#AND HAPPY DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL TO ALL MY FOLLOWERS WHO CELEBRATE !!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

justalonelyslytherin · 2 years

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Hello Ally! Happy Dragon Boat Festival!!

Congrats for 100 followers and open the celebration !!l I'm so proud of you 😌😌💖💖

My request is:

Skinny Steve and best friend!reader

the prompt：Person B isn't a very affectionate person, while Person A cherishes every moment they get with Person B. One day while Person A is cooking breakfast, Person B comes up and surprises Person A with a hug from behind. (Bonus + Person A buries their head into the back of Person A's shirt.)

you can decide the two roles for who is who, I don't mind and I'm so excited about your drabble or anything ！！

Love you💖💖

Thank you so much dear <3

I loved this request very much! Skinny!steve is an adorable bean and the prompt was *chefs kiss* When I read this I knew I had to make this into an 40s!au, it just fit so well.

I don't want to talk too much or spoil anything. So to find out who got which role you have to read ;) I hope you enjoy it. PS: This became wayyy longer than I had anticipated. I wanted to make short things for these requests, as a practice. Well, practice failed xD

Wordcount: 4.3k

Warnings: none

Divider by @firefly-graphics

What took so long? She had knocked, yet they took forever to respond. Looking around the narrow and dim hallway, she willed them to open the door again. It wasn’t that she felt uncomfortable standing here, but she knew their neighbors were always watching and listening and she didn’t like that one bit.

Finally, the door opened, to reveal the brown-haired young man of the duo she called her best friends.

“Why are you alone?” Was the first thing Bucky said and it made her roll her eyes. What class he had. Instead of answering Y/N pushed him to the side - which in reality Bucky stepped aside to let her in - to enter the apartment.

“That’s all you can say when you see your best friend? Not a ‘hello Y/N, how are you today? How was work?’ Or a ‘lovely do you look tonight, is that dress new?’”, she teased him. Bucky huffed at that and closed the door behind her. Instead of giving her a proper greeting, he came near her, feigning to tousle her hair or playfully rough her up some other way. It made both of them snicker.

“Hey punk, look who’s here!”, he then shouted further into the small apartment. It was more the size of a shoebox than anything. But it was their own, they liked to emphasize and at least they had a roof over their head.

Shuffling came from the only other door that led into the only other room besides this, which was everything from kitchen to living and dining room and entrance. Shortly after the shuffling Steve poked his head out of the doorframe. It made her smile.

“Hello Steve!” Leaving Bucky behind she walked over to the smaller blonde. Her smile - from being happy to see him - quickly melted into a frown as she noticed his clothes.

“Why do you look like that?” she asked him. He wasn’t wearing his going out clothes, which he should have considering they had agreed to go out dancing. All four of them. Bucky, Steve, her roommate, and Y/N.

“Ouch Y/N/N. Don’t wound the poor man, he can’t do anything for being so ugly.” Scowling she turned back and hit Bucky in the chest. So hard that he ‘oofed’ and rubbed the spot on his chest afterward.

“That’s not what I meant!”, she bickered back at him before she turned to Steve again. “That’s not what I meant.” Her voice was much softer as she repeated her words, barely above a whisper.

“Why aren’t you ready?” she asked him and pointed at his outfit. He didn’t look anywhere near ready to go out. Bucky huffed behind her and she could almost feel the way he rolled his eyes at Steve.

“The punk doesn’t want to go.”

“Why?” Y/N frowned.

“I’m not in the mood,” Steve muttered and looked down at his feet. He did that whenever he didn’t want to talk about something.

“You said you would go. You promised. Please,” she asked him, no begged. “Don’t leave me alone. Don’t let me go alone with Dot and Bucky, they’ll ditch me the second they get the chance to.”

“Wait, so Dot is coming?” Bucky chimed in again, his head appearing in the corner of her eye. Y/N rolled her eyes and shoved Bucky in the shoulder.

“Yes, she will meet us at the dance hall in a bit.”, she said. “But that’s not the point!” And with that, she shooed him away so she could solely focus on Steve and why he didn’t want to go.

Now she asked him quieter and much more serious, “Is everything alright? Are you feeling off? Ill? Or is there something else going on?”

He didn’t work with her, just looked at her blankly. Well, actually he mostly tried to avoid her gaze. Then he shrugged again,

“I’m not feeling it tonight. Not in the mood to go dancing is all.”

Not that he would ever tell her, ever admit, that he couldn’t stand to watch her dance with other men. That he hated to see her be taken from him, asked to dance with - something he couldn’t do with her as they could. He knew just one day - sooner than he would like or could bear - she would be stolen right under his nose by another man.

“C’mon, you can’t leave me alone with these two. Please,” she begged again, smiling at him in that way she knew he couldn’t say no to her. Today however he was a tough nut to crack, only scoffing at it and looking back at his feet.

He was like that sometimes with her, but she never took it seriously, she could never be mad at him for it. Steve was a very closed-off and silent person. He didn’t trust easily and thus he didn’t open himself often. Bucky and she were pretty much the only people Steve felt comfortable enough to be his true self. But even with them, he had his exceptions.

“We don’t have to go long. Only a song or two.”

He still seemed hesitant, now looking back at her but without saying anything. She knew he was contemplating, thinking deeply. This could go either way, Steve was stubborn, and if he had made his mind up if he truly didn’t want to…

“Fine.”, she agreed with a heavy sigh and a nod.

“Thank you!” Beaming she leaned in towards him and kissed his cheek. In her joy, she didn’t even notice how red he turned from it. But Bucky did and he wiggled his eyebrows teasingly at Steve over her shoulder.

The streets were busy with young people looking to enjoy their evening and workers from and to their way to work. Quiet was something that couldn’t be found in New York. You were never alone, there was always someone listening or seeing what you were doing. With so many people living in close quarters it couldn’t be quiet.

But it wasn't all the other people that were loud right now as the trio was on their way to the dance hall. It was Bucky and Y/N’s incessant bickering. They were best friends too, just like Steve was with them. It was all just friendly banter, constant, however.

“Do not make me homeless Barnes!” The woman in their middle complained to the tallest of the group. Bucky had a bright grin on his lips, his hands casually shoved into the pockets of his trousers. He was a handsome fella, a lady's man and he knew that. His careless behavior however agitated Y/N at that moment. It didn’t sit right with her that his latest conquest was no other than her roommate.

“I'm serious! If you break her heart - and you will at one point Bucky, I know you well enough - I’ll be in a real awkward position. I may even need to look for another home then.” It was true. Her roommate had the apartment rented originally and Y/N had found it by luck just when she had been looking for a roommate. If Bucky screwed up she feared her roommate would kick her to the curb.

“You can always crash at our place until you find something or just come stay with us, doll. Am I right Steve?”

“What would your mother say? She would get a heart attack!”, she argued and shook her head.

“Screw that, what would my mother say? I’m a respectable young woman with a good reputation to uphold. I can’t live together with two young men when neither is my husband.” She sounded like her mother reciting it. It was her words after all. Now Y/N herself didn’t see it that strictly, but the beliefs her mother had drilled into her still found some space. She didn’t want to have their neighbors talk. Hell, these people probably already talked enough about the three of them and how inappropriate it was for her to visit them alone and so often too.

Before their banter could continue they were almost at the dance hall already and in front of it stood Y/N’s roommate, waving and calling for them.

Going to the dance hall went like it always did. They would enter as one big group and scope out a table for them where they could sit and drink and rest in between dancing.

Said table would be Steve’s spot for the entire evening. He never really wavered from them, even if both Bucky and Y/N tried to every time.

Bucky had long given up trying to get Steve paired up with a girl to dance, Steve had stopped trying after the first or second time. They never wanted to dance with him.

Bucky was the one that was gone the quickest. He always found a girl in no time. Now with Y/N’s roommate, they were gone even faster. Almost immediately after they had found a table at the corner Bucky had been dragged towards the dancefloor.

Y/N was the switch. She alternated between spending time with Steve sitting at the table and indulging the dancefloor herself. That was if someone asked her to dance. Some days there would be a huge flock of young men asking her, they would almost form a line, on other days it was just one or two, and sometimes there were none.

She didn’t like the huge attention and normally only danced to one or two songs. She wasn’t here for the dancing part. Steve never believed her if she told him that, always insisting to take her chance and dance with another guy. Why couldn’t he see she just wanted to spend time with *him.*

She did like to dance and for the most part, the young men asking her were nice. Only one or two had tried to cop a feel but Bucky had come to her rescue then. But what she wanted more than to dance with some random guy, was to dance with Steve. She had tried to talk him into it but he never agreed. So the next best thing for her was to sit with him at the table they chose and listen to the music and chat.

Tonight was one of those nights where they were just doing this. The conversation however was tedious and felt forced. Steve answered shortly, most of his answers were clipped and one word only. He seemed too deep in thought.

With time she got fed up and bored. They were now mostly sitting in silence. That’s when she saw her roommate across the room, waving her over. Confused, she looked around, but it had to be her she meant.

“I’ll be back in a moment,” she told Steve and got up. Almost there the other girl pulled her to herself almost making her stumble.

“I need a favor. A big one.” Her tone was giddy yet somehow apologetic. It gave Y/N a bad feeling. She had an idea what this could be about. “I need the apartment for me tonight.” Oh no.

“Don’t do this to me, Dot,” Y/N whined.

“Please!” Dot whined back, doing her best rendition of her sad face to persuade. “Bucky said you could stay over at their place tonight.”

“Dot!”, she protested.

“Please, please, please. I owe you if you do that. Can you?”

How could she say no? If she did, Dot would never forgive her and she didn’t want them to go bother Steve and kick him out. So she agreed, albeit reluctantly and rather bummed out.

Where was she supposed to go now? Where was she supposed to sleep?

Back at the table, she slumped down in her seat beside Steve. He immediately noticed something was wrong. So she told him, whining about the precarious situation.

“Stay the night,” he blurted out, startling her. Surprised she looked at him, her mouth slightly opened.

“I mean-” he went on to correct himself, clearing his throat, “Buck was right. You can stay at our place for the night. I’ll take the couch and you sleep in our bed.”

“No, Steve. I can’t do that.” She shook her head.

“But you can.” He was serious. His expression alone showed that.

“I insist, doll.”

His usage of a nickname made her swallow. Butterflies blossomed in the pit of her stomach. How could she keep disagreeing with him if he insisted and called her that?

“I’m not going to take no for an answer, Sweetheart.” There. He was doing it again! “You said so yourself earlier. You are a young, respectable woman. I can’t let you be homeless for the night. It’s not safe.”

“Alright,” she agreed, still reluctant. “But only under the condition that we share the bed. I don’t want you to sleep on the couch, it’s so uncomfortable and bad for your back.”

Now it was Steve’s turn to try to resist and argue with her. He was already opening his mouth to protest when she cut him off.

“It’s not like we haven’t fallen asleep on a bed together.” In truth, most of these incidents had happened before they hit puberty. But it had happened once or twice as teenagers and young adults too.

The apartment building was somewhat quiet when they entered. Quieter than in the day but again, it was never truly quiet. They could hear the clanks of bottles and pans as some people cooked, several dogs barking outside, and the occasional crying baby.

The hallways were dark, you had to look closely to not trip over empty milk bottles left on doorsteps and old newspapers and the other odd stuff people set in the hallways.

It felt like they were doing something naughty, something forbidden and in a strange way, this feeling made Y/N giddy. Steve shushed her giggling as he led her through the hallway. They were sneaking their way up to his apartment through the staircase and halls, carefully to avoid being seen by any nosy, prejudiced, and gossipy neighbors.

Only once inside the flat, they both broke out in snickers and giggles, the humor and absurdity of their doing catching up to them. Like two naughty Teenagers.

Steve placed his keys onto the small table they had before he removed his coat and looked back at her. She knew the apartment almost as well as she knew her own. It still felt too early to go to bed. She still had too much energy.

“Let’s dance,” she blurted out, surprising both of them. It had been a spur-of-the-moment idea but after she thought about it again she added softer, “Dance with me.”

It was a silly request. He didn’t dance. She knew that. Even if they were in the dance hall, he didn’t. But there was a small hope he would say yes. Because it was her that had asked. Steve wasn’t a very affectionate person. He rarely truly smiled, most of the time it was a small, barely-there thing or it was sarcastic. That he had much of. He was a walking sass machine, yet the words and actions from deep in his heart were seldomly seen.

Feeling stupid for asking, really she knew better than to ask him, she wanted to take it back. That’s when Steve beat her to words, surprising her entirely.

“I think there is a record,” he mumbled and started to look around for the small collection of discs they had. The record player was second-hand. Bucky’s parents had gifted it to them together with the records when they moved in.

It surprised Y/N. So he wanted to dance? The scratching of the needle sounded before the first tones of the record started playing. By the time the first song was already well into playing Steve turned around, nervously drying his clammy hands on his pants.

He looked around the room and shoved the table to the side before he turned back to her. Now he stood in the middle of the room, holding his hand out to her. Y/N could only look at him dumbly, the surprise still written across her face. Was she dreaming right now?

“C’mon.” Steve looked unsure of himself but still held his hand out to her. This snapped her out of it. Putting her purse on the ground and shrugging her thin coat off, she hurried over to him.

Her breath caught in her throat as their hands connected. His hand was much bigger than hers and somewhat more callused but still very soft. There were the small ridges from his constant use of pencils and paintbrushes, yet his grip was delicate.

Both of them slowly shuffled into a dancing position. At first, they had some trouble adjusting and trying out some of the proper poses but it felt too stiff. It was only when the first tones of the next song, a very soft and slow melody, started to play that they looked at each other and threw everything overboard.

Still, somewhat hesitant Y/N took a step closer to him, the fingers of their connected hands weaving between each other and their free hands finding rest on the opposite body. Entangled in an intimate embrace both of them started to sway to the soft music slowly.

“Thank you,” she whispered at some point. She could feel Steve tensing up slightly.

“What for?” he asked her.

“For dancing with me. I know I always say I don’t like to dance that much but once in a while it is nice.”

Steve was silent at her words, it almost felt as if she had said something wrong.

“Surely you have had better dance partners,” he muttered eventually.

“No,” Softly she hummed and shook her head at the words.

The simple word made him pull back just so much that he could look at her with one raised eyebrow.

“I like it. I’d even say you are the best dance partner I’ve danced with.”

Now that made Steve scoff. She was almost sure he would stop the dancing now, pull away and pout at her. But he didn’t, she however could feel his fingers tightening their grip at her waist, flexing.

“Do you want to know why?”, she now asked him and he shrugged his shoulders, wanting to but at the same time not.

“Because it is you,” she told him. “The other men I have danced with objectively may have been better dancers but they weren’t you.”

She bit her lip, her heart hammering against her chest as she awaited a response. Anything really. Instead of saying something, Steve pulled her a little closer, essentially bringing her to place her chin on his shoulder as they continued to sway to the soft music.

While their dancing was peaceful, her mind wasn’t. The moment continued to play in her mind, making her question his reaction and her words. They continued their silent dancing to a couple more songs. So long until the record ran out and the monotonous scraping of the needle returned. Steve cleared his throat and let his hands slowly sink to his sides. Instantly Y/N missed his touch.

“We should probably go to bed.”

She didn’t want to, but her lips were locked. Instead, she nodded faintly, turning around to grab her purse and her coat while Steve turned the record player off.

When Steve woke up the next morning he was alone. The bed beside him was empty. Wiping the rest of sleep from his eyes, the gaunt man slowly sat up. The thin blanket that they had used to keep them warm in the night slipped down his body and pooled in his lap. Through the flimsy windows, the sound of the streets and the traffic filtered into the room, together with the early light of the day.

An unpleasant and heavy feeling had sunk down in his stomach as Steve had thought Y/N might have gone already. Only when he glimpsed her shoes at the of the bed, right beside his own, he had felt relief. The thought of her just going, without saying goodbye; sneaking away like a lover for only one night, as someone unimportant had upset him. He knew he wasn’t the best at showing his feelings, but she surely had to know how much she meant to him.

Contemplating he kept watching the two pairs of shoes, almost the same size. His were old and barely holding together, the newspaper he had shoved into them to make them fit better was peeking out from the top. He had put them neatly beside each other, the shoes aligned with the frame of the bed, the same way he neatly stored his drawing materials. Hers looked much better, not like they would fall apart any moment. They weren’t as neatly placed as his, Steve noticed. Y/N had a little way of chaos, she liked to do things out of order and with a twist. He found it endearing and cute.

He liked the look of their shoes beside each other. As if hers belonged right here, as if it were their place, putting them there each night and taking them again every new morning. He could get used to it.

Clattering coming from the other room made him alert and curious. Pushing back the blanket he left the bed to go investigate.

The smell of fresh breakfast and the sizzling of the pan spread through the living area as Y/N stood in the small kitchen. She had woken up some time ago. Steve had still slept deeply and soundly, yet she hadn’t found back to it. After a while, she had even gotten fed up with lying there and holding still. So, quietly and carefully she had climbed out of the bed without disturbing her best friend and tiptoed out of the room.

Indulging in some people watching through the window that faced the main street had occupied here only so long. The idea to make breakfast came to her when her stomach faintly rumbled.

Now she stood in front of the stove, whipping up some breakfast for the two of them with the little groceries the boys had in their place. Y/N hadn’t noticed the time tick by or Steve’s awakening in the other room, she had been too occupied with the food. And soft humming the melody of the song they had danced to the previous evening.

The memory made her stomach and heart flutter. Being close to Steve had never bothered her, but it also never had caused such a reaction in her. She enjoyed being in close proximity with him because it made her feel safe and welcome. He accepted her chaotic and clumsy self when others looked down on her for it, just as she didn’t care about his frail body and many health problems.

She cherished every small moment they had together, every time he let her get close. It was rare for him to get touchy or particularly affectionate, so when it happened it was something special for her. Maybe also because these moments made her heart flutter and butterflies hatch in her stomach.

“Oh!” A surprised gasp left her mouth as two arms suddenly snaked around her middle. Their grip was soft as fingers grasped the fabric of her dress in the front. Her heart pounded in her chest, both from the surprise and the sudden closeness. Putting away the wooden spoon she was holding, she placed her hands on the countertop. The coolness under her palms helped her center herself again. She had to close her eyes for a moment.

“Steve?”, she asks softly, almost questioningly.

The man behind her didn’t say anything, yet she could feel his grip on her dress tighten briefly before his fingers smoothed the fabric at her stomach again. A slow hum left his lips. She could feel him closely behind her.

“What are you doing?”, she attempted again, this time with a question. She could hear him sigh.

“Just holding you, doll,” he muttered. Her mind was spinning. This was so unlike him, so different from what was the norm. Had he gotten sick? Was he feverish? Delirious? She remembered him acting differently yesterday evening too. First his reluctance to not go out, then to dance with her. Had he maybe been sick and hid it from them?

“Steve, are you feeling alright?” She wanted to reach out behind her and feel his temperature but the slightest movement of her body made him tense and press himself against her back. Her breath hitched in her throat.

She could feel him clearly on her back, chest pressed against her back, hips touching her behind. Then she felt his nose gracing the middle of her back, in between her shoulder blades before it was replaced with his forehead. His breath was warm against her back.

“I’m alright,” he answered her. He sounded content, pleased almost as if there was no care in the world at this moment. “Entirely alright.”

He didn’t feel feverish, she figured. Surely she would have felt it through the thin sheet of dress on her back if he was burning up. Deciding to stop questioning this, she tried to indulge at the moment, take it in completely before it ended. She closed her eyes again, relaxing and leaning back the slightest bit to feel him even closer to her.

Her hands that had previously been placed on the countertops lifted and she gave them new places to rest. Softly she laid her hands on top of his arms, her fingers tracing his small circles into the fabric of his shirt and the small bits of skin that were uncovered. With one hand she even let her fingers wander and reach under the sleeve, her fingers brushing over the inside of his wrist where she could feel his pulse.

They left out a relaxed sigh at the same time. A smile tugged at her lips. She could feel him smile too, as he had started to nose against her shoulder. Even without saying it, they knew. Knew about each other's feelings for the other even without the need for a confession.

#sly's 100 #steve rogers x reader #skinny!steve #steve rogers #40s au #skinny!steve rogers x reader #sly's writing #steve rogers x you #steve rogers fluff #steve rogers imagine

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ashleyfanfic · 4 years

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lol since we’re changing up the vibes of the prompts, do “I think I’m in love with you” but make it angsty as hell

Anon, you’re mean! I don’t like writing angst. *whines* But alright, let’s see if I can do this. For some reason, when I wrote this, I pictured them as like vikings, not in canon. Not Betaed. All mistakes are mine and I’ll cringe when I read them! *~* “I think I’m in love with you,” she’d blurted and wished she could take it back. He turned and looked at her, his dark eyes focused on her hard. “You think?” He questioned. “Dany, I’ve been agonizing over the fact that I’m in love with you. Every step we’ve taken towards a relationship, I’m risking my loyalty to him because of how I feel for you. I can’t... I can’t keep putting myself out there because you think you might be in love with me.”

He turned to walk away and she reached for his hand to stop him from leaving. “Don’t. Don’t go.” He shook his head and dropped her hands. “I kissed you. I changed this. But it was wrong of me to do that if you aren’t ready for it. I’m walking away because I have to for my own sanity.” “Jon, you can’t leave.” He took a deep breath and stepped closer to her. She felt tears slip down her cheeks as she longed to let him kiss her again. It had changed everything and it put strains on their friendships with others. They didn’t understand. They never would. He was a Stark, through and through. She was a Targaryen. It felt hopeless, yet when she looked into Jon’s eyes, all she felt was hope. “Ask me to stay,” he whispered. She looked around, then down at her hands. He let go of a shaky breath. “There. See. You don’t actually want me to be here,” he whispered. “So let me go.” “I want you to stay,” she whispered. “I do. More than I want anything, but you know I can’t... I just need more time.” “Time is our enemy, Dany. It always has been,” he said softly. “I don’t regret falling in love with you. I only regret that it has to end.” “Jon,” she whimpered. “Perhaps I’ll see you if I ever return.” He turned and climbed aboard the small ship and his men rowed them out to the main boat that was waiting. She walked from the shore when the sails dropped into place. She came upon Jorah the Bear as he stood waiting for her. “He left?” “You should be happy,” her tone was bitter. He shook his head. “I hate to see you upset. You should know that by now.” “You said he had to leave!” “He was here on a mission to gain allies under the command of his brother. He couldn’t stay long term.” “Perhaps that should have been my decision.” “It was,” he said with a nod. “He left. If you didn’t want him to, he would still be here.” “You’re wrong,” she hissed. “I had to let him go. The North would have labeled him a traitor and he never would have been able to come back.” Jorah gave her a sympathetic look. “He may in the future. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.” *~* The summer solstice had always been his favorite celebration. As he crossed into the boundary of the village, he could see everyone hurrying to get the fires lit. He stayed in the crowd, trying not to draw attention to himself as he looked for her familiar hair. He checked the mead hall, the Dragon Pit. But she wasn’t to be found. He looked at the large tent that sat in the middle of the festivities and saw the familiar figure of Ser Jorah standing guard. That’s where he’d find her. Would he be welcome? The flap opened and he hoped to get a glimpse of her, but a little girl, no more than two came running out and clung onto Jorah who lifted her from the ground. She pressed her brow to the guard. There were flowers weaved into her hair and his stomach dropped realizing that she must have moved on. Had she finally succumbed to her guard? Was that her sire? He wanted to turn away, but the flap opened again and there she stood. A crown of flowers upon her head and a bright smile on her face. The little girl went willingly into her arms and she began walking toward the festivities, Jorah following behind. Once she arrived around the fires, loud cheers went up as she was led to the throne they’d made for her. She stood in front of it as the instruments began playing and people began dancing around the bonfires. He crept closer, wanting to see more of her before he left again. He stood amongst the onlookers and took her in. The firelight made her eyes sparkle. Her smile was bright and then she laughed and it sounded like the bells she kept in her hair. He’d made love to her once while they’d been there. He’d never forget how they rang as they consumed on another. He looked down, trying to control his breathing and racing heart. She was a queen. He wasn’t even an ambassador any longer. His brother didn’t like his divided loyalty and allowed him to leave. He’d hoped she’d take him back. That he cold grovel enough that she would forgive him for leaving her. He would move on. He looked up and found her staring at him with bright, watery eyes. She abandoned her post in front of her throne and walked toward him. The people parted for her and she stopped in front of him. She reached forward and pushed back his hood. She gasped and shook her head. “What are you doing here?” “I-I left the North.” She glanced around at the others surrounding them and called her behind him. “I’ll be back,” she said to Jorah who eyed Jon warily. “Watch Rhaena.” He nodded to his queen and she walked along to her tent and he followed her inside. There was a small stack of furs beside the taller one she slept on. How many nights had he spent in this tent, between her thighs, worshiping her as more than a queen but his goddess. And she’d let him leave. She whirled on him and slapped him across the face. He was shocked, to say the least. “You come back now? After all the letters I’d had sent to the North.” Jon furrowed his brow. “I never got a letter.” She folded her arms over his chest. “I sent couriers and still there was no word.” “Dany, I never got a letter! I would have answered anything I received from you.” She straightened, her face going white. “Not a single one?” “No. Which makes me all the more thankful that I left if they were keeping things from me.” “You left? What does that mean?” “It means my brother didn’t like my divided loyalty and told me to stay and be devoted to him or leave. Either way I had to make a choice,” he said softly. She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “They kept you from her,” she whispered. She turned her back to him and paced away, then back. “So, you don’t know that you have a child?” He reached for the tent pole in the middle of the room, trying to keep his footing. “Child? You said you couldn’t have children...” “I didn’t think I could. I was cursed,” she whispered. “I thought I was cursed. Rhaena. She’s yours. I sent letters to you telling you when I knew I was with child, to let you know when the midwives thought she would come into the world. When she finally did.” She shook her head. “And you didn’t know.” He moved over to her and gripped her by the arms. “I would have come the second I knew,” he reassured her. “He lied to me,” he hissed. “I was loyal to him and he knew all this time.” “If not for her, why did you come back?” He met her eyes. “I told you when I left, I loved you. That hasn’t changed.” “So, you thought you would return and everything would be as it was?” “No. I would actually court you. Marry you. If you’d have me. I’m a man without a country. Without a king. And honestly, I think it’s time I serve a queen. The best one I know.” He sighed. “I just need to know if I’m too late.” She reached up a hand and covered the spot she’d hit. “I have loved you, Jon of the Snow, even when I swore I hated you, I loved you.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Come,” she said as she took his hand. “We can speak of all this later. I want you to meet Rhaena!” Rhaena. His daughter. They weaved through the crowd and the little girl reached out for her as she’d approached. “Sweetling,” she cooed to the little princess. “Rhaena, this is Jon. He’s from the North.” Her eyes twinkled in the firelight just as her mothers. “Snow,” she said with a tooth smile. “He’s your da,” she whispered to the little girl as a tear streaked down her face. She tilted her head at her mother then looked at Jon again. “Da?” His chest felt as if it was going to burst. He reached into his satchel at his side and held up a wood carving of a snow flake. “For you, my princess.” Dany set Rhaena on the ground and she crossed the short space and took the wood carving and held her arms out to Jon to pick her up, which he did, carefully. Up close, he could see that she looked exactly like her mother except for her unruly curls. He didn’t know he could love someone he’d only just met. “You are staying, aren’t you?” Dany asked. “I’m with you. And her,” he said as he held her against his chest as she babbled about the snow flake.” She gave him a smile and it did more to right his world than anything else could have. He was finally where he was meant to be. No more wandering. This was home.

