#Continue to conquer the hearts of these people Mr. S

[evilcokito]

Maybe...maybe I'm Sam's simp

[girlactionfigure]

Ellen Naomi Cohen was born on September 19, 1941.

She was mocked by people who didn’t know her heart, she was teased by supposed friends. Even after her death, the cruel joke was that she choked on a ham sandwich.

All this because of her weight.

The jokes hurt her, as it does many people who are called “fat,” who are ridiculed for the way they look, but she hid her pain well, as do many.

In high school, she adopted the name “Cass,” and, some time later, she would assume the surname “Elliot” in memory of a friend who had died.

According to a 2019 article by writer, Sheila Weller, “Cass—Ellen Naomi Cohen—was a middle-class Jewish girl from Baltimore who left high school six months before graduation to go to New York and try Broadway. She lost the role of Mrs. Marmelstein in ‘I Can Get It For You Wholesale’ to a budding young Jewish singer-actress who did her share to establish the rule that you didn’t have to be classically beautiful to be a star: Barbra Streisand. Cass then got a job as a coat check girl at a Manhattan nightclub, the Bitter End, singing and trying to get random agents’ attention, as she juggled hangers and quarters as tips.”

Cass Elliot had a wonderful, soothing voice, she had a wonderful personality, a beautiful soul, but the story is that initially not even John Phillips wanted her as part of his new group, which would become the Mamas and Papas. According to insiders, Phillips thought she was too fat and didn’t fit the image of the group. It was only when the group realized that she had a beautiful voice which actually made the group better that she was allowed more opportunities to sing.

When she was finally featured, she had to make up a story that she had a terrible voice until a pipe fell on her head, which somehow made her voice better.

Even after that, Elliot’s weight continued to be a source for jokes.

In one of the Mamas and the Papas biggest hits, “Creeque Alley”, Elliot had to join the chorus, singing, “And no one’s getting fat except Mama Cass!”

After she left the group, she tried to get away from the name “Mama” Cass to no avail.

“My mother was The Little Engine That Could,” her daughter Owen Elliot-Kugell told Weller. “Weight shaming was something she dealt with all her life. She was constantly insulted and hurt by people calling or thinking her fat. But she never talked about her pain, and when she performed, she hid that pain. But I know — I could tell—that it bothered her. As a child she was teased as a fatty. Her weight was something she bore the scars of for the rest of her life, be it failed auditions for Broadway shows or lonely nights after The Mamas and The Papas’ performances at Carnegie Hall or the Hollywood Bowl, coming home alone when everyone else had a partner.”

She once said, “I’ve been fat since I was seven and being fat sets you apart.”

“For others, that might have been a handicap but Cass turned it into a strength,” according to The Guardian. “She opened the door for others like Janis Joplin and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane,” says DJ Annie Nightingale. “I adored her voice, you couldn’t help but like her and she helped establish a genre of independent women.”

“Cass’s impact on 60s teenagers with weight problems was significant,” said The Guardian. Nancy Roberts, founder member of the Spare Tyre Theatre Company, a group inspired by Susie Orbach’s Fat is a Feminist Issue, explains: “She was this wonderful sexy role model and inspiration who made it less of an incriminating burden to be fat.”

“Aside from breaking the weight-shaming stigma and rising as an improbable female icon, Cass was other things young women weren’t allowed to be then but can be now — a proud single-mother-by-choice and a working mother who supported her child alone,” according to Weller.

“At 25, Cass knew she wanted to be a solo mother — a bold choice at the time, even in bohemian circles,” according to NexTribe.

“She wanted me more than anything else in the world — she told people that,” her daughter said.

But, even with all her personal and musical triumphs and outwardly confidence, Elliot constantly felt the brunt of the fat jokes and the pressure to be slim.

“She said she’d never go on stage because Michelle was beautiful and she wasn’t,” says John Phillips, one of the Papas. She was persuaded to change her mind but no one stopped her trying dangerous diets.

Elliot tried desperately to lose weight, once going on a six-month long crash diet, losing 100 of her 300 pounds. This would lead to a stomach ulcer and throat problems, which was treated by drinking milk and cream, leading her to regain much of her weight back.

At age 32, Elliot would die in her sleep. Immediately, there were rumors that she either died because of drugs or that she died while eating a ham sandwich.

Frank Zappa would even reference the sandwich in his song, “We’re Turning Again” with the lyrics, “We can visit Big Mama, we can whap her on the back, while she eats her sandwich!”

As recent as 2007, even Snopes had to post an entry and dispute the ham sandwich myth of her death.

Owen Elliot was seven when her mother died. “It’s been hard for my family with the sandwich rumour,” she says. “One last slap against the fat lady. People seem to think it’s funny. What’s so darn funny?”

According to reports, there was no evidence to support the choking theory. The official autopsy revealed she had little to eat during her final hours. “There was left-sided heart failure,” wrote pathologist Keith Simpson. “She had a heart attack which developed rapidly.”

Heart failure.

Cass Elliot not only had a beautiful voice, but she also had a beautiful heart which few people got to see.

Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers cited The Mamas & the Papas, and especially Elliot, as an influence, in an interview for Rolling Stone, saying, “There have been times when I’ve been very down and out in my life, and the sound of her voice has sort of given me a reason to want to carry on.”

“She was a one-woman triumph against adversity; she was ahead of her time; women now are finally doing what she did 50 years ago,” says her daughter. “I look back on her and realize that, just by example, she taught me, and others, not to accept it when someone says you can’t do something.”

“I’m proud to be my mother’s daughter,” says Owen. “When I’m having a tough day, for whatever reason, I think of all the ‘you can’t be this; you can’t do thats’ that my mother heard but ignored or conquered. She was a hero to me.”

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

Ellen Naomi Cohen was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 19, 1941, the daughter of Bess (née Levine; 1915–1994) and Philip Cohen (died 1962) All four of her grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants.

[levis-hazelnut]

Summary: when you and your best friend, Hanji, were younger, you had made up stories about your dream guys - what they would look like and how you would meet. What happens when the one you had made up appears to be real?

Warning(s): I don’t think there are any in this chapter. But, please do tell me if there are any.

Taglist (closed): @castellandiangelo @fandom-addict19​ @20coldhearts​

Status: completed!

part 8 > part 9 > part 10

series masterlist

"Why in the fucking hell have you been avoiding me?" Levi snapped, but it wasn't too angrily. I fidgeted with my fingers as my gaze stayed on the carpet of the room as if it would talk for me.

"... I don't know," I murmured, feeling awkward like I predicted it to be. "I guess I'm just... scared." I heard a sigh emanate from his lips and he unfolded his arms, taking a step closer to me as he realised he may have been too harsh on me. I caught the action but didn't do anything about it. I mean, what would I do? "Scared of what?" he asked in a more gentle tone, but it was still laced with slight annoyance. "Scared that I would be annoyed with you for no reason whatsoever? Scared that Petra is going to hate you? Scared that I'm going to be like your previous dickhead boyfriend? What are you scared of?"

"All of that, actually," I confessed, looking up at him to see his beautiful face that I was deprived of for nearly three weeks. "After finding out about... everything, I just wasn't certain that everything is going to work out like a fairytale. There was a chance of you being annoyed with me, but that was just idiot me being stupid. Petra assured me many times that she won't hate me for anything. And you... you have proved that you aren't going to be like my jerk of an ex. Now that I really think about it, I have nothing to be afraid of," I said with a soft smile touching my lips. "You're damn right, you idiot." He rolled his eyes, taking another step closer. "I don't know what goes on in that brain of yours, so I don't know where you get these shitty thoughts from. But you better get rid of them, there's no reason for you to be scared of anything. Stop being a coward and do what you want without your thoughts stopping you." My smile widened at his words, but I was still waiting for certain words that I want to come out of his mouth. Not all this sh*t about me being stupid. I mean, it's helpful, but it's not what I want right now. "... Sorry for sounding so harsh, but you needed to hear that so you can change for the future." "It wasn't that harsh. You should hear the scoldings I get from Hanji." "Whatever. I didn't exactly drag you here just to talk about you being dumb..." he pointed out, taking two more steps and he was right in front of me, close enough to touch me. And he did just that - he cupped my face with one hand, a soft and tender expression conquering his visage. I reluctantly leaned into his touch, gazing at his features that just happened to look so much more attractive in this moment as he leaned in closer to my face, both of our eyes lidding.

Then, his lips came in contact with mine. If my heart was beating rapidly before, I have no idea how fast it was going now but it did feel like it was going to jump out of my chest. I just know that it could probably be heard in this empty room, and Levi probably felt it when he snaked an arm around my waist, drawing me closer to him. My fingers nonchalantly reached up to tangle in his ebony locks that were oh so silky. I have always wanted to tangle my fingers in his hair and tug on it to get a reaction. That's what I did, and in return, I got a faint moan. His voice is so soft and the best thing ever? Bitch, please, that sound just now was ethereal and I needed to hear it again. Levi asked for an entrance to my mouth and I decided to tease him (as always), however, he sharply nipped on my lower lip which caused me to gasp softly. He took the chance and his tongue slipped into my wet cavern, where we battled. It's like we can never stop challenging each other, we have to annoy each other for no reason, argue for no reason, and now we have a tongue battle for no reason. He won (as always) the tongue battle and instead of his tongue exploring me, his hand travelled over my figure, making me shiver under his touch. Unfortunately, we needed to pull away from the passionate kiss for that damn thing called oxygen. My eyes were still closed as I lightly panted, taking in what just happened. A smirk edged onto my lips once it sunk in and I unlidded my eyes to find Levi staring at me as our faces were still in close proximity. Why is he so damn sexy? Please, whatever god is up there, I need to ask why you gave this man to me. I seriously don't deserve him, no matter what anyone says. "(Y/N)," he uttered softly after licking his lips, and I hummed to show I was listening. He barely says my name, and in that husky, low and gentle tone he just said it in now was something I never want to forget. "Tomorrow, at six o'clock, you better be ready." "Okay," I grinned, kissing his nose as I've always wanted to do. "Also, I'm pretty sure some people just saw us kiss," he stated, using his head to gesture to behind me where the door was. There was a small window in the door and there were many eyes watching. When I turned around, I noticed Jean, Hanji, Farlan, Isabel, Connie, Sasha, Armin, Historia and Lucius grinning at us (well, not Lucius). There were also some of Levi's fangirls (and maybe my fanboys since Levi claims I'm a celebrity like him).

I giggled softly and shook my head, removing my hands from Levi and taking a small step back as he walked towards the door. I followed after him and got ready to glare at Jean, knowing he was the one who brought everyone here. As soon as the door opened, squeals sounded as they all exclaimed different things we could barely apprehend. "(Y/N)!!!!" Hanji pushed through everyone that had crowded around and brought me into a tight embrace. I groaned and rolled my eyes, hesitantly putting my arms around her. "I'm so happy! You've waited so long for this to happen!" I nervously laughed, not wanting Levi to know that I've liked him since he appeared. He lifted an eyebrow in my direction and I mouthed the words: 'help me' when Hanji still had me in her life-threatening hold. "Oi, Shitty Glasses, you're going to kill her." "Awwww, Shorty!!!" she screeched, pulling him into a hug now. "You're so cute!!" I laughed at his face and he shot me a glare, which seemed to have no effect on me as I continued to chuckle. He was finally able to shove the brunette lunatic off of him and took my hand, deciding to just barge past every idiot. We were able to make it out of there without them chasing after us like some predators. "... So you've waited for a long time for this? How long is a 'long time'?" "Uh, maybe... eight months?" I muttered, refusing to meet his eyes because I knew he would be smirking and he would just want to annoy the hell out of me. "So since we met?" he inquired, and I nodded. "You're telling me all this fucking time when I wondered who you like, it was me?" "Yes." "And is that why you didn't want to date Lucius?" "Yes." "I'm surprised you didn't expose yourself. Apart from that time when you were about to say it but stopped yourself. And you thought it was wrong in a way because I was with Petra?" "Yes." "And I heard from Petra that you helped her to get into a relationship with me even though you liked me at the time. Is that true?" "Yes." He smirked, seeing me act shy, which is something he rarely sees. "You're quiet now that I've found out who you like." "Where are we going, by the way? We're just walking," I said, brushing his statement to the side and regaining my confidence. "I don't know. I just wanted to get away from everyone," he replied, realising that he was still holding my hand, which was sweating. "Hey, why are you nervous? You don't need to be so tense." "I'm not nervous," I retorted. "Explain that to your drenched hand, darlin'," he snorted and I clicked my tongue, yanking my hand from his hold to flick his forehead, which caused him to briefly frown before he got hold of my hand again. "Shut up, prick." "Good. Now, you're back to normal." "Where are we actually going?" "I still don't know. But we're like a minute away from your apartment." "Don't you want to go home?" "You're finally speaking to me after like three weeks, I'm not going anywhere." "Aw, I never knew you would be the kind of person that always wants love and attention." "I'm not." "Whatever you say, Mr Moody. Hm. I'm going to love annoying you even more now." "Why do I even like you?" "Because I'm the best person ever who is very lovable and amazing." "Not one word you just said is true." "Shut it, Ackerman. You're not exactly--" I cut myself off, thinking what Levi wasn't since he's seriously the best fucking person to live. "Are you lost for words because I'm amazing in every way possible?" "No... I just didn't want to hurt your feelings." "Say what you want, darlin'." I rolled my eyes and fished my keys out of my bag to unlock the door. Once it was open, both of us stepped in, slipping our shoes off before I locked the door. We strolled to the living room and Levi sat down on the sofa. I was about to walk away but he grabbed my hand, pulling me onto him and I ended up on his lap, straddling him. He smirked, taking hold of my chin to tilt my head before moulding his lips with mine.

If dating Levi Ackerman meant getting kisses like these every ten minutes, I'm going to be living in heaven. I wonder if he was like this with Petra, or am I special? I sighed in delight when I felt his fingers sneak up my shirt and trace over my bare torso as his other hand travelled up my back to tangle in my tresses. My hands cupped either side of his face with my thumbs resting on his cheekbones. "AWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" My eyes snapped open at the sudden outburst and my lips parted from Levi's as my forehead rested against his. I huffed before getting off of his lap, looking at Hanji, Jean and Eren who decided to walk into the apartment without saying anything. "What the hell are you guys doing?" I snapped at them, meeting all of their eyes. My eyes lingered on Eren's for a bit longer than the other two before I frowned and didn't focus on any of them. "You could've at least said something instead of letting that kettle over there explode," I scolded them, motioning to Hanji, who was the aforementioned kettle. "Sorry, sorry!! Both of you are just so adorable!" Both of us clicked our tongues and I rolled my eyes.  "We came here to get away from people. So get the hell out." "Darlin', calm down," Levi said quietly before smirking. "You have a bedroom, don't you?" My eyes widened and I lifted my hand to slap him. "Hey, hey, hey, I was joking, you idiot. That's taking things too fast." "I bet you didn't say that to the many girls you--" "Oi, don't talk about that," he told me with a scowl. I guess it was a sensitive topic since he was probably annoyed at himself for being like that. Everything was now silent in the room. The three that were standing had no idea about what was going on, the raven next to me seemed to be thinking about his past, and I felt bad for bringing it up. No words were needed since there was nothing to ask about (other than what me and Levi were talking about but it's not like they were going to find out). "... Stop looking at me like that. You don't need to feel pity for me," he spoke in a light tone and tousled my hair, showing that he wasn't annoyed. "What are you guys talking about?" "Nothing, Shitty Glasses. Anyway, I think I'm going to go home," Levi announced as he stood up. "Oh, we can go if you want," Hanji suggested. "No, I didn't plan on staying long. I just wanted to get away from everyone that decided to snoop on us." "Sorry, that was my fault," Jean confessed. "It's fine. I'll see all of you later." Levi left the room and I followed after him, walking him to the door. I opened the door for him and he stepped out, turning around to face me. "You're being rather calm and kind today," I stated, leaning against the door as I held it open. "Well," he began, leaning towards me to peck my lips. "Your lips seem to put me in a good mood." "I doubt that but whatever you say, Ackerman... I'll see you tomorrow." "Six o'clock. Don't forget." "Okay." "You better not give me some shitty excuse about falling asleep." I laughed lightly. "I won't. Now, get your ass out of here." "Bye, darlin'." I smiled at him before he left, closing and locking the door behind him. Once I turned around, I saw three heads poking out from behind a wall. I giggled and ran towards them, jumping into them. "Ahh, I'm so happy!" I squealed as I clung onto Eren, who chuckled softly. "I never knew you liked Levi," Jean said with a frown. "Since when?" "Since we were--" I cut Hanji off since only Eren is allowed to know that we made him up.

