know if that happened after the grenade or when I fell,” I wanna act like I’m not scared, but my anxiety is eating me alive, “Josh please don’t go alone, please don’t do it”

“I’ll come back,” He insists, “but if I don’t, I wanna tell you... you became someone important to me, Y/N. Please don’t blame yourself if things go wrong, it was my turn to help you, I owe it to you.”

And without giving me time to reply, Josh leaves.

“Josh Wheeler,” Maya speaks up again, “I remember him now. Blue eyes and a funny smile, right?”

“Yeah,” I frown, still looking at the hall where he disappeared “that’s my stupid Josh.”

“Your Josh?” She asks in a suggestive voice, “alright, I get it now.”

“You get what?”

“He’s your new Alex. I bet you’re always doing nice things to keep him in a good mood and he never gives back cause well, he doesn’t have to. Why would he? When you keep on giving things away for free. See, that’s the sort of stuff the Cheeramazons teach you to throw away, you don’t need boys to survive,” She states.

“He is not Alex,” I correct in irritation, “and I learned that on my own, thank you. It’s funny, you forgot to mention that I also did a lot of things to keep you happy.”

“Is that supposed to help your case?” She sighs, “I know you’re hurt for what I did to you but you won’t stop having your heart broken if you keep doing the same things”

“Joke’s on you, I already fixed that shit up,” I keep my eyes fixed on the hall, “Josh is just a friend.”

You and I know that isn’t true. Yet, is not a lie either. 

Josh is just a friend, I have it under control. All I need is to keep it to myself, no accidental kissing or falling into each other’s arms anymore. I don’t have feelings fighting to come out. I’m not thinking about how Josh said I was important to him. 

Which takes us to part three:

Why don’t you just kick me in the face? It hurts less, thank you.

Ah, the pleasure it brings us to finally be free from inner guilt.

This part doesn’t have a flashback, cause you already read this part. I told Josh the story. Alex and I weren’t right together so I let him go. It hurt like a bitch but now he’s far away and I can be at peace now. I control my life.

How? For starters, if I meet a cute, nice guy like Josh, I step back and stay as friends and Boom! Problem solved. I figured my life out, I have nothing to be afraid of. I conquered.

...

...

You know I’m lying, don’t you?

You know what, there’s no way I’ll get myself out of this. I’ll let the action roll.

“I think your buddy Josh got eaten by Triumph,” Maya mentions like she’s talking about the weather, “it’s time you accept it.”

“Honestly, it’s time you stop talking,” I reply with indifference, “you don’t know him”

“And I never will,” She snorts.

I’m about to reply when I hear screams coming from the entrance and I finally see Josh sprinting back towards the cages. Triumph is following him, when he gets closer I realize is not Hoyles.

“Principal Burr?” I inquire in mild disappointment, but calmer than before “okay then, Josh can totally survive to that”

“Don’t be so sure about it, Vinchi,” Maya adds, “Burr is not a common human anymore.”

“Shhh! I can’t hear what they’re saying!”

Josh is trying to convince the principal to let us go, he walks towards the tubes in the middle of the fabric and I can’t see what’s going on. Burr is not touched by the speech, he says he didn’t kill Sam, and my heart skips a beat.

“Sam Dean?” Maya asks above me, “she’s dead?”

“It happened two days ago,” I whisper, “that’s the whole reason why we came, cause Josh wanted to avenge her death...”

“Why would he do that?”

“He was dating her.”

“Oh,” A second of silence, “really? Him?”

“He’s not that bad,” I retort immediately.

“Sure, whatever you say...” She mumbles.

I say something under my breath that is mostly an insult, then an idea comes to mind.

“Maya, you can see what’s happening?”

“Kinda”

“Where are they?”

“Inside the big tubes...”

She narrates the whole thing while I also half-listen to the argument they’re having. She stops for what it feels like an eternity and the kids around us start to scream.

“Kill him!”

“Kill him!”

“He’s gonna do it,” Maya murmurs.

And I don’t know what to feel, cause I never thought Josh would get this close to his goal. Although now it’s different, Burr didn’t kill Sam. Would he kill him anyway? I’m not defending Burr, by the way! He still ate a bunch of kids. Just saying that If he does this, he will certainly disappoint Wesley. 

He would be saving tons of children, though. In my opinion, he could cut him in half and still be a good person. 

I hear Josh scream and the sound of his sword against metal.

“Holy shit, is he dead?” I ask.

“I don’t... I can’t tell- he’s moving a lot...” Maya complains.

A few others seconds of silence, then Burr’s voice.

“You missed.”

“Holy shit, he’s alive,” I gasp. 

And with that, I mean both of them.

“No. I didn’t,” Josh replies.

The machinery starts to work all of a sudden and I feel my stomach tensing with fear. 

What are they doing?

“Where are they?” I ask urgently, “Tell me!”

But just as I finish the sentence I hear steps... and the sound of keys being shaken in the air.

“He got the keys!” Maya screams excitedly, “The son of a bitch did it! We’re free!”

“What about Burr?” I question.

“He locked him up inside the tubes!”

The sound of chains falling and doors clicking is like music to my ears. I hear Maya running out of her cage only to see her appearing in front of me with a wild smile on her face. She hasn’t changed that much, her hair is shorter and her clothes are not the same, but she’s still the hyperactive girl I used to know.

“Good to see you, Vinchi.”

“Hi,” I reply, “be good and get me out of here”

She calls over to the kid that is opening cage by cage and I’m finally free. Maya gives me a tight hug that I return unsure.

“This is great! You can come with me now, become a Cheeramazon!”

“What?” I pull away.

“I can see you’ve toughened up these last few months, they’ll definitely take you in!”

“I don’t want to be a Cheeramazon,” I frown. 

I’m still barefoot, but I’m hoping I can find something to wear before I leave.

“Y/N it’s the best choice,” She replies, “come on, we can be part of the same tribe just like before! You and I, the classic duo we used to be...”

“I’m tired of old times,” I answer, “I'm a different person. I don’t do duos anymore.”

“Vinchi...” She pouts. 

There, another friendship that dies.

Maybe I could’ve tried to convince her to go with me instead. However, I never got to finish that conversation, cause right at that moment, I heard Josh’s voice.

“Y/N?” He asks loudly, “Y/N, where are you?”

“Josh!” I limp as fast as I can towards his voice, “Josh, I’m right here!”

“Y/N?!” His voice gets clearer as I walk further into the mass, “Where are you?!”

He’s standing right in front of me, a few feet ahead. I run over to him, ignoring the way my knee feels about it. Josh turns around just in time to catch me when I jump in for a hug.

“I’m with you!” I say breathless, trying to keep my wrist away from any harm, softly supported around his neck, “You did it! You saved us!”

“I promised, didn’t I?” His smile is as big as mine, and we’re so close I can see the freckles the sun has left on the bridge of his nose.

He pulls away and turns slightly, pointing at something hanging from his hip.

“I saw them out there...” I look down and I see my skates, all clean and looking good as new, “thought you might want them back”

“What the hell?” I exclaim, “You’re the best!”

Impulsive as usual, I go for another hug, this time kissing his cheek in the process. When I notice my mistake I pull back but Josh keeps me in place, now I’m self-conscious and probably all red.

“Am I a shitty partner still?” He smirks.

Someone accidentally hits my hand and I whimper, hugging it tightly against my chest.

“Crap, I forgot...” 

Josh’s smile vanishes immediately changing to a worried expression.

“Let’s go back to the mall, you need help”

“And I’m starving”

Josh chuckles, nodding.

“And will get you something to eat”

He gives me the skates and I hold them with my good hand, walking towards the exit. 

I start to feel a bit hopeful about what the future could bring to us, Josh and me. I can’t lie to myself after this, you saw the whole thing, right? It’s obvious. Josh is not my new Alex for one simple reason: I don’t have a crush on Alex anymore.

I am, however, totally crushing on stupid Josh.

Just when I decide to come into terms with my new realization, it happens:

 Someone walks in front of me and immediately catches my eye. How couldn’t, when I thought I would never see that back again for the rest of my life?

“Alex..?”

I drop my skates, an urgent need to run away as far as I can winning over my common sense. This can’t be happening, this can’t be Alex. He's gone. He’s supposed to be away in New York living his best life or something.

But the boy turns around and it’s the same eyes I’ve known since I was a kid.

“Y/N?” He’s not totally glad to see me. The frown on his face tells me he is just as stunned as me, few terrible seconds pass where we don’t know what to do.

 Josh is the one who talks first.

“Hold on,” He turns to me, “is he..?”

“An old friend from Highschool, yes,” I look at him with wide eyes, pleading ‘Keep your mouth shut!’ “like Maya.”

“Maya’s also here?” He asks loudly, and since I’m the luckiest girl alive, Maya is nearby to hear us.

“That’s me,” She sees the boy in front of us, “oh my god, Alex?”

“Maya?” Alex’s eyes light up, “You’re okay!”

“How did you end up here?!” She walks up to him and gives him a tight hug.

“Uh, Y/N,” Josh whispers beside me, “What is happening?”

“I think I died when that grenade exploded,” I respond overwhelmed.

“I came back like a month ago,” Alex replies, hugging her with the same animosity, then he looks right at me, “I left some unfinished business behind.”