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#jonerys #jonerys fanfic #jonerys angst #jonerys au #i don't like angst unless it has a happy ending

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brywrites · 4 years

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Night Changes | 2K Celebration

As part of my 2K follower celebration, if you send me a character or pairing and a song, I’ll write a ficlet (roughly 1000 words) based on it. For every song requested, I’ll also do a bonus ficlet so you’ll get double the stories! Requested: Bianca and Reid from The Keeping of Words & “Night Changes” by One Direction. ---

“Garcia is throwing a big party tonight,” he says as they stroll past the Reflecting Pool. “For the summer solstice. It’s a little last minute since we weren’t sure whether we would have a case, but the whole team will be there, plus a few of her other friends.”

“It sounds wonderful,” Bianca says. “I didn’t know people threw solstice parties.”

“Well, Garcia has a celebration for everything,” Reid laughs. “Although celebrations for the longest day of the year have been in place for centuries. In Europe, bonfires, flowers, and festivals mark the Midsummer. In China, it’s the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, and Ireland it’s designated as the Day of Private Reflection. And in fact, for the Southern hemisphere, the summer solstice typically coincides with Christmas celebrations. But I’m getting off topic,” he says. He doesn’t want to lecture her on the history of solstice festivities. He wants to take another step towards that invisible line they’ve been toeing for weeks since she fell asleep on his couch and he went to talk to Hotch. “Actually, Garcia told us all we should bring a plus one and I was kind of hoping that maybe you’d want to come with me?”

Bianca stops walking. He immediately backtracks. “If you’re not busy, of course! I mean, she always says that and usually I would just go by myself but I was thinking that it would be more if you were there. Everything’s better when you’re around. But of course I know it’s short notice and you might have plans already so you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. But if you want to come, I would be happy to drive.”

It used to be so easy, moments like this. They went everywhere together. By her side was where he felt most at home. After leaving, after Maeve, after everything changed, he’s still finding his way back to the meaning of that word. But this, he supposes, is a good place to start. Testing the waters. Inviting her to go somewhere with him, with his friends who were her friends once, too.

To his relief, she smiles. “I’d like that.” He picks her up at eight. She stands outside her building in a red wrap dress that flutters in the warm breeze the way his heart does when she smiles at him. She slides into the passenger seat and for a moment it’s like no time has passed and neither of their hearts have ever been broken.

As they drive to Garcia’s apartment, all his doubts that this might be a mistake are erased because she’s laughing with him and it all does feel so easy. They arrive at the party where she is almost instantly accosted first by Garcia and then by Morgan who have a million questions to ask her.

“So that’s Bianca, right?” Alex asks. Her sudden presence startles him briefly, but he quickly settles. Blake has always soothed him for reasons he can’t quite put a name to.

“Yes,” Reid says, smiling as he watches her talking to Garcia. The evening light shines in her eyes and the faintest blush colors her cheeks and she’s so lovely. When he turns to Blake, the smirk playing at the corner of her mouth makes it clear that he wears that thought plainly on his features. He’s been falling for her all this time, and he can’t deny it any longer, though he can’t bear to admit it to her yet. Still, when she returns to his side, he feels more at ease even surrounded by the people he knows best in this world.

She stands a little too close to him as they look up at the quickly darkening twilight, the earliest stars blinking into view. “It’s a shame everything changes at night, when most of the world is asleep,” she says. “The calendar turns over and the days start getting shorter and we won’t even be awake to witness it.” She sighs and takes a sip of the cocktail in her hand and he lets his elbow brush against hers for just a moment. “Everything changes so fast. You wake up, and the world is different.”

There is a strange longing in her voice. It pulls on his heartstrings because he feels it too, this yearning from something slipping past his fingers. He’s so afraid that it’s all changing so suddenly and he can’t seem to hold on tight enough. He can’t hold everything, after all. Reaching out to her means letting to of Maeve, but holding fast to Maeve means losing Bianca. He can’t have it all. But she looks at him and that red dress and those freckles across her nose pull him in and he knows that if he lets her slip away he’ll regret it for the rest of his life.

“I think about it too sometimes,” he admits. “Maybe everything does change. A lot has changed this year. But there are some things that stay the same. Garcia is always going to throw the best parties. Gravity will always remain constant. The Bureau is never going to give us enough time off. Night changes into day so fast. But it doesn’t scare me so much anymore. I’m still going to be me. And you’re still going to be you. And if there’s anything I’ve learned through all these changes it’s that I’m always going to be grateful that you’re in my life.” Reid tries to take a steady breath in, to make the words sound casual without glossing over them. “I’m always going to care about you. And I’m always going to want you around. That’s never going to change.”

Bianca stares at him and he doesn’t dare move under her gaze lest a single microexpression give him away. Then she smiles. “I’m glad you’re in my life, too,” she tells him. “You’re one of my favorite people on the planet. And that’s never going to change. We’re never going to change.” It’s a declaration if he’s ever heard one. A promise that allows him to cling to just the tiniest bit of hope, however irrational he knows it to be, that maybe she understands just what he means when he says he cares about her. And maybe she feels the same way.

Day turns to night. Summer begins its slow slip into fall. But he hopes against hope that when the seasons turn again, she’ll still be by his side. Reid knows now that no matter what else changes, what he feels for her never will, so he swallows all the words it’s too soon to say and tells himself that to love her is enough.

#brywrites #brywrites 2k celebration #criminal minds fanfiction #spencer reid x oc #spencer reid fanfiction #tkow #the keeping of words

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albion-93 · 5 years

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Midwinter Solstice Eve

Seasons greetings to one and all! I hope everyone is enjoying themselves and celebrating the holidays as best they can with friends and family.

Just a heads up: this is a long RWBY fanfic, taking place in the same AU as my first fanfic RWBY: Family Lost and Found.

For the RWBY fans who made my time here really swell this year and also enjoyed my past writings, @littlemisssquiggles, @miki-13 , @maripr , @blackhakumen @davidellisartworkstuff , @accel-dragons @jade-rosepine and @che1sea-xiao-long this is for you. Hope you’re having a lovely holiday, and I hope you enjoy.

Act 1

Midwinter Solstice Eve had brought an unprecedented level of calm to the island province of Patch, even with the increasing threat of Grimm attacks. The coastal port towns were bathed in warm golden and crimson lights, security was at an all year-high and people went about their ways doing their best to keep merry. Airships and boats to the other kingdoms were preparing to leave. At first, the setting sun pierced the clouds and shafts of bright orange light cut across the frosty blue snow-laden fields and forests. But over time, these clouds grew thicker and snow fell faster and heavier than before, and the last of the daytime light was dying out.

In a secluded forested part of Patch, a two story log cabin stood resolute against the thickening blizzard, and cosy golden light gleamed invitingly within. The home of Taiyang Xiao-Long was a model of Midwinter Solstice preparations. In the kitchen was filled with the tantalising scent of slow-roasting game birds, and Tai went up and down the kitchen with his recipe book while his assistants, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren and Oscar Pine went about their culinary tasks.

“Alright girls and boys,” called out Tai as he removed a tray of roast potatoes from the oven, “let’s move this feast to the final phase! Nora, stop eating those potatoes and put them in the oven!”

“But they’re so tasty – oh, fine!”

“Ren, how are those vegetables coming?”

“Almost ready, Mr Xiao-Long!”

“Also maybe put a little more icing on the chocolate yule log, you know how my girls love their sweets.”

“I thought you wanted Ruby to eat less sweet stuff?” he asked incredulously, “I mean pudding, mince pies, and yule log?”

“True, true; but since it’s that time of year again we only get to go this big once. Just wait, between Ruby and Nora there’ll be hardly any desserts left!” he chuckled with a pat on the farm boy’s back and went into the lounge to check on how his daughters and their partners were doing.

It was a much more pleasant sight; the lounge was filled with soft carpets with the walls and mantelpieces decked with crimson, pine-green and gold trimmings. True to form, Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee were partnered off on the decorations, while Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao-Long moved in and out of the house doing different jobs in conversation. Chairs were pulled in and a portable Atlesian fire-place where the TV used to be was just starting to burn; ‘an old present from James’ as Tai said. Taking a short break from cooking, Oscar picked up a nearby guitar and strummed it a few times before settling on a soft melody, glancing towards . In the corner stood the decorated festive pine tree, with Ruby happily humming as she placed hand-carved and painted robins on what free branches still remained, thinking fondly about her mother. Weiss levitated a wreath of red and white roses onto the pine tree’s highest branches with Myrtenaster’s Gravity Dust function, smiling as she floated the wreath up and down. Blake came in and gave an amused smile at the sight.

“No offence, but that doesn’t look like the most efficient use of your limited Dust reserves. Couldn’t you just get the ladder?” suggested Blake.

“You’re right I could, but I never get to do any of this festive stuff, so I’m taking every chance.”

“You really are Defiance aren’t you,” chuckled Blake, more to herself than Weiss, who merely stared back quizzically at her as she went out again.

“Actually, I haven’t felt this relaxed – this happy even, in a long time.”

“Oh, it’s great isn’t it? I can’t wait to see your face when you open my present!” said Ruby excitedly, bobbing side to side, making Weiss giggle.

“Well you’ll just have to be a little patient,” she said with an air of playful parental authority, and she smiled softly at distant memories, “I remember when I was little my Mom would say that to get me to wait because I always wanted Midwinter Solstice to come a day early. I used to get so excited… but that really didn’t last long. Before I left for Beacon they had become so suffocating dry, formal and by the end so cold and resentful that I almost forgot just how sweet they could be.”

Weiss looked down sadly, and Ruby lifted her chin up encouragingly.

“Dad and I have tomorrow all planned out: snowball fights, games, movies, and karaoke!”

“Wonderful!” said Weiss with a bigger smile, which faltered as she saw Nora, Ren and Oscar talking worriedly among each other. She pointed this out to Ruby just as Yang and Blake came back in, and the two teams convened.

“Something wrong, guys?” asked Yang.

“This snowstorm is looking worse by the minute,” said Nora looking worried, “and we’re just hoping that Jaune and Pyrrha’s boat made it out in time.”

“They said their ship was leaving before the storm hit, but we haven’t heard from them in a while,” said Ren holding up his scroll.

“I’ve seen blizzards like this before back on the farm, and they’re worse than hazardous to travel in,” said Oscar as he stared out the window.

“Also, this little guy’s feeling homesick,” added Nora, wrapping her arms tightly around Oscar.

“Nora! I said it’s not a big deal!” he said quickly, but too late as a light chorus of endearment broke out among RWBY, turning the lad bright red as Nora grinned and Ren sighed.

“I mean, she isn’t wrong,” admitted Oscar, “I just had a rush of memories of watching the snow from the farmhouse bedroom and keeping warm by the fireplace with my aunt and uncle. Sometimes the extended family came over! It’s my first Midwinter away from them...”

“Awww, don’t worry, Oscar, you’ll feel right at home here,” said Ruby, smiling and placing an arm around Oscar’s shoulders, causing the boy to smile nervously and attempt to hide his blushing. “Dad always makes the best Winter Solstice dinner.”

“Actually, from the looks of things we might have a little too much food on our hands,” said Yang, “Guess we know what we’re having for lunch tomorrow!”

Suddenly, Ruby’s scroll starting buzzing. She answered and put it on speaker.

“RUBY!” yelled Jaune’s voice; he sounded panicked and hoarse, “Please get down here with Bumblebee fast! It’s me and Pyrrha, we’re stranded and the ice is breaking!”

Act 2

Within minutes, the four girls strapped on their Huntress gear and wrapped up warm for the mission. Based on Jaune’s description, the river was less than ten miles away winding between two hills. Yang fixed a snowplow on Bumblebee’s front wheel and revved the bike up for heavy duty action while Ruby fixed a trailer to the back. They gathered torches and ropes and packed them in the trailer. Before RWBY could set out, they heard a shrill voice load and clear.

“That’s half our team out there! We’re coming too!” declared Nora.

There was no arguing with her on that matter; time and the elements were both against them. With Yang driving, Ruby on the scroll to keep Jaune calm and determine where he was

“Wait, I want to help!” Oscar called out, covered head to toe in warm clothing, as the bike sped down the road until it vanished behind the snow drifts.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Tai yelled, grabbing Oscar’s arm, “Those kids are tough and capable, and you’re not at their level yet, Oscar. If you run out there you’ll get lost and freeze and I’m not losing anyone on Midwinter Solstice!”

“Tai, this snow’s getting much worse, they won’t be able to see where they’re going!” said Oscar, undeterred by Tai’s warning, “We’ve got to give them their best chance to get back.”

With the headlights at full beam, Yang drove as fast as she could through the forest towards the river, bobbing and weaving without dislodging the trailer behind her. Ten miles of straight road would have been nothing to Bumblebee but the combination of weather and treacherous downhill terrain slowed their progress. Even with the warm clothing and aura, they couldn’t stay out for long. As the trees gave way, they saw the river winding through the two hills and plowed through the heavy drifts to the riverbank. Everyone disembarked from the trailer and searched the area, calling out Jaune and Pyrrha’s names.

“There they are!” called out Blake, pointing towards a faint and distant flashing light several hundred yards away on the river’s ice covered surface. She could make out two distant figures, one stretching out and waving the other collapsed

“Guys, I think Pyrrha’s down!” added Blake, her ears folded down in dread.

“Then let’s go!” yelled Nora as she began to charge, only to be stopped by Ren, pointing out the fickle character of the frozen surface.

“I can use my semblance to get to them faster!” said Ruby with determination, “Nora, can you give me a boost?”

“CAN I?!” she bellowed with renewed vigour.

“Alright, then I’ll follow behind. I can get some distance with my glyphs,” said Weiss.

“I’ll tie the ropes together, Blake can you help me?” said Ren, Blake nodded.

“I’ll keep Bee warm for when we need to get out of here,” said Yang, revving the engine.

With the intensifying blizzard obscuring their vision of Jaune’s scroll light, they put the plan into motion. Blake and Ren had finished tying the ropes together, and passed them over to Weiss.

“Hurry, I think the ice is beginning to crack,” warned Blake, Weiss nodded.

She cast her glyphs across the river and began to run with all speed across her conjured bridge. Ruby stood perched like a bird of prey atop Magnhild, and Nora sent Ruby soaring through the air with a mighty swing in mid-semblance. She careened through the frozen night air, keeping altitude with Crescent Rose, a cascade of red against the black sky and pallid snow. Ruby used her semblance one more time as she spun towards Jaune and Pyrrha and skidded across the ice, clamping down with a swing of her scythe. Weiss wasn’t far behind.

Both of them looked pale and exhausted, Pyrrha was barely conscious but Jaune managed to pull a smile as the two friends embraced with one arm still around Pyrrha. She looked further ahead and gasped at the broken ice just a few yards ahead.

“Oh am I glad to see you!” cried Jaune frantically, “She fell through the ice! I’ve been trying to keep her warm! Help me carry her!”

Ruby nodded and raised Pyrrha up; she was murmuring deliriously and barely able to stand but still managed with the last vestiges of her aura to keep going. They started making good progress towards the shore. Suddenly the ominous sound of cracking ice came beneath them.

“Grab on!” yelled Weiss, tossing them the rope and casting a glyph beneath their feet as the ice ceased to support their weight. Back on shore, the combined strength of Nora, Ren, Blake and Yang tugged them back to shore. When they touched solid ground, the two reunited teams broke into a tight and tearful group hug, Pyrrha especially with light sobs of relief and gratitude.

“Hey guys, plenty of time for this back at Dad’s house,” said Yang, starting to shiver herself.

“I can’t tell where we are! This blizzard’s getting impossible to move through!” said Blake, barely able to make out the road with the snow obscuring the way and filling Bee’s tracks.

“We just keep going uphill,” said Yang stubbornly, “there barely any roads through here. And Bee’s using up too much juice to keep warm.”

They had been gone five minutes up the road towards Tai’s lodge. Nora and Ren kept close to Jaune and Pyrrha, and Weiss had conjured a small flame to keep them going. After another five minutes of more empty woodland and a winding trail, Yang slowed down and stopped to look around, the others stared around looking for any sign of habitation, like distant lights or smoke.

“Shit… none of this looks familiar,” she said angrily, “Where the hell are we?!”

“Maybe we should double back,” suggested Blake.

“We could get even more lost,” said Weiss, now starting to get nervous.

“Wait, I’ve got Dad’s signal, he must have followed us. I’m calling him!” said Ruby, opening up her scroll and tapping Tai’s number. She didn’t have long to wait.

“Ruby, finally! I’ve been trying to reach you!” said Tai over the wire, “I followed your trail halfway down the southern road but can’t find you guys anywhere!”

“We got lost! Are you out there by yourself?”

“Yes, Oscar’s back at the house. Listen to me; look out for the red signal flare. Find that and you’ll find the road. I’m launching in three, two-”

“Look, there it is!” cried Nora, pointing towards a bright red flash, barely covered by the falling snow and thick snow-laden branches.

“Yeah, I see it too! It’s not that far!” said Ruby excitedly.

“What? Ruby, I haven’t fired mine yet! Are you sure you see a flare?” said Tai incredulously, “I’m firing mine now; keep an eye out for it!”

Seconds later, another much further and fainter red light appeared, coming from back the way they came. The group looked amongst each other, now uncertain what to make of this. Then another flare rose up from beyond the tree line, same as where the first flare came from.

“Ruby, I see it too, you’re a lot further out than I thought,” said Tai, something in his voice sounded different, “change of plan, follow that flare, it’s closer to the lodge.”

Wasting no more time, Yang revved up Bumblebee and made a break for the source of the flare. Bee started to sputter, and fear began to grip the teams at the prospect of walking blind and losing precious time. The light from the flare went out. But before long, the trees became less dense and the familiar warm lights of Tai’s house came into view. Yang laughed and whooped and punched the air as she revved towards the lodge.

They spotted a lone figure glad in green standing in the snow covered field and waving his arms, and a few of the group peered out to see as they got closer.

“OSCAR!” yelled an ecstatic Nora, and with her arm outstretched grabbed him right off his feet and into the trailer locked in a tight tackle hug. He was shivering and had snowflakes tousled in his hair, signs that he had been outside for a while.

“Guys, we all gotta get inside,” reminded Blake, pointing to Jaune and Pyrrha lying prone, everyone nodded in agreement as they convened inside Tai’s house.

Act 3

Yang had her scroll out to inform Tai that they all made it back. The Atlesian fireplace was burning low with fresh fuel, another one of Oscar’s preparations before he went outside. Weiss went back and forth from the kitchen and came back with mugs of tea and hot chocolate for everyone, and knelt before the closely huddled Jaune and Pyrrha, both of whom were too tired to talk and looked close to drifting off.

“There, there,” cooed Weiss softly to both of them, stroking their foreheads gently, “just take it easy; you both had a tough time of it. But you’re safe now.”

Ruby brought down a high pile of blankets, jumpers and sweaters for Jaune and Pyrrha to put on, one red and one yellow, while Oscar brought extra cushions and draped them both in a thick blanket and sat down beside them.

“I’m so glad you’re both safe, I was scared we were gonna lose you out there,” he said gently.

After every means to be comfortable was taken, the fatigued RWBY and JNPPR sat huddled close around the fireplace in silence for the next several minutes, taking in the welcome warmth and looking amongst one another with in subdued, harmonious relief.

“That was way too close,” said Weiss at last, hugging her knees.

“No argument from me,” stuttered Jaune, as Pyrrha held him tightly.

The door opened again, it was Tai.

“Hey kids,” said Tai discreetly, with Ruby and Yang running up to hug him followed by all the other team members. He went down to green Jaune and Pyrrha, but Oscar guiltily hung back. He turned to face everyone, “Seriously, well done everyone. I’ve seen some daring feats in heavy snow at night, but you just raised the bar. So, you want to tell me what happened out there?”

While Ruby and Yang took turns recounting what happened, Tai listened intently and nodded proudly at each of them, and team spirit was on the rise.

“It sounds like you guys were just legendary out there!” said Oscar at last, looking around excitedly and gesturing to each of them in turn, “I mean, Ruby soaring through the blizzard Weiss with her glyphs, Nora with her hammer, and the rope plan. You guys must have been legendary!”

“You should have seen Yang’s driving, she was on fire!” said Nora with a little bounce.

“Why thank you, Nora! Bumblebee’s gonna need a lot of work after that,” commented Yang, scratching the back of her head sheepishly.

“Well, any vehicle is only ever as good as its driver,” said Blake with a smile, “and that placed us in excellent hands.”

Yang grinned and thanked her partner, and the two leaned in closely.

“Oh, and I switched the oven and cooker off before I went out, to not spoil the food,” said Oscar shyly to Tai, “I put them back on and reset the timers when we returned.”

“Smart move; the meal was saved just in time, despite the danger you put yourself in,” said Tai with his arms folded, he seemed to be making a concerted effort not to be cross.

“Dad, please don’t go there,” said Ruby reproachfully.

“Sir, if it weren’t for Oscar’s timely signal flare, we would probably be dead,” said Jaune with a little more strength in his voice.

“We put everyone in danger,” said Pyrrha at last, her eyes misty and cast down.

“Pyrrha, honey, please don’t-”

“It’s true… I wanted Jaune to meet my family for Midwinter Solstice. I wanted to make it this grand, almost fanciful meet-up. After the ship left without us, we argued a lot along the way, I insisted we try to get there no matter wat. We should not have tried to make the journey back to Argus with the blizzard closing in…”

“Pyr, I’m just as much to blame for this, if not more, I said we could make it to Tai’s lodge before the bad weather hit. We got turned around and stranded on that river, and then you fell in the ice!” Jaune cried out racked with guilt and anger, Pyrrha placed her hand on his shoulder.

“You wouldn’t leave me,” she said reassuringly, “I knew I had a chance with you.”

“You two wanted to spend Christmas with family, I think we all understand that,” said Ren.

“I think anyone who has a family they would brave a blizzard to be with is a special kind of lucky,” said Nora, “I know I would”

“We kind of did,” added Ren. Smiles started to bloom among the group.

“You both need to stop blaming yourselves for what nearly happened,” said Oscar earnestly, “You’re right, mistakes were made and it was way too close. But through it all, I’m just happy to have both of you here and alive with us under this roof, brought together in spite of peril and strife. In the end, Midwinter Solstice is all about that.”

“That reminds me about that song you played for me a few nights ago, could you play it again for us?” asked Ruby.

Oscar’s eyes went wide, but with a deep breath he asked if everyone else wanted to hear. With everyone giving consent, Oscar picked up the guitar and sang softly to the low fire crackling.

“When the silence wakes you, when your nights are long,

When the world forsakes you, please be strong.

Nothing hurts you forever, it will fade away,

And the sky will be blue again, one day.

No matter how cold the winter, no matter how deep the snow,

We will be warm again and the grass will grow.

No matter where life may take us, no matter how hard they try,

They will not break us, you and I.