"Since he joined our uni, I guess..." I told him, pulling away from Eren. "What?! Why did you never tell me?!" "Because I only trust Eren and Hanji, no matter how much of a big mouth she has." "And you call me your friend..." the teenager shook his head in disappointment and I smiled at him. "Oh, shut up, you know I love you." "(Y/N)! You haven't told me what happened!" Hanji demanded. "All we saw was you two kiss but we couldn't hear what you said." "I don't know if I will," I smirked, walking away from them and entering my bedroom, however, I left the door open so they all followed me. "Tell meeeeee!! Why was Shorty in such a good mood?" "I don't know~" I sang teasingly, enjoying Hanji's reaction. "Also, Eren, you haven't said anything. Are you annoyed?" "No." "Don't tell me you're still suspicious of him." "I'm not. I don't know. I'm happy for you, of course, but I just don't feel right." "Well, you said you don't think Levi was a good person at the start and you were clearly proved wrong. What's wrong now?" "He's jealous~!" Hanji exclaimed, hugging Eren's arm, and he frowned, attempting to shake her off as he felt his face heat up. "N-No, I'm not. Why would I be?" "Hanji, what idiocy are you talking about now?" I spat. "It's not idiocy, it's the truth!" she insisted. "People always point out how you have many fans. So how can the male closest to you not develop feelings for you?" I have to admit, she was making sense. But, this was Eren we were talking about. He wouldn't let himself fall for his best friend... Right? I flitted my eyes to Eren to see he was staring at the carpet in my room. I could see the pink hue on his cheeks and the way he avoided to look at me so I decided to question him. "Eren...?" I spoke, gaining his attention as Hanji led Jean out of my room, giving both of us some privacy. "Was Hanji saying the truth?" "... No..." he muttered before sighing and locking his eyes with mine that expressed disbelief. "... Fine. I did have feelings for you. But that was a few months ago, I don't anymore. I mean, there may have been other times when I think differently of you but I get over it every time. Don't worry, I'm not jealous. I honestly just feel like something's not right." "Well, thank you for being honest with me. And whatever's bothering you, I'm sure it's nothing. Just let me be happy because I'm finally dating my dream guy." "Yeah, I'm not going to ruin that for you. I'm not going to lie, you and Levi are actually cute together. I haven't seen you this happy in so long. And I know Levi will treat you right and I'm glad you met him." I gave him a soft smile and neared him, draping my arms around him and pressing my cheek against his chest as I closed my eyes, feeling his arms reciprocate the hug. "... I love you so much, Eren," I uttered quietly. "Love you, too," he replied, resting his chin at the top of my head. "Am I talking to the Eren that has feelings for me, or the one that's my best friend?" I asked jokingly, parting from the embrace. "Your best friend," he spoke with a small laugh. "Come on. Let's go to Jean and Hanji." I walked out of my room with Eren following me as we entered the living room where the two sat on the sofa, glancing at us. They saw the smile on my face and knew everything was okay.  The rest of the day, we just hung out like we would in secondary school, laughing, talking about shit no one would understand. However, seeing as how we all had lectures tomorrow (in the morning as well *eye roll*), we decided not to stay up too late (they ended up leaving at midnight). That night, I was able to sleep peacefully with a smile and nothing to worry about. ~/~ 17:38 That was the time. Twenty minutes until the time I had to be ready, and I'm guessing Levi, being the punctual asshole he is, will be outside the apartment at exactly six. However, as he predicted, I may or may have not fallen asleep and only had less than half an hour to get ready. I quickly sat up in my bed, chucking the covers off of my form as I ran my fingers through my hair, thinking what to wear. Ugh, why didn't I think about this earlier?

"(Y/N)! Wake-- Oh, you're awake. Isn't Levi coming in like twenty minutes?" Hanji said as she swung my door open. "Yes. I need clothes. Hanji, please help." "Of course! What kind of bestie would I be if I didn't help you get ready for your first date?" "Thank you so much," I sighed, getting out of my bed and opening the doors to my wardrobe. So many clothes to choose from. What outfit is the right one? "What kind of clothes do you want to wear? Girly, casual, comfy, sophisticated, etcetera..." "Um... Casual, I guess." She nodded, looking through my clothes with narrowed eyes and a thoughtful expression. Damn, she was serious about finding me the perfect clothes. After about two minutes, her whole face beamed up as she chucked some clothing at me. I blinked a couple of times, holding it up. It was a simple, white crop top hoodie and a pair of dark grey skinny jeans. I don't know if I felt like it so I stared at it for a moment, thinking if I wanted to wear it. "(Y/N), you have less than twenty minutes. Hurry up." "... Okay," I responded after concluding that this was the outfit I wanted. I shooed Hanji out of my room and changed into the clothes she chose for me. I looked in the mirror, feeling content with it until I glanced at my hair. It was a lost cause. Since I had only woken up about ten minutes ago, my hair looked like a nest and I still looked like I just woke up. I decided to go freshen up and brush my teeth since I'm certain my breath wasn't pleasant after sleeping. I came out of the bathroom and went to my bedroom, seeing I had exactly eight minutes left until six. Now was the time to rush. I did my hair and makeup to my liking, and when I was ready, I stuffed all the things I needed into a small purse. I sprayed myself with perfume and left my room, turning the light off as I padded through the corridor, slipping on my converses. Hanji spotted me in the corridor when she came out of the living room and grinned at me as I stared at my phone, checking the time and seeing Levi's messages, telling me he was outside. 18:02 Only two minutes. I'm proud of myself. "Have fun~!" "I'll tell you about it when I come back," I told her, seeing her grin widen. I left, shutting the door behind me and locking it before going down the stairs. Just before I stepped out of the building, I took a deep breath then stepped out, letting the warm, evening air engulf me as I spotted Levi's car parked in front of me and he leaned on it, scrolling through his phone until he locked it and looked up at me. I gave him a small smile, suddenly feeling nervousness spreading throughout my body. As I stood there, I took in his attire, which was a maroon dress shirt over a black t-shirt that was exposed because of the buttons that weren't done up. With that, he wore black jeans. "... You done staring, darlin'?" I slightly widened my eyes and realised I was gaping for too long. But seriously, the black shirt he wore underneath the dress shirt showed his perfectly, sculptured abs. I playfully rolled my eyes and approached him as he stepped away from the car, opening the passenger's door for me. I thanked him as I sat down and he shut the door before rounding the car and sitting in the driver's seat. I didn't know what to say so I quietly sat there as he began to drive, hoping that the raven would speak up instead. "I'm surprised you weren't asleep." "Haha, I actually was. I woke up about twenty minutes before you came." "I don't get how you can sleep so much even if you had a good amount of sleep." "Well, I didn't get enough sleep last night." "Were you too busy thinking of me?" "Don't flatter yourself," I retorted with a cocked eyebrow. "Jean and Eren stayed until late, so I wasn't able to sleep until they left, which was midnight." "Idiot," he whispered under his breath, and I glared at him. Though, his eyes were on the road.

"Shut up. It's not my fault," I scowled before silence took over again. "... What are we doing, by the way?" "Mini-golf. Grab takeaway. Chill at mine." "Hm. I like that idea," I smiled. "How did you know I would like what you planned?" "You were the one that claimed that I know everything about you. I guess I do." My smile widened. There's so much to remember about me and my life, it's impressive that he remembered small details. I guess he chose mini golf because he knew that I always used to go with my dad when I was younger. Getting takeaway and relaxing at home was something I loved to do, so it was probably obvious that I would like that. "Ackerman?" "Hm?" "Since when did you... like me?" "Why do you want to know?" "You know how long I have." "... To be honest, about two months after we met. But then that was around the time you introduced me to Petra and we started to hang out less. Unlike you, a weirdo, Petra was normal and a kind-hearted person, and I don't know, I just liked being around her. But, after a while, I realised that I didn't want normal, I wanted... you," he muttered the last word, and even though it was dark, I could see the tip of his ears burning. "You're so adorable when you're shy," I blurted out. "Also, 'I wanted you'... Why do you have to be so--?" I cut myself off, not wanting to boost his ego so he could annoy me. There was just something about that sentence that made me fall for him even more (if that was possible). "So...?" "Nothing. Continue.” "Okay... It was my fault for initiating anything, and even though she says she's fine with us, she's obviously still hurt. I don't know how she found out that I like you, but it was about halfway through our relationship when I realised that even though you're a weirdo and perv, it's more fun than someone normal. Don't get me wrong, Petra is a really sweet girl, but she was too normal for me... Feelings and relationships are confusing as hell." "I know," I said as I stared out of the window, taking in everything Levi said. "I don't understand why my two relationships lasted four or five months. I mean, I guess I do get it - I felt like I was forcing things with Jean, and Reiner was a dickhead. But why can't I have a long-lasting relationship?" Levi was silent, thinking about my words. Maybe we'll have a long-lasting relationship. Unlike her two previous relationships, there's nothing wrong with us dating. And unlike mine, I don't have feelings for anyone else. It was another five minutes until we reached the mini-golf site, and those five minutes were spent in a comfortable silence as both of us were drowned in our thoughts. "Hey? Darlin'?" "Sorry?" I spoke, turning my head away from the window to look at the male beside me. "We're here," he told me with a microscopic smile. "Oh, right." I grabbed my purse and opened the door, stepping out of the car before shutting the door. Levi locked his car and approached me with a certain glint in his eyes. I mentally smiled and reluctantly reached for his hand, my small fingers intertwining with his and he tightened the hold on my hand. Without my permission, a full-on grin sprung onto my lips as I mused on the fact that I was going on an actual date with Levi Ackerman. "What are you smiling about?" the short male inquired. "..." "Oi. You look like a creep now," he said when I didn't say anything, and only kept on grinning. "Hey, are you okay?" A frown wandered its way onto his face and he poked my cheek. Well, I always seem to love to just zone out so maybe he shouldn't be too concerned. I blinked twice, not realising I had just zoned out. "... I'm fine." "Are you sure?" "Yep," I assured him with a nod. He raised an eyebrow and I smiled up at him, causing a smile of his own to appear since he found mine adorable as fuck. ~/~ A light chuckle emanated from his lips when I attempted to hit the golf ball, but failed miserably. I may have gotten rusty over the years because years ago, I was remarkable. The raven came behind me, his torso barely brushing my back and I tried to fight back the blush. Since when did I act like a flustered schoolgirl around boys I liked?

His arms looped around me to hold the golf club my fingers were wrapped around. He then spoke, his breath caressing my neck and ear, "I swear, if you miss this, it's going to be hard for me to believe that you used to win tournaments. It's literally a millimetre away from the pocket and I'm helping you, so you better not fuck this up." I scoffed, lightly pushing him away from me but that didn't stop him from invading my personal space. "I do not need help, thank you very much. And that is not a millimetre, idiot, it's like a foot." "Shut up and take the shot; this is the last one." "If I get it in, what do I get in return?" "Another date." "Really? So you had fun?" "... Yes. Just hurry up." "Okay," I grinned. I took the shot and it went in. Obviously. Because I'm amazing. "Well done, darlin'. And before you say anything - yes, we are getting food now." I giggled and walked beside him as we went back to his car, deciding on what to eat. "I honestly don't mind. Pick whatever," I stated. "You better not complain about what I pick." "I won't. You know I'm not fussy with food, I'll literally eat anything." After some additional thinking, Levi asked if I felt like Chinese. Of course, no one could ever say no to that, so we got takeaway from the best Chinese restaurant I've been to before we drove to his apartment. "Isabel and Farlan aren't here, by the way," Levi informed me as he parked a short distance away. Both of us got out of the car and the male with steel orbs held the bag of our food. "Where did they go?" "I have no idea. But they both immediately decided to go out when I told them about our date." I smiled at the gesture. "Aw, they're so cute. I guess I'll need to thank them."

Levi unlocked the door and let me go inside first as he followed me, locking the door before taking his shoes off. I strolled towards the living room and flicked the light switch, illuminating the room. "You better not make a mess, brat." "Clean freak," I mumbled as I sat down next to him on the sofa. "What'd you say?" his inquired, narrowing his eyes. "Nothing, Shorty," I grinned with a wink. "Tch. Do you want to watch anything?" he asked, giving me my food and a fork. He stood up and went to the kitchen before coming back with two glasses and a bottle of soda. "I don't mind." "Are there any other words in your dictionary, other than 'I don't mind'?" "Well, I'll be happy with whatever which is why I say that most of the time." "Why are you so... not fussy?" "Why is that a bad thing?" I laughed. “And you only say that because you haven’t spent a specific day with me.” "What day?" "You'll know when it comes," I smiled, causing him to feel a bit uneasy. "You're making it sound like you become some beast or something." "Haha, you're not wrong." "You're scaring the hell out of me. Just tell me what and when it is." "I'm only going to tell you when it is. It might be next week." "Okay... I'm avoiding you for the next week." "Oi! You're so rude-- Hey, wait, I swear next week is our last week of the year." "Yeah." "So we have holidays. Oh my god. We're going to be in our second year of uni in a few months. Damn, time goes too fast. I don't even have plans." "Well, we have another date to plan. But I'm doing that after next week because I don't want to see you in beast mode." "Oh, yeah, I was meant to be shouting at you for being rude... You're so rude, you prick!" "I know, darlin'." "You know, if you add a 'g' at the end, you'll sound less like an asshole and more like a sweetheart." "Which is exactly why I won't add the 'g'."

"Jerk," I murmured before drinking the cool beverage in my glass.  We continued to eat while conversing about random shit that before we both cleared the coffee table that resided in front of the sofa.

I plopped down next to him on the sofa and rested my head on his shoulder, tucking my legs in on the sofa as an unexpected yawn left my mouth. "Why do I suddenly feel so tired?" I muttered, closing my eyes. "Do you want to go home?" Levi inquired softly. I shook my head, wanting to spend more time with him. "Are you sure?" "Yep. I'm just going to close my eyes for two minutes." Two minutes turned into twenty and I fell asleep without meaning to. "Hey?" Levi whispered, nudging me ever so lightly but I didn't open my eyes. "Darlin'?" he said quietly again, poking my cheek and I didn't awaken. "Two minutes, my ass," he murmured. The short raven found it difficult to move since my whole body was now leaning against his. About ten minutes later, Levi heard the opening of the front door which meant that Isabel and Farlan were home. The blonde male came into sight with the female trailing behind him. They both stared at the view in front of them, grinning and mouthing 'aw's, causing the raven to roll his eyes. "Farlan, can you pick her up without waking her up?" "Yeah. Where should I lay her down?" "... Put her in my bed. I'll sleep here on the sofa." "Are you sure?" Levi nodded as Farlan scooped me up and carried me to Levi's bed. Levi and Farlan shared a room as Isabel had her own, which made Isabel question if Levi was okay with Farlan sleeping in the same room as me. "Farlan won't do anything to anger me, it's fine." "Okay, then. Also, you seem different with (Y/N). Like, you treat her differently to Petra. Not in a bad way, though, you're more... caring and cute!" "Tch. Whatever. I just don't get how she fell asleep when it's only ten o'clock and she had a nap earlier." "Leave her alone. She's a sweetheart and there's nothing wrong with sleeping," Isabel told her friend with a frown, seeming to take a strong liking to me. Farlan came back into the room, sitting down next to Levi. "Anyway, I'm tired because of uni so I'm going to head to bed." "Okay." "Night, Isabel," Farlan smiled and the hyper female left the room. "... You are more caring towards (Y/N)." "I'm not." "Why are you denying it? It's not necessarily a bad thing. I guess you like her a lot more than Petra." "... Yeah, I do. She's not like other girls," Levi admitted as he leaned back against the cushion of the sofa, staring up at the ceiling as his best friend smiled. "I never knew that someone like her would be my type. She's nothing like me." "You two are a kind of similar, she's just more happy and smiley. However, she acts tough, loves to tease and annoy people she values, gets annoyed at things but still isn't as bothered as she seems to be. Both of you are just big softies on the inside." "Tch. We aren't similar. She would never purposefully hurt someone, she does selfless acts even if it will hurt her, and she's just a--..." "What? Why did you pause?" "I sound like an idiot. Thinking about a girl I went on one date with." "But you've known her for longer, it's not anything weird." "I don't like it. I sound cheesy and not like me." Farlan chuckled under his breath, shaking his head. "Soon enough, you'll be all lovey-dovey with her." Levi snorted. "Never." The taller male smiled and stood up. "I'm going to have a shower and go to bed. Night, Levi." "Touch her and you'll be sorry," the raven threatened, half-serious, half-joking. He then sighed, getting up to grab a pillow and blanket before settling back onto the sofa. He turned the TV on, seeing as how he wasn't going to sleep anytime soon.