Oh, that’s great. First, everyone leaves and now they all want to make up for it. To go back and be the best friends we used to be. Well, I’m sorry I think I lost the part where that was my problem.

“We can help you!” Maya assures him, completely misunderstanding his comment, “Vinchi and I, like the good old days”

“Vinchi?” Josh questions.

“Y/N,” Maya looks at him with a judgy expression, “you’re her friend but you don’t know her nickname?”

“No one calls me that,” I cross my arms, wincing after accidentally pulling the muscle in my wrist, “not anymore, at least. I never told him.”

“But you love it,” She frowns, “everyone calls you that.”

“Everyone who used to call me that is gone,” I say, “you two are the only ones left and I’m kindly asking you to not include me on your mission. I have to go back to my friends.”

“We are your friends, Y/N” Alex replies.

“I meant my most recent friends,” I pick up the skates from the floor and nudge Josh, “let’s go, Angelica must be worried.”

“Y/N, are you sure?” Josh asks under his breath. When I don’t reply, he grabs me by the shoulder and turns my body to face him, “listen I know you feel like you have to stay because I told you we needed you, but you’re free to go with them if you want. They’re your best friends after all and I know Alex... I know how hard it was on you to be alone.”

I can’t tell exactly what he’s thinking right now and that frustrates me. His expression tells me he’s hurt, I just don’t know if it is because he thinks I’m seconds away from leaving or because he’s nervous that I’ll blame him if I stay.

“I don’t want to go, Josh,” I reach for his hand with the one that is holding my skates and brush it lightly, “I tried to leave before and something always stopped me from doing so. That has to mean something, I feel like my place is at the mall with all of you.”

“Y/N?” Maya speaks up, “You’re coming?”

“No,” I turn to face her, “I’m going with Josh.”

“Josh?” Alex looks at the boy next to me but he doesn’t seem to understand that I’m talking about him, “gay Josh or other gay Josh?”

“My Josh,” I point to my friend, “just... Josh.”

“Alright then,” Maya scoffs, “then we go too.”

“What?” I ask in alarm.

“Josh was telling the rest of the kids to follow him,” She smirks, “I hope you don’t mind, Vinchi.”

“Really?” I look at Josh, clenching my jaw. I’m unable to crush his arm with my hand since it’s injured and the other is occupied. He tries to apologize without speaking, but puppy eyes won’t work on me today, “We better get going then”

“Yeah,” He looks at me, begging for forgiveness, “we should... uh- your hand needs to...”

“Just move,” I grumble, walking past Alex and Maya with Josh calling out Wesley’s name to join us.

Full of shit I am, cause during all the way back I avoid looking over to Alex and Maya, despite saying I was over my past. 

I’m full of shit when Josh asks me if I need help and I tell him no, even though I’m barefoot and I keep stepping on rocks on accident cause it’s too dark outside. Without mentioning I just admitted to myself that I’m crushing on him and now I don’t know what will I do to keep it a secret when Angelica looks for any excuse and watches me closely to see if she’s right. 

And Josh? Well, he avenged Sam’s death... kinda. I don’t know if that’s enough to calm his nerves or if he’ll keep going until he’s done killing every bad guy on Glendale, which are too many to count. I don’t even know if he’s interested in me the same way I am. 

What am I saying? Of course he’s not! He spent six months of his life on this goose chase and I’m expecting that suddenly he feels something for me just because I saved his life once? Ugh, I'm not even sure if I’ll actually stay permanently at the mall...

“Hey! We’re home!” Josh exclaims as soon as we step inside the mall, “So I brought some friends... Cool if they crash here?”

“Fuck to the no!” I’m surprised to see Eli outside of his side of the mall, “How many times do I gotta say-?”

Angelica puts a taser against his neck and electrocutes him on the spot, pushing him so he falls flat on the ground. 

“Yeah. It’s cool, I guess” She replies.

“Angelica!” I blurt out, walking towards Eli, “Don’t do that ever again!”

She ignores me, already rushing over to Josh and Wesley to receive them with a hug and excitedly welcome the kids that surround her. I’m happy for her, this must be nice considering how she spent most of her life alone.

“Your hand is bad,” Crumble states, kneeling beside me, “worms won’t fix it”

“I know,” I sigh, turning Eli face-up with my good hand and Crumble’s help, “I’ll fix it, don’t worry”

“Let me do it,” Alex crouches down and carries Eli to the bench behind us, laying him there.

“Thanks,” I mumble.

“It’s alright,” I can see by the corner of my eye that he’s looking at me, “listen, I came here to apologize. Things shouldn’t have ended that way between us. We were best friends...”

“Yeah, we were,” I punctuate, “you don’t have to be sorry. I’ve changed, I don’t need your words, I have a new life.”

“I see,” He looks away for a moment, his eyes finding Josh and Wesley, “How did you end up forming a group with them?”

“Accidents happen,” I shrug, “Josh brought me here. To be honest, I was doing fine on my own but I... I don’t know, I like it here.”

“I see that too,” He smiles, but it has a bitter undertone in it, “don’t worry. I’ll leave again tomorrow.”

“Stay,” I sigh in defeat, “it would be selfish to ask you otherwise, the mall belongs to all of us”

“You’re okay with that?” He frowns.

“Do it for the good old days,” I give him a small smile, “What’d you say?”

“It’s fine by me,” He nods, smiling back.

I don’t know how to end the conversation and I don’t have to think a lot about it, because Josh soon appears holding a stack of bandages.

“Hi,” He smiles openly at us and points to what he’s holding, “time to take care of you”

“Okay,” I raise my eyebrows, “sure...”

“See you later Y/N,” Says Alex, then he nods to Josh, “Wheeler...”

Taglist.

@letsbloodmagic @hollywaterpls​

[enchantingkittengaditor]

The Fae | 9. Anywhere I Lay My Head

5 weeks later, The Royal Palace Eraklyon…

“Sky, she isn’t ready to find out. And she can’t find out here. Not like this,” I begged my brother.

“She has to find out sometime, so why not now?” Sky quickly responded.

“Because she’s not ready. She’s still getting used to the idea of magic and that another world exists. How is she meant to comprehend that she was lied to her whole life so soon after all of that?” I shouted back to him.

“She needs to know, it’s her birthright. She needs to know,” he pleaded in return.

“She needs to know she’s part of this family? A family comprised of liars and cheats and bitches and kings and queens. She doesn’t need to be a part of this family. We need to save it first!”  I yelled back at him. Trying to stress the fact that she might be better in the dark.

“We can’t save this family. Not without her,” he shot back in anger.

“Yes, we can you just have to accept that Diaspro’s lying to you and has been for years!” I yelled.

“If you say that, then what about Aislin? What about her?” He asked me, the one question I was tired of him asking.

‘She’s Bloom’s daughter, you all just forgot!” I said completely and utterly exasperated.

“And why did we forget Bloom> Because she needed to learn how to hone her powers not be running rampant not knowing about them, that’s why!” He yelled back.

“And she is now. We couldn’t have stepped in if we wanted. We promised dad! She was sent away when there was a big threat to Eraklyon. She was sent away in case something happened to me and you. So there would always be an heir, so our family’s legacy could live on. And if she finds out she’ll be in danger. Like we were when we were kids. Do you really want that for her? Just think about it, Sky,” I begged my brother.

“I don’t want it for her. She needs to know,” he said very clearly, not getting the picture.

“No. She doesn’t,” I yelled back.

“Your highnesses, you need to go to the ball now,” the Stewart said, poking his head into the door to inform us. Dragging us back to the real world.

“Do not tell her otherwise I will kill you and take the throne got it,” I threatened him as I plastered on my fake smile as I’d done a thousand times since I was 3 years old.

“Fine but she will find out and if you don’t tell her she will blame you and me. She will be the downfall of this dimension if she doesn’t get to know on good terms,” he whispered back to me.

“I doubt it,” I retorted.

“Do you even remember Daphne’s prophecy?” he questioned.

“Of course I do. I was the one that wrote it down and thought of meanings for it,” I told him, utterly fed up with his determination to ignore my advice on how to treat a teenage girl.

“Then say it,” he asked.

“When a missing princess is born under a fiery moon unites with a group of five allies,

“She will either bring back the saviours or kill all that remains,

“Those who seek to do them wrong shall arise,

“If they fail their path will be littered with bloodstains,

“A relative, a past, a friend, a truth, a lie, & a trick are in disguises,

“They shall embark on one of history's largest campaigns,” I recited

“Who do you think the missing princess is, Emily?” he asked as we approached our parents and his wife.

“I know it’s her but we have to let her adjust to this new world,” I said in a hushed voice.

“Is she here tonight?” He questioned.

“Why? What are you up to, Sky?” I asked quizzically.

“I want to know so I can warn father and mother, that their youngest daughter is coming to their ball to celebrate their marriage,” He responded.

“What’s up dad?” Aislin asked high fiving Sky and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“Sky, is your sister entering with us, after us or before us?” Diaspro, or as I like to call her ‘the queen bitch’, asked looking down on me.

“Hello Diaspro, I’m entering before with mum and dad. I should go. Remember Sky, snitches end up in ditches!” I told him walking over to my mother and father.

“What was all that about?” Aislin asked Sky.

“Nothing of importance,” he assured her.