When it’s dark inside you, when your flame is low,

I will be beside you, you will know.

Let it fall all around you, let the cold winds cry,

Let the old winds of yesterday blow by.

No matter how cold the winter, no matter how deep the snow,

We will be warm again and the grass will grow.

No matter where life may take us, no matter how hard they try,

They will not break us, you and I.”

Oscar blushed as applause broke out among the group, and some cheering from Yang and Tai.

“Well sung, little dude, well sung,” said Jaune.

“At Beacon you were all there when I needed help, especially you Pyrrha, and honestly this is just a small way of saying thank you,” said Oscar, still red in cheeks.

“Oh, Oscar, bless you,” said Pyrrha softly, eyes glistening. She held her arm out invitingly, Oscar budged closer and she pulled him into gentle, caressing hug.

“Thank you for being there when we needed you,” she murmured, gently swaying him side by side, enveloping her arms and blanket around him until he was effectively cocooned within. She held his face close and leaned and kissed his cheek causing the boy to open his eyes wide in shock.

“Are there no limits to your adorableness?” cooed Jaune as he embraced both of them within his blanket and ruffled Oscar’s hair.

“Mm-mm” shaking her head and giggled, still cuddling Oscar.

Nora and Ren piled in on either side of the three-way hug. In the middle of them, a series of small squeaks came from Pyrrha, grinning whilst tears down her cheeks. Team RWBY looked on, a mixture of awe and “aww” shared between them.

“I think I’ll skip the dessert, because that was the sweetest thing I’ve ever feasted my eyes on!” Yang whispered to Blake.

Ruby felt Weiss’s hand on her shoulder.

“Hey Ruby, despite the near-death experience out in the wilderness, I just want to say thank you for inviting me over for Midwinter Solstice; being here with everyone is so much better than being back at Atlas.”

“Don’t mention it, Weiss. It certainly crazy how close that was, but it worked out in the end! Just promise me one thing for the holiday.”

“Name it!”

“Don’t think about Atlas or anyone there who makes you unhappy and unfestive; I forbid it!”

“I don’t think ‘unfestive’ is a real word, but deal!” she said happily, drawing her in for a hug.

Tai came back in to announce that the game birds were cooked and there is definitely enough for the two new guests. Blake and Yang went in first, while JNPPR went in as one leaning in among each other. Ruby winked to Weiss and both reached out to pull Oscar in, and he gave a little yelp when both girls pulled him into their embrace. Ruby glanced up, something small and green was floating above them.

“Wait, I don’t remember ever hanging up mistletoe…” said Ruby nervously.

“Oscar, was this your doing?” said Weiss, raising her eyebrow.

“How could it be my doing?”

They paused and followed the line of string hanging the infamous little festive plant and gave out one big, shared yell; “NORA!”

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

Note: I really did want to write a new poem/song for this story rather than recycle an old one, but it still felt fitting both to the story and for the season.

Thank you, everyone.

36 notes · View notes

ngame989 · 5 years

Text

“Change” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 3

Writing: @ngame989

Art: @toxicpsychox (make sure to follow him for bonus pics from the story!)

Editing: @bmc-nightfury, @seddm

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: Star, Marco, Tom, and Janna celebrate Earthni's first Halloween and get a taste of what life's like for the rest of its inhabitants.

Comic Page

Masterpost

See below for the text, hope you enjoy! Sorry for the delay, we’ll be back in a few days with the comic page!

Flying was one of the most exhilarating feelings for Marco Diaz. He flung his arms out to the side, letting the wind ripple around and through his hair, his face, and the open front of his hoodie. With a world this beautiful and vast, who even needs the hoodie, anyway? It’s just weighing him down, preventing him from truly feeling as free as he knows he can be. He shifted positions, dramatically discarding the hoodie and feeling the crisp autumn air on his upper body through only the thin grey t-shirt. Suddenly it struck him: how exactly was he flying without Nach-

“Pfffthbtbt, Marco, what the heck?!? You got hoodie stuck in my teeth!”

Marco tried to glance at the familiar voice that interrupted his thoughts, but he was blinded by the sun gleaming in the purple sky. His arms instinctively were brought up to shield his vision. Wait, Marco realized, hadn’t he been holding on to something? Panic set in, both at the feeling of losing something important and at not even being able to recall what it was. It was uncanny, the moments he’d just experienced felt as vague and distant as anything he’d experienced in the Neverzone...

The view of the stunning Earthni landscape beneath him was obscured by a massive dangling ribbon in front of him, disrupting his contemplation. It was utterly tantalizing, almost demanding his attention. He shifted positions, reaching forward as far as he could to catch it, tugging the ribbon to his body and wrapping himself up in it, nestling deeper into his fabric cocoon and feeling briefly at ease. Wait, where exactly was he again? Something felt off, but the unnerving thought dissipated entirely once more at the soft touch on his head. Two large fingers tousled his hair to and fro, giving him a sense of contentment he didn’t know was possible. A glance skyward revealed the face of a giant Star Butterfly towering over him with a soft smile as she pet his head in the safety of a pocket sewn into her narwhal dress. Did that dress even have a pocket? And how was he here? Why was Star so big? As his mind sluggishly tried to work out what wasn’t gelling about the whole situation, his gaze followed their ribbon higher and higher until it finally reached the red balloon guiding them through the sky.

“OK, Marco, payback time!” she shouted with glee, flicking her head and whipping a tuft of flowing golden hair directly into his face.

“Bleh, Star, your hair… ptooey, Star, your hair is in my mouth… Get it out… Star? Star! Star!”

…

His eyes snapped open, senses on high alert, rapidly regaining his full cognitive faculties. He felt a light sheet draped on top of him; he was in bed, in his pajamas, with no hoodie or jeans in sight. Something large was still wrapped in his arms, but this time there was a warmth and softness that invited him to snuggle in deeper. The last thing he noticed is that his face was still completely buried in blonde tresses, and it all clicked.

“Thanks Roy, these goblin dogs zzz are absolutely zzz deliiiiiicioooouuus zzzzzzzzz”

“Star...”

“Why yes, I would like to try strawberry-flavored zzzzzzz”

“Staaaaaaar… wake up. It’s almost...” He tried and failed to peek around the veritable curtain in his face. “I don’t actually know what time it is, but we should still get up, today’s the day!”

“Totally, totally, totally, just 5 more minutes, Marco… 5 more hours…”

Marco sighed and lifted his head, freeing his face from the hairific onslaught and sighing into the crook of her neck. The leftover hint of strawberry shampoo danced through his nose, infatuating him as he pulled Star closer and felt the silky fabric of her gown softly graze his hands. She laughed and cast aside her favorite teal pillow with a heart she had been holding, gripping his arms instead, both enjoying each other’s company and affection - a fairly common occurrence these days.

Three months of this kind of paradise. Well, close to it, anyway; that first night on Earthni had been a one-off incident at the time, but it still hadn’t been long until unintentional movie marathon naps became slightly less unintentional and eventually moved to the comfort of one of their beds altogether, allowing them to spend nights in each other’s arms and sleep in at their leisure. And why not? They had all the time in the world. Marco was technically done with high school, and Star certainly wasn’t that upset that there wasn’t a fully integrated school system for Earthni quite yet. Besides, formalized education wasn’t much of a thing on Mewni anyway, and she wasn’t a “foreign exchange student” bound by Echo Creek’s norms anymore in this new world of theirs. They’d answered a few questions to the public about the Cleaving and spent a bit of time in the limelight, of course, but otherwise they were finally free of the burdens that had been on their shoulders for most of the time they’d known each other. It was the summer vacation they’d longed for, even though the season had passed them by long ago.

Suddenly, a knock at his door interrupted their bliss. “Star, Marco! Lunch is almost ready!” Angie sing-songed through his door. That woke both of them up - not because his mother had caught them innocently canoodling the night away, as that boat had sailed a while ago with a fairly predictable acceptance (though not without some teasing), but because lunch? How long had they slept in? Star bumped into Marco’s forehead when she bolted upright, startling him so much that he backed up off the bed into a heap on the floor.

“Marco! Gosh, Marco, I’m sorry-”

“M’okay,” he groaned, letting her help him uncrumple his body and stand up straight. They scrambled around the room to gather the discarded boxes of Sugar Seeds from the night before and shared their usual quick good morning kiss before splitting off to get ready for the big day ahead of them. Ten minutes later, Star emerged from her room with one of her older dresses, sky blue with two belts minus the fuzzy leg warmers, and skipped over to the stairs to slide down the railing into the dining room where Marco was already seated. Angie brought turkey sandwiches on the table.

“Good morning, you two. Sleep well?”

“We were up waaaay too late marathoning the new season of Fiesta de la Noche. I think it was the Sugar Seeds, please never buy the ‘Oops! All Corn Syrup!’ flavor again.” Marco winced at the lingering stomach pain.

“It’s sugar made from corn, why would you ever think I wouldn’t buy it?” Star scolded, adding some table sugar from the shaker the Diazes had repurposed for Star (leading to a few accidentally ruined dinners in the first week) to the fruit salad on the plate.

He playfully rolled his eyes and dug into his meal. “So, mom, where’s dad?” he mumbled out between bites.

“BOO!” No one even flinched at Rafael’s entrance from the back door.

Marco groaned. “Dad, are you trying to scare everyone again this year?”

“Haha, no, Marco. Last year I thought, ‘Why go for scary when nothing could ever top a hungering spirit almost devouring your loved ones, sending you into a manic frenzy?’ But then a lightbulb struck me on the head: I can simply bring joy and happiness instead of reopening the wounds of the most traumatic night of my life, haha!” Marco vacantly boggled at his father for a few silent moments, trying and failing to find any possible words in response, but there was no need as Rafael spoke up again. “Oh, and River is helping too!”

As if on cue, Star’s dad barreled through the back door dripping sweat. “I’m a riot with the youngsters, this will be a blast! Rafael, my good man, thank you so much for inviting me to participate in your culture’s festivities. Now how far would you like the catapult to fire the children?”

Rafael nervously chuckled as he lead River out the back door; the families got along swimmingly, but it was clear that neither had fully adjusted to every idiosyncrasy of the other. Marco and Star, having just finished the last of their lunches, followed out the back door and gaped at the spectacle. A giant corn maze occupied at least half of the massive property the Diazes now occupied, catapults of varying sizes had been built with landing pads, a few carnival-looking booths stocked with buckets of candy were set up with games Marco didn’t even recognize, and it was all topped off with decorative ghouls and skeletons scattered all around. The teens’ eyes bugged out of their heads as they processed the scene. How the heck did they sleep through the assembly of all of this? An instantly recognizable revving sound approached from the side; Marco’s eyes lit up as he ran over and gave his favorite dragon-cycle a big hug.

“Oh, Boo-Boo, good to see you!” he cooed, affectionately stroking her scaly head while she purred. A few weeks ago, she spotted him by chance in Monstertown while they were helping Eclipsa finish up some new housing, and after a tearful reunion the Diazes (who were a bit apprehensive upon finally learning what a dragon-cycle actually was) had built a stable in their backyard for her. She came and went as she pleased, but was more than happy to ride with Marco like they always had, occasionally with Star in tow.

Rafael approached and tentatively patted her on the head once, which caused her to defensively nuzzle into Marco. “By the way, Nachos asked if she could help us tonight with the Halloween chicanery and maybe give the kids some little joyrides… if that is OK with you.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet of you, girl!” Marco cooed. River hollered excitedly at Star and Rafael to show them his latest contraption, leaving Marco alone with his companion. His warm gaze turned steely in an instant as he knelt to the ground, looking directly into pink reptilian pupils of his dearest dragon-cycle.

“Thanks for doing this for me, Nachos, I owe you one. Remember the plan, OK? Keep an eye on them and keep everyone in one piece. You have my number if anything goes wrong, right?” She matched his serious demeanor and nodded sternly, at which he softened and kissed her on the forehead before scratching that spot on her neck that she always enjoyed. “I can always count on you, girl.” He stood up quickly to prevent any suspicion when he heard Star chatting to their dads as they approached the house once more.

“OK, dad, try not to have too much fun tonight. Last Halloween I was here, everyone almost got eaten.”

“No promises, sweetie!”

Star waved goodbye with a cheery grin before turning to Marco, eyes widening while maintaining the grin for an exaggeratedly concerned effect. Marco snickered and took her hand, heading back inside the house for their next mission. With all the shenanigans going on tonight, everyone decided it was best for Mariposa to not be in the house, so Star had volunteered to take her with them tonight, which meant she’d need a costume. The pair split apart to gather their supplies for the task. Star took a quick peek into the nursery and found Marco’s angel of a baby sister fast asleep in her crib, fortunately not disturbed by all the happenings around the house. Star went into Marco’s room and cleared off the floor for them to work, mere seconds before a big ball of purple fluff barged through the door.

“Can you believe that girl at the fabric store?” the bundle scoffed, revealing itself to be Marco after unceremoniously dumping piles of fabric and sewing supplies on the ground. “How can you not tell the difference between lavender and heliotrope? It’s so obvious! Even with the swatches from Turdina I’m still not sure if these are the right colors, and I will not settle for anything less than perfection for my little Turdinita-”

“OK, Marco,” Star huffed out. Like everything he did, it was still cute when he entered diva mode, but it was still near the top of the annoyance list. She rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him downwards and pecking him on the lips - mostly to shut him up - before putting a finger on his chest and pushing him onto his bottom in front of her. “Let’s get this done, OK? I know that you and Tom are gonna take, like, an hour on the makeup for your costumes.”

“Our trial run clocked in at 44 minutes sharp,” he retorted with a smirk, laying the sewing pattern out to start arranging the fabric. Minutes turned to hours as they toiled away, carefully picking out the colors and textures from the vast selection of cloth Marco had procured. Star was no slouch at the craft - she had decorated Marco’s cape by hand, after all - but every time she glanced over at Marco pouring his entire self into every thread and sequin, she couldn’t help but smile.

Marco carefully balanced a pin between his teeth, holding it up to make sure the design was coming together, then put it down to see Star dreamily staring at him. “Uh, Star? Is something up?”

“N-nothing,” she stammered in response, preparing the accessories for the finishing touches.

“Hey, I just realized… you still haven’t even told me what your costume is yet!” He handed the fabric over to her to begin cleaning up the massive mess of scrap around his person.

“I did tell you it’s a surprise, and I’m sticking to that! You and Tom went all gung-ho on the whole ‘bullfighting’ thing from the beginning. A girl’s gotta have her secrets, Diaz!”

“OK, OK,” he held up his hands in surrender, “I’m sure it will be amazing. Anyway, how does the dress look?”

Star scooted over beside him and held up the frilly purple outfit in front of them, flipping it over and around to get the full view. “Looks like a job well done to me!”

Marco’s eyes glistened at the sight. This whole thing had been his idea, wanting to make his baby sister’s first Halloween something special even if she wouldn’t remember it (there would be ample photographic evidence, his parents would make sure of that). But in some way it was also his way of commemorating his old life and what they’d left behind. Although Star had perhaps been the most dramatically affected by the Cleaving, losing the magic she’d known all her life, he had his own friends and adventures across the multiverse too. Earthni was special in its own unique way, and he certainly wouldn’t trade it for anything, but he didn’t want to forget the parts of his life he’d left behind. Shutting his eyelids and taking a deep breath and feeling a bit of moisture squeeze out, he wrapped an arm around Star, pulling her into his side. “Thanks for helping me with this, you didn’t have to-”

“Marco, you know I’d do anything for Mariposa. And it’s fun just spending time making stuff together!”

“We are pretty good at this, aren’t we?”

“Eh, I’d give it a passing grade.” Marco and Star jumped to their feet striking a tag team battle pose in the direction of the unforeseen intruder... and found Janna sitting on Marco’s bed, surfing something on her phone which was rested on Star’s pillow without so much as looking at them in acknowledgment.

“Janna!?” Marco asked incredulously. “Wait, shouldn’t you be in school?”

“I told them I was half-demon after the whole Severing Stone thing and they ate that riiiight up, so I’m exempt from human school now.” He could do nothing but blink in disbelief. “Anyway, on my way over I saw your dads with both their shirts off for some reason and I really didn’t feel like dealing with that so I just snuck in through the window. Oh, and I brought Meteora, too.”

“Wait, what? Where is she then?”

“On your head.”

Marco looked up and saw Meteora clinging to the ceiling before staring directly down at him and dive bombing, taking them both to the floor and giggling at his expense. Star helped him up and took the baby from him, calming her relatively easily by virtue of not being Marco Diaz.

“OK, but Eclipsa didn’t tell us about this! Why do you even have her?”

“Look, guys, it’s not a huge deal. She needed some help this morning and your parents told her you two were ‘busy’,” she said, holding up the pillow in one hand with the air quotes, “so she called me instead. Some monsters were, I dunno, worried about Halloween a bit or something and Eclipsa was dealing with that but still wanted Meteora to go trick or treating.”

“So you’re saying that Eclipsa wants Mariposa to bring her back a lot of chocolate.”

“Bingo.”

Star pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “OK, fine, whatever. What’s this about being worried about Halloween?”

Janna shrugged her shoulders impassionately. “The whole schtick of Halloween is using the idea of monsters to try and scare people, and they’re a bunch of monsters who don’t want to be seen as scary.” She stood up and tossed her phone up and down a few times before slotting it into her pocket and finally addressing Star and Marco directly. “Whole thing’s a load of crud if you ask me, I’m totally down with monstery quirks. Plus you wouldn’t have to worry about costumes! Like, look at the munchkin there, she’s got pointed ears and a tail. It’s already better than anything I ever went trick-or-treating in.”

Meteora briefly stirred, as if picking up on the talk about her, and Star motioned everyone to the door with her head. The trio moved into the nursery quietly to put Meteora in the guest crib they kept around for her frequent visits, then went downstairs to continue their conversation.

“I mean… it can’t be that big of a deal, right? Costume parties were a thing on Mewni, too, and not everyone who showed up was a Mewman. I doubt it will be perfect, but everyone’s been getting along pretty well so far!” Star said with some emphatic hand-waving.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Marco responded. Admittedly, Marco wasn’t entirely sure. The residents of Echo Creek were generally pretty accepting, in his own experience, but it was never a certainty. Tensions could linger for a while unseen, and one could never know exactly when they’d boil over. But being with Star had taught him a lot about trying to see the best in the world, and he found himself able to share the overall feeling of optimism.

“Plus, I don’t think any kids are gonna climb all the stairs to the Temple,” Janna chimed in from the couch.

“That too,” Marco replied without looking away from Star. “It’s our first big holiday together, and- and I just want this night to be about us having a blast with all our friends and getting a whole truckload of candy!” he yelled triumphantly, taking Star’s hand. Her shining ocean pools focused entirely on him and blazed with the same determination he had.

“I’d tell you two to get a room, but...”

Marco’s eyes went wide as he blushed, causing Star to finally end their moment of emotional vulnerability with a contagious laugh (and light blush of her own) that Marco quickly joined. Once it subsided, Star took Marco’s other hand in hers. “Yeah, you’re right. Hopefully nothing too unexpected hap-”

The front door violent opened with a burst of flame and smoke entering through. Marco shrieked and leapt in fright, being caught and cradled by Star. What could possibly have done such a thing?

“Hey guys, how’s it hanging?”

Oh. That’s what. “Hey Tom,” Marco sighed out, hopping down from Star’s arms as the smoke cleared from his dramatic entrance and Tom closed the door behind him.

“Am I, uh, interrupting something?”

“Marco got freaked out when you burst open the door,” Janna ever-so-helpfully provided.

Tom raised an eyebrow at Marco judgmentally. “You’ve lived with Star for years, come on, dude.”

“I’m not on guard for it when she’s directly next to me!” he cried defensively with his voice cracking, extending his arms in her direction to punctuate his statement. “Anyway, Tom, you ready for the big night?”

“You know I am,” the half-demon responded, meeting Marco in the center of the room for a high-five. “Alright, we should get costumes ready. We’ll be in Marco’s room if you need us.” As they ascended the stairs, Marco caught Janna making some sort of comment about to Star about “stealing your man” - he shouldn’t have expected much different. As soon as they got into his room, he went into his closet to gather all their costume pieces as Tom shut the door. “I can’t believe you humans basically have a giant costume party once a year where everyone gets candy. I could probably, like, just walk around like normal and it would still count. That’s too cool.”

Marco sat them both down on his bed and began to wipe his face off. “Eh, it’s pretty tame usually. Two years ago, Star and Janna summoned a ghost that ate everyone and my dad had to wrestle it to get everyone back. The inside of his belly smelled like licorice, it was awful. But it was an interesting Halloween.”

“Hungry Larry?” Marco assented while beginning the first layer of foundation. Tom laughed and held Marco’s arms at bay while he regained his composure. “Not a demon curse, but I’m familiar. Of course it was those two. OK, man, you can’t tell me funny stories like that, we’ve gotta get this done and we don’t need any distractions.” Marco nodded, always happy to see someone share his dedication to the craft. Foundation, then outlines, then filling in with white… the process stretched on for minutes as the basic design became evident. He sat back to observe it from multiple angles. While Marco switched brushes to begin the detailing, Tom spoke up once more. “I’ll be honest, man, I was kinda surprised about this. Figured you and Star would do a couple costume or something.”

“This idea was too good to pass up, though. Plus, I thought it’d be cool to do something like this with you! I mean, you are one of my best friends,” Marco rubbed the back of his neck, realizing too late that he had had a bit of white face paint on his hand.

“Well, it’s super cool, so thanks.”

Once Marco put the finishing touches on, he held up a mirror for Tom. The reflection showed his face transformed into a skull with ornate patterns everywhere. When Marco had come up with the idea for bullfighting costumes, Tom had been pretty disturbed by the fact that the bulls were killed. Marco had to admit it was pretty cruel, but after learning about Día de los Muertos, Tom suggested an Underworld-themed bullfight (where the bulls were already dead). Tom offered a fist-bump which Marco proudly accepted, and then the two switched places to begin the process all over again.

As Tom reached over to grab the makeup, his eyes lingered on the pillow with a heart at the head of Marco’s bed. His eyes darted back and forth between the pillow, all three eyes widening. Marco followed his train of thought and- oh no. “Tom, it’s not what you think-”

Tom raised his hands defensively. “Dude, I won’t judge.”

Marco sighed. What did he do to deserve this all in one day? “It’s not like that- OK, it’s not like that that, just… yeah.”

Minutes ticked on in silence while the steps were redone on Marco’s own face. Foundation, white paint, highlights… It was only when Tom got to the final ornate decals that Tom spoke back up again after sketching the outline on Marco’s face. “For the record, I know we haven’t really talked about it much but when I told you I was cool with you two getting together, I wasn’t just bottling stuff up or anything, OK? Yeah, breakups suck, but I’m pretty sure after a day or so my mom was taking it harder than me,” he chuckled with a toothy grin. “I know we haven’t, like, talked about it much since then, but you two are perfect for each other. I’m happy that you’re happy, dude, and more importantly I’m happy with myself too.” Words stopped once more as Tom focused to finish the pattern, showing Marco his own face in the mirror much to his delight. Everything came together flawlessly, and even faster than they’d anticipated. Marco breathed a sigh of relief at still managing to accomplish everything they needed to before trick-or-treating officially began. Part of that relief, he had to admit, was due to Tom’s words as well. Of course he didn’t think Tom resented him or anything, but knowing that they weren’t just “cool” but completely free of any potential past baggage felt like a weight off his shoulders. Marco leaned in and gave Tom a one-armed hug, clapping him on the back. “I take it you’re happy with the makeup job?” Tom joked.

“Well, your contouring is flawless. But it was mostly for the other stuff.”

“Anytime, man,” Tom responded, punching his shoulder lightly with a smile.

“Alright, costume time.”

***

“Star, seriously, do I have to do this?”

“Trick-or-treating starts in a few minutes, so too late nooo-oow!” Star sing-songed, bouncing over to the top of the stairs. “Are you boys down there?”

“Yeah,” she heard both Tom and Marco reply from the living room downstairs.

“Alright, Janna, it’s showtime!” Star grabbed her hesitant friend by the wrist and practically dragged her down the stairs. “Introduciiiiiiiing… Starberry!” She twirled in place once for effect, showing off her full body strawberry suit complete with themed headband and boots, then pulled Janna out from behind her, who had her hand on her forehead. “And Janna Banana!” She’d begrudgingly put on the main banana costume but had vehemently declined to wear the rest of the ensemble Star had picked out for her, sticking with her normal outfit instead, which Star was willing to accept.

Marco and Tom stared wide-eyed for a moment, turning to each other, then the girls, then to each other again, then back to the girls, mouths agape.

“How… what… wuh…” they both stammered incoherently, before bursting into raucous laughter, holding onto each other just to stay standing.

“God this is stupid,” Janna grumbled under her breath.

Star waited until they were done before explaining herself. “OK, so remember that night at D&D where Janna bet me I couldn’t beat the cyclops horde and I did?”

“You were only able to do that because you, and I quote, ‘rolled for cuteness check’ so they’d adopt you instead and Ferguson allowed it for some reason.”

“Well, maybe it’s because my character is incredibly cute!”

“Your character is just an elvish Marco.”