~/~ Blinking a few times, my vision cleared as my gaze bounced around the room I was in. I then sat up, confused since I remember falling asleep in the living room, beside Levi. I glanced at the bed on the other side of the room and saw Farlan's sleeping face. I tilted my head in question before laying back down, knowing Levi or Farlan must have moved me here. That meant Levi was probably on the sofa. A small huff left my lips as I searched the bed for my phone that must have fallen out of my pocket during my slumber. I soon found it and lifted it to my face, seeing six missed calls from Hanji, along with several messages from her and one from Levi. Of course, Hanji would be worried about me since she wasn't informed that I fell asleep and hadn't heard from me since I left for my date. I decided to respond to her troubled texts and put her mind at ease, telling her what happened. Once I did that, I checked what Levi sent me. 'Did Farlan do anything to you?’ I rolled my eyes at this before responding with a simple 'no'. I soon got out of bed and left the room quietly, so Farlan doesn't wake up. Entering the living room, I saw Levi lying down on the sofa, covered with a blanket as he was on his phone until he heard my small 'hey'. He turned his head to look at me and discarded his phone. "Sorry about falling asleep and making you sleep on the sofa." "I don't care. Go freshen up while I make breakfast." Why does it feel as if this is a normal morning routine? Like I've lived here for a long time. I guess I treated him the same when he stayed over at my apartment. I did as he said and realised how bad my bed hair was so I tugged my fingers through it as an attempt to fix it. But they decided to be stubborn and I gave up, walking out of the bathroom to meet Levi in the kitchen. I peeked over his shoulder to see what he was making and he glanced at me from the side, quickly pecking my temple. "How does everything you make always smell so good?" "Because I'm an amazing cook." I playfully rolled my eyes as he continued to make breakfast. We spoke as he did that before we migrated to the dining table to eat, where we carried on our conversation. Once we finished the food, Levi stood up and took our plates, placing it in the kitchen before coming back to me. "Let's go out. The weather's nice,” he proposed. "But I don't have any clothes to change into." "You can borrow Isabel's." "She's smaller than me." "Tch. Just try something of her's on. She's already awake." "Should I borrow that unicorn shirt?" I smirked, reminding him of the incident that happened months ago. He glared at me before leaving to take me to Isabel's room. He knocked a couple of time before she gave permission for us to come in. "Oh, hi, (Y/N)!" she grinned, shooting up into a sitting position. "Hey," I greeted with a smile. "Isabel, can (Y/N) borrow one of your clothes, something that will fit her?" "Of course! What do you want to wear?" "Maybe a dress?" "Sure. Give me a few minutes." "Thank you so much." Levi and I wandered out of her room and waited for Isabel in the living room. It was quiet until the male opposite me spoke up, "... You can count this as a second date." "Already?" I inquired. "Yeah. Because... you're an adorable shit."

[queen-scribbles]

The Long Burning Torch ch 2

Oh, look, there more! :D Second chapter for my Ryn/Red 20s AU brought you by @shepherds-of-haven ‘s summer event 

------

True to his word, Red called just a couple days later--with supremely perfect timing, too; Xaeryn had just returned from following a lead. She was in the process of unpinning her hat when the telephone rang and she ll but dove across the room, hatpin in hand, to answer it.

“Shrike Investigations,” she said with that borderline-cheerful professionalism people expected from anyone running a business.

“Xaeryn?” He sounded curious verging on concerned. “Everything alright?”

“Oh, hittin’ on all eight,” she assured him with a breathless laugh. “I just got back from chasing down a lead.” She left off how literal that was this time as she glared at the mud on her shoes. “He was... more help than he meant to be, I think. I’m just grateful it didn’t turn into another dead-end.”

Red laughed. “Glad to hear it.” The line crackled a bit in the moment’s silence before he continued, “I had a chance to do some research, turned up a few interesting things.”

Generally interesting, or Red-interesting? Xaeryn wondered with a fond smile, remembering his fascination with even the minutiae of everything he read. “Like what?” 

“At least some of what happened to the pendent after the Solimer lost it, and it’s a bit of a mess.” He laughed again, sheepishly this time, and Xaeryn pictured him running a hand through his hair. “It’s better explained in person. Should I come to you--”

“I’ll come there,” Xaeryn offered. “You’re doing me a favor, it’s the least I can do. And besides” --she grinned, even knowing he couldn’t see her-- “it’s a long drive and I wouldn’t want you to forget any of your notes.”

There was a long-suffering sigh, punctuated by a chuckle that made the line pop. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“No more than you let me live down the apple tree,” she retorted sweetly. “Does it work for me to come today? The guild’s getting antsy with the exhibit date drawing closer, but if you’re busy...”

“I have a lecture in... just under an hour.” Red paused, likely doing the same travel time vs lecture time calculations she was. “If you left soon, you’d probably get here just as I’m finishing, we could talk after?”

“Sounds good to me,” Xaeryn said scraping mud off her shoe against the chair leg. “I’ll see you in a couple hours, then.”

“Mm, see you then.”

She took a moment examining her shoes after they hung up and decided it would be best to change them before she left. Wouldn’t want to be tracking mud through Solhadur’s halls.

---

She couldn’t entirely bite back a laugh when she arrived and found Red behind his desk, the pencil woven between his fingers tapping against one of the three books open across the desk’s surface. “Well, I just lost a five lyss wager.”

“Huh?” His hair fell in his eyes when he looked up. “Over what?”

Xaeryn smiled as she leaned against the edge of the desk. “I was certain you would get carried away with jawing about whatever your lecture was on and I would be here first. Fortunately it was a wager with myself” --she leaned over to peek at what he was reading--”so there’s no real loss.”

Red laughed and nudged one of the books toward her. “Normally you would have won. I thought of something I wanted to double-check before you got here, so I made sure to end on time. The students thank you for that, by the way.”

She snickered and skimmed through the presented history text. “They’re most welcome. What did you learn?”

Red pushed out of his chair and circled the desk to give them the same angle on the book she held. “There’s a decade or so immediately after its loss that’s unaccounted for, but there are records from travelers who mention encountering a warlord deep in Jalis territory with a pendent that sounds an awful lot like Solimer’s torch. Here.” He leaned over to flip a few pages back from where she was and pointed at a sketched illustration.

While rudimentary in nature, it did bear a striking resemblance to the photographs Mr. Syndran had given her. Xaeryn hummed a quiet agreement, noting the sketched pendent seemed to be on an armband rather than loose as it was now, as she started reading the relevant text around the illustration. 

“Lean on details,” she frowned, tracing a finger over the words as she read.

“That one is,” Red agreed. “They were more concerned with other things, barely mention the pendent in their description of the warlord. It’s just the only one with an illustration.” He tugged the book away from her, swapped it for one of the others. “Going off the description, I think this is the same piece. But you can draw your own conclusions.” He sat in one of the chairs and Xaeryn stayed perched on the edge of the desk, one foot swinging idly a few inches off the ground as she read.

From the sound of it--bronze coiled around a jet black stone, said to be its owner’s lucky talisman--she was inclined to agree with Red.  The territory of this warlord, however, was rather far from the usual routes ascribed to the Solimer’s desert travels. How did it get there? she mused. Likely during the decade it had vanished, but she couldn’t even begin to guess the method. She’ was just finishing with the account when she caught Red smiling out of the corner of her eye.

She let the book dip to look at him instead. “What?”

Red’s eyes twinkled as he nodded at the hem of her mid-calf skirt. “That lead you mentioned chasing earlier wouldn’t have involved mud puddles, would it?”

Xaeryn followed his gaze and groaned at the mud staining the dusky rose fabric. “I wasn’t expecting him to run,” she muttered, flicking at the mud with one hand as she moved to the other chair.

“Your suspects usually just wait around, obligingly, for you to interrogate them, then?” 

She rolled  her eyes at his teasing tone and briefly debated whacking him with the book. “He wasn’t a suspect, he was a witness,” she retorted primly, setting the book back on his desk. “Potentially. Though with how cagey he was being, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was guilty of something.”

“A mystery for another day,” Red said with a grin.

“Precisely. As for today’s mystery, have you found anything more recent than this?” She tapped the book. “It’s still several hundred years ago.”

“Not much, and some of it’s contradictory; that’s part of why I said in person was better.” He ran one hand through his hair. “That territory is so deep in the Jalis desert, not many go there and come out again. Those who don’t live there frequently die visiting.”

“Charming place,” Xaeryn said dryly.

“Mmhm. It makes getting records difficult, to say the least. There’s a mention of this warlord’s territory being conquered by another, but no mention of what was taken as potential spoils, and the next thing I’ve found resembling Solimer’s torch is is when it was discovered in the grave of a different chieftain, name unknown--though there are theories--a hundred years ago and almost two hundred miles from where the nearest previous records indicated it being.”

“How’s a chieftain’s name unknown?” she frowned. 

“He was buried with the honors afforded warlords and chieftains, but any record of his identity had worn off in the desert wind, if it was there in the first place,” Red explained.

“And these theories about who he was?” 

“Numerous and with various levels of support,” he said wryly. “But if you want the longer version...?”

Xaeryn chuckled. “Always.” 

They spent the next hour or so discussing the myriad guesses people had made as to this mystery chieftain’s name, as well as the other details Red had unearthed about the pendent, and various sources’ credibility. They only got caught up in one or two rabbit trails of good-natured debate over peer review and scholarly reputation or historical patterns of desert travel. (Which was pretty good for them.)

“There are a lot of gaps,” Red acknowledged, thumbing the pages of one book. “But I have a lot more I can read to help with filling them in.” He twirled one hand to gesture at the shelves that lined the room.

“You don’t have to-”

“Xaeryn, have you ever known me to be unhappy reading a book?” he asked with a warm smile.

“Well, no,” Xaeryn laughed. “But you’re so busy now, Headmaster.”

Red arched a brow but didn’t further protest her use of the title. “I always have time for you,” he said with a shrug, then cleared his throat and pushed to his feet even as her heart pounded and she sternly informed herself he hadn’t meant it like that. (She was grateful his circling the desk meant he missed the moment of broken composure that surely flashed across her face.) “And research is even more fun when it’s for a purpose. Bottom line for you so far...” He picked up his dropped pencil and started shuffling through everything on his desk in search of paper.

She grinned and held out her notepad. “Here.”

He flashed a sheepish smile as he took it. “Thank you.” He flipped to the first blank page and started writing as he talked. “Descendants of either that unknown chieftain or the one whose wife originally found the torch would have the strongest claims of ownership.”

“If I can find them,” Xaeryn said dryly. “And if one of them’s not already the owner on record who lent the pendent to the exhibit.” She bit her lower lip. “I think I need to talk to Mr. Syndran again.”

And depending on what he told her, her own research into genealogy might be called for.

“Probably your best next step.” Red finished writing and handed back her notepad, several pages scrawled with bullet-points summation of what he’d found.  “Here you go.”

“Thank you.” Xaeryn smiled when she saw the notes were in their shorthand.  “Nice touch.”

He smiled and raised one shoulder in a shrug. “It takes less space, and you did say this is a secret...”

“Very true.” She flipped the pad closed and tucked it back in her handbag. “I really do appreciate your help, this wasn’t a a small request, and you got me some answers in very short order.”

“I’m not done reading, Xaeryn,” Red said, voice rife with amusement. He waved at the surrounding shelves again. “Like I said, there’s a lot more to check.”

I always have time for you.

“As long as you don’t mind, I would love to hear anything else you learn,” Xaeryn said with a smile. Far be it from her to stand between Liefred Antiqua and a research project he was excited about. She’d sooner snatch an ice cream away from a child. 

“I’ll call if I find anything else useful,” Red promised, already shifting toward one bookshelf.

She nodded, biting back a laugh and hoping he had a very loose definition of the word ‘useful’. “I’ll look forward to that, then.” Her neck and ears warmed and she hastily added, “more information is always helpful.” She stood, flicking at the stubborn mud on her skirt again. Next time she went interview-hunting, she was wearing trousers. “Though you have me off to an excellent start.” She headed for the door, paused with her hand on the knob. “Thank you for that, Liefred.”

“Anytime.” He leaned against the corner of his desk. “You can still call me Red, y’know, Xaeryn. Everyone does, so it’s hardly going to seem too familiar.”

True as that might be here at Solhadur, Haven was a different story. And she wouldn’t want to slip up. “I’ll keep that in mind,” Xaeryn said softly. “Until next time?”

“Mm-hm.” Something flickered in his eyes as he rubbed the back of his neck, then flashed her an easy smile. “I’ll look forward to it, then. I’m glad we reconnected.”

She smiled back as she twisted the knob. “Me, too.”

She didn’t have many friends, it was good to get one of the best ones back.

---

It was edging toward evening when Xaeryn made it back to her office. Which made it a bit of a surprise --fortuitous as it was-- to find Mr. Syndran waiting for her.

“Did we have a meeting I forgot about?” she asked apologetically as she unlocked the door. (They hadn’t, she was positive, but it was a diplomatic way of probing for why he was here.)

“We did not,” Mr. Syndran replied, arching a brow in a knowing look. “I had some other business in the area and decided to stop by in person to see how you are coming along, Miss Shrike.”

Xaeryn laughed and gestured toward the same chair he’d sat in on his first visit. “Then you have very good timing, instincts, or both, Mr. Syndran. I had some things I wanted to ask you; background information.”

His brow creased ever so slightly. “Should you not be far beyond mere background information? Have you not made progress?”

She sighed and sat in her chair behind the desk, pulling her notepad from her handbag and turning to a blank page. “Not of the ‘I’ve narrowed it down to two blocks, I just don’t know which house’ variety, no.” She tapped her pen against the desk. “But I have leads on suspects.”

Syndran gave a grunt that may have been displeasure. “And your questions for me?”

“Like I said; clarifying background information. When the Couriers were contracted to handle transport, how much were you told about the pieces?”

“Only the relevant details.” He brushed invisible lint off his sleeve. “Each one’s value, recorded owner, any special care instructions.”

Xaeryn nodded, pen poised over her pad. “I don’t suppose you recall the owner listed for the pendent?”

He paused to think a moment. “I’d have to have my secretary check to be completely certain, but I believe it was a Ms. Aescar. The name didn’t ring any bells for me.”

“And would I need to speak with the Hall of History and Culture if I wanted to find out how to contact her, or do you know?”

Syndran shook his head. “Whitestone Couriers were merely transporting the relics, Miss Shrike. Any communication with the owners was the concern of the museum curators. Why would you need to talk to her?”

“I might not,” Xaeryn said, scribbling the information down. “I just like to have all my chickens in the coop ahead of time, so there’s no scrambling if something winds up time-sensitive down the road.”

“Smart.” Syndran gave a nod of approval. “So long as you don’t spend so much time preparing for unlikely eventualities that you lose more promising leads.”

She back back a tart ‘I know how to do my job’ and nodded. “Of course.”

He paused a moment, lips pursed in thought. “I did have a wonder, Miss Shrike.”

Xaeryn cocked her head. “Oh?”

“Given the... likelihood this theft occurred somewhere between city customs and the museum and the utter lack of details my drivers have been able to provide about that stretch of the journey” --his expression soured-- “would it be possible for you to... revisit the scene with your abilities?” His brows arched meaningfully.  “You are Argentis, are you not? The benefit of hindsight might allow you to pick up on something relevant that didn’t register in the moment for my people.”

She tapped her pen against her notepad. “I can give it a go, Mr. Syndran, but I’m more a Scryer than a Sage; my strongest talent is finding things in the present, not viewing the past. Though this is the recent past,” she mused. “Perhaps recent enough that with a focus from the caravan I’d have decent luck.”

“I’ll see what I can find for you.” Mr. Syndran pushed to his feet. “Anything in particular that will work best?”

“For viewing the past like this... something from the event is necessary, and the closer to central it is, the clearer a picture I’ll be able to get.” She leaned back in her chair. “Frankly, if you don’t mind my doing so, coming to the Couriers’ garage and using one of the trucks as my touchstone would work best.”

“Oh, that’s very doable,” he said with a nod. “As it’s getting late, what say we do it tomorrow?”

“Nine AM?” Xaeryn suggested.

“Acceptable.” He headed for the door. “I shall see you then, Miss Shrike.”

“See you then, Mr. Syndran.” Xaeryn waited until the door closed behind him to let out a slow breath. Scrying was easy enough, even if she didn’t always succeed, but peering into the past was usually a draining exercise for her. Mr. Syndran was correct, though; it was very likely the best way to glean new leads. Even if it meant she’d need a nap after.

She pushed to her feet and locked the door. One more glance over her notes before she called it a night. So it was fresh in her mind and she could mull it over.

She tried not to get too distracted by the difference between her small, crowded shorthand and Red’s larger, loose scrawl--he had a dreamer’s handwriting, which she’d teased him about when they were younger(he’d rolled his eyes but hadn’t denied it). The memory had her smiling all through dinner.

---

The weather was nice enough the next day Xaeryn opted to walk to the Whitestone Couriers’ garage, though she did take an umbrella in case the rain that hadn’t threatened the last few days decided to make an appearance. Mr. Syndran was waiting for her, looking all the more proper in these rough-shod surroundings. 

“Right on time, Miss Shrike,” he said with a tight smile. “This way.” He led her at a brisk pace to a gleaming black truck, the canvas cover a near-immaculate tan. “This is the one that was carrying the crate with the pendent, among other things.”

“Right.” Xaeryn circled to the passenger side, letting her fingers trail over the cool metal until they rested on the door. “I can’t make any promises, but let’s see if we can find anything useful.”

She pressed her hand flat against the side of the truck and murmured the correct ritual, felt her magic rise to do as she bade.