“Mother, father. How are you today?” I asked my parents as I approached them.

“Great darling. What happened between you and Sky?” My mother asked me, looking me over and then looking at Sky.

“We had a little disagreement on how to handle the sister situation. Speaking of which, she’ll be here with her friends today. I believe she’s arriving with Lachie and Estelle,” I told them, sullenly.

“Very good. Remember Emily this is your chance to meet potential husbands and wives. So keep an open mind,” My father said as I sighed.

“Great talk, father,” I let out.

“My question is why is she arriving with two Royals?” My mother asked.

“She’s roommates with her friend and was apparently slightly ill this morning,” I told her.

After I had talked to about 20 officials and 50 diplomates and several royal families I was bored sitting at a table.

At that moment I decided to do a thing I hadn’t since I was 14, that was 12 years ago, I made the mental jump from my head to my sisters and made sure she was OK.

“Where are you, little one?” I muttered as I walked around the ball waving to those who I knew and those who knew me. That’s when I discovered she was here. Not in the ballroom. But she was definitely in the castle. But where oh where was she?

“Sky,” I ran up to my brother, who was talking to Thomas and his sister, “Can you watch my back while I do the thing. I think I’ve found it.”

“Huh?... Oh. Yes, please excuse me for a moment.”

We ducked into one of the antichambers off the ballroom where I sat down and tried to get truly into my sister’s mind.

“What the hell are you wearing, Marketa?” she said looking disappointed at her friend.

“You said to wear all black. And what about Lachie? His outfit’s a mess and it’s not all black,” Marketa shot back

“Well, at least he’s not wearing 6-inch heels, to sneak into a palace.”

“If I’m going to break the law I might as well look good doing it. Anyway, what are you wearing?”

“I’m wearing my mission suit from when I go on missions with Natasha. It’s versatile, unlike a leather jacket, turtle neck, jeans, heels and long untied hair,” she responded.

“So what I should try to wear?”

“This isn’t it what I wanted to see. Where are more recent memories, little one? Ahha,” I muttered.

“How do we get in there without flying?” Marketa asked.

“Using a thing called a ladder,” She retorted

“Sarcasm seems to be a universal language,” Lachie retorted her retort.

“Yes. Anyway the ladders here then from there we go to the library,” she stated, helping Lachie put up the ladder, as they started to climb.

“Right. Remind me what are we looking for again?” Marketa asked from the window holding the locker.

“A key of memory. It’s one of ours so let’s get it. Get out. Get changed and get to the party before anyone suspects us of doing anything we’re not meant to be doing.”

“So how are we meant to find these keys anyway?”

“Meditation remember.”

“Fun for you guys.”

“They’re in the library. I’m going to go see if I can find them, before they find anything they’ll regret finding,” I stated standing in a rush towards the door and the library.

“Do you need any help?” he asked.

“No, I just need to go now. If anyone asks where I am-”

“You’re indisposed. I got it. Have fun saving our sister’s soul.”

“Will do. Love ya Sky.”

“Where do you think you’re going, Emily? That blue dress doesn’t look like it was made for running, neither does that crown,” Maya said.

“Neither does that red strappy thing, Maya. So where is your best friend?” I asked her.

“Unavailable.”

“And that pink thing was. Isn’t that a little too booby for a 16-year-old girl? And that crown’s a little sparkly don’t you think,” I retorted to Estelle.

“Nothing’s too booby for Estelle, that girl has no self-control.”

“Strapless blue and silver, really? Not what I would have picked for you. But it looks surprisingly good,” I complimented Simone.

“Outfit critiquing? Really?”

“Green off the shoulder. Playing into your dad much?” I told Emma. “And for your information, I have a headache and don’t feel well so I’m retiring to my bedchamber.”

“Fine go ahead.”

“Thank you all you’ve been so helpful, please enjoy your night.”

With that, I rushed off up the staircase towards the royal library, where I was hoping to find three sulking teenagers who were about to blow up a secret older than them.

After a few minutes of running through the palace, I finally made it to the Library. Where to no surprise I found Tegan collapsed on the ground surrounded by the two others who weren’t at the party.

“Alright, Lachie I need you to go get the person on my tail and tell her to get a thing of ice. Marketa, I need you to find me a pillow and then close the door so no one else can get in. Aislin, ice, please.”

“What happened to her?”

“She had too much of a connection to here, she was overwhelmed. Where’s the key?”

“Around her neck. Ice where aunt Emily?”

“Her head and nose and anywhere you can see blood or bruises. Then we need to get her to a spare room. I’m going into her mind, see if I can access any memories or at least take away some of the pain.”

“So how long till we have to leave this drab party?” She asked.

“Come on you look great in that red and silver number,” Estelle said giving her a spin around.

“Where did you get the necklace?” Maya asked, “It’s not one of the usual ones you wear.”

“It was left in my room with a note. Don’t worry I did a spell to check there was no witchy business. Anyway, Marketa, you look truly incredible. The greys really bring out your eyes and your idea of the flower crowns for us peasants a work of true mastery.”

“Yeah well I didn’t expect yours to turn to stones, but thank you.”

“It matches my heart.”

“Why do you joke about having a heart of stone, it’s a serious medical condition,” Thomas mumbled from his position kissing Estelle on the neck.

“Really?”

“HOW?” Tegan and Simone responded in sync.

Not what I was looking for. Any memory blocks? Here. Now if I push a bit.

In front of me stood three witches fighting Bloom and her friends, while she and Maya cowered in the bathroom at a public beach. Down the beach, I could hear children playing and teachers telling them off. But they were scared and then… 

“Now, now little ones if you just hold still this will be easy,” Icy said spotting the girls.

“Someone help them!” Bloom yelled as the brunette fairy landed in front of the girls, bruised but ready to fight.

Then just as quickly as Flora had landed she was frozen by Icy. Who then moved on to the two girls Flora had been protecting.

“What do we have here? Two little humans. You’ll make great ornaments.” Tegan shoved Maya behind her even though she was scared to death herself. As Icy got ready to freeze the two Tegan and Maya in union screamed. And then there was a blinding flash of red light and then they were gone and there was a pile of water where Flora’s body had been.

Then, of course, hearing their students scream a handful of teachers came running up to them. Ready to defend their students from whatever was going on. Both of them seemed to realize that they should keep the fairies secret so they claimed that there had been a giant spider in the bathroom.

“She made them disappear,” I mumbled leaving her mind and entering my own.

“She did what?” Lachie asked.

“Nothing but I put back up a bit of a block so she can get back to normal soon. Help me lift her, we can take her to the Nursery.”

“The nursery became my room,” Aislin stated.

“Not the original nursery, that was left and changed after my sister died, it keeps up with the age she’d be now,” I solemnly stated.

“And that is?” Marketa asked trying to help Aislin levitate her.

“16. She was a year older than you Aislin.”

“Wait I had an aunt I’m a year younger than? Since when?”

“Not really, she died a week after she was born.”

“Well let’s stop fixating on the past and instead move Tegan into this room so we can get some help for her.”

“I’ll go get the others and Professor Daphne,” Lachie volunteered.

“Also get my father,” Aislin requested

“We’ll see you soon, Lachie,” Maketa said as we parted ways in the hall.

4 weeks later…

“Each one of you must give up something you treasure over all else.”

“Only you can make that choice.”

“If You succeed in pleasing us we will return your friends.”

“You fail and you will still lose that that you treasure.”

“They do not have to be physical or mental but something you treasure.”

The fates took in turns to sight the rules of the sacrifice before we had to choose what to sacrifice to them to bring back the Winx.

[griffinxwoods]

stuck 

clarke and lexa are snowed in at raven and anya’s holiday/housewarming party

i wanted to finish this for clexa week but, life happens, and i wasn’t able to so here’s a snippet, the beginning really, and if you guys like it, i’ll wrap it up soon and post it to ao3. but i figured something is better than nothing, even if i think it’s pretty rough so, here you go. also, a rough attempt at a moodboard. nevertheless, enjoy! 

_____________________________________________________________________

It’s almost over. Technically she’s halfway to the finish line. But it’s almost over.

Finals week is upon them.

Clarke has a few sketches to finish for her portfolio, her finals project only has a few tweaks to be done, and then she can finally relax for winter break. She can worry about her last official university semester once the new year rolls around.

Tonight, though, Raven wanted to have a group study session at Clarke and Lexa’s apartment. it’s a nice change from the stuffy Arkadia library, at least Clarke can sketch on her couch instead of those hard, wooden chairs, oddly always warm.

The crew’s scattered around her apartment, Octavia and Lincoln are sitting at the kitchen island, going through flashcards for Lincoln’s psych exam. Bellamy has taken to the recliner, flipping through the pages of his latest history read. He graduated years ago yet, he still hangs around. Nerd. Jasper and Maya are sat at one end of the dining table, there’s less studying and more of Jasper goofing around, but poor Maya has a highlighter in her mouth and about 3 other different colored highlighters in each hand, going through her bio notes. Pre-med is rough and Clarke feels for her. Monty is next to them, fiddling with a broken car radio he’s trying to fix for Miller. Raven and Anya are at the opposite end, Raven seemed to have wrapped up her studies early and somehow dug out Clarke’s old toaster and opened it up, rewiring it. Anya’s just eating some nuggets.