“Exactly. Anyway, since you guys were already doing your own thing for Halloween, I thought Janna and I would, too! Fruit Friends!” Star shrilled, hugging Janna and wiggling her back and forth.

“Let’s just get this over with.”

“Well, you both look great,” Marco giggled, walking over and flicking the strawberries on Star’s headband. “Where did you get this?”

“Dad helped me make it. He’s surprisingly good at arts and crafts. You two look pretty nice yourself.”

“Thanks. Tom wouldn’t wear the rest of the costume, though, but it’s still OK.”

“I’m not wearing a full body fursuit, Marco. But I can definitely do that thing bulls do in cartoons,” he coolly smirked, before blowing a puff of smoke with a bit of flame from his nostrils. Tom had a large nose ring and a bushy tip on top of his tail, but otherwise was wearing a pretty standard dark jacket on top of a maroon button-up shirt with dark slacks.

Star turned back to her boyfriend, looking his flashy getup up and down. “You look pretty nice yourself, Diaz,” she crooned playfully. “Although you missed out on the opportunity to be Mango Diaz for the night, bub.” The skull-themed makeup was absolutely divine, as she expected from the boys - they were frankly better at it than her. The ornate gold decorations all over the jacket and high-waisted pants looked sharp on top of the red base, and she was never one to complain about a nice white dress shirt and black tie, either. “Heh, I don’t want to mess up the makeup but-”

Marco cut her off with a brief kiss, taking her by pleasant surprise, and when her eyes fluttered back open he gave her a half-lidded stare and a smug grin. “Don’t worry, we used sealer.”

Janna moaned at the couple and slumped onto the couch. “Let’s just go get candy already.”

“Are you kids leaving soon?” Rafael poked him head out from the kitchen, making a comical “oh” face upon seeing all the costumes. “Darling, come look at how wonderful these costumes are!”

Angie quickly joined with the babies in tow, oohing and aahing over all the outfits. “Let’s get a quick picture before you leave, shall we?” The babies crawled over to the teens as they struck a pose for the camera. Her best friends - well, besides Ponyhead, who had blown them off for a special edition of her show tonight - all together having fun on holidays? It was exactly the life she’d been wanting for herself for a while. Stump Day was the last time they’d done anything like that, and even then it was riddled with strife and tension, but it filled her with a genuine warmth to know this would be the norm now. Or maybe that was just the not-that-breathable costume. Tom let out a yelp when Mariposa tugged on his tail, clapping in glee at the response.

“Guess that’s our signal to go,” he said in a strained voice, scooping up Mariposa and handing her to Marco who had just put on his baby carrier before she could pull at the nose ring. Meteora, meanwhile, seemed content to nest in the leaves of her strawberry outfit. They all grabbed their bags and headed out the door.

The night started off fairly uneventful; they collected candy going door to door, and most of the Echo Creek residents were quite impressed by the costumes and especially by Tom’s pyrotechnics. They passed a few monster families wandering around - her favorite was a centipede-looking monster that had an elaborate assembly of dolls mounted onto her body to make it look like a bunch of humans in a conga line. Once they had stopped at every house in the immediate neighborhood, their bags were fairly full already, so they decided to take some time and go explore looking for decorations for a while before stuffing their bags to capacity too early. The group headed towards some of the more blended areas of the merged town (still colloquially referred to as Echo Creek by most of the population) to see how all the different groups were celebrating the spooky festivities. Star and Marco were walking hand-in-hand with the babies in their care, just taking in the sights and enjoying the company, while Tom and Janna were chatting beside Marco.

“Janna, I’m telling you, that isn’t a real thing!”

“C’mon now Tom, I have three different necronomicons that reference it.”

“Grandpa Relicor goes on for hours about curses at every single family dinner and he’s never mentioned anything that could turn a human inside out.”

“Maybe he’s keeping it for himself. Did you ever think of that?”

“I’m sorry that I don’t think about turning humans inside out all that often! Look, we can just head to his library sometime and- wait, hold on. Star, isn’t this where we got kidnapped that one time?”

Star snapped out of her daze and looked around; they were in the old monster village! Star had been so busy during the last stretch of her time on Mewni that she hadn’t even gotten to visit it once some of the monster families came back, and Buff Frog had come over to visit them a few times on Earthni but she hadn’t been sure exactly where his home was. She motioned for the group to follow her while she looked for the right hut… There! They walked up to the door and knocked.

“Go away! We do not want any!”

“Buff Frog, it’s me!”

The door flung open and Star was immediately swept up into a giant bear hug. “Star Butterfly, my little sweet potato! It has been so long! Come in, all of you. What brings you to my home, and why are dressed like weird red plant with many eyes?”

“It’s Halloween, we’re trick-or-treating!”

“What is this ‘Halloween’ of which you speak?”

This caught Star off-guard. It had been posted all over town and in the newspapers, hadn’t it? After all, there were plenty of monsters she’d seen celebrating tonight already.

“Um, well, it’s an Earth holiday where people put on costumes and walk around to other people’s houses, and those other people give them candy!”

“Ah, so that explains mysterious children at door all night. I hide in home. Many not seem happy when I am not giving them things. This also why tadpoles go with friends wearing peculiar clothing. I understand all now.”

“Out of curiosity, Buff Frog, why didn’t you know?”

“I am needing help to read fancy Earth papers, text too small for eyes. Children try to show me this ‘internal net’ of yours for video, but I do not like. They teenagers now, do not talk to old man about life,” he sighed mournfully. “Is OK. We begin Halloween now. Who want swamp grass? Is favorite treat, but I happily give to my good friends.”

“Thanks Buff Frog, but uh, I think we’re good,” Marco said, making a quick face of disgust.

“Whatwuzzat?” Tom mumbled through a mouthful of swamp grass while eagerly taking more from Buff Frog into his bag.

Another knock came to Buff Frog’s door. His face lit up in joy. “This must be trick-or-treat! I try your custom now.” He went over to the door and opened it, arms spread wide with a gigantic smile on his face. “Happy Halloween! I am so glad to have fresh-faced child at door and be part of holiday cheer. What your costume supposed to-”

“Ugh, whatever. You have any candy or what?” Star sharply turned her attention in that direction at the familiar voice.

“Jeremy?” Marco cried out, his voice cracking.

Star and Marco poked their heads around the side of Buff Frog at the familiar voice. Jeremy Birnbaum, in the shrill, diminutive flesh. Of the many people Star had met during her time on Earth, he was one of the few that she would’ve been perfectly fine with never seeing again, and she knew Marco hated him far more than she did. He was wearing a karate outfit with his name embroidered in multiple places on the fabric.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Marco Diaz. What are you doing out in a dump like this? Oh, wait, that makes perfect sense!” he cackled.

“Don’t listen to him, Buff Frog,” Marco shouted, still fixing his angry gaze on the child. “He’s just a sad, mean little turd.”

“Look, Marco, I get it. You did one big thing and had your 15 minutes of fame and you think you’re hot stuff. But all you really did was make this town even lamer and bring a bunch of weirdo losers here. Whatever, I’m out of here. By the way, those wing things on your head are wimpy, old man. Anyway, later, nerds.”

As he was walking away, he antagonized a few groups of monster teenagers that were wandering around. Star’s face felt like it was on fire. She started charging out the door to give the twerp a piece of her mind, but a large hand gripped her shoulders and held her back.

“Star… is not worth it.”

“Yeah,” Tom added, hands in his pockets. “For the record, I’ve seen a lot of demons with wings way wimpier than yours.” Buff Frog laughed sadly.

Star clenched her fists in and out, knowing they were right. After taking a deep breath, she plopped down onto the floor, resting her cheeks on her hands and sighing. Since the Cleaving, it seemed like everyone had been getting along so well, and problems had been out of sight for so long that she’d gotten complacent. Even after the subject came up earlier today, she really hadn’t believed that anything bad would happen. Had she just been delusional for assuming that things were really better? Could more of this happen? Would more of this happen? She’d done everything in her power, including giving up that very power, to fix the problems and prejudices she saw in society. On some level, she knew she shouldn’t be too bothered by this - it was just Jeremy, after all - but it was just sinking in how far away they still were from the world she wanted to see.

After another minute stewing in her negative emotions, two large hands hefted her back to her feet, and she found herself staring directly into big yellow eyes at a distance where she could see every individual wrinkle under them. “Star, is OK. Those like mean boy exist, but it not so bad. I am used to it. Is better than Mewni. No one try to shove us off cliff yet,” he laughed. “Besides, mean boy not wrong. This place is dump. Children not do chores. Teenagers. Now go, I am not needing you being sad. Get candy with friends and adorable babies,” he said sternly.

“OK. Well, tell Katrina and all the others that we said hi,” Star hesitantly spoke. He was right, she supposed, but something about it still wasn’t sitting right with her. Marco took her hand with the smile he always gave her when trying to ease her worries and the group headed for the door.

“Star, karate boy, take good care of each other. Friends and babies too. You are both like tadpole to me. All will work out, da.”

The group said their goodbyes and headed out. “You feeling alright?” Marco inquired after they’d made their way out of the monster village, .

“I- yeah, I’m fine. Just stinks to see something like that after a while of things being really good.”

He squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I know a house that gives out homemade candy bars made from Sugar Seeds. Ferguson ate four of them one year and was sick for two weeks. Wanna go?”

Star was grateful for the change in subject, and turned to see his soothing chocolate gaze roving her face. He was always right at her side knowing how to lift her spirits, whether it be out of the deepest depths or from the mountaintops into the clouds. Maybe it was just best to push the issue out of her mind for n-

“I hate to interrupt the moment,” Tom stuck his head between them, forcing them to split apart to not get smacked by his horns, “but you might want to check this out.” He pointed a block in front of them to a group of kids frantically scrambling away from something with purpose, looking back over their shoulders every few seconds. Star and Marco locked eyes briefly once more and ran over towards them with the others just behind. Interestingly, Star noted, there were humans, Mewmans, and monsters alike in the group. The moment they drew near, one of the kids just pointed around a large building nearby without a word before continuing their mad dash.

Even Janna seemed interested now, raising an eyebrow along with the others before jogging towards the source of the commotion. They rounded the corner and were greeted with…

“Ludo’s castle?” Star and Marco said simultaneously. “Ludo’s here?”

“They’re still doing that thing?” Tom mouthed to Janna in the periphery of Star’s vision.

Now that she thought about it, there was a dim recollection of Ludo’s voice in her mind from the fateful day of the Cleaving, but her entire being had been so focused on the portal that it had barely registered at the time. How they hadn’t stumbled upon it in the past few months, though, was beyond her. OK, maybe it had something to do with them spending their first few dragon-cycle joyrides focused more on each other than what was below them, but in her defense, how was she supposed to focus on anything else with Marco in his adorkably handsome rough-and-tumble rider outfit? A non-heart-shaped spot of pink tinged her cheeks, and she shook off the thought by striding towards the castle, with Marco jerking forward as a result.

Janna’s eyes lit up at the eerie glow of the torches and the medieval trellises all along the walls. “Finally, my kind of Halloween.” She leaped forward to ring the doorbell.

Before anyone could react, a large net descended on them, capturing them and hoisting them up into the air. They all instinctively tried to break it, and found it impossibly strong. The door opened and they were hoisted into the and carried inside. Star tried to get her bearings but struggled to adjust her position given the bulky fruit costume. Eventually they were set back down in a large room. Star was finally able to crane her head enough to see the back of a large stone throne with two giant horns.

A shrill, familiar cackle erupted from the occupant of the throne. Suspicions confirmed, at least. “Hello, children. You have been trapped in my clutches! By the power invested in me on this Hallow’s Ween, I declare you… trick-and-treated!” Everyone remained still for a second, holding their breath to see what Ludo would do next. “Trick-and-treated!” he called out again. His voice dropped to a whisper, but Ludo was bad at whispering. “Dennis, that’s when you turn the chair!”

“Oh, right, sorry big brother!”

The stone throne swiveled around to reveal Ludo in the same clown costume Star remembered from the seance years ago. Spider and Bird, who Star now realized had been the ones to trap and carry them, emerged from the shadows to flank the sides of the throne. Right as the net dropped, Star felt her costume get pelted with something light. She picked up a small bag that had landed next to her face; it was labeled “Gold’N Crispz”.

“Ludo, what are you doing?” she finally called out.

“Wait, Star Butterfly? Is that really you? Help them up, help them up quickly now!” Spider, Bird, and a tall Kappa Star didn’t recognize helped Marco and Tom up first, who in turn assisted with Star and Janna. Ludo ran over and leaped up into a confused Marco’s arms, giving him a big hug and doing the same to Star a moment later. “I’ve missed you both so much!”

“We, um, missed you too, Ludo?” Marco unsurely stammered out.

“Oh, Marco, you’re alive! I thought you were actually a skeleton for a moment there!”

Star cleared her throat to get his attention once more. “So, uh, Ludo… we saw some kids running away screaming from here before.”

“Trick-and-treating hasn’t been going so well, they all call me ‘ugly hairy clown’ and flee. Ah well, more chips for me! But help yourselves, you two!”

“Uh, Star?” Tom spoke up. “Where’s Meteora?” Wait, what? She was gone? Star had felt her pulling on the leaves just a few minutes ago. She glanced over to Mariposa, who was still strapped into Marco’s carrier comfortably, seemingly unaffected by recent events. She groaned in frustration; the night had already had enough problems, why did this have to happen?

“There!” Marco shouted, pointing to the half-monster baby who had started crawling all along the gloomy walls of the castle. She rounded a corner out of sight.

“I got this,” Janna said. “This is my kind of place.” She jogged as fast as her costume would let her into the corridor Meteora disappeared into.

“I have zero clue who any of you are,” Tom added, pointing finger guns at Ludo and his friends, “but you guys seem like you have some catching up to do, so I’m just gonna go too.” He followed after Janna, tailed by the taller Kappa who Star presumed was Dennis who was breathlessly shouting warnings about various things in the castle.

“Well, your friends seem fun!” Ludo spouted out, bouncing on his feet. He led them into a room decorated like a lounge and jumped up onto one of the armchairs, motioning Star and Marco to do the same. “Come, sit! Would you care for another game of cha-rahds?” He gasped suddenly, pointing at Marco’s chest with a comically excited grin. “You two had a baby! That’s so nice! What’s her naaaaaame?”

Star and Marco’s faces both flushed. “She’s not ours, she’s my sister!”

“Potato, tomato,” he waved his hand at them dismissively. “I’m so happy for you both!”

“Anyyyyway,” Star drawled, eager to change the subject, “You rebuilt your castle, huh? It looks…” She spotted some sludge dripping down one of the walls nearby. “...nice!”

“Yes, it’s been quite an emotional journey this past year. I floated through space for a while - I think I hallucinated you with six arms at one point!” Star raised a finger and began to open her mouth, but Marco quickly grabbed pushed it back down. He probably had the right idea. “Then I lived a dreadful life with mother and father for a while, and then my wonderful little brother who I love so very much helped me see that I didn’t need them anymore by dunking a basketball, and we ended back up here! I guess that’s about it.”

“That’s… uh, glad to hear you’re doing well?” Star asked hesitantly. It was nice to see him not constantly attacking them or plotting to steal from them, but he was still an incredibly strange creature that Star could never quite get a read on. “How’s Earthni been treating you?”

“What’s an Earthni?” He blinked a few times, still innocently grinning.

“Earth and Mewni fused a few months ago,” Star dumbfoundedly responded.

“So that’s why the sky went all pretty and purpley, and why that milkshake stand I always went to right after I failed at getting your wand appeared right next to us. Speaking of which, how is that wand of yours?” He leaned forward in his seat expectantly.

“It’s, um, gone,” Marco said.

Ludo’s brow furrowed. “Well why don’t you go find it?”

“He means gone gone.” Star added. “We destroyed its source.”

“Whaaaaaaat? So no more magic at all? No more wand?” His beady pupils suddenly contracted to tiny dots in the center of his bulbous yellow eyeballs, voice dropping to a whisper. “...no more wand. No more wand. No more wand! I’m free, I’m- I’m free!” He stood up on the chair, jumping up and down and spinning around looking the happiest they’d ever seen him. “My brain, it doesn’t stop scheming and plotting for ways to steal the wand. It’s been lingering in the back of my mind for so long, but I don’t want it there. This is such a relief!”

Star felt a pang of sympathy for her ex-enemy. His mind was largely still an enigma, but he was struggling to put a past he wasn’t proud of behind him in his own way - something she was quite familiar with. She popped open a bag of chips and inspected them carefully, still a bit concerned about whatever food Ludo might deem worthy of giving out. Much to her surprise, they were actually just standard potato chips - fairly good ones, at that, and she was pretty hungry, having been too preoccupied to even dig in to her candy haul so far. Ludo remained in his happy reverie, babbling to himself while she munched and crunched down all the chips. Was that really all there were in it? Stupid packaging. She rustled the bag a bit, hearing it echo through the room. How could a bag be so loud? When the noise persisted, she realized it was actually footsteps. The three stood up and found Tom, Janna, and Dennis, all with scratches and scrapes and scuffs on their skin and clothing, panting heavily with Meteora fast asleep sucking her thumb in Tom’s arms.

“That baby is a nightmare!” Dennis squeaked out, his nasally voice only accentuated by his breathlessness. “She fought off Spider and Bird-”

“Yes, yes, we’ve all had a lovely evening, Dennis. But get this: the wand is gone! I’m free! Star, Marco, it’s been wonderful to see you again, we must catch up more some other time! Quickly, we must go tell Fudo and Tudo and Kudo and Zudo and Menudo and-”

Star, Marco, and the others had managed to make it the whole way off the castle property and out of earshot before Ludo was done with his list of names.

“Sooooo… what happened to-”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Janna tersely stated, as if the experience had made her a changed person. “Let’s just go take Meteora back home.” She took a step forward and winced

Tom snapped his fingers and a pillar of flame erupted in the street behind them, fading away seconds later to reveal his souped up Underworld carriage. “I can’t portal everywhere anymore but I can at least do that. Hop in.”

“What a gentleman,” Janna grumbled, tossing herself face-first onto the long plush seats within.

Star looked at the carriage, then looked up to Marco and knew they were on the same page as usual. They weren’t quite ready for Halloween to end yet. “We’ll make our own way back.”

“Suit yourself,” Tom shrugged, following Janna into the carriage before taking off for the night.

Marco’s hand found Star’s once more as they started to meander back in the general direction of home. “Well, that was an unexpected visit.”

“Yeah… glad to see Ludo’s doing well, though. It kinda gives me hope for Earthni, y’know?”

“Hmm?”

Star gazed up at the last vestiges of the sun in the sky. The sunsets on Earthni were becoming a constant positive in her life, always reminding her of the best the world had to offer. Of Marco, of peace, of the promise of a happy life ahead of them. “If Ludo, the guy who spent basically every waking second of his life for my entire first year here trying to steal my wand, can dig deep down and learn and grow from it… maybe we don’t just have to accept that some people are going to be mean idiots. It’s never gonna be perfect, but maybe there’s at least some hope that anyone can change.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Except Jeremy. He might be one of the hopeless ones,” she joked, jabbing an elbow into Marco’s side causing them both to giggle profusely. “Weeeeeell, we should probably get home soon. This little angel is on a one-way trip to Snoozeville.” She gave a feather-light boop to Mariposa’s nose.

“...should we still stop for those Sugar Seed bars?”

She sighed in contentment and leaned against his arm. “You know me too well, Diaz.”

#starco #svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #tgg svtfoe #fanfic

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foxghost · 6 years

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鎮魂 Guardian [Zhen Hun] extra 4 full translation

Or, the chapter that turns the ending of the Guardian drama into a happy ending. Translated for @lady-eden, to whom i recced 40eps of fluff and pain.

Original Chinese character count: 10201 translated word count: 9184 original text: https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv838549/

(1)

“… and then click on this. Now all you have to do is make up a payment PIN.” Zhao Yunlan hands the cellphone to Shen Wei, but after a moment of thinking he doesn’t wait for Shen Wei to take it and does it for him. “Forget it. I did it for you — it’s not like you have a new one anyway.”

Teacher Shen is stubbornly kind, has no concept of security, and all his PIN codes are just their street number.

Zhao Yunlan says, “Good thing you don’t have much money.”

Theoretically, comrade Shen Wei knows how to live just fine, and if he’s equally competent in handling his personal affairs — food, clothes, a place to live — as he is in administering the three realms, then he must be doing so adequately with plenty of energy to spare.

[TN. Three realms: desires, form, and formlessness]

Realistically, Shen Wei doesn’t know how to take care of himself at all — in chaotic times he would find some place out of the way and seclude himself, and when the world’s at peace he would make do with a rented room. He has wandered among mortals for many years, clean and free without making or worrying about money. Never mind buying property and settling down; until now, aside from a university-issued salary card he doesn’t own anything.

As for what’s between the earth and sky, the world’s mountains and valleys, the country’s administering its own tourism department and it’s not like they put aside a percentage for him.

“Come, let me teach you how to send a red pocket.” Zhao Yunlan hooks an arm over Shen Wei’s shoulder, ruining his dignified pose, and using teaching as an excuse takes his phone and gives himself a red pocket, accepting it happily. “This century’s very last old antique has formally entered the age of mobile payments, an occasion to be celebrated … tch, what now.”

His phone’s ringing before he’s done talking. Zhao Yunlan gives it a mere glance before deciding he doesn’t want to pick it up, turning it over. Unexpectedly, the other side doesn’t give up and calls three times in a row, and as if they know he’s playing deaf, makes the next call on his office phone. Zhao Yunlan stretches a leg over the small sofa and pushes Daqing with a foot, midway through the cat’s focused personal grooming. “Hey, fatso, pick up the phone.”

Because Shen Wei is here, Daqing bristles but doesn’t say anything, angrily whipping his tail as he jumps onto the desk. He pretends the phone receiver is Zhao Yunlan’s face and smacks it with a paw. “Wai? Special … Oh?” Daqing laughs, “Your leadership’s looking for our Chief Zhao? Oh, he says he’s not here.”

Zhao Yunlan remains silent.

He turns his phone over and discovers that the last three calls weren’t made by the same person — the last two were from his dad, so he’s forced to crawl towards his desk with a new headache. “These ghost and goblins. Don’t they have anything better to do? They’re all bothering the old man by the back door.”

The Special Investigative Division, or the “Zhenhun Ling,” used to be also a “Daycare” and “Labour Reformation centre for convicted criminals.”

[TN. Zhen-hun can translate to Calm-Soul, or Guard-soul, but it’s more than that. The word 鎮/zhen is like holding down a sheet of paper beneath a weight, and I don’t want to water it down, so for the rest of this I’m just going to use Zhenhun, as is. When it’s referred to as the Zhenhun-Ling, it’s also a wooden plaque, and sometimes a paper and cinnabar copy. The 'Ling" part is ambiguous — it’s the ‘command’ or ‘authority.’ Zhao Yunlan’s title is Zhenhun Lingzhu, or “Master of the Zhenhun Token,” but often only ‘Lingzhu’ is used, which can be translated to ‘Lord.’]

Outside of the mortal Xiao Guo, or Wang Zheng and Sangzan, comrades who’s been taken in by Zhenhun Lingzhu, the members of their staff can be roughly sorted into two categories: ones like Zhu Hong and Lin Jing, sent by their leaders or family to train and to gain experience in The Way, or the other kind like Chu Shuzhi, a convicted felon working off his time. To begin with, because the Zhenhun Ling was established to coordinate the three realms and to keep peace in the mortal realm, it’s really a thankless job: the everyday chore of wiping the asses of so-called evil perpetrators notwithstanding, they need to adhere to all the minutiae of society’s laws. There’s no real enlightenment to be had following their mortal of a boss around, so not many experts are willing to join them.

But now, things are different since the Great Seal shattered in a big way, the four holy artefacts returning to their places, the Great Wheel established, the Ghost King gaining godhood, Kunlun reclaiming his altar. Even though these facts are not well known, to those who are connected in the three realms, they are not really secrets, either. So the thankless, bitterly low paying work at the S.I.D. has become sweet dim sum overnight and everyone wants to join in order to rub shoulders with gods. Zhao Yunlan just hates to be bothered, and he refuses them all with the excuse of, “Can’t fit so many names on the Zhenhun Ling.”

However, even though the Zhenhun Ling can’t bear so many names, the Special Investigative Division can — The S.I.D. is an administrative agency.

And so in order to gain some connection to the Zhen Hun token, some smart people has gone around making noise, forcing the original S.I.D. into restructuring. Dragon City’s S.I.D. has morphed into “Special Investigative Bureau” and every region gets their own agency; it’s become quite an organisation.

In this way, Department Head Zhao — Zhao Chu — who spends most of his time lying about in the attic of 9 University Road has somehow lain his way into becoming Bureau Chief Zhao — Zhao Ju.

This is the first year the S.I.B. started officially recruiting after their restructuring. The Zhao Yunlan who’s quite happy passing the years quietly planting vegetables in the S.I.B. yard has been dragged out of his attic to manage the recruitment. Even though none of these newbies are to be entered into the Zhenhun Ling, they’re still to join a ‘branch office,’ and Zhao Yunlan doesn’t want to invite a bunch of shoddy staff members on the quality of unformed melons just to make up the numbers — it’s not like he’s short on idiots — and now that the bureau’s manpower’s limited, it’s impractical to have a big recruitment fair. This is why they’ve only sent out a small number of registration forms to each tribe and sect, to let their leaders choose their own candidates.