The scene around her--Mr. Syndran, the garage, everything but the truck--faded into shadow. Her view shifted, as if she were riding shotgun in the truck or hanging out the window as it crept through Haven’s streets. Tings were flickery and dim, the colors bled out and faded as she looked around. I don’t know how long I can hold this. Xaeryn peered intently at  what she could see of the surroundings, the other vehicles, the people, buildings, noting everything she could, no matter how mundane. A woman with a red hat, brim hiding most of her face. A young boy and his dog watching the caravan with interest. A man with vivid green eye and a small smile lounging against a wall, following the trucks’ progress from under his slouched cap. The cat that almost darted in front of the preceding truck before it spooked. The flapper with an armful of bracelets, glancing surreptitiously across the street-

The scene flickered sharply, her grasp on the ritual fading, the images slipping away--

And Xaeryn was back in the garage, leaning against the truck as her knees went to jelly. The few prior occasions she’d played the sage had left her feeling like she stood up too fast when they ended, and this was no exception.

“Are you alright, Miss Shrike?” Mr. Syndran gestured to a nearby worker who’d stopped to gawp and the man scuttled off.

“Just fine,” she said with a nod, turning to sit on the truck’s running board as she tugged out her notepad and rapidly scrawled out everything she’d seen. “Sage work can be taxing if it’s not your main talent, that’s all.”

He watched in silence as she scribbled down the vision’s contents, only speaking again when she finished. “Did you see anything of note?”

“Nothing too blatant, or it would have stood out even to the drivers,” Xaeryn said, leaning her head back against the truck. “But there were some passers-by that caught my attention...”

Mr. Syndran listened to her descriptions with utmost focus, but interrupted when she reached the green-eyes lounger. “Do you remember any other details about him?” he demanded, his hands twitching to a fractionally tighter grip on the head of his walking stick.

“Tall,” Xaeryn said slowly. The worker Syndran had sent away returned with a tumbler of water, which she accepted with a nod of thanks as she dug through the memory. “I think brown hair, but he was wearing a hat. Bright red vest, blue and green scarf ‘round his neck-”

“Thieves guild,” Syndran muttered. Despite the distaste on the words, a panther-like grin curved his lips. “I should have known.” The distaste shifted to satisfaction. “That would be your next lead, Miss Shrike.”

Xaeryn arched a brow. “Do tell.”

“Thieves guild has been a thorn in our side for years,” Syndran explained, “They aren’t even a true guild; more a loose association of ruffians and cutpurses who only call themselves such in another jape at legitimate businesses.” He sniffed. “They make their base in the warrened streets of Ashtown, but I believe I have worked out where their true headquarters are concealed. I can give you some direction, if you’re recovered enough to follow me to my office?”

She nodded, pushed to her feet. “Lead the way.”

It was good to have something tangible to pursue. Hopefully the weather would hold so she could follow it up now. Ashtown was no fun in the rain.

[wrenhyperfixates]

Of All the Places

Chapter 4

Pairing: Loki x reader Series Summary: Washing up in a small town in Oklahoma was definitely not part of Loki’s plan when he came to conquer Midgard. There is one good thing about it, though: No one recognizes him as the one who just wreaked havoc in New York. So, Loki plans to recover from the battle and move on with his life. The only problem? He’s not sure he can leave you. Chapter Summary: Loki continues to struggle with his emotions as he tries to figure out his bond with you. On top of all that stress, he finally learns what the rest of the world is hearing about New York. Chapter Warnings: long, angsty, and fluffy A/N: Woohoo! Fourth chapter is here! Totaling almost 5,000 words, the longest thing I have written to date. Any comments, questions, or predictions? I’d love to hear them and chat with you! Well, guys, gals, and non-binary pals, hope you enjoy :) Updates every Friday.

Tag List: @lucywrites02 @frostedgiantfavs​ @lunarmoon8​ @twhiddlestonsstuff​

✥ Start at Beginning ✥ | ← Previous Chapter | Next Chapter →

Disclaimer: Gif not mine 

Loki hadn’t slept well in days. Between nightmares and dreams of you, his mind was a constant hub of activity. He didn’t need as much sleep as you mortals did, but after the whole ordeal with Thanos, the lack of rest was taking a toll on him. You were the first to notice, and started hovering even more than normal, something Loki was reluctant to admit he liked. In his final days on Asgard, he’d made himself a complete loner, going so far as to isolate himself from Frigga. It was nice to have some companionship again. That was as far as Loki ever let his mind wander, though, cutting himself off before he could deeper analyze the constant pull he felt toward you. Certainly there wasn’t even anything else to analyze anyway, he convinced himself. You were, after all, only human.

Before he could get lost in thought again, Loki refocused on Matt’s caramel blonde hair as he chased him between the barn and the house. The boy’s light curls were the only thing he’d inherited from his father and looked almost exactly like Ana otherwise. It made Loki wonder how he never guessed he was adopted, seeing as he looked nothing like either of his parents. This fresh air was really starting to get to him, he decided, because he was continuously going down these deep contemplative paths in his mind. It was a constant loop of his feelings for you, his true heritage, and how he was taking advantage of your family. Then again, it may have been the traumatic, near-death experiences and hours of torture that was doing this to him. That was the one thing he always liked to forget about.

“Tag, you’re it!” Loki cheered as he tapped Matt.

The challenge in this game, for Loki at least, was not to overtake Matt’s strides too quickly. It was the perfect balance of fake chasing and finding just the right moment to execute the tagging. Still, he was having almost as much fun as the child was.

“Now you’re it!” Matt declared a few minutes later when Loki let the boy catch up to him.

If there was anything to admire about the kid, it was his tireless energy. Loki was glad to have found someone to keep pace with him as far as that went. His mind, too, was kept plenty stimulated by late-night talks with you. Ever since you’d showed him the creek a few days ago, you seemed to talk into the wee hours of the morning. He’d never noticed before just how deep and intelligent mortals could be. It was quite the accomplishment that you were changing so many of his opinions in such a short time. Then he realized he was thinking of you yet again and cut off the train of thought before it could persist.

“Loki. Matt,” Ana called, waving at them from the front porch.

After scooping the boy up in his arms, Loki jogged over to where she was standing. Matt was happily transferred to his mother’s arms as he was carried into the kitchen for snack time. The God of Mischief looked out over your land, trying to give in to the feeling of contentment he was so close to achieving. If only he didn’t constantly have that voice in his head telling him he was a monster, he didn’t belong here. Maybe then he could be happy. A part of him wished he’d lost his memory for real.

“Oh, there you are,” you said, walking out of the house. “I’m heading into town if you want to come with me and see if anything jogs your memory.”

“Yes. I would like that very much.”

As the two of you made your way to the car, you repeatedly tossed and caught your keys in a nervous pattern. Loki held the door open for you as you got in and quickly hurried around to the other side. He stared at a weird strap by his seat as he sat down. You saw his look of befuddlement and couldn’t help but let out a little laugh.

“Do you not remember how to use a seatbelt?” you asked kindly as he nodded his head yes. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you came from an alien planet.”

Then you reached across his seat to buckle him in. Unfortunately, it was a bit farther than you realized, and you fell into Loki, hand splayed on his chest, his hands immediately reaching out to steady you. For a minute, the only sound in the vehicle was your pounding hearts. You cleared your throat in embarrassment as you finished your task. The air between you held a distinct awkwardness, and Loki realized that this was the first time you’d been truly alone since the creek. It sent a thrill down his spine, even as he tried to ignore his racing thoughts. Determined to look anywhere but in your direction, his eyes landed on Mama, scowling in the window. She’d made it clear that she wasn’t keen on him spending so much time with you and Matt. If he was any smarter, any braver, he would listen to her and just leave already.

“So,” you began, clearing your throat again and driving off, “how are you feeling today?”

“I am quite well, thank you. I do believe I am fully healed.”

“Promise to still take it easy, ok?”

“Alright.”

You lapsed into silence as you cruised along the road. Loki stared out the window, hoping to find some clarity in the scenery streaking by. You were a mortal, he should not have felt any sort of attachment to you. Then again, he hadn’t spent time with one since the Middle Ages. It had all been so dreadfully dull back then, but things had changed. You and your family were so exuberant, so captivating. But he was a god, and he should not concern himself with that. In fact, he should be on his way of this planet, which was maybe not so miserable, after all.

Before long, you reached town and pulled into a small parking lot of a building with a sign that said “24 Hour Convenience Store” and had many light-up neon signs, declaring they were open. You got out and Loki followed suit.

“Anything look familiar yet?” you asked. “I know you don’t live here, but maybe you passed through.”

Lying was his specialty, and it’s what he should have done now. He could hear himself in his head, his silver tongue weaving a tale about how things were coming back to him. Then he could pretend to contact someone and create an illusion, so you believed he had a happy reunion with his family. It would be prefect; he would leave and you wouldn’t worry about him. He truly wanted to believe it would perfect, anyway, but it wasn’t. Not if he never saw you again. There must be something special about you, he decided, and the Tesseract brought him here so he could figure it out. That was it. That had to be it.

“I am afraid not,” he replied. “Perhaps I came from the other way.”

“Yeah, maybe. Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out,” you comforted him with a hug, mistaking the reason for his sadness.

His body went stiff in your embrace. He hadn’t been hugged in centuries. Granted, that was in part his fault because he was afraid receiving hugs from his mother would hurt his carefully crafted image. Now here you were, holding his body against your warm frame. Once his mind cleared a bit, he awkwardly hugged you, too, and gave your back a few uncertain pats. He should not have been encouraging this behavior, but he was. Maybe if he caused some mischief he’d feel more like his old self. Or maybe he didn’t want to be that person anymore. It was all too much. He was exhausted by the incessant back and forth of his thoughts. He untangled himself from you and gestured to the store.

“After you,” he said.

You pushed open the glass doors and were greeted by the cashier as you walked in. Loki followed you to the back where the refrigerator section was, and he chivalrously held the milk that you’d come to pick up. You also grabbed some coffee grounds and then proceeded to checkout. After setting down the items on the counter, Loki turned over a chocolate bar in his hands, feeling like a child as you took it out of his hands and put it down with the other items. You grabbed a few other bars too, flashing a smile at Loki and keeping up a conversation with the clerk all the while.

“And who’s your new friend?” the cashier, whose name tag said Mr. Berkeley, asked you.

“This is Loki. He’s staying with me until... Well for a while,” you finished, not sure how much Loki felt comfortable revealing.

“Where’re you from, sonny?”

“Unfortunately, I cannot remember. It seems I had some kind of horrid accident,” Loki explained before you could fret anymore. He was very tired of being called son by people when he was a thousand years their senior, though. “I was very lucky to have found my way onto their farm.”

“Well, that’s quite a story. You should talk to the newspaper, get the word out.”

You shot an “I told you so” look at Loki to which he responded with one that said, “We’ll talk about this later.” Before either of you could say anything, though, the news came on the TV which Loki hadn’t realized was on.

“Do you have cable back?” you inquired as Loki began to panic. “It’s still out on the farm.”

“Nah. I got a satellite on the roof. Just got it set up again this morning.

You nodded along as the anchors began the next story. “New York is still reeling from damage, but the group of superheroes, going by the name of the Avengers, is leading clean-up efforts. The perpetrator has still not been caught-”

Loki discreetly turned the TV off with his powers before you could hear any more. He’d have to make sure the satellite took significant damage before leaving.

“Dang it. I just fixed that damned thing,” the cashier said.

“What was that all about?” you asked, completely bewildered by the sudden influx of information. “What happened in New York?”

“I guess you missed it in the paper last week,” Mr. Berkeley explained. “Some crazy group of aliens attacked, led by some power hungry god. Supposedly it was Thor’s brother, but they haven’t disclosed that information yet. Reckon they want to wait until he’s caught, avoid a panic.”

“Oh my god. That’s terrible! Gosh, you miss one paper,” you laughed, trying to keep the mood light.

A dark cloud passed over Loki’s features, even as Mr. Berkeley laughed along. Despite those SHIELD agents covering this up, word had still gotten out in some capacity. He had to be careful, or else he was going to get caught, and then you’d be in danger. He cursed under his breath. Your safety should be the last thing he was worrying about, and yet it was the first thought to come into his mind. A little kindness thrown his way should not make him into the mess he was. Of course, there were so many other things to like about you, too, and he kept finding more. He didn’t want to, he didn’t want any of this, but the Norns were punishing him for something. What would have happened, he wondered, if he’d listened to Thor and just held on that fateful day? If he hadn’t let go of the staff and fallen to what should have been his ultimate demise?

“Sonny, are you alright?” Mr. Berkeley asked as you laid a hand on his arm.

“Fine, but I think we should be going. I’ll meet you outside.”

He jerked away from your touch before you could do anything else and stalked outside. At least the satellite was hanging half off the roof with a huge dent in its side. He opened his door and got into the car as you unlocked it and raced over to him.

“Loki! Loki!” you called as you hurried over. “What was that? Are you ok?”

“Nothing! Nothing at all. Can’t you see I’m fine?” he snapped, struggling with the seatbelt. “I’m fine,” he whispered again.

“Hey, look at me,” you soothed, filled with compassion and placing a hand on his cheek. “Whatever it is, just let me know. I’m here for you. Talk to me.”

Loki’s eyes fluttered shut as he enjoyed the warmth from your palm. He let go of the seatbelt and took a few deep breaths, just like his mother had taught him. A part of him wanted to hang onto this anger, knowing that it might finally drive him to leave. He knew from experience, though, that acting in moments of blind rage would never lead to anything good.

“Is it New York? Did you remember something?” you gasped. “You had felt it was important in some way.”

“Perhaps,” he said after one last steadying breath. “It may have triggered something. But really, I am just a little tired. Maybe I am not as healed as I thought.”

He turned his head away and rested it against the window as your hand dejectedly fell into your lap. It’s not that he wanted to pull away, but he knew it’s what was safest for you.

“Ok then. We’ll go home.”

Loki whispered his thanks and succeeded in buckling up. He closed his eyes as the car started and a wave of emotions crashed over him. When you said home, he immediately pictured the farm. He knew he shouldn’t, but he did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Loki holed himself up in his room for the rest of the day, working through the new information he’d learned. He pretended to be asleep when Ana came to bring him some dinner. Notably, you had not been the one taking care of him, and he cursed himself for pushing you away. He didn’t even bother trying to convince himself it was for the best; he knew it wasn’t. After so many years on his own, he finally had a friend, and he drove you away. Why he expected anything less from himself, he didn’t know.

At some point, he fell into a restless sleep. The food from last night was still on the bedside table, but it was now joined with the Snickers bar you’d bought for him yesterday. Someone had also come and tucked him in. Maybe he hadn’t lost his friend, after all. He opened the chocolate and took a bite, delighting in the sweet and nutty flavor. He polished it off, then waved a hand over the rest of the food, causing it to disappear. He wasn’t much in the mood for eating it, but didn’t want you to worry. He nearly ran into John as he walked into the hallway with the empty tray.

“There you are!” John exclaimed. “We were getting worried. Do you need the doctor?”

“No, I am quite alright, thank you. I think I just needed some good sleep,” Loki lied.

“Only if you’re sure. Take it easy today, though, ok?”

“That’s an order,” you said, appearing behind your brother-in-law and taking the tray from Loki. “Are you hungry? You missed breakfast, but I can heat up some leftovers from you.”

“I am fine,” Loki began, but noticed you frown. “Though, I suppose I could do with a small breakfast.”

“Great!” you said a little too brightly. “I’ll meet you down there.”

“Loki, can I talk to you for a minute?” John asked, pulling him aside. “What exactly happened yesterday? We heard about New York, but it seemed like there was something else bothering them.”

Loki felt a pang in his chest at the man’s words. As if the news weren’t upsetting enough, he’d been rude to you. He could only imagine how you would feel if you knew he was the one who had caused the mayhem. He wanted to pin the blame on someone else, but the blood was on his hands and he knew he had to take some responsibility. Doing that would help him change, which he recognized was absolutely necessary after all that had happened.

“I fear I may have upset them,” Loki started, shedding his old ways by telling the truth. “I was not feeling quite right, and I turned them away. Now they clearly blame themself for it. I deeply regret it, but I am not sure there is anything I can do.”

“Just talk to them. Apologize.”

Loki did his best not to look shocked, but the last time he said sorry was when his parents caught him playing tricks on Thor, and even then it was done begrudgingly. He wasn’t even sure he could make it sound sincere.

“Listen, I’ve got an idea,” John said. “We’re heading to the city today if you want to tag along. They’re off to get some gifts for Ana while I’ve got a few potential distributors to meet with. I’m sure they would be thrilled to have your company. Unless you’re not feeling well, of course.”

“No, I’m feeling fine. That is a great idea. You have my thanks, John.”

“No problem. Now, you’d better head down for breakfast before we both get in trouble,” he laughed.

With a final nod of gratitude, Loki took off down the stairs. His light footsteps went undetected as he neared the table, once again giving him the opportunity to eavesdrop on Mama’s suspicions.