Clarke’s stomach grumbles. Hmm, not a bad idea. She moves to get up from the coach when Lexa appears, plate of nuggets in hand.

Clarke beams up at her, “how’d you know?”

Lexa shrugs, “You’ve been sketching for a while, figured you’d want some fuel.” She flops down next to Clarke and pulls up the Twitter app on her phone.

Clarke pulls her in for a kiss, slow and tender. She caresses Lexa’s face and Lexa pulls back, rubs her nose against Clarke’s, moving her head to the other side. It’s sweet and slow, perfect.

Clarke leans back and looks at Lexa through her eyelashes, “Thanks, baby.”

Lexa’s lips curl up a bit on one side, that sweet smile reserved only for Clarke. She reaches for Clarke’s hand and rubs her thumb over Clarke’s.

BANG.

“Attention, everyone!” Raven yells. “Hear ye, hear ye, I have an announcement before we wrap up this lovely hellish study session.”

Everyone jumped in their places at the crash, but they gather closer nonetheless. Raven smashed Clarke’s old toaster on the ground. Sigh, typical. Dramatic, as usual.

“Anya and I are throwing a housewarming party,” Raven beams.

“Does that mean we have to buy you gifts for being an adult,” Lexa scrunches her face, she grabs a nugget and pops it into her mouth.

Raven tilts her head to the side and feigns a smile, “Yes. Why ever the fuck else would I be hosting a party when you and Clarke have a perfectly furnished apartment.” she waves her hand in the general direction of everything they have, then points at the kitchen, “a fucking Nespresso machine, Clarke. You guys are boujee and I want in on it.”

“Raven,” Clarke sighs.

“Help me, I’m poor,” Raven pouts and bats her eyelashes.

Lexa stifles a laugh, “Might as well make a, like, baby registry for your apartment, ya know”. She pauses and looks at Clarke, “Is that a thing? Did we do that?”

She pats Lexa’s arm and sighs, “Yeah babe, it’s a thing. Technically.”

“Lexa, you beautiful dumbass, te quiero tanto” she practically launches herself across the table to grab Lexa’s face and plant a quick rough kiss on her lips. “I’m gonna sign up for that and send you all the link. I want a blender. And a microwave. And those smart light bulbs. God, they’re so fucking expensive, I don’t understand why. Gonna need Ms. Amazon Alexa too so I can connect that. I wanna speak to her. Our own smart house, how zesty of us. Oh! A fridge, need that too but the one you tweet on! That’s so boujee, I love it- ”

Lexa’s stunned, really didn’t expect that one. Clarke plopped back against her seat and lets out an exhausted breath. She’s used to Raven’s antics, of course, but tonight she just wants to finish her sketch and cuddle with Lexa. They’ve been here for hours, she’s tired and she has an early class in the morning. She picks up a pencil and continues to work, letting the conversation idle into background noise.

Her peace only lasts a few seconds.

Jasper mischievously snatches a sheet of paper and crumples it up, throws the ball at Lexa, and laughs, “She won’t shut up and it’s your fault, Woods.”

Lexa snatches a fat eraser out of Clarke’s hand and launches it at Jasper’s face, pure reflex.

Clarke gives up, her efforts futile, she snaps her sketchbook closed and groans.

“Fuck! Ow, what the fuck, Lex?”

“If you so much as look at me wrong, I will Spartan kick you off my balcony, you failed abortion. Capice?”

Clarke snaps her head towards Lexa, trying and failing to controller her laughter, and smacks Lexa lightly on the arm, “Lexa, no.”

“What? He’s annoying.”

“He’s our friend, remember. Be nice.”

“I’ve never claimed him. He’s your friend.”

“Everything that’s mine is yours, sweetheart,” Clarke singsongs and boops her on the nose.

Lexa tries to bite Clarke’s finger and falls short, her eyes narrow on her girlfriend, “Pick your battles, Griffin”

“HELLOOOO!” Raven bangs on the table abruptly. Everyone stops. “We were talking about me.”

Anya’s exasperated at this point. She only decided to come over for the free food and now she has to deal with this? She checks her watch, wondering when would be a good time to drag Raven out of her before she rips someone’s head off for suggesting teal accents when her apartment theme is planned to be black and gold. Seems trivial to Anya but, she knows Raven well enough by now.

Lexa blinks, “Oh? I-”

“Can you not? Thanks. Anyway, back to me now.”

Lexa throws her hands up, defeated, “Why am I in trouble when that sorry excuse for a man physically attacked me. In my own home! I’m a victim.” Lexa narrows at him, “the white man wins again.”

“Hey!” Jasper protests.”I was just-”

Raven lowers her voice and glares at Jasper, he gulps. “I will tie you to a chair and set your three mustache hairs on fire one by one. I know how long you’ve tried to grow that out, you’ve gotten attached to them, little man. Do not test me.”

Octavia grins, “This is getting good. Shall I make popcorn?”

Jasper slouches back into himself. Maya gives him a soft kiss on his cheek and a soft smile, and Monty puts him in a headlock and tousles his hair playfully, “You’ll be fine, buddy.”

Anya pinches the bridge of her nose, her eyes closed. She checks her watch again, looks around the room. Good enough. She raises herself out of her seat and steps towards Raven, an arm snaking around Raven’s neck.

“Alright Reyes, that’s enough. We get it, we’re poor, we need house stuff, and you’re becoming a dictator.”

“The Castros are shaking right now,” Lexa smirks.

Raven snorts, “Ha, noice.” They high five and Clarke and Anya share a look, both rolling their eyes.

“Okaaaay” Anya drawls, she detaches from Raven and grabs her hand as they make their way to the door, “So we’re gonna go. This was nice until crackhead Martha Stewart here took over.”

Raven pauses, a little insulted but nonetheless, she continues, “I want the fridge that can tweet, Anya.”

“I know baby,” Anya sighs, dragging Raven along.

“It’s essential. It’s the future. Technology, it revolves around us, you know.”

“I really don’t even know what you’re saying anymore.”

Lexa waves from her seat, grinning, and turns to Clarke, “We’re not getting the fridge.”

Clarke hums absentmindedly, “Absolutely not.” She really doesn’t care anymore, though. She just wants to go to bed with Lexa. She rubs her hands down her face, crosses her arms and yawns.

Lexa watches her, noticing the drooping eyelids, sketchbook closed in front of her. She stands and clasps her hands together.

“Okay putas, time to go. Pick up your shit and get outta here, it’s beddy-bye. Clarke looks like she’s going to knock out on this couch and I’d rather not carry her to bed so, let’s move on out.” She ushers everyone up and out, herds them towards the door like a shepherd gathering stray sheep into a barn. Or out, rather.

They all protest on their way out, but appreciate the eviction considering how late it’s gotten and no one noticed.

“Thanks for the food, Lex. I’ll see you on the field tomorrow, right?” Lincoln hugs her and gives her a sharp look. She’s on her vacation and he knows how quickly she can fall into a lazy spiral if she lets herself.

Lexa grunts, “But it’s supposed to snow.”

Lincoln gives her a sharp look and she concedes, nodding in agreement.

They all file out, waving goodbye, and piling into their cars. Lexa closes the door, locks it and leans against it, letting out a sigh of relief.

“It’s quiet,” Lexa breathes.

“Lex. Bed,” Clarke whispers. She’s waiting in the bedroom doorway, hand reaching out towards Lexa. She strides over and slips her hand into Clarke’s, placing a tender kiss to her lips. Clarke hums and her lips curl into a smile on one side, similar to one of Lexa’s.

They fall into bed, a tangle of limbs, soft kisses on smooth skin, breaths evening out.

Clarke curls deeper into Lexa’s warmth and not a minute later, drifts off.

[somerandomwriter1234]

Riley and Maya: Complicated Parenthood - Chapter 2 (A Person With Purpose)

Summary: In the ultimate twist of irony, former student rebel: Maya now finds herself as a teacher of sorts and has to plan her first field trip for her students. But will the field trip be a good one, and more importantly: what important life lesson will the students learn at the end of the trip?

Scene 1:

-In a classroom, Grace sat amongst many other students while they all did a writing assignment. As Grace attempted to write, she saw sitting just two seats away from her was a young boy named Connor sitting in a wheelchair whose head was tilted to the side and was very slowly using his right hand to move a pencil across the paper. Suddenly Connor dropped his pencil on the ground. Connor who could barely move his waist or shoulders, moved a hand up as he made a loud sound.

Connor: Paaaah! Paaah!

-A female teacher named Miss Amy walked over to Connor and picked up the pencil.

Miss Amy: Calm down Connor. I'll get your pencil.

Connor: Paaaah!

-An annoyed looking Grace glanced over at Connor and then Grace put one finger near her lips.

Grace: Shhh!

Miss Amy: Sorry. He's sorry. I'm sorry. Here's your pencil Connor.

-Connor made a smile as he was handed his pencil. Grace rolled her eyes away from Connor's direction as she went back to her writing assignment.

Scene 2:

-In the before/after care auditorium, many children were working on various activities and games as Maya and Farkle stood in a corner of the room talking to one another.

Maya: Farkle, I'm not an expert at setting up field trips.