In order to get a few more registration forms, the experts from everywhere are pulling out all the stops — making like the eight gods crossing the seas, working miracles.

“Wai?” Zhao Yunlan lazily picks up the phone, sighs, “Isn’t an old man like you retired by now? Why are you wasting your time on this instead of organising with some old ladies and going square dancing? Nobody asked you to go around networking — Ugh…”

Daqing perks up his ears, taking in the robust long form essay from the other side in all rounded news-syllables. Zhao Yunlan tries to interrupt, coming up with excuses, “I’m not, I didn’t,” without avail, and finally he gives up and leans on the edge of the table, nothing to do but to go from studying the ceiling to staring at Teacher Shen’s god-level dust-free clean cuffs, finding himself seriously missing Shennong Bo — at least mister broken bowl didn’t have all this desire to monologue.

[TN: Shennong’s ascended medicine pot / 農藥缽 was the one possessing Yunlan’s father in the book.]

Lately, the retired old director’s been the object of too many heartfelt visits by strangers, and once he figures out what’s happening, explodes in a fit of anger. It’s already 2018 and he’s never imagined that there are still people who would go to such lengths — to knock at such an out of the way backdoor — to get some rotten registration forms. How is this organisation run?

So he decides to call his son to give him a thorough lecture.

Zhao Yunlan answers as if reading a Buddhist prayer, “Yes, I know … you said it … no, I’m not using this opportunity to take bribes. The resources really are limited, we have too many applicants, we really can’t meet them all … I have not corroded away, it’s not as if we’re getting acid rain in Dragon City … no, I don’t need to have a smart mouth everyday. I’m facing the wall in serious reflection of my wrongs everyday, really, nipping all the bad in the bud … if you don’t believe me, ask Shen Wei!”

There are three knocks on the office door, and Lin Jing sticks his head in holding a calendar, but not before facing Shen Wei and greeting him with a fist in hand. “Thank you Teacher Shen — leader, tomorrow’s Duanwu, the Dragon Boat Festival. I’m asking on behalf of everyone in the department: are you sending out holiday gifts?”

Zhao Yunlan, craning his neck to keep a phone receiver held between his chin and his shoulder, happens to have no energy for this, points at the door. “I’m sending a notice on how to pass the holiday with integrity. Get out!”

Representative Lin takes the blow and runs away in disgrace.

But Zhu Hong is already knocking just as he leaves. “Thank you Teacher Shen — Zhao Ju, my Sishu asked me to arrange a dinner. A few leaders from the yao tribes want to pay their respects,” she sighs, “I’m only passing on the request. They’re pretty annoying so if you don’t feel like going, don’t go. You don’t have to worry about giving me face.”

[TN. Sishu just means fourth uncle. 蛇/snake is pronounced Shé and after this I’m just going to use that as a last name.]

[TN. 妖 / Yao is generally translated to demon / monster, but in Chinese myth they’re mostly ‘ascended’ souls, not evil by nature. They’re not exactly ‘beasts’ either — you can have an ascended rock or a tree, and in the case of the being that possessed Yunlan’s father, a god’s medicine pot. They’re all ‘yao.’]

Zhu Hong is one of their own, and truly he doesn’t need to worry about such superficial bullshit as giving face when it comes to her, but the yao tribes are Kunlun Jun’s spiritual descendents, and in the ‘face’ of the yao tribe elders he’s left with no choice but to respect them. Zhao Yunlan can only wave at Zhu Hong helplessly.

[TN. Jun is an honorific tacked onto any man from a monarch to a scholar.]

The moment Zhu Hong turns around, she nearly run right into Chu Shuzhi, who’s is in such a hurry he only had time to nod at her. “Wait — Lao Zhao, something’s happened. Someone’s … pulled a trick on the application forms.”

Shen Wei, who has been firmly focused on playing with his phone hears this and raises his head. “What is it?”

In the everyday work of the S.I.B, Shen Wei tend not to participate in conversations unless someone asks him a question; this time, when he cuts in on his own, it is because the “watermark” on the application form is something he helped create. The Zhanhun Shi guarded the Great Seal and did not misspent these five thousand years; every leader of every tribe, from their celebrated beginnings to their bitter ends lived beneath his watchful eye. His entire person is a living “Lost Magics library” … but since no one dares to come buy the rights from him, this “library” remains poor.

[TN. Zhanhun Shi / 斬魂使 literally: cut-soul-person. I could call him “Soul Slayer” but a name is a name. Shi is an honorific, of sorts. In this case an occupational one.]

Chu Shuzhi says, “The application deadline’s still ten days away, but the applications we’ve received has already exceeded the numbers we sent out — oh, right, thank you Teacher Shen.”

Shen Wei creases his brows.

“Gather them all and let me take a look.” Zhao Yunlan puts down the phone and walks over. “Ai, speaking of which, what kind of code word is ‘Thank you Teacher Shen’? Why is everyone coming in saying that?”

Shen Wei says, “Ugh…”

Chu Shuzhi says, “It’s for the red pockets Teacher Shen’s been gifting — Duanwu holiday bonus, right?”

Zhao Yunlan takes the phone out of Shen Wei’s hands to have a look. Within the time he took his call, Student Shen Wei has firmly grasped the concept of mobile payments. He even seriously worked in some after class practice — he went through his contact list and sent out a red pocket to every person in the bureau.

It’s not even a group red pocket, a free for all battle, first come first served. Teacher Zhao hasn’t managed to teach that lesson. He’s sent them out one by one.

He’s gone through half the contact list and still has the other half left, but there’s no money left in his account.

Their Teacher Shen treats money like game money — instant redeeming, the kind that doesn’t require exchange to virtual dollars.

Zhao Yunlan is silent.

Shen Wei silently questions.

“No…thing,” Zhao Yunlan drags the word out to two miles, and from outside the two miles sends back a painful smile, “If you don’t have money I’ll send you some. Don’t leave the other half, keep sending them until you’re done. Ah,” he laughs, “You’re a fast learner.”

[TN. A 裡 / li is a Chinese mile, in modern times, it is half of a km.]

And in this way at this year’s Duanwu, everyone still received their holiday bonus, sponsored by a certain Mr. Zhao. They were all extremely thankful.

(2)

All of the problematic registration forms has been piled into the basement. Though the light isn’t on, it isn’t dark, either; the faint silvery glow of the forms gathered together rivals an entire row of fluorescent tubes.

Wang Zheng and Sangzan works into daylight overtime. When Zhao Yunlan and his group comes down the stairs, they’d just finished grouping the forms by tribe and area.

The registration forms were elegantly designed, sent out in white envelopes with a little stamp, and all of them were made by Shen Wei. The form belongs to whomever can open the seal, and if someone else takes it they won’t be able to record anything in it. It’s the equivalent of a written exam — as a standard written exam would be impractical. For one, each person has their own speciality, for two, lots of experts hiding in the forests and the mountains to train can’t read simplified Chinese.

Sangzan says, “Zhao Ju, Speaking Of Which, we have sent out 729 registration forms, and At This Very Moment we have received just over 1560.”

[TN. Sangzan is using unnecessary 4-character idioms. When he does, I capitalise the words.]

Zhao Yunlan says, “The difference is that much?”

Sangzan sighs, “Yes, What A Splendid Sight.”

Zhao Yunlan doesn’t say anything.

Brother Sangzan has been exceedingly ambitious in his years working for the S.I.D, studious in his studies. By now his spoken Mandarin is already clear and concise and he’s discarded the terrible nickname of “jieba,” so having raised standards for himself he’s teaching himself idioms, often tries to quote old texts wholesale. Thus began another round of trying his colleagues’ patience.

[TN. The word 結巴 / Stammer is pronounced Jiēbā. Daqing used to call Sangzan this, and when asked what it meant, Daqing replied that it’s an honorific denoting respect. 潔扒 / Jiébā was how Sangzan mispronounced the word for stammer. It doesn’t mean anything.]

Zhao Yunlan is nearly used to this already, and with familiar ease disregards all the four-character words out of Sangzan’s mouth, waving dismissively to say, “You’ve worked hard.”

“Where Be Such Reasoning? It wasn’t hard at all,” Sangzan answers with a smile. “I Own Nothing But What I Need, and what I am able to contribute is merely A Hair From the Backs of Nine Bulls.”

Zhao Yunlan feels as though his life is being shortened, but Wang Zheng doesn’t seem to care as she stands to the side with an indulgent expression, only know to look at him and smile like an idiot.

“Whatever, as long as you’re happy.” Zhao Yunlan says helplessly, “Hurry up and clock out, you two.”

Shen Wei’s ‘watermark’ isn’t something that just anyone can make bootleg copies of — not to mention to imitate it so expertly. During the time Zhao Yunlan and Sangzan had their conversation, he already managed to flip through all of the forms.

Chu Shuzhi says, “Teacher Shen, what do you think? Honestly, I can’t tell the difference.”

Shen Wei doesn’t make a sound; after contemplating a moment he makes a waving gesture and the glowing registration forms scatter like butterflies, moving away from the order Wang Zheng and Sangzan’s sorted them in. In a confusion of light and shadow the forms fall into two piles, one obviously thicker than the other.

Zhao Yunlan pulls on his pants’ cuffs and half crouches, checking a few out of each stack. He points at the thicker pile and asks, “All of these are identical?”

Shen Wei nods.

Listening in, Chu Shuzhi is confused. “And if it’s not? If they’re identical doesn’t that mean you can’t tell if it’s fake?”

“No,” Shen Wei says. “He means the seal on top of each envelope.”

Even though every seal on each envelope looks exactly the same, the method to open them are different. This way, they can sort among the talents and the abilities of each, and it prevents the registrants from comparing their answers with each other.

When they sent out the registration forms, the different types of seals were sent out according to the tribes. For example, the snake tribes favour water, and opening the seal requires burning it with the Samadhi true flame, forcing the registrant to do something they wouldn’t want to do.

Of course, all the seals of the returning envelopes have already been broken, but the scent left behind is enough for its creator to see the problem — every seal in the thicker stack of forms are identical, obviously made by taking one and making duplicates.

Shen Wei says, “When we sent out the forms, I left a trace on each and every one. We can figure out which sect or tribe we’ve sent this one to.”

Chu Shuzhi stares, wide-eyed and shocked. “No way … wait a second! Seven hundred odd forms, every single one is different? And you’ve left an identifying trace?”

“Mmhmm.” Shen Wei adjusts his glasses. “What about it?”

Chu Shuzhi is silent.

No wonder the bureau has never mentioned requisitioning labour costs for their consultant; if they get charged the market rate, it seems they would only be able to afford him by selling off Kunlun Jun.

With a clue, the rest is easy. After a simple check of their records, they find out that the problematic form went to a yao tribe — the water tribes of the South China Sea.

Zhao Yunlan stands. “Tell Zhu Hong to call her Sishu.”

In general, the yao tribes are separated into birds, beasts, water-dwelling, and the ascended, which is to say: ones that fly in the sky, ones that run on the earth, ones that swim in the water, then there are the stones, grass, and trees that’s gained spirits. Those are then sorted into specific types, each with a place they call home.

Because the S.I.B.'s Zhu Hong is a part of the snake tribe and their leader Sishu is quite capable, treats his work and private matters as separate entities, the snake tribes can be said to have someone on the inside, but knows to not exploit their position, and he’s become especially respected. In a few short years he’s already become the leader of the yoa tribes, and whenever something goes wrong with the yao tribes, they speak to the She Sishu.

Not even five minutes after the She Sishu takes his niece’s phone call, he’s braved the blazing sun to arrive at 9 University Road. He’s briefed, and apologising formally to Kunlun Jun, knows he hasn’t face to ask for more registration forms. Turning, the old man personally rolls up his sleeves — heading off to the South China Sea to catch the bastard.

[3]

“Actually it is rather strange, if you think about it,” Shen Wei says as he slices up ham in the kitchen after they’ve come home. “There are mountains beyond mountains, talents I cannot imagine, so I can’t absolutely guarantee something I make can’t be duplicated. But that envelope is quite simple, and a real expert would be able to tell every seal is different. Why would they do something so stupid as to make hundreds of copies?”

Zhao Yunlan leans uselessly on the kitchen counter; he never helps, only ever gets in the way. He picks pieces of ham off the the cutting board to snack on as Shen Wei slices. “What about a holy artefact? The pollution in these times hasn’t helped the quality of the yao tribes any, but each tribe has their own history — maybe some holy item passed down from their ancestors.”

Shen Wei finishes slicing the ham, and after a moment of silent contemplation turns to get a plate. “But I can’t think about what it could be, right now …”

Something so amazing it can duplicate the seal of a natural ghost king, and to use it to do something as silly as this — what holy artefact could it be?

Creator God Pangu branded Photocopier?

By the time he turns around with a plate for the sliced ham, Shen Wei discovers that someone’s taken all the ham off the cutting board.

Shen Wei doesn’t say anything.

Zhao Yunlan follows his gaze like he’s slow on the uptake, and chewing with lightning speed swallows the ‘evidence.’ He stretches like a cat, as if the case of the missing ham has nothing to do with him at all.

Shen Wei asks, “… It’s not too salty?”

He hears a sound like a click in his chest before Zhao Yunlan escapes the kitchen fearing the repercussion of his crimes, and both of them turn to look toward the southern skies.

Shen Wei asks, “What was that?”

“I don’t know, but …” Zhao Yunlan squints. “It feels like the three sovereigns. Wai, Zhu Hong?”

[TN. The era of the three sovereigns and five emperors. In Zhen Hun, there was a battle between the three sovereigns and 蚩尤/Chiyou. I’ll link all the myths at the end of this.]

“Lao Zhao, something’s happened to my Sishu!”

“Calm down, tell me slowly.”

“Didn’t he leave for the South China Sea? The tribe just sent news, the leader’s life lamp has suddenly gone out! My Sishu he …”

“Don’t panic,” Zhao Yunlan says. “When a yao as great as he falls there would be visions — it wouldn’t be without a trace like this. Maybe he’s had a bit of an accident and his connection with his life lamp’s been severed. Let’s do this — have the snake tribe bring your Sishu’s life lamp, and I’ll go look for him with Shen Wei.”

They don’t have time to eat dinner properly so Shen Wei hurriedly stuffs their half prepared ingredients into the fridge. It looks like they’ll just have to order in when they come back later.

Another elder from the snake tribe sends over She Sishu’s life lamp. Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei shortens the distance into a mere inch, and within the blink of an eye they arrive at the South China Sea.

Ever since the tourist industry began developing the South China Sea, the water tribe’s shrimp soldiers and crab commanders, useless to begin with, has somehow gotten worse. The little yao, seduced by the twin promises of sunny beaches and palm trees, spend their days wearing tropical swim trunks to pass their days among the humans. But the humans finish their vacations and go back to work and school, do what they’re supposed to do, while these dumbass little yao simply follow the next set of tourists and continue to play around. Their cultivation has flat-lined, and even their study towards enlightenment has been delayed as they sun their shrimp shells and fish scales to a golden malt.

It stands to reason that when the snake tribe’s leader make a personal visit, this gang of under-trained garbage must greet him with a banner. Which sea urchin gave them the courage to rebel?

[TN. 海膽 / Sea urchin is written literally “sea gallbladder.” In English, you say someone with courage as having “guts,” in Chinese, you say they have “gallbladder.”]

Could it be their daily chore of sitting on the shore drinking fresh water has done something to their osmotic pressure, and their gall’s gone swollen?

Anyway, Zhao Yunlan can’t figure it out.

When they arrive at the South China Sea, it is to find the water tribes there in disarray; when they heard that Kunlun Jun and the Ghost King Dianxia has come for them, the ones in charge of the tribes started pissing themselves. They’re all kneeling on the sand, in their shorts and bare arms, faces towards the sand and backs to the sky; each person’s back has been tattooed a single word, and strung together it reads, “This generation has committed sins worthy of ten thousand deaths, to the gods above we offer an apology.”

[TN. Dianxia is an honorific for kings/queens]

It’s such an amazing sight even the hermit crabs dare not show their faces.

“Get up. What are you all doing? We’re here to talk. Stop being so embarrassing!” Zhao Yunlan sits at the edge of a cloud, and so struck by the sight he can feel a constant pulse at his temple — they can’t even get down, there isn’t any space on the beach. “I don’t get it. It’s been a hundred years since we buried such an archaic cultural practice — how is it that it’s still intact among you yao tribes? Think before you act!”

The South China Sea is rich in resources, the seafood … no, the types of yao belonging to the water tribes varied, and this branch of the water tribe tend to live all mixed together, with the tribe leaders forming an alliance. The alliance’s director is a 3000 year old big turtle, with the vice director being a 2500 year old sea cucumber.

the two directors are a golden partnership without conflict, and Zhao Yunlan listens to the weepy sounding report as they relate the cause of the problem but only manages to get through half of it before he feels his immortal soul go eight turns around the thirty-six mountains and valleys — his gaze going unfocused — and for the first time feels as though their Guo Changcheng is a smart and cunning boy.

It must be difficult, but Shen Wei listens to the end. “That is to say, your honourable tribe leader in charge of watching over the forbidden sanctuary did not receive a registration form, and in indignation he stole one and used the sanctuary to make a large number of copies?”

The sea turtle director says, sighing, “Yes, that person’s original form was a barracuda, and they sold the fake registration forms making massive profits. He used the proceeds to buy areca nuts in bulk and has already gone on the run.”

“…It doesn’t matter what he bought in bulk, let’s leave that aside for now.” Shen Wei says, “Is it convenient for us to know what your honourable tribe is holding in the sanctuary? How were the registration forms duplicated?”

The sea cucumber answers with a bitter expression. “Your honour, aside from generations of barracuda charged with watching the sanctuary, none of us yao dare approach the area. According to the ancestors, an old holy artefact was sealed away there. Right — the leader of the snake tribes has come by, said he didn’t understand our explanation at all and insisted on investigating the sanctuary. We didn’t dare keep him, but not long after he went inside, the South China Sea had a sudden and huge quake, and he never came back. We still don’t know what happened!”

Shen Wei tuns his head so he could meet Zhao Yunlan’s gaze, and Zhao Yunlan wakes from his nap, straightening his back. “Ai, then quit blabbering and lead the way.”

By this time, the night has darkened. It is not yet Duanwu and the moon is hidden, the sea heavy and thick seeming, but it looks like something restless and gigantic has awoken in the deep, causing unending waves that seem to resonate with the beating of Zhao Yunlan’s heart. They’re still more than two hundred miles from the sanctuary, but the two directors from the water tribes are already so terrified their faces have turned white, and cannot be convinced to go another step.

The vice-director says, “In the past we dared to patrol the sanctuary during the holidays, but from the day that stinking fish moved what it ought not, the sanctuary has become more horrifying day by day. At first, it was only the ten miles outside it, and now over a hundred miles, we can’t — can’t breathe …”

As he says this, the vice director’s eyes roll and turn white and they sinks into the water as if they’re lacking in both blood and air. The blade in Shen Wei’s hand flashes like a dark shadow, and the Zhanhun blade appears, then in the blink of an eye stretches to dozens of feet long. With the scabbard still on, he promptly fishes up the sea cucumber from the deep.

Director sea turtle has no time to bother with politeness just now, and with a quick fist in hand bow changes into their natural form, picks up their partner, and swims away quick as a torpedo.

Two dark shadows quickly skim over the undercurrent towards the South China Sea forbidden sanctuary.

The nearer they get to the sanctuary, the quieter the water becomes, and as they near at the fifty mile mark, the surface becomes unnaturally still, as if an invisible hand is flattening it by force until there isn’t even a ripple, until the water seem stagnant.

Very quickly, Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei arrives at the heart of the sanctuary. There’s a strange whirlpool here, its diameter no wider than two metres, spinning rapidly, and like a needle it pierces all the way down to the sea floor. There’s a saying that even the sharpest blade cannot part water, but the water within and the water without looks like it’s been parted with something — The inside spins at breakneck speed; the outside doesn’t move a hair.

There’s a hint of darkness woven into the air above the whirlpool, calling Shen Wei’s Zhanhun blade — they’re as related as waters that flow from the same stream.

“If it’s a holy artefact left behind by some god during the time of chaos, it could very well react negatively with me.” Shen Wei says, “If they’d tried to copy anything else it may have been fine, but that registration form carried a trace of me. It must have provoked what’s sealed here — loosened the seal… And when She Sishu rushed in here he must have added flame to the fuel. I think the seal is already mostly broken — do you have any inkling of what’s in here?”

Zhao Yunlan creases his eyebrows and thinks for a while before shaking his head. “I haven’t seen it, but …”

Something inside the briefcase in his hand suddenly flashes; it’s She Sishu’s life lamp, brightening. A life lamp is actually a candle protected by a dragon pearl; it’s like a crystal lamp, shuddering as if it’s about to stop breathing. Its weak light falls onto the surface of the sea and quickly gathers into a line, pointing towards the whirlpool.

Soon after, the dragon pearl outside the life lamp cracks without warning, and quickly disintegrates. Its feeble flame jumps once, and Zhao Yunlan instinctively tries to protect it with his hand, but the whirlpool on the water suddenly explodes in all directions, and the stars above scatter like dust in a storm. Nearly at once, Shen Wei pulls Zhao Yunlan close behind him with a sweeping arm and wields his blade like a shield in front of them.

But soon Shen Wei can feel that something is wrong — his hand did not touch Zhao Yunlan.

Shen Wei turns to look in surprise, and finds that though they are barely apart, there is a transparent membrane between them. Zhao Yunlan is saying something, but his voice can’t reach him, so Shen Wei can only read his lips. He’s saying, “These bubbles are …”

Bubbles?

Shen Wei looks all around him. She Sishu’s life lamp reflects and refracts, light and shadow overlapping. It reveals the countless membranes surrounding them, tight like densely packed soap bubbles. A faint mirage-like shadow can be seen on each ‘bubble,’ and for a shocking moment they can see a million Zhao Yunlan, a million Shen Wei. As the two people in their individual bubbles drifts apart, Shen Wei’s eyes redden, and he unsheathes the Zhanhun blade, immediately cutting at whatever’s between them.

With a sudden boom, the Zhanhun blade that can cut through anything feels as though it’s been stuck in thick mud, and countless strange ‘bubbles’ are shattered by that single stroke. But many more ‘bubbles’ are rising from the sea floor as waves high as mountains crowd the surface of the sea. With a sharp and loud sound like an axe wielded by Pangu parting chaos to form the sky and sea, the mountains shakes and the ocean boils, and Shen Wei’s view darkens —

(4)

When Zhao Yunlan wakes with a start, he’s still holding onto the short candle from a life lamp with a pea-sized flame. He tries to move and is momentarily stunned, a shocked expression flashing across his face.

Slowly, Zhao Yunlan lowers his eyes, his gaze falling onto his right foot … he’s sprained an ankle.

Kunlun Jun’s incarnation is impervious to blades and guns, and neither the cold nor the heat bothers him. Since his god soul awakened six years ago, Zhao Yunlan has forgotten what a mosquito bite looks like. He never imagined he’d end up spraining his ankle at the South China Sea!

On the one hand he’s gritting his teeth over the pain, on the other he finds it rather interesting. He runs a hand over it, determines that it’s not serious, and carefully leans on the wall to stand. As he stands, he realises something is wrong; his arms and legs feels so heavy they don’t seem his own — Kunlun Jun’s ability to move freely between the heavens and the earth and to crush the three realms beneath his feet has simply disappeared.

Not only that, but his Bright-Mirror wristwatch has stopped, the half dozen charm papers left in his wallet has turned into regular newsprint that doesn’t react at all, he can’t summon his bullwhip — and even the Zhenhun Ling bound to his blood is laying in his palm without a hint of life, turned into a perfectly normal plaque of wood.

Zhao Yunlan raises She Sishu’s life lamp and takes a look around him — it’s desolate to the extreme. With a glance he can see that none of the street lamps are lit, and the street is lined on both sides by uneven, half broken down houses, and the air is thick with dust.

It’s like an old ruin.

He takes a couple of unsteady steps before he has to stop, shaking out the sand in his shoes. Each breath feels like acupuncture, needles pricking at his lungs, and an ache in his heart come and goes, making it hard to breathe. When he was a mortal, Zhao Yunlan can’t say he was perfectly healthy, but he wasn’t plagued with illnesss either … maybe he’s become unused to mortality?

Zhao Yunlan, dragging his somewhat heavy body, walks around the street once. His cell phone has no signal as he checks the time.

20:45.

The little plate of ham he pinched from the cutting board before dinner had been barely enough to fill the gaps between his teeth, and after the sprained ankle and the aching chest, this mortal body is making him remember what it feels like to have stomach problems.

He hears something go “meow” and sees a black cat jumping from the branch of a dead tree near him onto a roof, padding delicately over the broken up stones on the top of a wall, tail raised high and in no hurry at all. From every angle it looks like little Daqing — with a neck and a waist and all, a picture of the youthful days before he got fat!