“I know something else must’ve happened yesterday. You weren’t upset over nothing.”

“It’s just the New York thing,” you replied. “I’m fine. Really.”

“You tell me what that boy did right now or so help me I’ll kick him out of this house myself!”

“Mama! He didn’t do anything wrong. I get that what happened with James hurts, believe me I do, but you can’t let it run your life. You have to be able to trust others, to trust me,” you pleaded.

“How dare you drag your brother into this,” Mama shot back, her voice cracking. “How ’bout you trust my gut when it tells me that boy is trouble. I swear-”

She was cut off by Loki doubling back and thudding down the stairs, making his presence known. He’d heard more than enough of that conversation and wouldn’t allow you to feel any more hurt than you already were.

“Good morning,” he coldly said to Mama as he walked in, nostrils flaring slightly before he regained some composure. “I am not interrupting anything, am I.”

“Only our entire lives. Why don’t you go to the police, huh? And what about the missing person ad? Why haven’t we gotten that out yet? I don’t know what game your playing, but when I figure it out, believe me you’ll be sorry.”

“Fine! You want to know what I am doing here? I do not know. I have no idea why I ended up here or why I have stayed as long as I have. So when you ‘figure it out,’ by all means, please let me know.”

“Fine!” Mama shouted as she stormed off.

Loki was comforted by the fact that in his little outburst, he hadn’t technically told any lies to you. Half-truths? Most certainly, but no outright lies. Now that he was left alone with you, though, he felt embarrassed he lost his temper. He cleared his throat before speaking.

“I am sorry,” he said, not looking at you.

“Loki, you don’t have to say sorry for defending yourself. I understand.”

“That’s not what I’m apologizing for,” he confessed, now looking into your eyes. “Yesterday I was not feeling quite right, but I should not have snapped at you nor pushed you away like that. For that, you have my sincerest apologies.

“It’s really ok, it happens to everyone. I just care that you’re feeling alright.”

You stayed where you were standing, still hesitant to move toward Loki out of fear of being rejected again. So, it fell upon Loki to close the distance between you. He took your hand in his and placed a kiss to your knuckles as a light blush coated his cheeks.

“Thank you, darling. I assure you, I am feeling more than alright now.”

Whatever was about to happen between you next was cut off by the beeping of the microwave. You finished putting together his breakfast before sitting with him at the island. Though your relationship had been repaired, the conversation was still a bit choppy and awkward as you found your footing in the friendship again. John walked in just as you were cleaning up, whistling a happy tune.

“Ready to go whenever you guys are,” he said as he leaned against the doorframe.

“You’re coming?” you asked Loki, feeling worried for his health. “Are you sure you’re up for that? I can even stay behind with you if u want.”

“Please, do not change your plans on my account. I am in a great condition to go.”

You still seemed reluctant, but agreed he could come as long as he let you know the second he started feeling unwell. He conceded, and you went to fetch your jacket with the promise you’d be back in a minute. John gave Loki a thumbs up, to which he replied with a very self-assured smile, bolstered with confidence by your latest exchange.

A few minutes later you were all piling into the car, with Loki insisting you took the passenger seat and that he’d ride in the back. He was very pleased to get the seatbelt buckled on the first try, and the two of you shared a laugh at the little inside joke. His cheeks burned slightly, remembering how you’d fallen against him. Over the next few hours, you passed time by talking, laughing, and singing along to the radio. Just as you were entering the city, a troubling thought occurred to Loki; the people here had heard the news. Even if it hadn’t been officially announced that he was responsible for New York, those rumors about him had to have included a description. Sudden inspiration struck as John parked the car.

“You don’t happen to have a hair tie in here, do you?” he inquired.

“Yeah,” you replied, reaching into the glove compartment. “Ana keeps some in here for emergencies.”

Loki thanked you as you passed it to him and quickly put his hair up in a low bun. When he turned his attention back to you, you were staring at him, and he gave you a charming, lopsided grin that had you ducking your head in embarrassment.

“Ok,” John said with a clap of his hands once you were all on the sidewalk. “We’ll meet here in, say, about 5 hours.”

“Sounds like a plan,” you agreed, before waving goodbye.

Now it was just you and Loki again as you took off towards some stores to look at some baby gifts for Ana. It would still be half a year before the baby arrived, but you were always indecisive when it came to purchasing gifts. On the way, Loki ducked into a small shop and bought a pair of sunglasses, furthering his disguise. Between that, the new clothes, and the different hairstyle, he felt pretty confident in his ability to blend in.

After two-and-a-half hours of shopping, you’d found a bunch of things to maybe get, but hadn’t decided on anything. You would go back and look some more, but you were bone tired after all the walking around. The fact that you were so exhausted made you concerned for Loki’s condition, too, not entirely trusting that he would tell you if he was feeling ill, despite his promise to.

“How are you holding up?” you cautiously asked, afraid of a repeat of yesterday if you pushed too hard.

“I am doing quite well. You, however, seem to need to stop for a spell. Come, let us rest for a minute.”

He led you over to the food court of the mall you were at and pulled out a chair for you to sit in. He glanced around at the options and, though there was nothing there that appealed to him, there was certainly something that you liked. Besides, he didn’t need to eat, but your frail mortal body would need some sustenance sooner rather than later.

“Can I get something for you to eat?” he offered.

“How about we go see a movie instead?” you proposed, eyeing up the nearby theater.

“Only if you eat something.”

“Wow. Look at how the tables have turned,” you laughed. “Fine, but you have to also.”

After a minute’s debate, you and Loki agreed on a comedy starring your favorite actor. It wouldn’t have been Loki’d first pick, but after all the stress and angst of the last 24 hours, he figured he could use a laugh. You also convinced him to try some popcorn and Pepsi. He wasn’t much a fan of the soda, but the snack was tasty enough. Though, you did end up stealing half of his after finishing your own, which was fine with him. The best part of the whole experience, though, was getting to hear your laugh over and over again. Loki thought it might be the most beautiful sound he ever heard. Well, perhaps the best part was actually when your arms brushed each other as you both went to put them on the armrest at the same time. Loki filed away all these little mental notes to dwell on at a later date. Or, if he were lucky enough to rein in his hurricane of thoughts, never again.

“Well, that killed a lot of time,” you said after the movie ended and you were stretching out, aching from having sat for so long. “We’ve still got some left though. What do you want to do?”

“I believe there was a library over by where we parked. Let us go there,” he said, quickly thinking up a plan.

By the time you walked over, there was only about twenty minutes left for him to complete what he needed to do. He hurried over to where the computers were, and though he wasn’t particularly adept with modern Midgardian technology, the directions taped to the wall were clear enough that he was able to look up a book. He sent you off to get it, claiming that the title had just popped into his head and that he was certain he used to love it, and that he wanted to check on the status of a few others. You obliged, hoping that seeing the book would bring back some more of his supposedly lost memories.

Once you were gone Loki quickly searched for information on what he learned was being referred to as the Battle of New York. Thankfully, there was as little information about him circulating as Mr. Berkeley had said. Mostly, it was just speculation and stories from people claiming they’d been there. A great number of posts and photos had been deleted, too, and Loki assumed that they were ones with more valid claims and information. Knowing how SHIELD is, Loki was sure it was all removed almost immediately, so he felt relatively safe but decided he couldn’t be too careful.

“I found it!” you said, setting the book down as Loki closed out the tab he was on.

“Wonderful! Thank you,” he replied, flipping through it. “Most unfortunately, the other books were checked out.”

You leaned over shoulder to look at the book in his hands. “That’s too bad. What about this one, though? Triggering any memories?”

“Well, I think I enjoyed reading. Other than that, I am afraid not.”

“That’s ok. We’ll keep trying.”

Your hand slowly drifted over to rest on his, and he gave you a brilliant smile. It made him wish he’d found a friend in the universe far sooner than he had. Then maybe he wouldn’t have ended up in the hands of Thanos, committing atrocities against his family and strangers alike. Then again, if none of that happened, he never would have met you. He was torn over which he preferred.

“There you guys are,” John said, walking up to where you were. “Ready to head back whenever you are.”

After putting the book back on the shelf, you were ready to leave. Loki hung back with John as you exited.

“Your plan has worked miracles, my good man. You have my sincerest gratitude,” he said.

“No problem, dude,” John said, patting Loki on the back. “Glad to bring a happy couple back together again.”

Loki’s steps faltered. Between his companion’s smirk and teasing tone, Loki knew it was meant as a joke. Mainly, anyway. John really was very off the mark, though. He and you were merely friends, nothing more. And surely that was just barely so, seeing as you were a human. There was no way you meant anything else to Loki. Right?

It wasn’t until you were back on the road, and Loki couldn’t stop looking at the back of your head, that he even began to realize just how much trouble he was in.

[calliecat93]

Callie’s Disney Princess Retrospective: Beauty and the Beast

(Snow White) (Cinderella) (Sleeping Beauty) (The Little Mermaid)

The Little Mermaid was a huge success for Disney. It was such a big success that it began the Renaissance Era of Disney Animation and returned Disney to the top animation studio. While many people such as John Musker, Ron Clements, and Glen Keane can be credited for the film's success, the biggest player by far was lyricist Howard Ashman. He put his heart and soul into the film, and not just with song lyrics. He wanted the characters to connect to the audience. He wanted to play a part in the story. He wanted this film to be something special, and he succeeded. But he was also frustrated, could be argumentative when others didn't like his vision, and unknown to everyone, he was dying. After winning two Oscars for The Little Mermaid's music, Howard revealed to composer Alan Menken that he had AIDS, and he didn't have much longer to live.

However, Ashman wasn't going down before completing one more film. Though he had been writing music for Aladdin, he ultimately ended up as the lyricist of another film. A film that had been through many different iterations and was handed off to newbie directors. Little did anyone know just how impactful this film would be for Disney, and for the industry as a whole. Well, except for Ashman himself. The film that we are discussing today is the first animated film to ever, ever be nominated for Best Feature. That film is 1991''s Beauty and the Beast.

Overview

Belle is a beautiful young woman, but is seen as an oddity in her village due to her love of books and her utter disinterest in local heartthrob Gaston. When her father, an inventor named Maurice, leaves for a science fair, he ends up taking refuge in an old, abandoned castle. But the castle is actually enchanted and acts as the home to dozens of talking inanimate objects... and a fearsome beast. When Belle goes looking for her father, she offers to take his place as the Beast’s prisoner. But during her time in the castle, Belle discovers that this Beast may not be as much of a monster as he appears, and this may lead to both discovering true love...

Review

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this is by far one of Disney’s most beloved films. It got praise form both critics and movie-goers when it came out, and it’s only become more beloved in the nearly 20 years since. Belle is praised as a feminist's icon and the film for it’s themes of toxic masculinity, judging a book by it’s cover, and some of the darker aspects of society like those we blindly praise. I... like the film, but I never loved it to the extent as others. Not because it’s bad, that is a ridiculous notion. I just liked other films more and Belle just didn’t interest me as others like Cinderella or Mulan or Ariel. But seeing it again as an adult who has seen the darker aspects of society since I was a kid, it REALLY rings more deeply than it did back then.

One aspect that no one can argue about is the animation. The film is beautiful. It has some of Disney’s best animators at the time such as Glen Keene, Mark Henn, Andreas Deja, and so much more. There was so much life put into the film and it is a true visual spectacle.I meant hey managed to take inaminate objects, and bring them to life. Sure they have faces to help humanize them, but to make us believe that these are talking, moving objects that were once human is still a VERY difficult task. But they have so much personality like the suave, passionate candlesick Lumiere or the stuffy, orderly Cogsworth. The backgrounds andf settings are also great fromt he Sleepy Hollow-esque village to the gothic castle of The Beast, to the creedy woods that look even more terrifying when it snows. There’s so much color and lighting that is used so well, especially with the castle eminating so much mystery and intrigue compared tot he plain village that Belle is from.

But the setting we all remember most of all is the ballroom. While Disney has been using CGI some before, such as Big Ben in The Great Mouse Detective (yes,t hat WHOLE setting was computer graphics), this is probably the biggest use to date. The ballroom is a gorgeous golden color and looks so big and vast. It takes you’re breath away. There’s a reason why this is the most well-remembered part of the film. The animaiton for this film was very straining, especially due to conditios to accomodate Ashman that we’ll get to later. It was stressful, but they absoluteley put their all into it. When you watcht he ballroom sequence, added to the dance and Angela Lansbury’s lovely vocals, you forget that you’re even watching a movie. It feels like... well, love. It’s by far one of Disney’s best looking features.

As I said in the intro, the film ultimately fell into the laps of two relatively rookie animators; Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. This was after several various attempts to adapt the film, with none successful. Wise and Trousdale’s biggest claim to fame at the time was doing animaiton for EPCOT’s now defunct Cranium Command attraction (look up Who Stole Buzzy, boy is THAT a story) and while they had worked on other features, they had never been in the director seats. To make it more difficult, due to Ashman’s health continuing to gradually decline, Katzenburg decided to move produciton over to New York to spare him from having to travel. Which is a VERY noble effort and it’s sweet that they were willing to do so to keep working with Ashman, but as you can imagine this was quite a strain on the production team and as before, they would sometimes clash with Ashman and his vision. Still, they along with Menken returning as composer and writer Linda Woolverton, they reworked the then-script into something that they were happy with.

The setting is very reminiscent of another Disney work, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. One of two segments from the Package Film Era feature The Adventure of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. We all know the story of Ichabod and his infamous ride where he encountered the Headless Horseman. Here we have a similar quaint village where people seem rather simple-minded. Like in Sleepy Hollow where everyone took notice tot he rather strange looking Ichabod Crane, we see a similar notice of Belle who is an anomaly to them. Though unlike Ichabod, who had pretty much everyone under his thumb and is kind of a gold diging jerk, Belle is ostracized and is a FAR better person. Gaston bears a striking resemblance to Brom Bones in both looks and social status (tough Brom isn’t as bad in comparison or even compared to Ichabod, though still a Jerk Jock) and the Bimbettes bear a bit of similarity to Katrina. I wouldn’t be surprised if the crew used Sleepy Hollow as inspiration for setting and character design. Only thing missing is the Headless Horseman, which that would have been interesting XD

The film deals with several topics. There’s the standard ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ and ‘true love conquers all’ messages. Both of which are handled very well. But there are also some that IDT Disney had ever really tackled to this point. There’s encouraging women to make their own choices, which Disney HAS tackled but this one does it differently with Belle rejecting the standard good-looking man and falling for the monstrous looking one. In fact there is really a strong theme tearing down toxic masculinity and male entitlement. It says that no, men are not obligated to a woman and that women have the freedom to reject them no matter the societal pressure. Especially if they act as despicable as Gaston. With how much more aware we’ve become of how horrible some men in power can be and how they use that power on vulnerable women, this remains a relevant message to todays audience. It let’s women be empowered, confident, and enjoy things like reading as well as have the hope of finding those who will be accepting. These are all important things, and the film does an excellent job in showing it and what actual love should be like. The Beast especially starts as a jerk, but once he decides to become better and wants to be better for no ulterior reasons, he proves worthy of Belle’s love. That’s how love should be and how a person should change themselves. Again, very well done.

Despite his health and being downcast about not completing Aladdin, Ashman still put his all into the film. As I said, they outright shifted production to another state at a time when social media and things like Skype and Zoom were a distant dream. Still, Ashman along with Menken put their all into the soundtrack, and it paid off big time. This film, along with The Little Mermaid, really set up the precedent for Broadway-style animaed films and considering that they continue to be successful, I’d say that that says a lot. There are a lot of memorable songs int his fimlm, and there’s even some that didn’t make it in. One in particular, Human Again, actualy got animated and added back for the film’s IMAX release and various home media releases (sadly it’s not in the Disney+ version). The score is also very well done, especially at the end. Just listen to the music when the Beast finally turns human again. It added to the outright magical animation will leave you in awe as much as Belle was.

But what about the vocal tracks? Good question. Let’s go over them:

Belle/Belle Reprise: Our first song which as the name suggests, is about our leading lady. It does a lovely job establishing her character as a book-loving, intelligent young woman feeling that there was be more than this life ans village that she remains stuck in. It also establishes the village’s rather simple-mindedness and socital expectatons, finding Belle a beautiful but very strange girl because of her loving reading more than getting married. It also establishes Gaston’s smugness, entitlement, and holding the entire village’s admiration, The music is optimistic, but there’s a lot here that’s gonna take a dark turn a the film goes on. The reprise is short and more somber, but let’s Belle express her unwillignness to marry a man like Gaston, wanting to find love on her own terms. Little does she know what’s awating her right after.