Farkle: Well become one. Look. The other staff and I have other part time jobs we do during the day and we both already pull our weight around here quite a bit. Since this is your only job and I've kept your responsibilities rather minimal up until now, it only seems fair that you set up the next half day field trip we take the students on.

Maya: What about Smackle? Can't she set up this next field trip?

-Suddenly the two's thoughts were interrupted by Smackle's voice on the other side of the room being very loud. Farkle and Maya both turned their heads in Smackle's direction as she spoke.

Smackle: Gather around me now children! And I shall present to you all my conclusive evidence as to how the great Jedi Master: Yoda's ancestor was indeed Kermit the Frog!

-Farkle then turned his head to look right at a shocked looking Maya.

Maya: What the heck has happened to Smackle!?

Farkle: This job has… changed her. Trust me. It's better if we just let her do what she does. But look. If it'll make you feel any better: we'll all be present with you on the day of the field trip and will carry out the majority of things that need to be done. But I need you to choose the location we travel to, what we'll be doing there, and basically anything that needs to be done before the day of the trip. I know you won't let me down Maya.

-Farkle then walked away as Maya walked over to a table and sat down. Maya sighed and then turned her head to see Grace was right near her.

Maya: Oh. Hey there Grace.

Grace: Hey Miss Maya.

Maya: So… how's school been?

Grace: Okay. Although during writing time today, this one boy: Connor kept making a lot of noise because he kept dropping his pencil over and over.

Maya: How does dropping a pencil cause someone to make a lot of noise?

Grace: Because Connor can't move his body well and he doesn't really say any words. He has to sit in a wheelchair all day and have a teacher do most of his stuff for him.

Maya: Oh. I see.

Grace: Seriously. Why does he even come to our school anyway? He doesn't do any real reading, writing, math, or even talking. What good is he even gonna do for the world as he gets older? Having him around school is just a waste of time.

Maya: Grace, I… I… I think I just came up with an idea for our next field trip. If you excuse me, I have to go talk to Mr. Farkle about something important.

Scene 3:

-In a small theater like room, many children sat in chairs as they watched a group of teenagers and young adults finishing up a bit of singing. Some of the teenagers and young adults were sitting in wheelchairs, while others had hands and arms stuck in certain positions. When the singing ended, the children clapped. Some of the teenagers and young adults gave a bow and then left the stage they were on. Farkle then stood up and began to speak to all of the children.

Farkle: Thank you to all of my young friends that sat so well behaved through the show. Thank you to my actor friends who put on a great play. And of course thank you to Miss Maya for suggesting we bring everyone from after care to see what I do at my other job. I never would've thought to bring you all here to see the kind of work I do with individuals with disabilities until she suggested it. Plus, she put in a lot of work to arrange for our transportation on such short notice. So let's also give a quick clap for Miss Maya.

-Many of the children clapped as Maya sat behind all of the students and gave a quick wave. Once the clapping ended, Farkle spoke again.

Farkle: And of course the play couldn't have been done without the help from my amazing assistant director and friend: Leena Robins. Come on out Leena!

-From nearby, an adult female whose mouth was stuck in a partial smile came out and stood near Farkle.

Leena: Hiiiiiiiiiii everyone!

Farkle: Leena, thanks for taking care of all of the work backstage. I always appreciate it. I'll see you later tonight. Okay?

Leena: Okay. Biiiiiiiiiiiye.

-Leena walked away as Farkle looked at the children again.

Farkle: As you all know, everyone you saw performing and working on the stage crew today has some form of disability. From the kinds that are physical to ones in the mind. But from what I've learned as I've gotten to know Leena and everyone else here over the years is that God makes everyone with a purpose. We all were put on this Earth for a reason. And I've found that you start to really see the beauty in all people when you try to discover what reasons those around you are on this Earth for. And trust me when I say: even though there are many things the individuals that come here can't do, the few things they can do will really amaze you. Speaking of which, we even teach individuals here how to cook. And wait'll you all see the special meal they've prepared for you all in the dining room. Which is where we'll be headed next.

Scene 4:

-In a large dining room, many children sat at tables eating food. At one table sitting together were Maya, Farkle, and Grace.

Farkle: Mmm. Alvin must have prepared these biscuits. They are amazing! I'm gonna go get some seconds.

-Farkle then got up leaving Maya and Grace alone. As they sat together, Grace looked at Maya and spoke.

Grace: Miss Maya…

Maya: Yeah?

Grace: Why do so many people have to have disabilities?

Maya: Well… I don't know. But… if you really think about it… we all have disabilities in a way. Or maybe another word is disadvantages. We all have things we wish we had in our lives. Things that we know having around would make everything better. But sometimes… we just don't get to have or get to keep what we wanted.

Farkle: Well said.

-Maya and Grace turned their heads as they saw Farkle sit back down next to them.

Farkle: I never thought about it like that but Maya makes a good point Grace. Almost anyone could make the argument that they're deprived of something important. But even if you don't have that thing you wish you had or that ability you wish you had; that doesn't make you any less of a person. And that doesn't mean there isn't some kind of way you can contribute back to society.

Grace: Hmm.

-From nearby Leena walked over to the three and sat down with them.

Leena: Hiiiiii.

Farkle: And here she is. The girl that can never stop smiling. Grace, would you like to ask anything or say anything to Leena.

Grace: Uh…. hi Leena. Um… you do a good job following your teacher Mr. Farkle's directions.

Farkle: Oh, I'm not her teacher Grace. Like I said in the auditorium, Leena is an assistant. Not just in stage plays, but in everything that happens here. Leena's full time job is working in this building.

Grace: What? Really?

Leena: I work at desk. I clean up. I smiiiiiiiile at people. They feel better.

Farkle: Leena doesn't do phone calls or lead meetings. But she's actually an expert at keeping our paperwork and computer records organized. Plus she does great work cleaning up at night, and being a greeter when people come in during the day. When we use this building for our weekly blood drive, she's actually always the first person people see when they come in.

Grace: Wow. That's… interesting.

Leena: I hiiiiide cookies. You want one?

Grace: Uh, sure. Can I really?

Farkle: Yeah. They're the ones we give out at the blood drive. Go ahead. They're right near that table over there. But you only get one bag.

-Grace and Leena then got up and walked away together. Farkle made a small smile and then looked at Maya.

Farkle: I know that wasn't easy Maya.

Maya: Huh?

Farkle: When you said to Grace: we all have things we wish we had in our lives. Things that we know having around would make everything better.

Maya: Well… it's true.

Farkle: Yeah. So… listen… I know it still hurts inside considering everything that…

Maya: Yeah. It does.

Farkle: But… I'm glad that despite whatever you're feeling… that you've made time for these kids every day. I appreciate it. You've really made their lives a little better with each passing day.

-Maya then turned her head as she watched Grace and Leena getting a bag of cookies from the other side of the room.

Maya: Yeah… maybe.

Scene 5:

-In a school cafeteria, Grace walked into the room with a lunch tray looking for a place to sit. She saw most tables were taken. However there was a great deal of space at a table where Connor was at. Connor was sitting in his wheelchair holding a large pencil as the teacher: Miss Amy was sitting next to him. Grace then walked over to Connor and sat near him.

Grace: Hi. You mind if I sit here?

Miss Amy: Go ahead. Connor already finished eating earlier though. So he's just gonna draw near you if that's okay. Is it okay if she sits here Connor?

Connor: Aaaooooooo.

-Grace moved her head a bit to look at the paper in front of Connor. Suddenly Grace realized the picture was of a landscape with many brightly colored green trees and animals around them. Grace's face became very surprised.

Grace: Did Connor draw this?

Miss Amy: Yes he did. Most people are surprised when they see his work. But they forget: just because someone can't talk or get up, doesn't mean they can't do some amazing things with their hands.

Grace: I think I recognize this style. Are some of those pictures I saw hanging in the library his too?

Miss Amy: Yes they are. Connor is quite the busy artist. If he had never come to this school, people would've missed out on the opportunity to be touched and inspired by his amazing work.

Grace: Yeah. I guess so… Um… hey Connor. I draw too. You wanna see some of my work?

Connor: Aha! Aha!

Miss Amy: That usually means yes.

Grace: Okay. Well… let me you show you what I have.

-Grace then got out of her backpack several drawings. She then began to hold them out for Connor to see as the lunch period continued.

END OF CHAPTER 2

Upcoming Chapters For the Series:

-Chapter 3: Amazing Talents (Coming 4/27)

-Chapter 4: The Field Trip (Coming 4/30)

-Chapter 5: Shining Your Way (Coming 5/3)

*Note - To read the entire series in one convenient location, click here - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13266909/

[foolgobi65]

Hey Maya! I was so thrilled to see that Chitrangadaa fic that I couldn't help storming into your Askbox. Can I please request a Hogwarts AU for Chitrangadaa if you haven't done it yet? Thanks! :))

ah im so glad u liked it!! please feel free to send me as many prompts as you want! also this is completely unedited and possibly quite terrible, and i decided to go with gay ulupi and chitrangada this time which is … lowkey canon anyway but still i really hope you like it! if you dont just send another prompt and i’ll try again lmao!

1. Chitrangada’s family is old, reputed, and cursed – every generation shall bare only one child to continue the family line. When Chitrangada is born, her father spares a brief moment to be disappointed that she was not a boy before kissing her forehead. After all, his grandfather was born of the Clan Mother and there are still stories that attest to her strength of will.