Zhao Yunlan has a habit of calling cats and dogs whenever he sees them, so he whistles at the cat. In the moment the cat’s green eyes turn his way, Zhao Yunlan notices it holding a paper charm in its mouth. Before he’s able to have a good look, the sky and the earth suddenly spins — the cat disappears, the street twists and warps, and Zhao Yunlan loses his footing as though stepping on air, falling heavily towards the ground. His right foot, pain finally fading from the last fall, twists again.

Zhao Yunlan hisses in pain, then he’s stunned to find out he’s right back where he woke the last time.

He helps himself up against the same wall, and barely walks a step before he feels that something doesn’t feel right with his feet — the sand he’s spilled out of his shoes are back.

Zhao Yunlan’s pupils shrink a bit as he realises something, and taking out his phone, he checks the time.

20:35.

This is … ten minutes ago?

Zhao Yunlan takes quick steps along the street, holding onto his phone to keep track of the time. Ten minutes later, sure enough, that black cat appears again in the same pose, jumping out from the same place. This time, Zhao Yunlan doesn’t try to catch the attention of the magical cat, but stays in the corner to observe for a bit instead.

The cat holding a charm in its mouth raises a paw and takes five steps … and the sky-spinning-street-warping feeling is back!

Again, Zhao Yunlan returns to ten minutes ago.

This goes on for two, three times, and Zhao Yunlan doesn’t even bother standing up again — it’s not easy taking off these shoes.

This world is like a repeating song; the song is about 10 minutes, the space within isn’t overly large, either. He’s been trapped within these 10 minutes, time cycling over and over again.

Zhao Yunlan runs his hand along the wall, and he thinks about the strange ‘bubbles’ he saw when he was separated from Shen Wei.

‘Bubbles’ … time that goes in a cycle …

Suddenly, Zhao Yunlan stands, and again he pours the sand out of his shoes, and this time, he runs through the desolately empty streets. In the very moment that cat appears, he clamps onto the life lamp with his mouth and takes a running start, grabbing the edge of the roof so he can run up the short wall onto the roof. With one arm he sweeps up the spitting, angry cat, and digs the paper charm out of its mouth, flipping over for a landing. Before his feet hit the ground the time for space and time to orient back to its starting point has nearly come. Zhao Yunlan quickly moves the paper charm onto the flame of the life lamp. It catches fire. At the same time, Zhao Yunlan hears a bang next to his ear as if something has shattered, and the cat in his hand turns into a spiral of pale smoke.

Zhao Yunlan stumbles for a few steps, and when he looks up again he discovers that he hasn’t been sent to the starting point — the street in front of him has undergone some subtle changes. A single street lamp has been lit, the air is far less dusty, the tree is no longer bare. Though it only gained a few leaves, it is at least alive.

Zhao Yunlan brushes off the dust on his clothes. “Is that so.” He sucks his teeth, says, “I thought there was some treasure here in the South China Sea, but no, I find only problems.”

Everyone knows that you can’t actually turn back time, and a person can’t run wild over their own timeline. By the same token, cause and effect is unbreakable.

Before Kunlun Jun returned to his altar, Zhao Yunlan once travelled back eleven years to 2002, but in reality that wasn’t true time travel. It was the agricultural god Shennong taking an eleven year reincarnation wheel and storing it in a scale of Nuwa, the half snake mother goddess. The “little wheel” was a world like a mustard seed moulded by Shennong: a world much like our own but only an illusion. He’s taken a turn in a mustard seed.

[DN. 壬午年 is utterly untranslatable but it’s 2002, okay? See: sexagenary cycle. ‘Mustard seed world’ is likely named for the parable of the Sumeru mountain contained in a mustard seed, or ‘The Sumeru Mountain contains a mustard seed, and a mustard seed contains the Sumeru Mountain’ and the ending of THAT story states that the worlds are ever-changing and therefore unreal.]

Back then, when She Sishu passed the Nuwa scale to him, Zhao Yunlan walked into this mustard seed on his own without suspicion. The time in the seed cycles and so Zhao Yunlan flows along with the wheel, arriving at eleven years ago … until Shen Wei used the Zhanhun blade to cut the seed open from the outside, dragging him back to reality.

The ‘bubble’ that separated him and Shen Wei must be just like the little wheel that was eleven years long — every ‘bubble’ is a world undergoing a repeating segment of time.

There exist simple worlds that cycles every ten minutes, and there also could be worlds that cycle only once a million years, infinitely realistic, vast and infinitely complex.

So this isn’t any sort of ‘holy artefact’ at all. When the ancient gods were trying to create the true reincarnation wheel they’d gone down the wrong road, and this is the left over garbage from their experiments, sealed away in the South China Sea — unexpectedly disturbed by the Ghost King’s life force via this copy incident, and then crashed into by a great yao, causing it to resurface in the human world.

Zhao Yunlan raises his head to look at the street lamp, and thinks, “I knew it — none of you would leave me any actual inheritance. You all only ever leave me messes that need cleaning up.”

Now, he has no idea which year and month Shen Wei’s been stolen off to; it would be impractical to expect his blade as reinforcement. Each of these endlessly repeating worlds can only be broken through from the inside.

This isn’t difficult — each mustard seed has a connection with reality, and it is from this connection that Zhao Yunlan can enter from the outside. Find it, break it, and the seed will have nothing to cling to, and disappear like a flame after it dies.

For example, the ‘connecting point’ of the eleven-year wheel from back then was the mysterious book, ‘Unusual Ancient Legends.’

At the time, the Zhao Yunlan from the real world had one, and there was another one in the little Wheel. When he brought the book into the little Wheel, the two identical ‘Unusual Ancient Legends’ became one, the seed world and the real world ‘sticking’ together; illusion and reality overlapping.

That Zhao Yunlan urgently wanted to find out what Shen Wei was hiding from him, and followed the book desperately without any thought of destroying it. But if, when he’d acquired the ‘Unusual Ancient Legends’ in the little Wheel, he’d burned it, the cause and effect of the little wheel would have seriously departed from the cause and effect of reality, and the world within the wheel would disappear like smoke, not needing Shen Wei to cut through it with his blade.

If he’d burned the copy of ‘Unusual Ancient Legends’ from inside the wheel and returned to reality, the real book should still be in his hands, and wouldn’t forever stay in the little wheel to cycle forever.

As for the real ‘Unusual Ancient Legends,’ it was in all likelihood sneaked into the S.I.D. by Shennong Bo.

Now, these overlapping mustard seed worlds look like ‘bubbles,’ with Zhao Yunlan’s shadows projected into them, and each one would duplicate something he carries, becoming the ‘connecting point’ between each seed world and reality: his stopped Bright-Mirror wristwatch, the paper charm that’s now wastepaper, the Zhenhun Ling becoming normal wood, the bullwhip he cannot summon … even the immortality of Kunlun Jun.

Zhao Yunlan doesn’t know which object each world corresponds to, he can only search them one by one. He has to destroy something in each world and destroy the seed before that object will follow him back into reality.

“This is so much trouble,” Zhao Yunlan sighs. “If I knew this would happen I would have just gone back and organised an exam.”

This is all because of the imprudence of the South China Sea water tribes; when he gets back, he’s going to have a feast of sea food at a street food stall.

(5)

Zhao Yunlan has already forgotten how long he has lingered in countless seeds.

In the beginning, all the seeds were only simple scenes: a single broken down street, a dark and sunless city, the suburbs, underwater … and there were no other people at all. The cycle of time was as short as ten minutes and as long as three days, and what they duplicated were just small, inconsequential things.

But soon afterwards the seeds became more and more complicated, more and more immense, and other people began to appear, even the people he knows — for example, the seed that was about his Bright-Mirror wristwatch cycled for a full three years, the setting being Zhao Yunlan’s previous incarnation, living in the early years of the Republic.

The Bright-Mirror was passed down by the last Lord Zhenhun, or his last incarnation. He was chasing a kidnapper then, a mountain ghost or demon, and in the process shattered the face of his watch. The hostage was a child from an orphanage, and a man who proclaimed himself the Dean of the orphanage rushed to him and took away the child, and, on seeing that his watch was broken, told him he knew a good craftsman and he could have it fixed. When it’s returned the watch was already able to see between yin and yang, had become the magical treasure ‘Bright Mirror.’

Zhao Yunlan, observing coldly from the outside, watches the incarnation who shares his face slowly realise what’s happened to his watch, thus running off to the orphanage to find the dean only to find out that the dean is a short and stout nun and not at all the same person who took his watch away.

“Shen Wei ah,” Zhao Yunlan follows his past life, thinking of the origin of his watch, shaking his head and can’t help laughing, “you sneaky son of a gun.”

The repeating time loops become longer and longer, and when it exceeds fifty years, Zhao Yunlan finds himself no longer an observer of a seed world, but rather a part of it with his own identity, following the movie script of the world.

What happens in each seed world isn’t necessary from his memory; there are some that are very much like the memory of an incarnation with some subtle changes, and some are utterly strange and wonderfully new with flashes of familiarity in between. Zhao Yunlan prefers the latter, because in the five thousand years of memories of the time he spent in the wheel of reincarnation, Shen Wei made few appearances. On the rare occasion that they run into each other, he only catches a glimpse before Shen Wei is gone. But in the fabricated worlds, Shen Wei wears different identities and spends lifetimes by his side until they each find the object that breaks open the world … the real Shen Wei — as expected, Shen Wei’s Zhanhun blade has already been trapped inside. But even if he has the blade, he doesn’t dare use it, because if the world breaks from the outside, the duplicated item will become just like the book ‘Unusual Ancient Legend,’ forever left behind in this particular wheel.

Zhao Yunlan breaks through eighty mustard seeds. Each time he leaves one behind, the time reverts back to 20:35.

It feels like he has already lived through every life possible in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately, Kunlun Jun’s immortal soul was forged through a million years of reincarnation, and his mind remains as clear as when he took his first step. Finally, he arrives at the eighty-first seed.

Eighty-one, or nine by nine.

Zhao Yunlan has a premonition that this should be the very last world. Shen Wei is here too, but they couldn’t imagine that the cycle of time here runs as long as ten thousand years. The long stretch of time makes this feel real, and its binding force boundlessly strong. As he approaches the end of time, Zhao Yunlan still hasn’t found this world’s connecting point.

Everything he’s brought into these worlds, large and small — including the blood he carries in his heart and the bones of his spine — has already been shattered in the various Wheels. What could it be?

What is left?

(6)

Oh, right. His very self is what’s left.

The ego is enslaved by the physical body.

The heart is but a slave to material ambitions.

(7)

Zhao Yunlan emerges from the very last seed, and the world shakes as if a hundred thousand mountains are jumping like birds. A giant wave descend as though coming from the nine heavens, and the water parts before him like it wishes to make for him a road, to let the chaos-era mountain god rise between them.

At the same time, a sound like a shrill wind whistles by his ear and the Zhanhun blade appears out of nowhere to land on the ocean’s surface, the entire South China Sea looks about to be sliced in two. Zhao Yunlan suddenly opens his eyes, reaching into the rolling waves for the hand holding the blade. “Shen Wei!”

The giant wave recedes, revealing Shen Wei’s silhouette, looking even more distressed than him. At first glance Shen Wei seems like he hasn’t woken from the endless reincarnations, and for a while he doesn’t say anything.

“It’s alright,” Zhao Yunlan says quietly. “We’re back.”

Shen Wei falters, stumbling into him, strength leaving his body. His Zhanhun blade flutters downwards — onto the back of a giant snake, surfacing from the deep.

Oh good, Zhao Yunlan lets out a breath. She Sishu’s life lamp is still lit and the old wyrm is alive and well. Zhu Hong can keep sticking around at the S.I.B. to muddle up a salary and not have to be dragged back for a succession.

(8)

“Oh? Oh … oh! Then okay, that’s great.”

Early morning in the offices of 9 University Road, one can hear Guo Changcheng’s tone change many, many times. From shock, to helplessness … to embarrassment — Guo Changcheng says into the phone, embarrassed, “There isn’t anything I want, thank you leader. Really, I really don’t need … anything from the duty-free shop, you don’t need to worry about it, what’s important is that you have fun … ai, have fun, have a good vacation …”

Before he’s even finished passing on the last blessing, Chu Shuzhi and Lin Jing have already slapped their desks and are standing in anger, and Daqing has turned into an angry ball of fur.

Chu Shuzhi says, “Is that Lao Zhao — what did he mean? What do you mean good vacation? Is he serious?”

Lin Jing says, “He ran away? He just dropped everything and left? Where be the laws of the heavens?”

Daqing up jumps from the couch. “Why that shameless son of a — give me the phone.”

Guo Changcheng puts down the receiver apologetically. “He, he already hung up.”

Daqing roars, “Call him back! If he doesn’t pick up then call Teacher Shen!”

Predictably, Zhao Yunlan habitually turns off his phone after he hangs up.

But none of them can predict that —

Shen Wei stands barefoot on the beach, one hand clutching his collar, the other wrapped around his belt. His cheeks are already red from struggling, but he’d rather die than follow the local custom and change into a pair of swim trunks.

What is this? Such impropriety! Such indecency!

Zhao Yunlan runs after him. “Just try it, if you don’t try it how can you say it’s not a good thing? I promise you’ll like it. Shen Wei, Xiao Wei, my darling treasure … Doesn’t it bore you wearing black from head to toe all the time? This could be a gateway into a new world … Ai! Fine, you don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to, no need to throw yourself into the ocean!”

Shen Wei, having been forced to the edge of the water, steps into the sea, his cell phone falling out of his pocket right on time for an incoming call. It rings once before the cell phone heroically sacrifices itself, the screen going black.

At 9 University Road, Gua Changcheng announces with an innocent expression, “Teacher Shen has hung up.”

“Meow —” Daqing collapses and yells, “How can Teacher Shen with his big eyes in such an honest face be capable of betraying us?!”

[TN. “沒想到你個濃眉大眼的都叛變革命了” / “I did not imagine a person like you with such thick eyebrows and big eyes would end up becoming a rebel” is a quote… from a 90’s movie.]

myths: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nüwa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shennong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunlun_(mythology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiyou https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_(China)

Anyway, that’s the entire thing, translated once, checked twice, feel free to send asks if unclear about anything. (You are not bothering me at all by asking me about the thing I love.)

#鎮魂 #zhen hun #鎮魂番外四 #Guardian #translation #Zhen Hun extra 4 #fox translates 鎮魂 #fox translates zhen hun

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Celebrate Mother's Day with the Greatest Moms in Anime!

It’s that time of year again, folks: Mother’s Day. The time when all of us can come together to celebrate motherhood in all its forms. Mothers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some have one mother. Some have two. Some are biological. Some aren’t. Who among us doesn’t have “the Mom friend” in their friend group? I once saw a woman who described herself as “a single mom with no kids” in her dating profile and by golly, folks, that one stuck with me.

It takes a lot to be a mom—and even more to be a good one. And trust me, I know a good mom when I see one. As a fan of both anime AND moms, I feel truly blessed. There are TONS of great moms out there in anime. I’ve already wished my real mom a happy Mother’s Day, so now it’s time to celebrate with my other moms: the best moms in anime.

Inko Midoriya - My Hero Academia

A favorite anime mothers list that doesn’t lead with Inko Midoriya is a list I don’t wanna read. Inko Midoriya is who anime moms should strive to be. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this mom. Every step of the way she takes complete pride in her son Deku and his accomplishments. Even when her son faces immense danger and painful injury, she doesn’t waver in her support. At the same time, she never devalues her own feelings. She’s never shy when it comes to voicing worry and concern over her son’s safety. She chastises both him and his mentor for his recklessness when they deserve it. She reminds them that there’s more to being a hero than simple self-sacrifice, because there are people like her who need them to come home safe and sound. She’s perfect, and I want to give her a hug.

Tosen Shimogamo - The Eccentric Family

It takes a lot to be an amazing mother, but luckily for this one being human isn’t a requirement. Matriarch of the honorable Shimogamo family of Kyoto tanuki, the untimely passing of her husband made her solely responsible for raising the next generation of Shimogamo tanuki. Luckily for Yasaburo and his three brothers, their upbringing couldn’t be in better hands (er, paws). The Shimogamo family’s pride lies both in their unwavering pursuit of fun and in the close ties that bind them all together. When she’s not dressing up like a prince and dominating the local billiards clubs, Tosen comforts and guides her children with the unconditional love only the best of mothers can provide.

Lisa Lisa - JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Some moms show their love and dedication by coming home from a long, stressful day at work and still taking you to soccer practice. Some moms show their love by throwing you into a big, oily pit and telling you to climb out or die. Lisa Lisa is the latter. While not a Joestar by birth, their fates became intertwined when she was saved from a boat full of rampaging vampires by Erina Joestar as a baby. She later married into the Joestar family, mothered a son, and ultimately suffered the same fate as Erina—her husband was killed by a vampire. Having learned Hamon from her adopted father, she got her revenge on the vampire who widowed her and gave up her son to go into hiding. She became a master Hamon user, and years later her son Joseph would unknowingly seek out his own mother to teach him. Though her methods might seem harsh, her training gave him the tools necessary to once and for all defeat the Pillar Men menace together. Finally reunited, they could be the family they had always wished to be. Smart, beautiful, and tough to boot, on a scale of one to ten this mom is a fifty.

Sakura Uchiha - BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS

Sakura has a special place in the hearts of many anime fans as one of the only mothers they got to watch grow up and become a mother in front of their very eyes. Though a young girl at the onset of Naruto many years ago, Sakura has since grown into a fine mother raising her own shinobi daughter in the ongoing series BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS. With her husband Sasuke largely absent on secret missions, Sakura is tasked with being one of the villages best fighters, medical practitioners, and sole caretaker for her daughter. She does it well though, assuaging her daughter’s anxieties through her unshakeable trust in Sasuke and doing whatever it takes to defend her daughter in times of need. She’s living proof that shinobi moms can truly have it all.

Izumi Curtis - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

It might seem a bit cruel or ironic to put Izumi—a woman whose greatest weakness was caused by her inability to have children—she is without a doubt the greatest maternal figure in the Elric brothers’ lives. Like the Elric brothers, she had dabbled in human transmutation following the death of her baby in childbirth. As a result, she lost several internal organs and the inability to ever have children. She later took in and trained the Elric brothers, who had undergone a similar ordeal after the death of their mother. Though a tough-as-nails fighter and trainer, Izumi’s naturally caring nature helped nurture the Elric brothers into two of the best Alchemists and fighters in the nation. She’s as much a fantastic mother as any others in this list.

Kobayashi - Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is an anime all about a bunch of misfits coming together and forming their own little family in Tokyo, and Kobayashi happens to be everyone’s favorite tired, working-class stepmom. Having already had her loner lifestyle thrown out of whack when a maid who is also a dragon shows up on her doorstep, her life further complicates when a young dragon named Kanna inserts herself into Kobayashi’s life. Despite being hundreds of years older than Kobayashi, Kanna is still very much a child as dragons go, and begins seeing Kobayashi as a mother.

The show is full of cute scenes between the two, and one of my favorite episodes in the series spells out their mother-daughter dynamic in pretty explicit terms. A harsh crunch period at work means Kobayashi can’t come to the sports festival at Kanna’s school. Kanna gets upset, and Kobayashi struggles to reconcile the way Kanna sees her with the off-hand approach her own parents took raising her. It’s an incredibly touching episode, and watching Kobayashi open up her heart a little more to her newfound daughter solidifies her as one of the best moms a tiny anime dragon girl could ask for.

Bulma, Chichi, and Android 18 - Dragon Ball Super

So far I’ve tried to stick to one mom per show, but when it came time to choose which Dragon Ball mom was best, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. They’re all great. As is the tragic fate of great moms everywhere, they never get the credit they deserve. Take Bulma, for example. She took a genocidal villain hellbent on destroying the earth and turned him into a family man. Not to mention the fact she—the smartest person in the world—invented time travel to save not one but TWO timelines from destruction. Speaking of which, without Android 18, Universe 7 would never have been able to win Zen-oh’s tournament and multiple universes would’ve been annihilated.

Finally, there’s Chichi, who receives the brunt of maternal disrespect. Sure, she nags her husband and kids, but put yourself in her shoes! All she wants is a good life for her family, yet she can only watch as they put themselves in harms way time after time. How many times has she seen her husband die? Too many! Also, let’s be real here, Goku doesn’t know what a freaking kiss is. That woman has had to endure decades married to an absolute beefcake who won’t even kiss her. Who among us wouldn’t have a little pent up frustration after that?

Of course, these are just a few of all the wonderful moms that the we’ve been blessed to meet while watching anime. I know I’ll be thinking of each and every one of them, and I hope you will be too. So take the time today to wish your local mom a happy Mother’s Day, then kick back and watch some anime together.

Which anime mom would you most like to wish a happy Mother’s Day? Let us know in the comments below!

-----

Danni Wilmoth is a Features writer for Crunchyroll and co-host of the video game podcast Indiecent. You can find more words from her on Twitter @NanamisEgg.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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unproductivx · 6 years

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How to FOCUS During the Holidays

I know - during the holidays, especially a festive season like Christmas, then New Year’s, then Chinese New Year (for those who celebrate) it can be so terrible difficult to put down your phone, turn off your laptop, close the YouTube tab or whatever it is you’re doing and just WORK.

Believe you me, I struggled with this so much - which is why I ended up wasting a good three weeks of my holiday doing nothing in particular and cramming everything into these last two weeks I have. Not good. So here’s a guide to those of you looking to shake the lazy vibe and get some work done!

Note that I based this off what works for me; try it out and see if it works for you or not! Feel free to reblog and add any tips you use to stay productive!

1. Sleep!

Something I find terribly hard to follow; but when you do follow it it does you worlds of good. If you’re planning to work the next day; or do anything at all - sleep early. If you’re like me and you have trouble falling asleep (maybe another post?) and you’re well aware it takes you at least 1.5 hours before you drift off; do a little bit of math - if you want to be asleep by 10pm, then go to bed around 8.30pm to be safe.

Enough sleep is important and even if you think it’s bs - trust me, you will feel a thousand times better after a proper rest.

So: sleep early because it links to #2 on this list. Don’t drink too much caffeine too late into the night and sugars before bed (oops, I’m a sucker for ice cream) is a definite no-no if you know it makes you jittery.

2. Wake up early!

I know the feeling. It’s 8am and your alarm just rang but your head is fuzzy;; the warmth of your bed just seems to pull you in and the next thing you know, it’s 10 and your “short nap” didn’t go as planned.

Especially for me; I find my work ethic ruined if I wake up late and that’s 2-3 hours of good, usable time wasted. If you like going out in the afternoon then try to get all your work done in the morning. It makes me feel much better and improves my mood.

Don’t laze around after waking up. Give yourself maybe 20 minutes to stretch, sit on the sofa in the living room so your brain kind of adjusts to being awake before you start work. Maybe you want to look at your texts; answer some insta DMs or watch a bit of TV. If you’re easily distracted (don’t lie, I see you) then set a timer. We wouldn’t want all that effort getting up early being wasted by spending those hours watching TV, now do we?

Go take a shower. If you feel sleepy, a nice shower will be good enough to wake you up. Not only is it relaxing (I use warm/hot water; I can’t stand cold water, thought it is more effective in really waking you up) it really helps me clear my mind and I suppose you could multi-task and plan your day in the shower.

To all you singers out there; SING IN THE SHOWER DARLIN! Nothing wakes me up better than jamming out to some Panic! at the Disco or Imagine Dragons in the morning! Play your favourite songs! If you’re living with a room-mate or share walls... play the music softly. ;)

3. Breakfast!

Righty-ho. Breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Make a cup of tea, coffee, milo or your preffered beverage; and be sure to eat some wholesome food. Perhaps toast, some eggs; ooh maybe some baked beans - or if you’re going for something lighter and healthier - yoghurt and cereal, or even some oats. Whatever floats your boat!

You need to have energy to focus and that can’t happen on an empty stomach distracting your mind, now can it?

4. Finding the Right Place to Study

NO, not your bed. Do NOT under any circumstances, try to study in your bed because the chances are, you’ll fall asleep or you’ll loose the motivation to study.

The right place to study should be well-lit, paired with enough space for your books and a comfortable chair. My study table is quite crowded; so I like to study in the kitchen - lots of room on the kitchen table; it’s well lit and airy. Crowded tables tend to clutter your mind, which is why a clean desk is always preffered. If there really isn’t anywhere for you to go or the lighting is horrible everywhere - get a lamp. Buy some cheap organization drawers from maybe Daiso (that’s what I did) and put stuff away.

The trick is to make things easy to put away AND easy to take out. Clutter happens when you’re like me and too lazy to put things back where you took them from.

So, in summary :

- well lit

- enough room to work

- not cluttered

- comfortable chair (not too comfy; we don’t want to be drifting off to sleep)

5. Music/Ambient Noise

A popular method of really getting into that zone is to use study music - usually lo-fi, no lyric instrumental music. I don’t have anything against lyrics;; its just the words tend to distract you when you’re working but if you’re someone who can work with that type of music and that’s what works for you, go ahead!

I for one, definitely can’t. My favourite playlist has to be Brain Food on Spotify - I like the electronic beats and it really feeds my brain. It’s jumpy but not too wild; just perfect to excite my mind on a hazy morning. I’d also reccomend Instrumental Study also from Spotify; it’s a more mello kind of music. Spotify and Youtube have fantastic study playlists and music available so you’ll definitely find something to your tastes!