Gaston: No one can have a song named after Gaston like Gaston! Yeah, this inspired plenty of meme’s, didn’t it? Even Disney itself has gotten in on the fun haha! But seriously, this is a fun villain song. I gotta give Gaston this, he’s a smug, horrible person but he shows that he can back up many of his boasts. I don’t doubt that he can eat dozens of eggs a day or is as strong as an ox. The song also further shows the town’s utter blind devotion to this brute, not being concerned about his entitlement to a girl who clearly isnt interest and more because of how handsome and grand he is. Isn’t society fun kids?! But then at the end, after Maurice is kicked out, it takes a darker turn as Gaston makes his plans to essentially blackmail Belle with her father’s safety... and right back to blind praise! I feel zero sympathy for any of the villagers in this film. But yeah, a song with a lot of dark implications, but still a very enjoyable villain song.

Be Our Guest: This is a true show-stopper, and I’m not just saying that. Lumiere wanted to create a show, and BOY did he succeed. The song is the most like a Broadway number in it’s composition and grand feeling. The fact that we have a huge number full fo singing, dancing, stuntwork, etc is being done by a bunch of dishes and pretty freakin’ impressive. Yet the animators gave it all so much life and Jerry Orback sings with so much passion and energy and it is just SO much fun to watch! Especially with poor Cogsworth at first trying to get everyone to calm down, but by the end he gets real into it... well until Lumiere knocks him to the side. The only negative is that for being a song about serving Belle dinner, aside form a bit of The Grey Stuff she didn’t even eat dinner. For shame! So 1 out fo 10 of food servive, but the show was worthy of two thumbs up!

Something More: This was the song that replaced Human Again. It’s a sweet song about Belle and Beast beginning to realize their feelings the more that they spend aroudn each other. Belle sees that Beast may not be very well-mannered or much of a looker, but he does have a good heart and the more they interact, the more it begins to show. Belle’s kindness, intellience, and willingness to look beyond the surface has Beast falling in love with her, yet his fear of being a monster is still holding him back. Still as we see the two do things like have dinner, play in the snow, or even Beast letting Belle read to him, the more we see that spark of love slowly grow, even if they haven’t fully grasped it. It helps advance the romance, and it’s just really sweet.

Beauty and the Beast: The song that won Menken and Ashman another Oscar. It’s not hard to see why either. The song is beautiful. It’s performed by Angela Lansbury, and her gentle vocals accompanies by the gentle orchestra is just lovely. The woman outright did the song in one take. One take. That is insane, yet it happened. And I can see why because the song is just beautiful. It adds to much to the already majestic ballroom scene, being about two unlikely individuals finding love and ultimately making the other a better person. It’s just a work of beauty. There’s also the pop version by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson, which I also really love. It’s more commerical, but still very pretty especially with Celine’s gorgeous singing voice. Both versions are beautiful, and the first thing I think of when I think of this film... and no, not just beause of the name.

The Mob Song: This is exactly as you would expect with a song with that title. It’s dark, angry, and scary. Gaston rallies the troops to kill The Beast, convincing them that he is a danger to them all. They grab their torches, weapons, and there’s just this tense atmosphere throughout. This is the culminaiton of al the socital expectations and blind devotion to a person who doesn’t at all deserve it. It’s also a very accurate protrayal of the mob mentality, where you become a part of this hivemind following the rest of the crowd no matter how wrong it may be and despite your own senebilities. The only ones who don’t fall into it, Belle and Maurice, get tossed into a basement for their trouble. What makes this song sad though? In Disney+’s documentary Howard, produced by Don Hahn who also produced this film, it was explained how in the eyes of several of his colleagues, it seemed like Ashman was venting about the AIDS epidemic. That was a VERY dark time where the gay community was especially under fire, persecuted, hated, and so many other horrible things because the world chose to blame them for it. Ashman was a gay man. He had an ex partner die of AIDS, and had another partner at the time who talked about him in the documentary. Imagine being scapegoated just because of your sexuality, even though you never caused any harm, and society hated on you and others fell into he mob mentality, and they went as far as to either demand you to die or do the job themselves. All because you were different. Really adds a new perspecive to the song, doesn’t it? This can be applied to so many groups too, which makes the song even scarier, but also emphasize even more how dangerous the mob mentality is. Very effective song.

Sadly, Howard wouldn’t live to see all of his numbers to completion. With his health declining rapidly, Menken and various others went back and forth between Burbank and New York in order to work with him. Ashman worked until he psycially couldn’t anymore. He was even giving notes to performers like Paige O’Hara despite barely being able to talk. He managed to complete his work, at least to my knowledge, before his passing on March 14th, 1991, just a few months before the film’s release. After a screentest, which proved very successful, Don Hahn and some other colleagues went to see Ashman in the hospital to say their goodbyes. Hahn told him of the reception, and jokingly asked who would ahve expected that the film would have turned out so great? Ashman’s response? “I did.” The work he managed to do for Aladdin would be included in the film, which we’ll discuss when we get to that one. The soundtrack won the Oscar which was awarded to Ashman (as well as Menken) posthumously and a dedication to him was including at the end of the film. It’s always sad to see such a talented individual leave us far too soon, but his work truly brought new life to Disney and is beloved even all these years later. That is a legacy that will never fade.

Now we get to characters, and we have quite a good number of them. We have of course the village that Belle is from. On the surface, they seem like pretty plain people, satisfied with their way of life. But this also causes them to at least not think highly of those who break from that way of life. The men work, the women care for the children. If men don’t work, they’re jerk slobs. They all especially fall into blind admiration for the strong, handsome Gaston who is hailed as a local hero. So much so that no one gives ANY of his terrible actions an ounce of consideraiton. Selling Maurcie tot he looney bin? Well he’s alreafy viewed as crazy, so ah well. Belle trying to tell them that The Beast isn’t a monster? While their first imprression of him is defeniteley a bad one, the fact that they listen to Gaston and not the woman who actually interacted with The Beast says a lot about how simple minded they all are. I hope they learned their lesson after all was said and done, but even if not Belle doesn’t have to pay them any mind anyways.

The only person who is accepting of Belle is her father, Maurice. He’s viewed as a crackpot, but Maurice is a good-hearted, smart, and perfectly sensible man. He’s a bit of a goof with how his inventions can go haywire, but otherwise is no diferent from any other person. But like his daughter, his interests have him judged instead of what he’s like as a person. It’s especially sad when he tries to get help to save Belle, and he is merely laughed at and thrown out because of his status. Maurice is a loving father, accepting of Belle and of her interests and choices. She isn’t interested in Gaston? Fine with him. People view her as odd? That’s utterly ridiculous. It’s really nice to have a parent who is supportive and involved int heir kids life, especally compared to Triton last time who may be caring, but is utterly against everything that matters to Ariel. In fact it’s the firs ttime we’ve had this since Snow White and Cinderlla’s parents are dead and their stepmothers are horrible, Aurora grew up away from her otherwise caring parents, and Ariel... it’s complicated. Maurice is a good guy and it is good that Belle has someone who accepts her unconditionaly. She loves him so much that she sacrificed her happiness for him twice to protect him, which really shows how strong their bond is.

That brings us to our villain, Gaston. He is a hunter who is muscular, handsome, and has physical skills that he can back up. However he is also entitled, egotistical, sefish, and just a horrible person. He wants to marry Belle only because of her beauty and instead of trying to get to know her or shifitng atteniton to any of the girls who would gladly grovel before him, he pursues her despite her not liking him. It’s especially bad when he goes to her house, sets up a huge engagement party, and gets into her personal space in his attempts to charm her. She not only rejects him, but promptly humiliates him. Yet instead of thinking that he had tried far too hard and jumped the gun, he blames Belle for daring to reject him. He reflects exactly how society can view someone like him. No one thinks about the woman, they only see a good-looking man get rejected despite us not knowing anything about ther perosn or their relaitonship. Especially if that man is essentially a celebrity, which makes people look past anyhing.

But none of these things are indicitive of an evil perosn. An arrogant jerk yes, but not evil. That all changes when, after Maurice tries to get help, Gaston comes up with a new plan. He decides to have Maurice admitted to an asylum for being crazy, and to use this to force Belle to marry him. This is what shifts Gaston from a jerk to a true villain. This is how far his entitlement and selfishness goes. He is willing to take Belle’s own elderly father and use him and his freedom as blackmail to force her to marry him. Even compared to the four villainesses before him who committed horrible acts such as attempted murder, mental/emotional abuse, and even attempting world domination, this is utterly despicable. Then there's him deciding to kill The Beast. Despite what he says, it's not because of the potential risk to the town, it's solely because he sees that Belle loves him and can't stand it. He outright calls her crazy AND locks her and Maurice up out of pure entitlement and selfishness. He doesn't give a damn about Belle or her though and well-being. Only about his own.

Gaston is entertaining, but very much evil. As I said above he bears a lot of similarity to Brom Bones from Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A muscular jock-like figure often the most beautifiul girl in town. Only while Brom was a jerk, he was arguably less bad than Ichabod Crane depending how you looked at it. Gaston essentially has Brom's muscles an Ichabod's selfishness. He cares only for himself and his own pride. Admittedly he put up a decent fight against The Beast, but that's only because Beast wasn’t fighting back until he saw Belle. When he did, Gaston whimpered and begged like the pathetic man that he is. Then he stabbed him despite being spared out of pure spite. An act that cost him his life. Fun fact, originally he survived the fall and was truly killed via the wolves. They ended up saving that for Scar's death in The Lion King. But yeah, Gaston died in the undignifiedmanner that he deserved. A despicable but memorable villain who was perfect for this film.

Then we have the castle characters. You’d think that it would be difficult to give life to a bunch of furniture and appliances... and it probably was. But this movie makes it look easy. They do give most of them humanoid features, like eyes and a mouth, but not all of them and even then it would be so easy to make it look creepy. But the castle staff is just os much fun and beaming with personality. We’re gonna discuss the main four: Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, and Chip.

Lumiere is a candlestick, which matches his passionate characterization. He’s a showman. A romantic. A more daring, out-going character compared to his frequent frenemy Cogsworth. Cogsworth is a clock and I think he’s implied to be the Beast’s butler or some other kind of advisor. He’s stuffy, nervous, and the most lawful of the characters. Though he CAN get into the fun of things with a little provoking as demonstrated in Be Our Guest and the big battle during the climax. Hoenstly, Be Our Guest is a great number to demonstrate the two’s contrasitng perosnalities. Belle has been banned from eating and Cogsworth doens’t want to both break the Beast’s orders nor cause a bunch of noise that would anger him. Lumiere however? He’s dead set on getting Belle to fall for the Beast, so she should be treated as their guest, not a prisoner. Plus he and the other staff are tired after ten years of being stuck as they are and all alone, so cue the extravagant show number. Lumiere is having the time of his life while Cogsworth tries to convince everyone to stop... but by the end gets caught up in it and joins in ont he fun. Too bad that Lumiere knocks him off the center stage at the end haha. But yeah, their constant banter is amusing but they are clealry friends, especially in the fight where Cogsworth saves Lumiere. They’re both also performed wonderfully by their VA’s, Jerry Orbach and David Odgen Stiers, the latter of whom would appear in several more Disney films, including one for this series that we’ll get to fairly soon.

Mrs. Potts is a teapot and her son Chip is a tea cup. I guess that Chip ended up that way to match his mother, which her being a teapot matches her mothelry persona. She’s very kind and consoling towards Belle and seems the most understanding about The Beast and why he acts ike he does. Which since I think that she was essentially the house caretaker, makes sense since she’d have likely been the one looking out for him. Plus she herself is a mother, and since Beast has the emotion coping skills of a child, she’d know how to deal with it. Chip is the token child character, though not a bad one. He’s a nice kid with a huge curiosity. It’s really cute how hen allt he adults are seeing the bloomign romance between Belle and Beast, he’s uttelry confused like any kid would be haha! He takes a liking to Belle quickly, though more like he sees her as if she were an older sister than any kind fo crush or the like. He’s also smart, figuring out how to use Maurice’s inveniton to free Belle and Maurice quickly...and him wanitng to do it again got a good laugh out of me haha! Mrs. Potts is a nurturing mother and her with Chip is so sweet,e specially when they’re truly human again. Plus her advice of how things will turn out alright in the end is advice that I look back on sometimes. it’s really comforitng.

So... as I’ve mentioned in these reviews, a big issue is how underdeveloped that the prince has been. The first two were plot devices only. Phillip and Eric were better int hat they were active int he plot and Eric had some more perosnality and motivation than the other three did. But it just didn’t feel like the male elads were... quite at their full potential yet. They generally didn’t recieve any character development and were mainly there for the sake of being a lov einterest to the heroine. That all changed in this film with our hero, The Beast.

Beast is one of the most well-developed male leads in a Disney Princess film. A few like Aladdin, Naveen, and Eugene rival him for overall best (though tbf the former IS the lead of his movie so that may not count) but Beast helped make the princes more equal to their princess without overshadowing her. Beast is the co-protagonist to Belle and the character that recieves the bulk of the character development. The opening tells us all that we need to know: Beast was once Prince Adam, a spoiled brat. When he turned away an elderly begger, it turned out that she was an Enchantress and she cursed him into his monsturous form. Since he looks like a monster, he subsequently acts like a monster... or more accurately, like the child that he never truly grew out of emotionally. He’s angry, lashes out constantly, and roars at the top of his lungs when at his limit. Like how a child screams and throws a tantrum when things don’t go their way because they lack the social and emotional coping skills to handle their feelings properly. Becoming a beast left Beast isolated and ashamed to face reality, and thus he didn’t learnt he proper coping skills. He accepted that he would forever be a monster, and succumb to acting like one.

That is, until the day that Belle arrived. When she offers herself to free her father, it’s the opportunity that Beast never beleived that he would get. If he can win her love before the rose petals all fall, he’ll be human again. He’ll be free. While he begins still acitng agressive and even bordeirng on emotionally abusive, e isn’t heartless. When Belle is crying about not getting to say goodbye to her father, Beast seems to legit feel bad for hurting her. It doens’t change his behavior, but it’s still a small moment that shows some humanization. It’s important to add moments like this and his despair when using the mirror to hear Belle talk about him. She’s justified in disliking him at that point, but it’s his reactions that matter. It shows his insecurity, his fear, his utter despair that he’ll be cursed for the rest of eternity. He’s already succumbed to acting the part of a monster and is already struggling to act more polite. As amusing as the scene of him yelling at Belle through the door is, it demonstrates just how hard this is for him but if he can’t improve his behavior, then he has no chance. He knows it, and views it as hopeless. It helps humanize The Beast, showing that despite his appearance there IS a human soul in there somewhere. Someone who on some level does want to be better, but he doesn’t know how. If not for these moments, Beast would have been utterly unsympathetic, but they pulled it off.

The turning point comes after Beast rescues Belle from the wolves. Remember, he’d already pretty much given up on winning Belle over and being human again and the confrontation on the third floor certainly didn’t help matters. He could have just let Belle to her own devices... but instead he went to save her. I sincerely do not believe it was because she was a prisoner or because he needed her. He had given up. He had succumbed. But he did it anyways, showing that he isn’t a bad person. It’s something that Belle sees and she gets him back to the castle to treat him. She called him out on his temper, but is sincerely grateful and Beast is stunned by this genuine act of kindness. She didn’t fear him. She wasn’t disgusted by him. She didn’t even leave him to die despite having pretty good reason to leave him and go. Belle still chose to save his life as he did her’s, showing Beast probably the first true act of love that he ever experienced in his life. We know nothing of his family and while I’m sure that staff members like Ms. Potts certainly cared for him, clearly they didn’t do much to quell his spoiled behavior. Belle was kind because she’s a kind person, and Beast finds that he wants to be kind to her in return.

From that point, we see Beast in a new light. He calms down significantly. He’s happier. He carries himself less like a wild animal and more like a person. He’s outright excited when he prepares the library to surprise Belle with. He’s still awkward as shown with his table manners and interacting with birds durign Something There, but he is trying. He’s trying for Belle. He activly enjoys her company. He sees how beautiful she is physically, but that’s not why he likes her. She’s kind, intelligent, independant, and she makes him feel in a way that he never has. He still feels that she can’t love him because of what he is, but the change that she has caused is so evident. He’s fallen in love and the ballroom scene only strengthens that with himt he happiest that he’s been all film. But the crowner that truly demonstrates htis? When Belle expresses missing her father, he lets her use the mirror. Not only does he seem legit concerned when they see Maurice freezing to death but when he sees Belle’s clear distress, he decides to let her go. He’s sad when he does so, knowing that she may very well never return. But Belle’s father needs her. he can’t force her to say and be miserable. He loves her so much that he decided to let her go. But it does mean that he gav up his final chance at being human after feeling more human than he had in ten years, and he is left in despair.

His despair is so strong that when Gaston and the mob arrives, he doesn’t even try to fight back. He just waits and is prepared to let whatever happens to him happen. Fortunately Belle coming back restores his will to live and he fights back. When Gaston grovels for his life, what does Beast do? He grants it, simply growling at him to leave. It is that moment hat shows how much of a better person that Beast is compared to Gaston. He was an angry man bordering on abusive, but he changed. He met someone who wasn’t willing to take his behavior, but was also willing to see the good that was in him. He changed for her, and it made him a kinder, more selfless person. The only thing that remains is his self-loathing, even saying that maybe him dying is for the best after Gaston has stabbed him. Fortunately Belle confesses her love, and it not only saves his life, but breaks the curse just in time. Beast is restored to Adam, having earned the right to having his humanity back. It was a lovely way to cap off his development, and allowed him to earn his happily ever after.