“My beautiful daughter,” he whispers and kisses her soft cheek once more, “Chitrangada.” 

2. Chitrangada enters Hogwarts the only daughter and heir to her family’s vast Welsh fortune. Traditionally, they are a family that has kept to themselves, far enough from the grip of London that they are easily forgotten amongst the high drama of the Sacred 28. Not for them are the vices that often plague the privileged – they cannot afford to lose an heir to liquor or grudge at the gaming boards. Even less do they suit the political intrigue of the English, the power plays and ideological warfare that has led to Kamsa’s 25-year iron grip. Chitrangada is raised safely in the family home, told to keep her head down and finish seven years without attracting any notice from those who might try to have her fight their battles. Courage too is just as likely to cull the lineage as stupidity.

“Gryffindor,” the Sorting Hat screams the moment it touches the 32nd in a line of Hufflepuffs.

3.“You know,” Chitrangada hears from somewhere in front of her,“there’s an easy fix to your problem.”

Chitrangada looks up, furiously brushing away her tears and attempting to pretend that she wasn’t just crying in an abandoned classroom.

“What do you know about my problems,” she asks the girl, a Ravenclaw by the looks of her robes, perhaps a year older than Chitrangada herself. The girl lowers herself to the ground, resting her back against the wall next to Chitrangada.

“You want to fight, yes?” Chitrangada bites her lip.

“It’s not so easy, you see my family–”

“I know about your family.” Chitrangada furrows her brow. “Then you know why my father won’t accept it.” She snorts. “And he would be right! I would be endangering everything my family stands for, for nothing!” Tears leak from the corner of her eyes and she buries her face in her knees once more.

“But you’ll do it anyway, won’t you.” It isn’t  a question. “Why?’

“Because things are so horrible, and I knew nothing,” Chitrangada says to the blessed dark behind her closed eyes. “I can’t go back to my home and spend the rest of my life reading obituaries and know that I did nothing to keep people safe!” She swallows.“I won’t run,” she says finally,“especially knowing how many people don’t have the option.”

The girl shifts closer and sighs, bringing her own knees up to her chest until they both sit side by side, shoulders a seam.“That’s as good a reason as any,” she says,“and so I’m going to help you.”

Chitrangada raises her head, and it is a moment that she will remember for all the rest of her days. The moonlight streams through a window, and it makes the other girl’s hair shimmer, brushes against the delicate planes of her face, nestles in the curve of her slight, faint smile.

But most of all, it lends a gleam to her eyes, iron that has turned into the steel of certainty. Chitrangada’s heart skips one beat, then another, and suddenly she feels like there is nothing she cannot do.

You only die if you lose,” the girl says,“so don’t. I’ll help.”

Chitrangada blinks. “Don’t lose?”

“Easy, right?”

Chitrangada smiles.

4. The girl, Ulupi, turns out to be a born researcher who for some reason has decided to focus her considerable energies into turning Chitrangada into a fighting machine. Ulupi finds books, pamphlets, old scrolls squirreled away in the recesses of the library, ranging from defensive spells to healing salves, battle theory and runes that turn one’s steps silent. 

The only thing Ulupi is not is a duelist, which means that Chitrangada by her fourth year is a master of theory, but only middling in practice. At night, she starts to slip out of the Common Room to practice stinging hexes at targets.

If practice is merely an excuse to drown herself in work, to have something to do when not with Ulupi than think of Ulupi, of how pretty and smart and lovely she is, and how she cannot give Chitrangada children,then no one but Chitrangada and her poor conjured dummies needs to know. Ulupi would conjure bubbles and remark that they are better training for reflexes, but Ulupi also prefers to be asleep between the hours of 12 and 8, so Chitrangada and her dummies are alone.Or, that is what she thinks, until she walks into her usual classroom and finds herself dodging a stunner.

“Protego,” she shouts instinctively when she feels the whiz of the next, without even the sound of an incantation for warning. It is the new moon, and the room is still pitch black.

“Lumos.” In the light, Chitrangada sees her attacker and gasps: Arjuna, two years her senior and said to be the most gifted duelist in generations stands with his wand out. He blinks.

“What are you doing here?” Chitrangada’s eyes widen.

“What are you doing here?”

His eyes move from her to the dummies spread around the room. “I was practicing.”

“In the dark?” And yet, Chitrangada looks and there are marks on the dummies that she knows weren’t there the night before. It is true: Arjuna has learned to duel in the dark.

An expression crosses Arjuna’s face, but he is too trained for Chitrangada to decipher its meaning.

Another stunner, and Chitrangada puts up a shield. He aims another, nonverbal the whole while, and Chitrangada is annoyed enough that she sends a stunner back. Arjuna’s shield is a work of art, his stance a mirror of the dueling text Ulupi had found last winter, and they begin to fight in earnest, trading spells until finally Chitrangada is panting, her wand in Arjuna’s left hand.

She will never be an auror, she thinks, and blinks away her hot, furious tears. She will die in the streets of London, ending the family line by 18. She will break her father’s heart.

“You’re good,” she hears from beyond the veil of her intense self-pity, “if a little unpracticed. Why don’t I know who you are?”

Chitrangada frowns. She is rich for sure, but Arjuna is a Kuru of London, one of the Sacred 28. Headmaster Bhishma himself is his Grandsire, and it is common knowledge that Arjuna has been trained as a duelist since three years of age. He attends classes to satisfy his elders but notoriously refuses to spend free time with his peers. Why would he know who she is?

“I’m younger than you,” Chitrangada finally offers when she realizes the question wasn’t rhetorical.“We don’t share any classes.”

“But we have people of all years in Dueling Club and I thought I knew everyone there.” Chitrangada’s eyes widen – the Hogwarts Dueling Club is a society for the elite, and while it is open to anyone in name, entry is usually based on invitation. Chitrangada trains in secret, in order to prevent word from getting to her father.

“I was not invited,” she says, and then when she sees Arjuna attempt to object, she adds–“My father would not approve.” Better he think her father old-fashioned than be forced to explain the family curse.

Arjuna’s eyes harden. “How have you trained so far?”

Chitrangada shrugs.“Books.” To speak of Ulupi is to think of her, her sweet smile, the way she smells of flowers, the brush of her fingers when she passes a pamphlet across their shared desk. Chitrangada ruthlessly crushes the thought of her best friend.

He exhales.“Books.” Chitrangada nods.“Then you are remarkable – to have lasted so long against me without proper training. Are you sure you won’t join the Club? We can be very discreet, and you are probably better than a fair few.”

Chitrangada smiles, heart light at Arjuna’s praise. Perhaps she might make it to 19 after all.“No,” she says,“as much as I might like to, I’m afraid it’s quite impossible.”

“Fine,” Arjuna shrugs, and Chitrangada tries not to feel hurt at how easily he brushes her aside. But then he moves back into the dueling stance and Chitrangada’s heart skips another beat. He smiles, tossing Chitrangada back her wand.“I’ll just have to train you myself.”

Chitrangada’s jaw drops. She is in love.

5.“You are not in love with me,” Arjuna says a year later when Chitrangada confesses her deep, abiding passion for her illicit dueling master.“I don’t know why you just won’t tell Ulupi.”

”Ulupi?” Chitrangada splutters.“If you don’t like me you can say so, there’s no need to make implications!”

Chitrangada managed to keep her midnight sessions with Arjuna a secret for an entire week before Ulupi came barging into their classroom, furious at being kept out of the loop. By the next week, she had drawn up a new schedule that allowed Arjuna and Chitrangada at least four hours of sleep and given Arjuna a tome about training to duel without the use of each of the five senses.

“I don’t need to make implications,” Arjuna says,“she’s already told me.”

“Told you what?” Chitrangada blushes crimson, reminding herself to breathe. Does Ulupi know? Chitrangada has tried so hard to keep her feelings to herself.

“That you think you need to be with someone who can give you an heir, and since Ulupi cannot you are convinced it is best to live in misery, hopefully marrying some man who will give you a child before you die in the Auror service.”

Chitrangada’s knees shake, and she feels herself sinking to the ground, her lungs tightening until she can’t breathe. She hears Arjuna calling out, and when she next opens her eyes it is to the horrifying sight of Ulupi’s face, one single tear running down her cheek.

“How could you be so stupid!” Chitrangada is not sure if this is directed to her or Arjuna kneeling behind Ulupi, wringing his hands.“I’m talking to the both of you!”

“Ulupi,” Chitrangada begins, but stops at Ulupi’s outstretched hand.

“Did you really think that after everything, I wouldn’t have a solution?”

“Does the Hogwarts library have books about…” Arjuna’s voice lowers.“procreation?”

Ulupi rolls her eyes.“It has books about sex too.” Arjuna flinches.“But no, I found this at a Muggle bookstore last summer. You’re going to be a sperm donor!”

“A what?” Arjuna and Chitrangada say this as one. Ulupi laughs.

“Well,” she says,“the muggles have figured out how to isolate what of Arjuna is needed to create a child, and so he will….donate –”

“Donate my –”

“Yes,” Ulupi says, finally flushing herself.“In a little bag. Then we will… insert that into Chitrangada, and she will have a child!”