If you’re not one for music; then ambient noise/white noise are great silence blockers! Websites like Coffitivity offer the ambient noise of a coffee shop for you to work; and there are multiple other sites like https://www.noisli.com and https://asoftmurmur.com (also available as an app) that can help you study/relax! There are forest noises; rain noises; and a huge number of ambient whie noise that can help you focus.

note- this is not sponsored by anyone;; i just like these sites and apps and I find them very useful!

6. Focus Apps/Pomodoro Timers

So one of the most effective work flow methods is the pomodoro one; my personal favourite. You go through a cycle of work (perhaps you set a time of 25min or 30min) and then get a short break of 5-10 minutes afterwards. The apps I use to do this (I have them on my phone) are Forest (my personal favourite; I upgraded to premium and I’ll elaborate more later), Tide (a good alternative to Forest; it’s what I used before Forest and comes with ambient nose like rain, ocean waves, a library, etc. and can also be used to help you sleep! Really love the app!), as well as Flipd (gaining popularity across studygrams particularly; and basically locks you out of your phone so you can get work done), and lastly TickTick which is a to-do list plus pomodoro timer!

Alright - so I like Forest because it’s a great idea; you set a timer for say, 35min and when you set that timer, you plant a tree. If you exit Forest during those 35min, it will kill your tree. So this is the baseline motivation to stay off your phone (to grow the tree). Flipd doesn’t work as well for me and I like to Google things on my phone (vocab, theorems, etc) so Forest premium lets me whitelist applications like Google Chrome so I can use those apps and it won’t kill my tree.

7. Ready, Set, Go!

Now that you’re wide awake, energized and in the mood - play your music and start that timer! Go! Start working without distractions - because that’s the biggest thing about holidays. The temptation to procrastinate is so real. But drill yourself into a routine like this and get used to working, because the pay-off is huge and you’ll thank yourself you didn’t do it later.

Hey! So I hoped this helped you and if it did, share this so that other people can benefit too! If you have any other suggestions/tips, do share! I’m excited to see what I can learn from the rest of you :)

With that, I wish you happy holidays (or what’s left of it) and a very happy new year! p.s. new year’s resolution post? y/n?

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kurtty-drabbles · 7 years

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“I can’t drown my demons. They know how to swim.” (Any 'verse)

@augment-techs @rachel-foley @djinmer4 @asakacc

N/A: In Brazil, we don´t celebrate Halloween, and I know little about the story of Halloween, therefore, the only thing I like about this international holiday is the spooky stories.That said, I receive a prompt and I want to fulfill it. Some weeks ago, I watched the remake of Rosemary´s Baby (only the part I) and it gives life to this idea.Yes, I´ll use aoa!Kitty Pryde and Kurt Darkholme. I don´t know much about this version of her, so I´m using more headcanon than anything.warning: rest easy this fic will be spooky but I´ll not cross any line here, no rape or anything like in Rosemary´s baby. This fic is more Dark humor(a poor attempt) than a gore festival.

Moving from a new job is a drastic change for some, now, change the job and country is an aggressive change that few have the stomach to endure it.

Thankfully, Kitty Pryde wasn´t tied up to her old place (nor physically or emotionally) and her boss was pretty adamant that she move out to Paris, France, saying how she is the only one for the job.

Normally, anyone would be thrilled to be in such famous, charming and stunning city, however, people tend to imagine a life in Paris in the most luxurious way possible and Kitty didn´t receive such treatment.

Her shabby and barely lit place is an indication that her job covers many fees and offers nothing in return. The only comfort in her precarious situation is a tiny dragon that loves to be on her shoulder, cuddle with Kitty and follow her around.

The only constant in her chaotic life is a tiny purple dragon name is Lockheed.

One of few perks of the job is how much of free time Kitty actually have, the woman with short curly hair, black leather jacket and a purple dragon on her shoulder explore a city that will never be her home.

Narrowing her eyes as trying to understand how the gothic aesthetic of Notre Dame came to be, what inspires the artist and thinking about Disney´s The hunchback of Notre Dame that didn´t notice a younger boy pick her purse and running from his life.“Hey, thief ” she goes after him, which proves to futile since a blonde girl already catches him and start to beat him up. The astonishing fact is that this tiny blonde Russian girl(she start to swear in Russian and Kitty understand what she was saying) didn´t even sweat over this.

She gets Kitty´s purse back and is smiling innocently as what just happened wasn´t big deal.

“Hi, my name is Illyana Rasputin,” says with a Russian accent and Kitty feels awkward to be able to chat with another human being.

“Hi, my name is Kitty Pryde and this is Lockheed”

“Hello, Lockheed”

Surprisingly, Yana the blonde Russian girl and Kitty forge a friendship which is something Kitty is not against, of course, Lockheed is Kitty´s BFF no one can take his title.

“Kitty,” Yana asked one day" do you like your apartment"

“Not really, but is what I can afford at moment”

Never once, Kitty asked more about Yana´s life, maybe, is out of respect since Yana is not asking too many questions about Kitty´s life either. It is nice.

How long will this friendship last? Kitty prefers to not dwell on this, Lockheed, however, will forever be Kitty´s BFF.

One day, Kitty´s shabby and poorly lit place gets on fire, in a mysterious way. Why mysterious? Lockheed swears for his life that he didn´t start the fire and Kitty completely believes him.

After all, the fire starts far away from where Lockheed was. And the fire starts by the widow quickly spreading to the building. Kitty, along with her tiny dragon, survives the fire along with her neighbors.

It was a luck, sadly, lady luck didn´t seem to like Kitty very much and the unsettling reality that Kitty is a homeless weight on her shoulders.

Kitty and Lockheed are in the hospital, brought by force, waiting for something and nothing at the same time. What can kitty do? Her employer is not a …kind man.

Suddenly, Yana appears in the hospital anxious way and her death glare meet any doctor who tried to stop her.

“Kitty, I came as soon I heard” she is worried sick for Kitty´s health and well being and that is touching “how are you and Lockheed doing?”

“We were marveling the idea of being French buns,” says the woman trying to light up the situation.

“You don´t have a place to stay?” wonder Yana but there´s akin of happiness in her eyes “because if that true, you can stay in my building, we have an empty apartment there that no one wants.”

Normally, she would say no.Her job requires focus and dedication but after lost her home, Kitty decides that she could accept the offer.

It would be fine until she saw how luxurious the place actually was and start having second thoughts. It makes even worse was the fact that Kitty has little to no possessions, a few boxes were enough. 4 little boxes along with an overly excited dragon.

The building is a mix of luxurious, stunning and macabre in one go, Yana seems very happy, Kitty is not sharing the sentiment, but, anything is better than be homeless.

“Welcome, Kitty Pryde, to the building Limbo,” says with a trademark smile and would say something else when her cell phone ring forcing begrudgingly to answer the phone.

After a few minutes, the girl frown and looks unhappy.

“Is everything alright?”

“No, I have to fix something, meaning I´ll have to leave now” clearly unhappy with this predicament “ But Kitty, promise something, don´t be afraid. Nothing will hurt you”

“Yana, I think is easier for me to hurt them then otherwise” the blonde girl crack a smile and shakes her head.

“Whatever you say, Kitty.” Kitty and Lockheed wanted to say something else to Yana, sadly, the girl disappears without leaving traits. No sound or word, she was just gone. And now, the girl is alone in a very fancy place.

“Ok, bye Snowflake,” say to no one “hope you come back safe and sound” complains and with the 4 boxes give a look at her new/temporary home.

“What to do now?” says feeling like a fish out of water. Lockheed probably would eat a fish right now.

“Need help?” a voice sly and with a definitely German accent asked behind Kitty forcing the woman to turn around to see who it is.

“Oh, Gaspard Ulliel?” exclaims Kitty in surprise and the Gaspard have a mock smile on his face as he shakes his head.

“My name is Kurt Darkholme,” says pleasantly albeit seem too sinister for a happy neighbor, but then again, when you look like the young Hannibal no need for Halloween costume.

“Mine is Kitty Pryde, Yana let me stay here” not that she need to justify for the creepy neighbor.

“Oh, then welcome, Yana did mention you are coming” tries to smile in a friendly way, the result was enough to make Kitty never want to see Hannibal ever again.

“She did? great, I guess”

“Do you want help?” gesture the boxes and the new apartment, incredibly luxurious and big, excessively big. She is not stupid enough to let the stranger enter, but having watched Hannibal taught her that it would be rude to turn down the offer.

And then again, Kitty is Kitty and Lockheed has her back, so the new guy is not really a threat, but is unsettling.

“Sure, Mister Darkholme, you can put the boxes on the"she trailed off looking at the apartment and the dining room” in the fanciest dinner room I´ve ever seen"

The man complies smiling in the same way Hannibal did, Kitty couldn´t let that pass.

“ By the way, the tiny dragon on my shoulder is real,” says as a matter of fact crossing her arms and looking deep at the new neighbor. Who, for his part, doesn´t seem to be scared at all.

“Of course it is real, what´s the point in having a fake dragon?” says his pose indicates he wants to say something else “ do you know the history of this building?”

“Not really, a fancy French building for rich people that definitely went bankrupt allowing someone like me to live here, even though, they would be very cross with this, but who gives a shit?”

“You are spunky,” says messing with his hair “I like this answer” and leave the apartment without causing any problem or eat Kitty, but leave this advice “Oh, Kitty, if strange things happen, don´t be afraid”

Kitty was opening one of the boxes when Kurt said that. Diligent in the task, once Kurt gave this advice, Kitty stops her work to talk with Kurt but the man was gone.

“That is…not normal, right Lockheed?” the dragon doesn´t seem to care for this and was more than happy to destroy the box and make a fine nest for himself.

Kitty´s job remains the same and her routine didn´t change much, walk around with Lockheed, doing her job and return home.

She didn´t have much trickery, the lots of her possession are usually in the dining room. She is a very organized person, and hardly ever change the organization.

That´s why after returning from a nice walk with Lockheed, it is odd that her dining room is a mess, no, actually the organization is different.

The painting of a farm is on the left wall, instead of the right, the curtains are closed, usually, they are always open, the chairs are crowed in the center of the room when normally is on the left side.

“What?” this isn´t the first or the last time something like that happen, Kitty would organize the dining room in a way to the next day be completely changed.

“The fuck?” says not liking this prank. But considering how little she will stay here, this ending up not being a real issue. Her neighbor, Kurt, once found out about this incident suggested it may be a ghost.

“This building was Eleanor Garden, she was murder here”

“And what? her ghost leaves heaven or hell to mess with my dining room? ok, whatever floats her boat”

Then, something happens, the walls start having a message for her, in Latin.

“Stupid ghost, trying to scare me with a dead language” and show her tongue to the wall.

The next day, the wall has a message written in English.

“Oh my god,” she says in pure horror"Lockheed, my dear friend, don´t look at this monstrosity, there´s so many grammar errors here “ Lockheed cover his eyes and Kitty show the Star of Davi to the message.

"Ghost, there´s too many grammar errors here, is offensive, try again”

On the next day, the ghost draws an unhappy face.

“Ghost, you are going to clean this”

One day, all her TV channels are only Fox content and this makes her go pale and unhinged for a moment.

“Now, as the news arrives President Trump is the new president of US and will now give a speech”

“Ghost, please, you can have my tv now”

The next day, the TV is gone and Kitty is a relief and lost her faith in humanity.

On the weekend, Kitty brought beer for herself, French beer, of course, it was offered the German one but the woman wanted to try the French.

She never had the chance as the ghost ending up snatching her beer and then write something on the wall, the English improving now, the beer sucks bring a German one, those are better.

“Ok, ghost, I´m tired of this, came out now” growls as Lockheed fly around. “Ghost, I´m going count until 3 and if you don´t appear…”

“What menace threat, Kitty” what she can register in this moment, a blue fur devil appear, with red eyes, tail(he was on the ceiling) and leather outfit appear in her dining room smirking at her. A slashy version of a smile.

“Oh, you aren´t a ghost, anyway, this isn´t a hotel is my house, so if you want German beer you will get yourself”

“…that´s not the reaction I was expecting”

“What were you expecting? Would I scream and run in my panties? sorry, this is real life, not a movie” she pauses to think about what she just said as Lockheed is back again on her shoulder.

“…you do realize this is a building for demons, right?”

“…Yana forget to mention this”

Yana did come back from her job/mission with a big sword cover in blood to meet Kurt Darkholme and Kitty Pryde talking about the difference between German beer and French one.

Once that Yana come back many things were said, mostly about Demons and beers, the pranks stop and Kitty is somehow forced to bring only German beer and Yana likes to explain about magic and demons. Life is chaotic but truth be told, is not lonely anymore.

#kurt darkholme #kitty pryde #aoa!kurtty #yana #yes #lockheed #kitty´s job is the msytery here #first time writing yana #no idea if I did justice to her #but I can´t see Kurt D inviting anyone ever #Beside I know Kitty does not have many friends #fuck you marvel #so #I wanted to use Yana here #not really scary #it was more dark comedy #or tries to be #Ilyana rasputine

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athingofvikings · 7 years

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Chapter 5: Thawfest

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Chapter 5: Thawfest

Thawfest—Colloquial term for the Sigurblót, the traditional Norse Festival welcoming the summer. Held the Sunday after the full moon after the Dísablót held at the Spring Equinox (Compare: Easter), in either April or May, to celebrate the Spring Thaw and the turning of the seasons. Typical formulations consist of contests and demonstrations of prowess by all attendees in honor of the gods. The Thawfest is a time of great social and legal importance; during the Viking Era, this festival marked the beginning of the campaigning season, and the winter was officially over at the conclusion of the festival; children who had seen sixteen winters were now officially adults. The term Sigurblót literally means "victory sacrifice," and the festival is an acknowledgment of the Norse survival of another harsh dark winter. Winter is over, and summer has won, and Ragnarok is postponed for at least one more year.

—From Aesir To Yggdrasil: A Norse Primer

Hiccup and Toothless soared through the warming skies, the ground brown and green beneath them, the endless horizon of the sea stretching out before them.

Spring was here! Eostre, goddess of the Spring, had taken the reins from Hodr, god of Winter. The snow had melted and the dragons could fly again…

Which meant that so could their riders!

Hiccup waved towards Astrid as she and Stormfly darted acrobatically through the sea stack maze below, while he and Toothless went for altitude. Whooping with delight, they spiraled through a cloudbank, soaking themselves. They hovered for a moment at the top of the climb, and then dove, the screech of a diving Night Fury sounding around them.

It was odd, Hiccup had noticed, but the sound was very different when he was riding Toothless than when he had been on the ground. On Toothless's back, it was constant, but when he was on the ground, the sound rose and fell depending on where Toothless was in relation to him.

At first when he had noticed the difference in sound, he had been worried that he had somehow further broken his friend. It had taken some explaining, but he had convinced Astrid to fly Toothless for a little bit and do the dives where he could listen. It had been a relief to hear that, no, he hadn't damaged his friend even more. Apparently it was some weird property of the Night Fury dive, and Hiccup had made a note in the growing stack of loose paper that was his, Fishlegs' and Astrid's notes on the newly peaceful dragons.

They were eventually going to make a clean copy of those and bind them into the new Book of Dragons. Fishlegs was probably going to end up being the scribe, as he had the most patience for quill duty of the three of them. And, being fair, the best handwriting.

Hiccup was still going to be stuck with doing the illustrations, though.

A few weeks ago, Astrid had found one of his sketchbooks and had spent the next day wide-eyed as she went through his sketches and drawings. He honestly hadn't seen what the big deal was—he drew what he saw in front of him, using big lines to catch the big details, and then working in from there as he had time. Sure, he practiced his sketching a lot—she had giggled at his sketches of his father and had given him a thorough kissing when she found the studies of her and of Stormfly—but it was just common sense, right?

But apparently it wasn't. She had asked for a portrait of her and Stormfly together, and that was now hanging in her parents' house. Framed.

And then Fishlegs had come up with the idea of doing drawings of each person's dragon, in order to write down a record book of who owned which dragon. And without thinking, Hiccup had agreed that it sounded like a great idea, especially after the whole mess over the stolen Zippleback.

On the positive side, Hiccup now knew that he could draw fifteen sketches of dragons, which were good enough to use to identify them, in an afternoon's time. As a side benefit, he also now recognized most people's personal dragons on sight.

And Astrid's massaging of his hand when it cramped up and spasmed had been a nice side benefit…

He smiled at the memory.

She was practicing too, determined to be as good as he was, but, for now, yeah, he was not only the chief dragon trainer and first dragon rider, he was the foremost dragon artist.

At least the Nadders were easy to sketch. With one fewer set of legs, there was that much less to draw. Also, once word had gotten around the dragons that he was drawing them, the vain Nadders had been happy to pose for him. The biggest problem was them getting impatient and wanting to see what he had drawn before he was finished. The odd thing was that none of the other dragons—not even Toothless, who he thought was smarter than the Nadders—could recognize themselves in his drawings. It was weird.

Toothless reached the top of the clouds again and they dived, the sea far below them. The water was beginning to turn green with the turning of the seasons as well, the waves forming even rows across its expanse. Soon the cod and tuna and herring and mackerel would be returning from the warmer waters to the south, and they would be fishing to their hearts' content. Hiccup was looking forward to seeing what men and dragons could do together when fishing.

He, of course, had already come up with some ideas, only two of which had been vetoed by Gobber and his father.

As they banked up towards the sky again, pulling out of the dive just above the wave tops, the spray of the salt water spattering against their faces, another dragon and rider came into view.

Snotlout was out exercising Hookfang, and Hiccup's face soured, and then he sighed. "Shall we say hi to them, bud?"

Toothless nodded, and made a beeline for the pair.

As they flew, Hiccup mused to himself. Of course, Toothless and Hookfang were friends, although Toothless was definitely the dominant one of the two. Just their luck that their riders weren't. Meanwhile, Toothless and Stormfly were cool acquaintances, although they had definitely been warming up to each other, given how often they were stuck spending time with each other. Hiccup suspected that it was mostly based on mutual amusement at their riders, and things had gotten a bit better after Yule and Mildew's attacking Stormfly.

Hookfang and Snotlout dove as Hiccup and Toothless approached, Snotlout yelling at the top of his lungs. Shrugging, Hiccup clicked the harness and they dove as well. A moment later, they had caught up with his cousin, and Hiccup and Toothless positioned themselves upside-down and above the other rider and dragon.

He waved, and Snotlout stopped screaming for a moment when he looked up to see his cousin nonchalantly falling towards the ocean without a care.

Hiccup waved and clicked Toothless's harness again, taking them into a faster dive. Righting themselves, Hiccup resisted the urge to look back at Snotlout's expression, because Hookfang had been falling at top speed, and they had left the pair of them behind as if they were standing still.

He could still hear Snotlout screaming behind him, though.

Pulling out of the dive just above the waves, he turned back to look, and winced, as did Toothless.

Hookfang was coming in awfully fast.

Snotlout was still screaming as the pair worked to pull out of the dive as Hiccup and Toothless watched.

"Uh oh," Hiccup said, then he and Toothless both winced as the other pair almost succeeded.

Hookfang's belly hit the water, and the red dragon and idiot rider went skipping across the waves like a stone.

Hiccup and Toothless watched, their heads bouncing and faces grimacing in unison, as Hookfang bounced once… twice… three times… four… across the waves before he managed to get enough wind under his wings to take flight once more.

Banking, they turned back to the soaked pair, who were gasping with the appreciation that only a near-brush with death grants.

"You two okay?" Hiccup called out.

"I totally meant to do that," Snotlout shouted back with transparently fake bravado. "It's all part of my Thawfest strategy!" He struck a pose. "What do you think?"

"Awful lot of screaming for something you planned on doing!" Hiccup called back.

"It was the first time we tried that! But, hey, it worked!"

The two boys and their dragons were flying upwards, gaining altitude, and then Snotlout pointed. "Hey, look, longboats!" He turned his head, mentally tracking landmarks. "Hey, Hiccup, doesn't it look like they're heading for Berk?"

Hiccup looked. A pair of longboats, wakes easily visible from up here, was indeed sailing straight towards Berk. "Sure seems so!" he called back.

Snotlout grinned and turned Hookfang's head towards the ship. "C'mon, cuz! Let's go say hello!" And, with that he and Hookfang dove again.

Hiccup sighed. "Let's follow them, bud, and make sure that they don't set the ships on fire or something."

###

"Look, dragons!" the cry came up from the bow, terror in the boy's voice.

The captain looked up into the blue sky, studded with clouds, and squinted. A pair of winged shapes were quickly heading towards them.

A moment later, the shapes of young men on their backs became clear, and he called out, "We're near! Just as the stories said! Berk has tamed dragons!"

He began waving his arms at the pair of dragons and their riders, and a few heartbeats later—a very brief time, as the captain's heart was beating fast—the two dragons began to circle the boat at a range of perhaps twenty or thirty yards, the young men, still beardless boys from what he could see, waving back.

"Hello the ship!" the one on the back of the black one called out, his hands cupped around his mouth. "Are you sailing for Berk?!"

"Indeed! We are coming for your Thawfest, with letters and tribute from King Adalwin ua Imair, King of Vedrarfjord! Can you point us the way?!" he called back. "I am Ragnell ua Imair, his kinsman and captain of these ships!"

"You're already on the right bearing!" the boy called back. "You'll get there just after lunch! Just be careful of the sea stacks! You might want to shift your heading a bit to larboard and then come around the coastline!"

"Much obliged! I look forward to meeting your chief, and his son the dragon tamer!" he called back.

The one on the back of the red dragon almost fell out of his saddle, he twisted around so hard at Ragnell's statement. Only a pair of belaying lines attached to his saddle kept him from hitting the waves a dozen feet below him.

Ragnell called out, "Boy, are you okay?!" as the young man clambered back into his saddle, his dragon straightening and leveling out to help him, which took them further away from the ship.

"He's fine!" the other boy said, a very odd tone in his voice that Ragnell could hear even from where he was standing, and then shook his head like a dog shaking off water. "I'll ride on ahead and let them know that you're coming!"

And with that, they both were gone, rapidly diminishing dots shrinking in the distance.

###

A few hours later, Hiccup stood next to his father on the docks, wearing his best furs and tunic and freshly bathed and groomed, watching ships come in.

He'd come back, told his dad, and promptly been marched off to the bathhouse, even though it wasn't Wash Day. Noble visitors were coming, and they had to look their best as befitting their positions as the hosts.

The first two ships to arrive, which he'd met on their way in over an hour ago, had been from Adalwin Ua Imir, the King of Vedrarfjord. That was a Norse city down on the south-eastern Eirish coast, from what he'd been told by Gobber in a hurried summary as they'd gotten ready for their arrival. Captain Ragnell had turned out to be a tall dark-haired Norseman with a weatherbeaten face, a ready smile, and a few missing fingertips that he claimed he had lost in a swordfight. When he'd been introduced to Hiccup as Stoick's son, there had been the exasperating (to Hiccup) glance by the man from him to his dad, and then back. Oh, yes, he could tell exactly what the man had been thinking.

But then another ship had arrived before they'd even had a chance to head back up the ramp to the village. At least he and his dad hadn't had to make two trips; Astrid had spotted this one, and she had come in with the news while he'd been getting scrubbed with harsh soap and doused with buckets of steaming water by Braun. They were from the Isle of Manau, carrying a messenger from King Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, who ruled over a good portion of the area around the Eirish Sea and had taken tribute from Berk many times when Hiccup was growing up, to keep the village from being raided. Certainly the king's man, Bran mac Muchada, another stout Norseman about the same age as his dad, hadn't changed; he looked like he had swallowed some unripe apples or something like that when he'd stepped off of the ship. He, at least, had met Hiccup before, and wasn't nearly as careful with hiding his contempt at Hiccup's scrawniness… which was oddly almost relieving. Hiccup had caught him sneering down at him at one point, and had simply leaned on Toothless's back pointedly with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

Now Bran's ship was emptied of his men and tied up at the dock, but the visitors weren't walking up to the village. No, they were sticking around to see who was coming in next. That was because another ship was about to sail through the sea stacks. The trio of horn blasts announcing its arrival had sounded while they'd been greeting Bran, and Astrid had flown down to tell them a few moments ago. The new ship had managed to sail through the waters around Berk unnoticed or at least unchallenged, by any of the riders who had been flying around all morning. Which meant that Hiccup and his dad had no idea who was aboard, although it was probably more merchants.

So now at least he had Astrid standing next to him. She was looking a bit windswept and soaked from sea-spray, with a giant grin on her face from her stunts in the sea stack maze on Stormfly. But they couldn't hold hands, due to the formality of the occasion. As far as everyone was concerned, her position here was that of another rider who had spotted an incoming ship.

As the newcomers pulled up to the dockside, his dad went up to meet them. One man from the new ship stepped forward to the edge of the gangplank and prepared to speak. Near him, Hiccup heard Bran take in a sharp breath and rudely call out, "Finnian mac Seamus!"

The redhaired Eirishman whirled and looked at the sea king's envoy. "Bran! What are you doing here!?"

"Paying a visit to a long-held ally, you traitor!"

Before things had a chance to degenerate further as Hiccup watched, his dad moved forward. "Captain mac Seamus! I welcome you to Berk and offer you my hospitality. Do you accept?"