Beast was very much Belle’s equal. Even nowadays they’re both promoted and marketed pretty equally. One’s story would have been incomplete without the other. They gave each other what they each wanted and needed. I’ll go into specifics for Belle when I get to her below, but in the Beast’s case he needed someone kind, but also independent. Someone who wouldn’t tolerate his behavior and push him to change himself, but still kind-hearted enough to see that there is something there and be willing to help. Belle treated him in a way that no one else had. She was defiant, but also caring. She pushed him to rediscover his humanity. She got him to want to be kind. She got him to want to be a better person, and he not only treated her better but he was kinder to his staff as well. He finally grew up from the spoiled brat that he was before. He had found a reason to, and his love was so genuine that he let Belle go to be with her father again. It’s a beautiful story of growth and did enough to make Beast’s issues clear and not excusable, but sympathetic enough that we wanted him to be better and feel happy when he does so. He’s the best developed male lead in a Disney Princess film up to this point and helped pave the way for equally well done male leads. Ones not there just to fill out a plot beat and be the princesses’ reward, but to stand at her side as her equal.

Boy did THAT one get long. there’s other minor characters. Le Fou, The Bimbettes, the psyche ward keeper voiced by the late, great Tony Jay, various other castle characters, etc. all of them are entertaining, I just don’t have much to say about them. So then... we have one more to go.

Belle Analysis

https://youtu.be/M4ne1A1aNrI

Belle is one of the most praised and beloved Disney Princesses of all time. She is smart, playful, independent, and kind-hearted. I feel like she gets overly praised at times, mainly because some like to use her to bash her four predecessors since she didn’t have the goal of falling in love. I won’t repeat what I said about the four, you can read the reviews, but it’s a VERY unfair argument not just to them, but to Belle as well. She’s used as a tool to bash other female characters instead of being loved for herself. Then agains he also gets bashed for the Stolkholm Syndrome argument, which we’ll get to that aspect here soon. But for now, let’s just discuss Belle piece by piece and see where the path leads us.

Belle’s intro establishes everything right off the bat. So much so that the intro sing is literally titled Belle. She’s bookish and cheerful, but it’s clear from her interactions witht he villagers and their own gossip that she’s seen as weird. The only people who seem to like her as she is is the bookshop owner and her own father. The women are jealous of her beauty, the men only see her for her beauty, and both sides are confused at her lack of conformity. Belle lives in a town that clearly has very old-fashioned views regarding gender roles. The men work, the women get married and have babies. They all seem content with this... except for Belle. She enjoys books and adventure, musing about wanting more than the provincial life that she has. She strolls through the village with her nose stuck in a book, but has no trouble navigating at all depsite the distraction. Books provide her a source of adventure and thrill that her limited life does not. She breaks those old-fashioned norms and he village is uttelry baffled at to how she can be this way. But what truly makes her a bafflement to everyone? Her utter rejection of Gaston. While just about every other women swoons at his feet, Belle couldn’t be less impressed if she tried. She’s familiar with how he is and if she had’t recieved his advances before their first scene, she’s probably seen it enough times to know that she doesn’t like him. Him dismisisng her passion for books and insulting her father did him no favors.

On the surface, Belle does’t seem bothered by these things. But when home, she does express some hurt about ti to her father, the one perosn who loves her for her unconditionally. She knows that she doesn’t fit in. She knows that she’s not happy with her life. She wants someone to understand her besides her father. She wants more to life where she can be herself. She wants to find love on her own terms and not have to deal with the advances of men like Gaston. None of this stops her form being able to handle herself, as demonstrated when Gaston goes to her house to force a proposal. She handles kicking him out with utter grace and her “I don’t deserve you” line is icing on the cake. But none of that changes how she feels. If anything, it enforces it. The village is all on Gaston’s side and at that point, her father has left for the science fair. He won’t be there forever, hence why she wants to find someone who will love her for her. To control her own destiny. To those who feel forced into their gender roles or being forced into a relationship that they don’t want whether by an agressive person or by peer pressure, Belle’s struggle is very relatable. Her independant spirit is also admirable as while she is dismayed with where she’s at, she still is able to smile and live her life as she wants. She’ defiant. She makes do with what she has and is able to handle what’s thrown at her with pure wit and ingenuity. Gaston nor anyone else can bring her down... at least, not until her wish for adventure ends up unexpectedly granted.

Before we progress forward, let’s pause to discuss Belle’s VA, Paige O’Hara. When Beauty and the Beast was beginning casting, O’Hara was already a rising Broadway actress and Disney happened to be seeking Broadway talent specifically. After several call-backs, she finally earned the part. She’s credited Howard Ashman as a huge help in guiding her to finding her voice as Belle, and she performs the role beautifully. She captures Belle’s independence yet playfulness very well, as well as her defiance and heartbreak in certain scenes. And her singing? Beautiful. Maybe not on par with Jodi Benson, but you can tell why she was a rising Broadway star. Today, O’Hara works mainly as a painter with Belle very much being one of her main muses. Sadly due to how much her voice has aged, she rarely plays Belle herself anymore, the role nowadays being primarialy done by VA Julie Nathanson. While she also does a lovely job at the part, O’Hara will always be the first to bring the character to life. Fortunteley she still shows a lot of love for the role and has attended multiple events and even got to reprise Belle at least one more time during Ralph Breaks the Internet. She had reprised Belle multiple times between various DTV films, TV appearances, and other events. So even if she is limited nowadays, her large body of work will live on forever.

Back to the film, Belle discovers that her father is in danger and ends up at the castle. We all know what happens at this point. Belle offers to take her dad’s place, Beast agrees, and Maurice is kicked out before Belle can so much as say goodbye. She’s distraught at this, and who can blame her? In a matter of hours, her life as she knew it was ripped away from her. Now instead of her old provincial life, she’s a prisoner in an enchanted castle ruled by an angry beast. Even when given the nicer room, she doesn’t feel that much better. She’s never going to get to see her father again or even know if he’s safely back home. She has no reason to believe that a rescue is coming. Some may say that she should try and get out, but isn’t she allowed this? To be upset and at a loss of what to do? It’s not like she just cries the whole time, she calms down enough to refuse to go to dinner despite the others insisting that she does. Even when Beast yells at her to do so, she refuses. She may be a prisoner, but she’s not going to play the victim. She’s going to be as she normally is; however she wants to be.

Soon, Belle’s able to calm down enough that she decides to go explore the castle. She is ultimateley a curious, adventurous spirit. Regardless of the circumstances, she can’t help but want to learn more about this new, strange place and these new figures that she’s encountered. You can tellt hat she’s warming up reatly during Be Our Guest where despite not actually getitng to eat anything, she is just havng far too much fun to care. It gets her spirits back up and now she can’t resist exploring more. Even if it risks The Beast’s wrath, one her curiosity has peaked, she can’t resist it. It’s a great strength, but also probably her biggest flaw. Despite having been told not to and knowing by now how Beast will react, she slips away from Cogsworth and Lumiere to go explore the West Wing. This ends with her seeing the trashed area, finding the Enchanted Rose, and getting yelled at by an enraged Beast. That is the last push needed to make Belle decide to escape.

So now that we’re at this point, we have to talk about one of the big topics that comes up when discussing this film: Stockholm Syndrome. To put it simply, Stockholm Syndrome is when the victim becomes emotionally attached to their aggressor and doesn’t want to leave them and tries to justify their actions. So when the vicitm is rescued, they may react negativly or even aggressively towards the rescuers in favor of the agressor. it’s a psychological response. This is actually a case where I was able to go to a professional to ask about it,: my own mother. My mom is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and currently works as a therapist. I’m fairly sure that she’s never treated anyone with Stockholm, but it is something that she knows of. I did ask her about if the film did glorify Stockholm Syndrome as some accuse it of. The gist of what she told me is... well, there’s enough in-film that either side can use it to prove their case. After all she DOES develop positive feelings towards Beast while a prisoner, so one can take the context and use it as an example, and same for the side who don’t agree. Ultimately Belle is a ficitonal character. We can’t sit her down and give her a psychoanalysis because she’s not real, and most of us doing these analysis’ aren’t therapists, psyologists, or mental health experts anyways. I’ll leave some sources below if you’d like further reading on the topic, but doing research isn’t the same as being a professional trained to go over these kinds of things. My mom said at most, Beast can be viewed as emotionally abusive, though it is because of his own trauma and he did ultimately improve to be a better person.

I fully agree that yes, if someone wants to make the arguent that the film promotes Stockholm Syndrome, they can. It’s their opinion, this came out in a diferent time than now where we take things like emotional abuse in cinema far more seriously, and in the end it’s a piece of fiction and people are free to view it however they wish. But the same also applies to me and in my opinion, no. Belle does NOT suffer from Stockholm Syndrome nor does the film glorify it. Now I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. This is strictly my opinion going off my understanding of it. I may be wrong and if that’s the case, I apologize. But from what I know and understand, the case in the film is not a straight forward situation like the various case studies in the real world. Plus I think we see enough of Belle being defiant and not feeling positivly towards Beast to see that she certainly hasn’t developed any psychological attachment towards him to cope with her situation. We’ll be seeing her feelings towards him change, but I’ll explain why I don’t feel that it counts down below. But again, I’m not an expert. This is just my understanding of it.

So... why the long tangent there? Well we’re now at the wolf attack scene. The turning point in the relationship. Belle’s effort to escape ends with her cornered by a pack of vicious wolves. Fortunateley, The Beast rescues her and drives the wolves away... but he is inured in the process and passes out. As I said in Beast’s character breakdown, he didn’t have to do it at that point since he’d given up, but he did so anyways. It showed that he isn’t a bad person. Something that Belle also saw. The Beast had been aggressive and rude to her throughout, and she had every good reason to continue on her way now that the path was clear. But Belle didn’t. She got Beast onto her horse and took him back to the castle, the closest shelter, to treat his wounds. Is this because she feels compelled to do so after forming a psychological dependency or attachment to him? No. We see as she treats his wounds that she still isn’t going to tolerate his temper and rudeness towards her. She stands up for herself and talks back at him until he calms down. She very much retains her independence. So then... why did she save him? Because Belle is a good-hearted person who just saw this seemingly hateful beast save her life when he didn’t have to. She isn’t the kind of person to leave an injured person to die. She did it out of kindness and gratitude as we see when she genuinely thanks Beast for saving her life. She’s seen a new side to him now, and it’s made her reconsider her earlier stance. Thus Belle remains at the castle.

The characteristics of Stockholm Syndrome include positive feelings towards the captor and belief of goodness in the captor, no real effort in escaping, learned helplessness, and feelings of pity to the captor. You can read the list and learn more here, and the link will also be with the sources. So you’re probably looking at that and going ‘...uuuggghhhh’ at the movie right now. Which fair enough. However let’s also look at where we are now. This is the part of the film where Beast makes an honest effort to improve himself. He’s nicer, trying to be more polite, and treats Belle as a person. She’s really not a prisoner anymore at this point and while mybe theposisbility of being human again is motivating Beast, for the most part I think it’s because he genuinely grows to like Belle. As for Belle, I think that she likes the castle. It’s enchanted and full of intrigue and mystery, just like in her books. It’s the escape form that provincial life in the village that she’s been longing for. It’s a temptation that she just can’t resist. The staff all like her and treat her kindly and no one tries to force her to be something that she isn’t. Beast especially loves Belle’s love of books, even giving her the huge library to repay her earlier kindness. Belle is able to be who she is and be around those who are accepting of her. Even fi for the staff it’s for ulterior motives, IDT that they’re faking liking having her around and Beast certainly isn’t. This isn’t really a straight-forward captive or abuse situaiton that Stockholm Syndrome would apply to in my opinion, especially since Belle never once succumbs to the Beast’s terms. She only respects and acts friendly with him when he does so towards her, and they are both clearly benefiting positivly from it. We know that Beast has no malicious intenitons regarding Belle and it’s Lumiere and co. insisting on the relaitonship happening moreso, and that’s because they want their humanity back so it adds a bit of complexity. It’s just not a straight forward case where we can easily apply Stockholm Syndrome to and get an accurate reading, at least in my opinion. She certainly is FAR from helpless.

So then let’s discuss Belle’s feelings for The Beast. We know how much Belle’s influence changed The Beast. But what about Belle? She really doens’t change during the movie, nor did she realy need to. She’s already confident about herself, likes herself, and she knows what she wants with her life. Sure her curiosity can get her into trouble, but otherwise she didn’t realy need a character arc like Beast did. What Belle needed was acceptance. To find someone who would like her for who she is and not see her as weird for it. Beast doesn’t at all view her that way. He enjoys being around her because she’s smart and independant and even gets her to read to him. It’s that kind of acceptance that Belle hasn’t recieved from anyone outside her father. The more that she sees Beast try to be better, the more that she sees how sweet and endeairng that he really is and she’s more than happy to help him. I think that seeing this kinder side bloom and that acceptance and even enjoyment of her is what makes Belle fall in love with him. It’s what helps make the ballroom scene so magical. Two people considered outsiders coming together and dancing the night way happily together. It’s beautiful, magical, and the perfect culminaiton in everything prior. They brought out the best in each other. Made each other happier in a way that no one else had ever done. They’re better now because of the other, and it’s just lovely to see.

But of course, we know what comes next. While happy with Beast and being at the castle, Belle still misses her father. When she sees him in the snow and horirbly sick, she’s distressed. Seing this, Beast allows he to go. Honestly I think that Belle could have left whenever she wanted at that point and Beast wouldn’thave fought it, but she was staying willingly at that point because she was happy. But her father needed her now. If she truly had Stockholm Syndorme, I don’t think that she would have done so. But she doesn’t really give it any kind of thought here. While sad to leave The Beast, she has alreayd mad eup her mind when told that she could go. She leaves to save her father, The Beast giving her the mirror and unbeknownst to her Chip tagging along. Belle fortunateley gets Maurice home safely... and just in time for Gaston to initiate his plan to have Maurice locked away. Belle is of course shocked and outraged and in a panic, uses the mirror to confirm The Beast’s existence. Despite her insistence that he isn’t a bad person, it’s too late. Gaston realizes that she’s in love with the ‘monster’ and we get the iconic line: “He’s no monster Gaston, you are.” Beast treated her like a person and improved himself from his more toxic behavior. Gaston treated her like the prey that he seeks during his hunts, refusing to let up until he’s won. Beast had even kept his word about letting Maurcie go and returned him to the village safely, and of course let Belle go to help him and even seemed to feel guilty for what he had done previously. Gaston though? He shows no guilt over trying to use Maurice to blackmail Belle. He continues his horrible behavior not only by forming the mob, but locking Belle and Maurice in their own cellar for simply speaking against it. Belle didn’t call Gaston a monster because she’s been conditioned or due to a coping reflex. It’s because Gaston is a genuinely despicable person while Beast grew to become a good person. She saw this and stood her ground as she always has, but this time at the point where she won’t tolerate it anymore. Which if it was your parent being shipped off to the insane asylum by some jerk just because they want to marry you, woudln’t you call them a monster in comparison?

So we reach the climax. Belle and Maurice arrive after Chip frees them with Belle rushing to get to Beast. She makes it and seeing her reignites Beast’s will to live... but he’s stabbed by Gaston. Belle saves Beast from falling over the roof, but there’s nothing that she can do to stop him from dying. She’s devestated, blaming herself for it. Beast’s final words to her are that at least he got to see Belle one last time, and if she hadn’t figured it out before, I think that this was when Belle realized that Beast loved her... and that she loved him. We knew that Beast certianly loved her but we needed it confirmed from Belle as the curse was still intact. As Beast lay motionless, Belle cries and at last confesses that yes, she does love him... just as the last rose petal falls. With that confession, the curse breaks and Beast is ressurected/becomes human again. Belle is shocked as she sees not The Beast standing before her, but Prince Adam. You can tell how confused she is. is this reallyt he same person that she loved? Adam confirms it and Belle looks into his eyes... and that’s all it takes for her to finally smile. yes, it is the same man that she had fallen in love with. They kiss,a nd the curse is truly broken. Everyone becomes human again,t he castle is restored to it’s original state, and Belle and Adam dance happily, free to live happily ever after.