A moment of silence. “A child,” Chitrangada whispers. Is it possible?

“My child?” Later, they will all laugh at the sheer amount of scandal in Arjuna’s voice.

Ulupi glares. “Well it doesn’t have to be your child if you don’t want it to be! The child will have two parents once Chitrangada and I marry, and even if she dies I will be a researcher and stable enough to satisfy the family.”

“Marry,” Chitrangada breathes, gazing at Ulupi as if it is again the first time. In a way, it is. She is, if possible, even more beautiful than that first night, all blazing eyes and steel certainty that even the stars will move to align with her vision for their future.

“Yes,” Ulupi says, turning to grab Chitrangada’s hands and bringing them up to her lips. “Easy, right?”

[askaceattorney]

Turnabout Memories

Hello and hap’piraki, everyone!

(Whoa...  Déjà vu.)

Now that we’re finally nearing the end of this (*twitch, twitch*) year, and now that I’m preparing to step off this blog for a time, I’d like to take a moment to reminisce about all the ground we’ve covered since the day I first discovered the uniquely fun experience of Ask Ace Attorney.

It all began a few years ago when...

Oh, right -- this’ll probably be pretty lengthy, so I’ll continue below the cut.

It all began a few years ago when I discovered Ask Ace Attorney through a Google search.  I don’t remember most of the details, but when I first found out about a blog that attempts to bring video game characters to life through blog posts and the power of imagination, I thought the idea was both strange...and amazing.

I’d only recently started getting into Ace Attorney at the time (after seeing Matthew Taranto’s hilarious mashup between it and the Kirby series), so I decided to send in a few letters and see if they’d get an answer.  Sure enough, a few months later, I saw the first response to one of them!  It was a pretty exciting feeling, to say the least.

I’d share that letter response here, but unfortunately, it included my real name, so we’ll have to save it for later.  For now, here are a couple of the earliest ones from me: a deeply emotional one from Dahlia to Iris (a little far-fetched, maybe, but I CAN SEE IT HAPPENING, THE MOD), and a short, punny one from Moe to Phoenix.  Not surprisingly, I enjoyed seeing the characters react to them in ways I found believable as much as I enjoyed writing these and several other letters.  I knew the Mod (the only moderator here at the time) wasn’t affiliated with Capcom, but his character portrayals were spot-on each time, and my creative spark and love for Ace Attorney received some constant fuel for a while thanks to this blog.

And then...this happened.  For a brief moment, I thought about how fun it would be to see if I could do what the Mod had been doing for so long, but then I decided it’d probably be better to leave it in someone else’s hands.  Sure, I was a huge fan of Ace Attorney and its loveable characters, but did I really love them enough to pretend to be them on a hugely popular blog?  Naaah.

I went over the rest of that story once before, so I’ll just give a brief recap here: my friend the Modthorne won the audition to become the next de Modder, I asked her if I could join, and then it ended up just being me here, followed by Mods Paups, Kristoph, and Maya.  That’s the way we became the Ask Ace Attorney bunch.

So, when I first made my debut as the Commode Co-Mod, my only real strategy for answering letters was to emulate the Mod's style.  I honestly wondered if I could accurately portray so many different personalities in a believable way, but, with a few hiccups along the way, I somehow managed to pull it off to some degree.  I also started developing my own style and becoming less conscientious about how my portrayals looked (that definitely took some time, though), and worrying less about the blog’s popularity and overall performance review.  That, I believe, was a big part of what made both of those steadily rise over time, until we ended up reaching and surpassing 12,000 followers!  (I’m still geekin’ out about that one.)  Just relaxing and going with the flow made things a lot easier for me, and apparently helped Ask Ace Attorney reach its current level of popularity.  Something tells me that choice paid off in the end, and thank goodness.

I of course have to give credit to the popularity of Ace Attorney and its characters, as well as the Mod for giving me and the other moderators so much material to start off with, but I sure never expected my role in helping to build the Ace Attorney fandom’s strength and size to be quite this large.  Heck, just getting to create things for so many people is a huge honor, so...what can I say to that, except a huge thank you to Capcom and the Mod?

Don’t worry, I’ll get to thanking all of you in just a moment.  ; )

So, anyway, that’s all the general stuff.  Let’s talk about the highlights of the last three years, now, shall we?

My first holiday-related post was an April Fool’s Day one, so let’s start there.  We came close to hearing about Phoenix’s lawyer camp incident...

...gave a few of the characters a chance to ask some questions of their own...

...had a little run-in with some of the bad guys...

...and briefly opened the window into some characters’ minds.

We sure didn’t fool around when it came to fooling around, did we?

Then there was Halloween.  We dealt with a creeper in the darkness...

...let one of the lesser-known characters go on a brief venture beyond the fourth wall...

...let some characters switch outfits and personalities for a short while...

...and paid homage to a classic interactive cartoon by letting them give out candy.

We sure had our fill of sweets and spooks, didn’t we?

And then there was Christmas, which included some of my favorite content.  We enjoyed a musical performance by several members of the Ace Attorney cast...

...a less flattering musical performance by yours truly...

...a short play taking place in Pearls’s dreams...

...and a fan-made song parody about a non-canon (but believable) incident involving Phoenix and a reindeer.

(Sorry if that image cursed anyone for life, by the way.)

I don’t know about you, but I loved every bit of our holiday hijinks.

And of course, we can’t leave out some of the great moments that occurred on non-holidays, including Her Benevolence falling victim to a classic comedy gag...

...Pearls meeting herself from a different time period somehow...

...Apollo taking a trip to the Pokemon world in his dreams...

...Athena getting tricked into thinking she had passed on briefly...

...Trucy getting caught red-handed by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself...

...and, uh...this thing happening to Iris.

No idea what I was thinking back then.  Sometimes you just have to go with the moment.

Not to mention one letter response that received an unexpected explosion of popularity.  Edgeworth always did know how to drop a sass bomb, didn’t he?  And one moment I’ll likely never forget is the letter regarding Athena’s hair.  For the record, I thought the shorter hairstyle looked okay, but somehow I didn’t think she would feel the same way.  Make of that what you will.  X )

Of course, it wasn’t all fun times and laughter -- I ended up stepping on some toes by accident, making a few jokes in bad taste, struggling to keep a balance between blogging and the real world, and...well...

...that happened.  I don’t regret a moment of it, though, because if Ace Attorney (and life) have taught me anything, it’s that powering through the less enjoyable moments in life is what makes us stronger, and what makes the good times that much more enjoyable.

But out of all the fun, hilarious, thought-provoking, and deeply touching moments that stood out in the last three years of blogging, the one I would say I enjoyed the most is this one.  It was my first attempt at responding to a letter in character (with one of the biggest “characters” in the series, no less), but, as with many of my letter responses, it also included some of me in it -- specifically, the part where Athena tries to sound optimistic, but not too prideful.  That was the sort of attitude I wanted to have whenever I answered letters -- I wanted to keep the fun and creativity of Ace Attorney and its characters going without injecting too much of myself into it.  The series wasn’t mine, after all, and neither was the blog, so my main goal was simply to sound like the characters.

And with that in mind, let me just say this: If any of these letters (even one of them) have made you smile or laugh on an unpleasant day, made you think about things from a different perspective, or simply helped you suspend your disbelief for a moment and believe you’re actually talking to someone from a video game, then my goal has been reached.

Anyway, I didn’t mean for this to be my goodbye speech (I’m saving that for later).  What it is is a sincere thank you for the fun and creativity that I and the rest of the moderators were able to engage in with all of you, thanks to our shared love of Ace Attorney, its characters, and its unique humor and depth.  Every last piece of witty dialogue, every picture, every song, and every custom sprite (the last of which can be found here), was inspired by your creativity and willingness to participate in this imaginative collaboration work.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it at least half as much as I have.  You guys are awesome.

-The Co-Mod

[queen-of-hearts92]

Revue Starlight Theory: The Tower of Venus.

My theorizing normally goes in my write ups, and I have talked about this a bit in my episode 10 one but I. I gotta post this separately. I gotta let everyone know, that I think I know where the stage came from. Cause I think the show has been hinting at it and the proof is mounting up. I’m about to lose my fucking mind in the best way possible so just gotta share this theory!

We’ve seeing these Venus De Milo statues every time we are on campus and while yes they are used to represent Maya, there can be more than one meaning to an object or symbol. So, there is one Venus De Milo placement I’ve thought was very weird. In episode 7, during the after party for the Starlight play, we see a Venus De Milo right in front of the Star Tower prop.

But, this statue isn’t featured in the Starlight play at all. Nor is said love goddess present. So, why the fuck is it grouped with the other two props? I was stumped on this for quite awhile until episode 9 when we see the book Starlight is based on, the passage below caught my eye.

It says here that the Star Tower is on another planet. After learning this, I slowly realized why that Venus De Milo was there. Hell why they are here in the first place. And theres so much that points to this conclusion that I must share it! This is gonna sound kinda nuts but, here it goes.

Theory: The underground stage, and in turn the giraffe, is from outer space. Specifically the planet Venus, and the show has been foreshadowing that it’s from Venus this the entire time.

I know! I know! That sounds wild, like a space giraffe? Really? But ohh boy there is just so much shit related to Venus in this show I can’t help but think that this theory is fucking possible! So, all my proof has been gathered here in this post!