The man bowed and nodded. "Aye, I do, on behalf of my lord, Ímar mac Arailt, King of Dubh Linn!"

There was a sudden scuffling noise from the direction of Bran's men, and Hiccup, his dad, and Astrid turned to look. Bran's men were looking surly and belligerent at the newcomers. Hands were on weapon hilts, faces were set with grimaces of anger, and more than a few crouched in fighting stances. Astrid commented quietly to Hiccup in a tone of sarcastic surprise, "Think they know each other?"

Hiccup snorted and said quietly back, "No, I think that this is just their way of saying hello. Must be some special tradition back where they come from."

Stoick rolled his eyes, either at their banter or at the behavior of his guests, and then walked forward until he was standing between the two envoys with a blunt expression on his face. "Aye, yeh have a history between yeh, but yeh are both here under my hospitality. If yeh don't like that, take it outside." He pointed out past the sea stacks, just as another ship was suddenly visible through the spray. Belatedly, the horn started blowing the three blasts alerting the village to an incoming ship.

Stoick sighed. "Head up to the village. We will have a formal welcome at dinner tonight. I'll have someone guide yeh."

As the two groups, watching each other cautiously, walked up towards the village and guest quarters, led by Snotlout, Hiccup walked over to his dad. "What's their issue?"

His father scoffed. "I don't pay much attention to the issues of outsiders, but this one's hard to forget. Mac Arailt and Echmarcach are both of the Uí Ímair." Hiccup nodded. They were the descendants of Ivar, the legendary Viking from a hundred and fifty years ago. "But they don't get along very well."

"Oh?" Hiccup asked with a smirk, remembering the look on Seamus's face when he'd seen Bran. "Why do I think that that's an understatement?"

"Aye, yeh are not wrong. Echmarcach used to rule Dubh Linn some years back… before mac Arailt forced him out."

Hiccup whistled and gave a nervous chuckle. "Yay. Great."

"Aye. And now let's see who stirs the pot next," Stoick said gravely. "I'd dearly love to know who this one is." He suddenly quirked an eyebrow. "Hiccup. Dragon patrols. Plan them and post them after we're done with all of this. I want to know who is paying us a visit in the future before they get to our harbor."

Hiccup nodded. "Sure thing, dad. Um… any guesses as to who that is?"

Stoick just sighed. "Trouble. Details to be determined."

The ship pulled in shortly, and another man stepped forward at the gangplank. "Greetings, Mighty Stoick, I am Maredudd ap Gruffydd, son of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, King of Gwynedd! I bring greetings and glad tidings from my noble father on this happy day!"

Hiccup's father bowed and said, "Welcome to my shore, Maredudd. I accept your greetings and glad tidings, and offer you my hospitality."

"I most graciously accept!" the man said, and walked down the gangplank to shake Stoick's hands.

"We will be having a welcoming feast for you and the other guests that have arrived today," he said. "Please, come ashore and enjoy my hospitality."

"Thank you!" And then Hiccup watched the rest of the sentence sink in as the man paused and then looked at Stoick, eyes widening in surprise and a sickly half-smile slowly forming on his face. "Other… guests?"

"Aye. Yeh are not the first to arrive today. We've had envoys from Manau, Vedrarfjord and Dubh Linn… so far."

"I… I see. Thank you, my good lord," the fellow said with some difficulty.

Stoick smiled. "Aye. Here, this is my son Hiccup. He will show you and your party to where you can prepare."

The man looked at Hiccup and did a double take so intense that it was almost painful to watch.

Hiccup sighed to himself. Captain Ragnell had reacted pretty much exactly the same way.

He turned to the Welshman and said, "If you'll follow me, please?"

Still not recovered from his shock, the man mutely nodded. Hiccup just hoped nastily that he'd given himself whiplash with that double take.

As they walked up the ramp to the village, he tried to stick to the needs of hospitality, and not think dark thoughts at the men who had clearly expected someone… taller, to be the Dragon Hero.

But it was hard, and he kept thinking back to that moment on his doorstep the morning he had shot down Toothless.

Excuse me, barmaid! I'm afraid you've brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms, extra guts, and glory on the side! This here, this is a talkin' fishbone.

At least his dad accepted him more… now.

But… well…

He scowled when he had an opportune moment facing away from the Welshman, which made Toothless look at him with concern. Then it was back to being a polite host, and he brought the man over to the bath house so that he and his men could freshen up if they wished.

It was already packed with the other visitors, and you could cut the tension between Bran and Finnian with a knife and use it as bricks.

Hiccup just handed them off to Braun and Hilda, and then fled with Astrid. He needed to get this off of his chest or rupture something.

###

That evening, Hiccup sat in the mead hall in the chair next to his father's throne, with about half of Berk present to watch the four outsider nobles come before their chief and politely grovel, in addition to most of a score of foreign traders that were unfamiliar to them; the latter had been dribbling in over the last few days, and wanted to petition the chief to be allowed to make a market at the festival.

His dad sat on his throne, the very image of a Viking barbarian chieftain. Next to them were Toothless and Thornado, sitting on carved stone slabs, and his father's council of advisers flanking them, featuring the four other clan heads, plus Gobber as steward, Spitelout as marshal, and with Gothi's chair currently empty as she blessed the assembly. Front and center before them were the outsider visitors, in a place of honor, occupying several tables all by themselves, nobles in front, merchants behind.

Hiccup just remembered the last time he tried sitting in his dad's throne. His rear hadn't touched the back of the chair, his feet had dangled off the floor, and he could have put his spread hands between his thighs and the sides of the chair without them touching. That had been so very utterly encouraging.

As Gothi went through the ritual welcome thanking Njord for his forbearance and wisdom in allowing the ships to cross his seas, Hiccup just stewed in his irritation and frustration. Apparently, when a king sent an envoy specifically to meet with the fabled Dragon Hero—and he was going to strangle Chestnut for that saga if he ever caught the skald alone in a room somewhere—they expected the Hero (capitalized; you could hear it) to look the part!

They didn't come hundreds of miles across the storm-blown sea just to see a scrawny talking fishbone!

A hint of motion caught his eye. Looking, he saw Astrid giving him a sympathetic, if wry, smile from where she was sitting with the rest of her clan. They'd had a good talk after he'd handed off the Welsh prince's party. Well. Mostly they'd talked. But they'd also had a few minutes unchaperoned, with the adults running around dealing with the sudden influx of visitors, so they'd taken advantage of the moment for some deeply enjoyable—and heavy—kissing.

Fortunately, they'd managed to keep enough control of themselves and their nuzzling so that they had been back to a demure and chaste personal distance by the time Gobber had found them. Hiccup had even managed to keep his formal clothes from being mussed, by some direct blessing of Freyja.

He gave her a wistful half-smile and cocked his head to the side, indicating the spot where Toothless was currently curled up. He would love to have her sitting there next to him, the two of them holding hands, until this whole agonizing formality was over.

She smirked and rolled her eyes upwards. Yeah… but there was the little hitch that she wasn't legally betrothed to him, and wasn't more than his girlfriend. On top of that, they weren't even legally adults yet—and wouldn't be until Manni's Day, after Thawfest—so even if they were betrothed, it would be "unseemly" for her to be up here with him as part of the family just yet.

Well, that was coming, if he had anything to say about it. He wanted her… and, by a miracle that he still gave thanks for every day to each of the gods, she wanted him. And when it came time for that… he'd show these outsiders that she hadn't picked poorly in him, that he wasn't some fluke or accident, that she'd chosen wisely… that he wasn't…

He sighed.

That he wasn't Useless.

That she wasn't better off with someone else because he didn't fit the image of the Dragon Hero that others imagined.

He'd show them all that she'd made the right choice… that he was good enough for her.

He caught one last sympathetic look from Astrid as the blessings concluded, and then shifted his attention to the four noble visitors, sitting at the tables nearby. He did his best to keep a scowl off of his face. Of the three new envoys, all three and their honor guards had looked at him in shock for not living up to their expectations.

Having Toothless next to him was helping… at least a little bit. Well, for certain values of 'helping.' Thornado was blase about the whole Thing, and just sat at the foot of his dad's throne. Toothless, on the other hand, was intrigued, and was staring at the visitors with his big wide eyes filled with curiosity.

Unfortunately, having a Night Fury stare at them with giant green and black eyes wasn't doing very much good for the visitors' self-control either. Hiccup had to keep a firm hand on Toothless's collar, and knew that the only thing that was keeping his friend from getting up and walking over to inspect the newcomers with a full sniff, and maybe a lick, was that Toothless could tell Hiccup didn't want him to.

Hopefully that would last through at least the introductions.

Hopefully.

He sagged in his chair for a moment before forcing himself to sit up straight again as Gothi finished with her blessing and resumed her seat.

In the expectant hush that followed, his dad stood and walked forward, looming over the noble visitors. "I greet all of yeh, who have traveled far and risked much. Yer bravery and skills are worthy of note. The hospitality of my hall is offered to yeh. I know that the journey was long and fraught, and not made lightly. Know that I know this, and extend my hand to yeh." He turned and sat back down. "Now, I believe that yeh have messages for me?"

All four of the noble visitors went to stand at once.

Bran looked at Finnian and sneered, while Ragnell tried to step forward first, and Gruffydd tried to push ahead.

"I claim the right to go first!" Bran said, trying to elbow his way to the fore as Hiccup watched, trying not to laugh. "I have spoken with Stoick before, and claim precedence!"

"And that's why you shouldn't go first! Let someone with less familiarity speak!" Finnian said heatedly.

As they argued, Hiccup leaned over to Gobber. "Why are they arguing like me and Snotlout, or the twins? I thought that they were supposed to be adults?" he whispered.

"None of them want to go last and get left in the shadow. They're all here bringing tribute, see the boxes? They want to make a good impression."

Hiccup snorted. "Well, they're doing a great job!" he said quietly.

Gobber laughed softly and then raised his voice. "Stoick, can I make a suggestion?"

His dad rolled his eyes as the nobles continued to argue. "Please."

Gobber chortled and said, "Gentlemen, gentlemen! Please! Might I suggest that we solve this in a simple, unbiased manner?"

They all paused and looked at Hiccup's mentor. "Aye?" said Gruffydd after a pause. In the background, a number of the Hooligans looked disappointed at the ending to the free entertainment.

"Aye. Since we won't be able to agree on who goes first by arguing over it, might I suggest that we go in alphabetical order?" Gobber said with a smirk.

The four nobles all looked at each other and then nodded.

Then Gruffydd said, "But in whose alphabet?"

There was a moment's pause as everyone seemed to consider the question… and before they could start arguing over that, Hiccup's dad sighed and said, "Mine, as host. And in order of yer kingdoms. Does that make yeh all happy?" His tone made it very clear that they had better be happy.

They all nodded like marionettes.

With that settled, Captain Finnian mac Seamus of Dubh Linn, a smile on his face, approached him and his father. He had a scroll in one hand and one of his honor guard at his side was carrying a coffer.

Breaking the seal, the captain gently cleared his throat and unfurled the scroll.

"'To Stoick the Vast, Chieftain of the Hooligan Tribe, Leader of Berk, Lord of Dragons, from King Ímar mac Arailt of Dubh Linn, I send greetings,'" he read.

"'We congratulate you on your victory, and your new dominion. Assuming that even a tenth of what the merchant told Us was truth before God, you have dared greatly and won glory and respect. I acknowledge you as a brother lord, and wish only peace between us. With my captain, I have sent you a gift as proof of my sincerity and my desire to see the two of us reach an accord. Sincerely, King Ímar mac Arailt of Dubh Linn.'" With a few fumbling motions, the captain rerolled the scroll and knelt before Stoick, extending the roll of paper towards him.

Hiccup's father took it and set it aside; even sitting, he was taller than the man was standing, and it looked… regal and impressive. Hiccup would just look like… well, like a child sitting in his father's chair, playing. "Thank you, and thanks to your lord for his kind words," Stoick said.

"And my liege's gift to you," the captain said, taking the coffer and a key from his man standing at his side, and handed both items to Stoick.

Opening the coffer, Stoick blinked and reached into it. "A book?"

"A Bible, my lord. Illuminated by the monks of Dubh Linn monasteries, with art that depicts the life of our Lord and Savior."

Stoick nodded gamely and returned a few platitudes to the captain, who moved off to the side to allow Bran to approach. The book was placed off to the side on a table, and Toothless sniffed at it and then made a face.

Over the next twenty minutes, the scene repeated itself three more times. Gwynedd offered a fine sword, once wielded by the Gwynedd King Llywelyn ap Seissyll. Manau sent a great war-ax named Arm-Biter, once the possession of a famous Viking. Vedrarfjord gave a substantial purse of copper coins. At their seats, Bran and Maredudd politely sneered at each other for having had the same idea.

Hiccup was doing his best to keep a straight face as he thought on what he was seeing and what Gobber had told him. He didn't like where this was going. Each of the other kings acknowledged his father, said that they wanted to be peaceful, and offered a gift.

It had taken him half of the presentation to realize that they were actually bribes. Gobber's comment about wanting to make a good impression… and the fact that Bran was giving his dad something valuable, and not the other way around, had bounced around Hiccup's skull, and he'd practically jumped in his chair when he realized that they were offering Danegeld to Berk. Bribes to not come and raid—or conquer—their lands. That was what Vikings had been doing for the last few hundred years, after all. Berk had been one of the bases of operation for the raids all up and down the Eirish, Alban, Welsh, and Saxon coastlines.

And now… thanks to him, things had changed. Berk wasn't the place of stubborn Vikings that barely managed to survive their war with the dragons anymore. His dad had an army of battle-hardened warriors now… who rode dragons. And who didn't have to worry about having to fight off raids every few nights anymore.

And given that his dad had paid Bran's lord tribute in the past to keep Berk from being attacked… and now the situation was reversed…

Yeah. Hiccup held down a scowl. It made complete sense that they were all expecting him to start conquering and raiding… just like they all did.

Captain Ragnell having finished with his own request for peace—which could have been the same letter as the one from the lord of Dubh Linn, with the names swapped out—he handed over the leather purse that clinked heavily to the chief and then took his seat again.

As his dad stood and thanked the visitors, Hiccup watched their faces carefully. Even as his dad promised peace and friendship, he could see that they were skeptical. Bran wasn't even bothering to hide it.

Well, they could believe as they liked. He wasn't going to let the dragons be used as weapons, not if he could help it. And while he might not be chief, the dragons would listen to him.

"—and I hope that yeh all enjoy this Thawfest. This year, my son is a man before Tyr, and, in honor of the victory that he won for us, we have added dragon contests to our games. We will be having races and other contests." Stoick clapped his hands as Hiccup rolled his eyes. His dad had an additional motive to adding dragon contests to the Thawfest games. He'd added just enough so that, if and when Hiccup and Toothless managed to beat Snotlout and Hookfang at them, they'd win the youth games… and deny the Jorgensons—and Spitelout—their perfect sweep for Snotlout. "Let us all compete for the favor of the gods on the contest field and not on the battlefield." He bowed and sat back down.

With that, the welcoming ceremony was over, and people began to mingle and socialize. The instant Hiccup let go of Toothless's collar, the dragon bounded over to the visitors, examining them with intrigued sniffs. Hiccup sighed as the men froze, one of them reaching for his weapon on reflex before freezing—realizing either where he was or that Toothless meant him no harm, Hiccup couldn't be sure.

He walked up. "He's just curious," he said to Captain Finnian, who was looking a bit worried at the dragon nosing at him. "He won't hurt you."

Toothless gave one last sniff of the man and turned, walking around behind Hiccup. The Eirishman visibly sagged in relief.

"See?" Hiccup said, bending to one knee, thankful for all of the practice he had put in with his new leg, and rubbing Toothless's ears. "He was just being friendly."

"Aye," Finnian said weakly. "Just like a giant, black scaly dog."

Someone behind him muttered quietly, "With bat wings and who spits fire…"

"Pretty much," Hiccup said to the Dubh Linn man, ignoring the second voice. Still kneeling, he winked at Toothless before scratching under his chin at that spot that the dragons liked so much. The dragon slumped to the floor with a thud and a happy purr.

The nobles and merchants blinked, and moved carefully away as Hiccup kept petting his friend, who was making happy noises. At least someone around here was having a good evening.

Then he felt a pair of hands rest on his shoulders and move in to start rubbing at his neck. He tilted his head back to see Astrid smirking down at him. "You look tense. You all right?" she asked in an innocent tone, eyebrows lifted knowingly under her bangs.

He smiled, stood with her help, and thought to himself that the worst of the evening was over. Thank the gods.

And things went nicely from there, even with the visitors staring at him like some exotic beast, and with the adults watching the two of them like hawks. He didn't even mind that much when he got dragged into the circle dance by Astrid and he managed to trip on his peg and the stump slipped free as he went flying. Because she was smiling at him and they would be adults soon and they would be together and everything would be all right.

Yeah. He was going to show the world that he was worthy of her.

###

The day of Thawfest dawned, cool and bright, and Hiccup was awake and ready for the spring festival, Toothless at his side, as soon as the sun was up above the horizon. There would be games, and food, and contests, and music, and traders from distant lands. Especially this year, given that, for some reason, a dozen ships from neighboring tribes and petty kingdoms had shown up, as well as Trader Johann and several other merchants, some from as far away as Normandy, by the Frankish kingdom.

He said as much to Astrid as they started walking through the paths in the town and nearby field where most of the festival was being held, his dragon tailing them close behind. It was complicated by Toothless wanting to poke his nose into everything, especially the food stalls.

Waving his arms around to indicate the entire festival, he said, "I mean, most years, it's just us, maybe the Bog-Burglars and a few of the other tribes in the area. But now? Six months after I make friends with Toothless, they all show up?" He shook his head and spread his arms wide. "Pull the other one, it's got bells on it."

Snotlout's voice spoke up behind him. "Don't you mean, 'it comes off'?"

Hiccup and Astrid turned to look at his cousin. Astrid scowled and looked at Snotlout. "Really? Really? You went there?"

"Hey, it's the truth!" Snotlout defended himself. "So, Coz, ready to get humiliated again this year? Because I'm going to take home the ribbons for everything, like I always do."

Hiccup sighed. "We're not kids anymore, 'Lout. But, hey, sure, if you want to get yourself humiliated for child-game ribbons in the last year we can play, and by a guy whose leg comes off, I'll be there." He smirked. "Remember that we added dragon races for the kiddie division this year."

Snotlout sneered and moved off.

Astrid sighed. "Can we please kick his ass at the contests this year? It is our last year being able to compete in the 'kiddie division', after all," she said in an innocent tone.

"Sounds good to me. You beat him at the physical stuff and Toothless and I will work at the dragon stuff, and send him home crying?"

"Deal." She bent over and gave him a kiss. Pulling back, she grinned evilly. "This year, I have a better chance." Indicating herself, she said smugly, "I got taller than him, and I'm going to kick his ass."

Hiccup took the moment to appreciate what she had indicated, and grinned at her. "Yep. You are. And you'll look glorious when doing it."

"Flatterer," she said, smiling.

"Honest," he replied, pulling in closer. "I don't like lying. I'm no good at it."

She laughed and gave him a friendly punch to the arm. "That's the truth," she said, shaking her head. "'Making outfits.' I still can't believe that that's what you came up with."

"And then you damn near broke my fingers."

"I said I was sorry. And I know that I made it up to you."

"And then the ax butt."

"Well, that you deserved."

"Yeah, probably. We did kidnap you afterwards. And then I got a punch and my first kiss out of it, so that definitely came out positive."

"Mmmh. I'd say that that whole thing came out good for both of us," she said, leaning in to give him another kiss.

After they had been at it for a good long moment, someone whistled approvingly, and they both looked up to see one of the traders standing nearby, giving them both a favorable look.

"Ah, don't mind me, lad, lass, I was just appreciating it. I wish you both the best. Been a long time since I was a young one, but I remember it nicely, and you two look like you're getting along just fine." He looked directly at Hiccup. "So, you be the Dragon Hero, then?" he said, indicating both Toothless and Hiccup's prosthesis with a jerk of his chin.

Hiccup nodded slowly. Sure, maybe he didn't like the title that much… but maybe it was time to start owning it.

"Aye, not what I was expecting," he said, which made Hiccup sigh. "But I was expecting someone ten feet tall who used dragon gut to floss his teeth, by the way the stories were by the time they got to me." He indicated his tent-stall. "Can I offer you and your fine young lady there anything, Mister Dragon Tamer?"

Hiccup cocked his head, looking over the man's stall-tent. He looked like a general goods seller, with a little bit of everything. "Got any ink or paints, paper, parchment?"

"Aye, maybe," he replied, and started rummaging through his supplies. "I think I got a nice red in here somewhere, and mayhap some blue. Lots of demand for those from the monasteries over in Eire." As he rummaged, he said, diffidently, "So, lad, I hear that you be the one in charge for all things dragon around here."

With a slow nod, Hiccup looked into the tent and said, "Yes… but, before you ask, no, they're not for sale. Any of them."

"Ah, well. Next year, perhaps?"

Hiccup made a non-committal, "We'll see, but probably not."

"Ah, well. Well, I have here a few pots of ink, green, black, blue and yellow, plus a nice stack of cowhide parchment. What can you offer me in exchange? Goods or coin?"

Hiccup reached for his pouch and opened it. "I have dragon teeth and scales, if that might be of interest."

"Teeth? So you have had to put down a few of them?"

Hiccup shook his head. "No, the dragons shed them and then new ones grow in." He laid out the fangs on the little table the trader had set up in front of him. "I've got some from Gronckles, which can crack rocks and make for good chisels, some Monstrous Nightmares, which are really sharp and make good knives, and this one is from Toothless here," he pointed to one stubby incisor in particular.

"You have a tooth from a dragon named Toothless?" the trader said with a laugh. "That sounds like a story."

"Not much of one," Hiccup said, pulling out some dried fish and turning to his friend, who obligingly opened his mouth to show the gums.

"Aye, lad, I see no teeth there, looks like they shou—God in Heaven!" the trader swore and jumped back as Toothless extended his teeth and snatched the dried fish.

Hiccup just turned back to the trader with an innocent look, as Astrid tamped down a snicker. "Yep. One of those teeth. Interested?"

"Aye." The merchant composed himself quickly and leaned in. "How about fifteen teeth per pot? Sounds like you'll have an easier time replacing them than I'll have getting more ink."

Hiccup nodded. "Sounds reasonable." He turned to Astrid. "But I don't have enough on me. Could you wait here while I go get some more from the chest?"

"Lad, I can wait. Here, let me put these aside," he said. "Is there anything you would like for yourself, lass?"

Astrid grinned. "Hmm… let me see… what do you have?"

"Well, I have some turtleshell combs and some amber necklaces…" he said, looking through the stall, before Astrid held up her hand.

"Any weapons?" she asked as he popped open a coffer with a key from his belt.

Hiccup cocked his head at her and said, before the merchant could answer, "I can make those too, you know."

She grinned at him. "No harm in seeing what he's got."

"Aye, lass, I have some hatchets, a dagger made by the smiths of Damascus, and a Welsh yew longbow," he said, shrugging.

Her eyes lit up at the mention of the dagger and bow. "Ooh. How much for those?"

"Hmm…"

A commotion sounded behind them, and they turned and looked.

Fishlegs was running through the festival at top speed, stumbling as he ran, and was heading right towards them, knocking people out of the way in his hurry.

"Hiccup! Oh, Hiccup, thank Odin I found you, she's gone, they took her, she's gone," he babbled.

"Slow down, Fishlegs!" Hiccup said. "What happened?"

"Someone kidnapped Meatlug last night. We got ambushed and they had nets and bolas, and they said they were going to kill me to keep me quiet and I got away and fell down into a hole and I just got out," he panted out in a rush of words.

Now that he was standing still, Hiccup could see that his friend's right ankle was grossly swollen, and that Fishlegs was obviously favoring it, along with a long slashing wound in his left forearm that was still weeping blood. Obviously Fishlegs had blocked a thrust that would have ended up in his throat with the meat of his arm.

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other, and before he even realized it, Hiccup had hopped on Toothless's back, Astrid behind him. "You get that leg taken care of," he said to Fishlegs. "We're on it! We'll find her, promise!"

As Toothless took flight, Hiccup heard the merchant say in a very hard tone, "Boy, come here, I'll help you with that leg, you shouldn't be walking on it. I'll put your friend's things aside. You there! Call the chief, tell him what happened! Call for a healer!"

And they were up and away.

"Where's Stormfly?"

"In the stable by my house. I wanted her well-rested before the races. I fed her before coming with you to the festival grounds."

"Okay. Bud, we're heading for the Hoffersons!" He clicked the pedal and Toothless poured on the speed.

"Check the docks first!" she said in his ear. "See who is missing!"

"Good idea!"

They banked and overflew the harbor, Hiccup leaning left, Astrid leaning right, both of them furiously counting.

"I make two ships gone!"

"Same here!"

They banked around for another pass, Hiccup straining his memory to match up ships with owners.

He grimaced as he put it together.

"That's why they sent two ships!"

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Author’s Note: Oh, hey, look, plot! :D

#httyd #httyd fanfiction #httyd fandom #a thing of vikings #how to train your dragon

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