Note: If you have read any of my meta before then you’ll probably see repeated information (or just wholeass taking my info from my previous posts) but I gotta put it in here for clarity sake. Plus it’s a good reminder anyways. 

Let’s take a look!

>The stage’s connection to Starlight

-First off we know that the stage is closely connected with the Starlight play. The stage is connected to it due to the constant presence of the Star Tower. The tower that holds the star is in the London stage even though the Starlight play isn’t being performed at that school so we can assume that it’s present in all the auditions that happen here. And the tower in the Starlight play itself and it looks the same as the one in the underground stage. Therefore the Starlight story probably really happened and now the Star Tower is here in this stage.

Note: I’m very positive the stage is alive so I will be treating it like it is a living creature with wants and desires, just to let you know.

>Aphrodite’s symbols

I swear I’ve went over these several times, but! I shall do it again. Let’s go over all of Aphrodite’s symbols that appear in the show one more time so we all know what they are. And of course this involves Maya and a reason why she has this connection with the goddess in the first place.

-Aphrodite/Venus is the greek/roman goddess of love, passion, and beauty. Of course she’s associated with the planet named after her. The biggest show of her symbolism is during Maya and Karen’s duel in episode 3. Most of her symbols have been heavily associated with Maya in particular. Maya’s stage is covered in greek/roman architecture for starters, and also birds. Particularly swans, the swan are one of Aphrodite’s symbols. Maya descends from the ceiling riding a fucking swan, and there is ancient art of Aphrodite doing just that. Maya chucks Karen into a huge swan at the bottom of the stairs, there's also a curled up swan right here before Maya opens up the stage. The smaller birds on the stairs and one as a gold statue could indicate two different bird symbols, either sparrows or doves. I’m leaning towards doves since we see white birds earlier in Maya’s room. Doves are also one of Aphrodite’s symbols.

-Another symbol is the white myrtle flower, Maya has a white flower in her hair during the flashback. While its not the same type of flower the fact that it’s a white one indicates to me that it was meant to represent the myrtle flower. The statue(s) we’ve seen all around the school is Venus de Milo, and in episode 3 Maya stands right next to in the similar pose increasing her connection with the goddess. Additionally we have seen the statue more when an episode more heavily involves Maya in some way, we see that in episode 7. Funny we don’t see the statue in episode 10 yeah? I’ll get to why in a bit.

-Aphrodite/Venus is also associated with water since she was born rising out of the sea, there is water all over the stage and the series in general. On Maya’s stage, there is a fountain by the golden dove during the duel. Speaking of gold, Ode to Aphrodite is the only full poem that Sappho wrote that survives to this day. The word “chryse” in Greek means golden and it’s used in the poem to describe the goddess. The dove on the stage is golden, also Sappho is a very famous lesbian so there is that.

-So, why does Maya have all of these symbols? Maya has the Aphrodite symbolism because she herself was a symbol for the stage. She’s everything the stage could want for a Top Star including accepting the loneliness that comes with the position. But, we all know by now that she isn’t really ok with that. Maya very much doesn’t want to be alone at the top, especially since she has fallen in love with Claudine. 

When Maya made the choice in episode 10 to not be alone at the top, she lost favor with the stage and it dropped her as a symbol since she no longer fits what it wants. Hence we see less of Aphrodite’s symbols around her. Hell in the 2 vs 2 duel the only prop that belongs to Maya that appears is the stairs, nothing else. 

-Also it’s not just Maya that has an Aphrodite symbol around her, Nana has one too! Frogs! The Greeks and Romans associated frogs with fertility and harmony. And with Aphrodite because frogs were associated with licentiousness aka being promiscuous. Uh, yeah it’s not a perfect fit but the presence of frogs I think is still notable.

Let’s go on to the next goddess shall we?

>Inanna’s symbols

-Inanna has her symbolism all over the place too and she shares some things with Aphrodite/Venus. Both of them are associated with doves and of course love and passion. Inanna is also a goddess of the sky, war, and combat. The connection to Inanna and Aphrodite/Venus is pretty intense, which is because Aphrodite/Venus is a descendant of sorts of Inanna. The planet Inanna is associated with is Venus, and this association leads to a primary symbol of Inanna. It’s an eight pointed star called the Star of Ishtar/Inanna, also called the Star of Venus. The star is in the show itself! It’s in Karen’s gem on the hilt of her sword. This gives her and Karen a connection.

-The most they have in common besides the star is a parallel with Inanna’s famous decent into the underworld. In the myth, Inanna goes to the underworld to rescue her husband. She has to strip off her clothing to get through the seven gates of the underworld but gains her clothes back when she leaves much later. Inanna’s trip ended up being a failure though, her older sister is the queen of the underworld and she said no fuck you and skinned her and hung her body on a wall. Yup. Luckily her sister in law bailed her and her husband out so it’s fine. 

In Karen’s story, she descended into an underground theater and falls below to rescue her love Hikari, and she also loses her clothes and gets new clothes. And as of episode 11 Karen is doing it again but going up instead of down this time. Also, in the Starlight play. Claire and Flora also have to pass through seven gates to get to their goal, just like Inanna did.

>Hikari and the Morning Star

-Hikari’s gem symbol in her weapon is the Morning Star, which is another name for the planet Venus. I say this because in artwork (if you can’t see it, look at the top by his arm) the Morning Star is portrayed like the symbol in her knife, usually in paintings regarding the greek god Phosphorus. He is the god of the Morning Star. And yes I know Lucifer is the other name for the Morning Star, Phosphorus also has that as one of his names. The Morning Star here resembles the greek/roman version of Lucifer, not the christian one. Mmmkay? Anyways, Hikari’s name even has a connection here! Hikari’s name means light and Phosphorus/Lucifer means light bringer. What are the odds eh?

-Karen and Hikari have the Star of Inanna and the Morning Star respectively because I think thats the stage’s way of marking them as the couple to act out the tragedy it wants. The stage does provide them with their weapons after all. Hikari’s weapon didn’t have the star there during her first audition and none of the other girls have clear symbols in their weapons like they do (trust me, I checked a lot gdi). And yes Karen and Hikari are the main pairing in the show but I don’t think thats why they have them. These two have these symbols that are the same star, and that is very significant in a show where a couple wants to be stars together and share the same stage.

So we have not one, not two, but three gods that are associated with the planet Venus that have their symbols in the show. That many references to this fucking planet indicates to me that the planet Venus is important here. And, it’s not just mythos that are indicated here.

>The planet Venus in real life.

Aspects that the real planet Venus has ties in with shit we’ve seen in the show too! 

-Venus is extremely hot temperature wise, so much so that we can’t land anything on the planet for very long if at all cause it will melt. It’s covered with volcanos and boy does it have a lot of fire there. In Rev Star, the scenes with the literal giant stage hands in episode 8 were very much on fire. Kirins are also associated with fire, and would you look at that theres a Kirin being a spokes animal of sorts for the stage. And ofc there is the golden bird statue in episode 3, it shot fire out of its back to invoke the image of a phoenix. Which is another being associated with fire.

-The reason why Venus is pretty much on fire all the time is due to the greenhouse effect. The gas that surrounds the planet is so damn thick that heat can’t escape into space, just like how greenhouses trap in warmth for plants to grow. In Rev Star we’ve seen plant life growing indoors and underground, so you could say it’s like a greenhouse housing plants to grow.

-Venus wasn’t always a fiery hell scape, it used to be a water planet. Lots of oceans and shit like that. That would match up to all the water we’ve been seeing in the show, maybe the stage took the water with it lol.

-You know that symbol on Claire and Flora’s outfits and on the giraffe logo? I think I finally figured it out! It’s a phase of Venus, but flipped so it isn’t on it’s side. And it’s orange in the play because the planet itself (and its surface) is colored orange.

-The Star Tower has a strong association with the color pink, Venus does too in terms of its planetary symbol being one that also is used to mean a female person and pink is very strongly associated with those who consider themselves female.

-Venus is the brightest star in the sky, its why theres so many mythos surrounding it. The star in the tower is also extremely bright and brilliance/shining has been a consistent theme in this show. Shine bright like the planet Venus!

>Space theme is already there.

Rev Star involving things like stars and starlight gives it an automatic association with space so we do already have a space theme. Here are two examples of it’s space theme meaning the stage is from the planet Venus.

-Looking at the giraffe logo you can see that the giraffe’s neck has stars on it. If this is the logo for all the revues then this could indicate that this is a space giraffe. Yup.

-The ending theme is Fly me to the Star, note how star is not plural. That’s a little weird isn’t it? Specially since in the Starlight play there are two stars not one. But! There is only one star in the Star Tower. So, the star that we are really flying to is the Morning Star aka the planet Venus. WE GOING TO SPACE MOTHERFUCKERS!

>IN CONCLUSION!

As you can see, theres a TON of things associated with the planet Venus in this series. Hence I think this is all foreshadowing to where the Star Tower and the stage is from, motherfucking outer space! But there is still the question of how it got here and why it ended up here in the first place. I’m very curious to learn more. In the meantime, I gotta say if I’m right, I hope we fight the giraffe in space. Thanks for reading! Let’s see if I’m right or not! \ouo/