Belle is a role model character. She’s there for girls to look up to, and I think that the amount of fans that she has proves that she succeeded. She encourages girls to be themselves. To be independant and not bend to social norms or pressure. To find love for themselves and not succumb tot he pressure of unwanted admirers or the pressure to marry them. Something that happens far too much in reality. She doesn’t change, but there was no reason for her to. As I said, Belle’s not one of my favorites. Not because I dislike her by any means. if anythign I like her much more now as an adult now that I have a stronger understanding of the film. I just have princesses that I like more, and that’s really it. I also don’t like how some insist that she’s the best Dsney Princess compared to her predecessors because as I hope I made clear in those reviews, the previous four pricnesses are NOT badly done. If anything, I think it’s more anti-femenist to use a woman to bash other women without just cause. Saying that belle is better because she didn’t fall in love witht he guy at first sight or didn’t sell her soul for a guy without caring to analyze those characters isn’t empowering, it’s saying that if you don’t act a certain way as a woman, you’re anti-feminist. Which is a terrible stance. No woman is the same and women shouldn’t be used against women in this kind of way. Regardless, that’s an issue with certain ‘critics’, not Belle herself. She’s a great character and someone that I can admire. Maybe not as much as others, but I can certainly see why she’s left such an impact on so many and not even just little girls. To many people of all kinds. Who could be upset about that?

Final Thoughts

Beauty and the Beast is a lovely film. Is it my favorite? No. I didn’t watch it all that much as a kid. As an adult I have a greater appreciation for it. It’s beautfully animated, it’s themes are well-protrayed and still relevant, the characters are memorable and fun, and it’s music is phenomenal. I can absoluteley see why this as the first animated film to ever be niminated for Best Picture. It’s a tragedy that it lost, but it still proved that animation very much had staying power as Walt proved all those years ago. And of course the film is the final testament of Howard Ashman. He may not have been part of the Disney Renaissance for long, but his contributions single-handedly changed the company and their films for the better. Even today this style of musical films is very much going strong even over 30 years since it began with The Little Mermaid. We lost Ashman far too soon, and who knows what amaizng things he could have one if he were still alive. We can never know the what ifs, but we can always appreciate what came during his lifetime. He, Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale, Alan Menken, Don Hahn, various animators, and so many more did so much to bring this film to life, and it will forever stand as a true Disney Masterpiece.

The film was a giant success, and Disney wasn’t slowing down one bit. The very next year, another animated feature would come out. A film about a dashing street rat who found a magic lamp and unleashed a magical genie who would make all his dreams come true. But wait you may ask, isn’t this a Disney Princess retrospective? Yep. So why am I talking about a dashing hero? Well there is a princess in it, but she occupies a bit of a unique place in the line-up. She is the first and so far only Princess to not be the main charater in her film. But she still left a huge impact and i included in the main lineup so we are NOT leaving her out. So next time, come along as we enter a whole new world to discuss 1992’s Aladdin, and in particular Princess Jasmine.

Image Source: Animation Screencaps

Further Reading on Stockholm Syndrome: Healthline, Medical News Today, GoodTherapy, WebMD,

[ms-meredith-milton]

FIC: A Model Patron, 1/?

BLAME @sabrecmc FOR THIS!!!  :)

No idea how far I’ll get--that’s why I’m not putting it on AO3 yet!--but when I saw the prompts @sabrecmc was floating around, one of them bit me and wouldn’t let go until I wrote this down.  So whatever gets written is a gift to Sabre while P&P is playing hide and seek with my muse!

Fic: A Model Patron

Pairing: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark

Tags/warnings: BDSM; pre-serum Steve; prostitution / sex work; Great Depression; power imbalance; age difference; eventual graphic kinky sex!

Original Prompt (though I’m taking it in a rather different direction): Prompt 9:  Smol hooker Steve, so I was thinking that it could be Depression-era sort of noir-ish vibes.  With the economy in shambles, lots of people, including many Irish immigrants, turned to selling their bodies to have enough food to eat, but who would want someone like Steve?  Or so Steve figures.  But, he hears about a guy who has been trolling the docks looking for a very particular type of person for certain “special clients”.  Steve’s no stranger to pain, so he figures he can handle it and if it puts some food on the table, it would be worth getting knocked around a bit. At least he would be getting paid as opposed to the usual running his mouth situation.  Or, how smol, 1930’s Steve enters the world of bdsm and finds himself ensconced with a particular reclusive millionaire with very specific tastes.

A Model Patron

When Steve had first accepted a gig at the Academy, he had expected to be humiliated: his imperfect body, frail and small, exposed to a circle of elite art students whose ranks he’d never be able to join.  

But he hadn’t been humiliated by the modeling at all.  The students had been courteous, though distant distant, and as Steve sat on the raised platform, above them, he’d been their muse.  Steve was the center of their devoted concentration, at once a person and an object, as the Master walked around the room commenting on someone’s shading across the curve of Steve’s ribs, or how to capture the jut of his hipbone, or the right pigments to convey the fading bruises on his cheek and arm (remnants of Steve’s last scrape). 

Steve hadn’t hated it; he liked it.  Liked to be looked at, liked to be transformed into artwork.  It had made his blood sing and his body hum.  And his miserable, treacherous body (his goddamn traitor cock) responded for all to see. 

That had humiliated him and he’d vowed not to go back, even when the kind, old professor delicately assured Steve he wasn’t the first model to respond to observation in a physical manner. 

But Mr. Cavalli had recently let Steve go when his business took another bad turn; the pinch in Steve’s stomach and the danger of being turned out in the cold was enough to conquer far greater humiliations.  He needed steady work, but one solid gig would stave off disaster.  

Steve shifted nervously in his seat and stared at the student work displayed in the hallway. Fine, but generic.  Steve didn’t care for it.  (And couldn’t help thinking he’d be capable of better, given such fine paints and canvass--not to mention lessons.)

“Can I help you?” Professor Ellis asked politely as he stepped out of his office and saw Steve waiting. His greying beard was meticulously trimmed, his old brown shoes carefully polished, and his old fashioned jacket well brushed.

Steve scrambled to his feet, glad he’d taken such care with his own appearance. 

“Professor Ellis,” Steve said, holding out his hand.  They shook.  “Steve Rogers here.  I modeled for your life drawing course a few weeks ago.”

“Yes, of course,” Professor Ellis said with a smile.  “It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Rogers.”

“And you, sir,” Steve replied, heart racing nervously.  The professor looked at him expectantly. 

 “I--” Steve faltered.  “I’m here to inquire if there might be any openings for models again.”

The sad expression on the professor’s face was answer enough.

“I’m afraid we got more applications than usual and we’ve already hired our models for the upcoming session,” he said gently.  “And we’re operating on a reduced budget, so we have fewer slots than in previous semesters.”

Steve’s stomach dropped.

“I understand, sir,” Steve said in a hollow voice, then added after a moment’s hesitation, “Perhaps there’s a waitlist in case a model cancels? And, I-- I understand that funds are tight for the Academy; I could accept a reduced rate if there’s any opportunity that opens up.”

Steve knew he reeked of desperation, but instead of withdrawing awkwardly the Professor only looked softer.  

Then a sudden change--he cocked his head to the side and frowned, scanning Steve up and down.  

“Was it my advanced drawing course in October you sat for?”

“Yes, sir.”

The professor nodded and hesitated before speaking. “Actually, I may be able to refer you for something after all.  Won’t you step into my office, Mr. Rogers?”

Steve followed him, only barely managing not to trip all over himself in his eagerness.  

The Professor began shuffling papers across his messy desk, clearly looking for something as he spoke:

“Not long after you modeled, a young woman--afraid I’ve forgotten the name!-- came in to look at some student work and show it to the collector she works for who sometimes acts as a patron to promising young artists. He liked young Mr. Winslow’s drawing from that class and purchased it directly, though sadly no additional patronage seems to be forthcoming thus far. But a few days later one of this young lady’s colleagues came by to reiterate the collector’s satisfaction with the work.  And with its subject.”

At last the Professor found the card he’d been looking for, but instead of handing it to Steve he held it, frowning.

“I was given to understand that the collector she represents may be interested in dabbling in some . . . unusual art work of his own.”  

There was something odd in the professor’s voice and Steve started to worry that the old man wouldn’t give him the referral card after all.  He held his breath as Professor Ellis finally looked up and met his eyes.  

“The Academy has very high standards for how we treat our models,” the Professor said almost primly, “and it is our policy not to refer our models to unknown parties. But since it seems you may be”--a delicate pause as he selected the right phrase-- “in a difficult position . . .”

Steve’s cheeks heated even at the careful euphemism, but he took the card without hesitation when the Professor held it out.

“Thank you, sir,” Steve said, trying not to sound stiff.

“Of course, Mr. Rogers,” he said, still a little melancholy.  “I hope the position proves satisfactory.  I wish you the best of luck.”

They parted and Steve finally looked at the card. 

All it said was “Miss Natalie Rushman” and a phone number in Manhattan.  

>>>

Steve was fifteen minutes early for his interview, so he paced the side streets nearby killing time since he didn’t want to look too eager (or desperate).  And Miss Rushman had offered to meet Steve at a pub near the Academy instead of making him travel all the way to her offices in upper Manhattan, saying she would be in the area anyway.  When he’d asked how he’d recognize her if The Old Pony was crowded, she’d replied that she’d find him--then reminded him that she’d ‘seen him before’ in a tone that made him blush.

At exactly 3:59, Steve stepped into the pub, blinking as he adjusted to the dim light.  A voluptuous redhead in a beautifully cut green dress approached him immediately with a slight smile.  She extended her and greeted him in a deep voice: “Good afternoon, Mr. Rogers.”

It was strange; she looked so familiar, like someone he had seen around his neighborhood from time to time. But he was sure he’d have noticed such a high class lady in his area, so it was probably just a passing resemblance.  (Or his exhausted mind playing tricks on him.)

“Very nice to meet you, Miss Rushman,” Steve replied.  

“Please join me.”

Steve slid across from her in the small corner booth near the window.  

“Thank you for taking time to meet with me,” Steve said.

“Likewise.  Thank you for meeting me here,” she said, green eyes sparkling.  “Please allow me to offer you a drink--compliments of my client.   What would you like?”

“Coffee if they have it.”

She nodded.  

“What’ll it be?” the barkeep asked Steve.  

“One coffee and one vodka,” she answered.

The bartender gave Steve a queer look, but didn’t say anything. Miss Rushman studied Steve’s face with an intense expression while the man brought their order.  Steve flushed, then turned brighter red as the man set the coffee in front of her and handed Steve the vodka.  She traded their drinks immediately, paid, and raised her glass saying, “Cheers.”

“Good health,” Steve replied. He wrapped his chilled fingers gratefully around the warm cup.

She took a sip and leaned back in her seat, still examining him.  

It was the strangest interview he’d ever been to and Steve was starting to feel an echo the professor’s uneasiness.  His blush was spreading down his neck and he started to drop his head awkwardly, almost bashful, then reminded himself that he had nothing to be ashamed of. Steve raised his head again and threw back his shoulders. 

“Yes,” she said at last.  “I think you may be a very good fit.”

“Thank you,” Steve said, trying to reign in his temper. “Perhaps you could tell me more about the position now?”

Steve couldn’t quite keep the impatience out of his tone, but her smile widened despite that (or perhaps, oddly, because of it).

“Quite so,” Miss Rushman said, leaning forward to fold her hands on the table.  “I represent an unusual and eccentric artist who has been searching for a . . . special muse.  He’s had single sessions and even a few repeats with models before, but never formed the artistic bond he craves, which is one it would take time and trust to nurture.  Something more collaborative.”

Steve sipped his coffee and nodded, intrigued.  

“My client values his privacy,” she continued. “He is exceptionally wealthy and well-regarded and can compensate you very handsomely for your services.”

“Would I know any of his work?” Steve asked, thrilled (and more than a little bewildered) by the idea that a luminary of the art world--both rich and famous?--might want him as a muse.

“No, I’m afraid not,” Miss Rushman replied smoothly.  “His wealth and renowned are based on industry, not on his purely private artistic achievements.”

Steve tried not to let his disappointment show.  

“I must warn you that the artist can be . . . difficult.  Fickle.  Hard to work with.”

Steve nearly snorted. Sounded like every artist ever.  And this one was a rich industrialist to boot?  He’d probably be a terror. But Steve could handle that. He’d handled worse.  

Miss Rushman continued.  “He can be harsh, but he is not by nature cruel. He’s brilliant, arrogant, and impatient.”

She took another sip of her vodka.  “Are you still interested?”

Steve nodded. “Very much so.”

“Good,” she said with satisfaction. “Would you be free for a meeting sometime soon? Tomorrow perhaps?”

Steve tried not let his relief show.  

“My schedule is very open tomorrow,” Steve said, trying to sound confident.  

She smiled. 

“Excellent.  If you are still interested at the close of our meeting, I will provide some funds for travel expenses. This is separate from the salary.  For your initial session, the artist would pay you 100$.”

Steve couldn’t keep the shock off his face and it undoubtedly doubled as she continued.

“But perhaps you’ll find that you’re busy tomorrow after all,” she said, “when you understand the exact nature of the . . . art.”

Another sip of her vodka. Steve’s stomach began to tighten up into knots; there was something decidedly unnerving about all of this. He felt like he was always missing something, like he couldn’t read between the lines.

“If you accept the position, Mr. Rogers,” she said, leaning forward, her expression intense, “you would be the canvas for his art.”

“Pardon?” Steve said, cocking his head to the side.  “You mean that he’d . . . paint on my body?”

Hardly seemed like that would require such princely pay or all this mystery.

“He might,” she answered with a hint of a smile at her brightly colored lips.  

“But he mostly works in a different medium--the relationship between pleasure and pain.”  

Her voice was low, intimate, almost a caress. Steve’s heart began to race as she continued: “He likes control. Intricate patterns of rope twined around the body. Leather cuffs. Chains.  And he likes to inflict pain and make it show. Bruises. Scratches. Sometimes welts.”

Steve took a sharp breath. A few moments ago, he’d felt chilled but now the pub seemed far too hot.

“So, this so-called ‘artist,’” Steve said tightly, “wants a ‘model,’ he can tie up and beat?”

“A vulgar way of phrasing it, but not entirely inaccurate.”  She waved a hand dismissively and finished her drink.  “But he’d want to make it good for you. And he would hurt you, but he would never harm you.”

“What’s the difference?” Steve bit out. 

“No lasting damage. His tastes aren’t particularly extreme and he has exceptional control. As I said, he’s not by nature cruel.”  

Steve couldn’t keep back an incredulous snort. (Not cruel! Just wanted to pay for the pleasure of beating somebody up who couldn’t fight back.) 

Her expression tightened and she added in a grave tone, “And if you change your mind at any point and tell him to stop, he will.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that?” Steve asked with a glare.

“Believe what you like,” she answered smoothly. “It is the truth.”

With that, she slid abruptly from the booth and took a small envelope from her purse.  She placed it on the table.  

“Funds for travel expenses to Manhattan and a good meal on the way,” she said briskly.  “Noon tomorrow at the enclosed address if you’d like to meet him and continue the interview process. If not, then I wish you well, Mr. Rogers.”

She took one step away from the booth, then turned back to add in a soft voice, “He isn’t always a nice man, but he is a good one.”

Then, as if by magic, she seemed to vanish in the crowd.  

Steve’s coffee cup shook in his hand; he set it down abruptly with a clatter.

It was quite some time before Steve collected himself enough to go home, envelope secure in his inner breast pocket, right above his too-rapidly beating heart. 

[themattress]

OUAT AND ME: SEASON 6

Story - Season 6 returns to the single-season story arc structure, with its story being the Savior's Fate Saga. The story deals with Emma reaching the point that all Saviors eventually reach: burnout in the lead-up to their Final Battle. And Emma's Final Battle comes courtesy of the Black Fairy, the creator of the Dark Curse who wishes to extinguish all light magic.

And yes, that is the core story of this arc. The problem is that it only constitutes about 25% of it; the rest is dedicated to subplots upon subplots: all the people who were brought in from the Land of Untold Stories, the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Evil Queen split from Regina, Regina and Zelena's sibling rivalry reigniting, Belle and Rumple's relationship growing more toxic then ever before, Aladdin the Savior of Agrabah and the Princess Jasmine who is looking for him, a new curse befalling Snow and Charming, the mystery behind how Charming's father died, a new realm being created by a genie's power which brings about the "return" of Robin Hood, a multi-realm quest undertaken by Hook, and flashbacks that have jack shit to do with anything....this season is so packed, it's insane!

If the core story was particularly strong, maybe this wouldn't matter so much. But it's not, since it relies upon yet another bullshit redefining of what it means to be "the Savior"; all of a sudden it's an ancient position that has spanned across all of time and through every realm, like a fairy tale version of the Slayer concept from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And anything empowering about being the Savior is totally gone with this new definition, as now it's a requisite that all Saviors get worn out and die in their Final Battles, doomed to never obtain their happy endings. What a cheap, lazy, miserable way for the writers to raise tension after realizing that all of the epic, mythological stakes raised last season would be hard to top.

Not helping is that in a pretentious way of subverting expectations, they have the majority of the Final Battle...not actually be a battle. Instead, it's a ham-fisted "full-circle to Season 1" situation for Emma and Henry, while everyone else is getting to do more exciting things in the Enchanted Forest. Even the actual battle part of it ends up being underwhelming. Everything does still get wrapped up in a pretty suitable ending, but it's undermined by both the infernal status quo the show's been stuck in since 3B and an intrusive sequel hook into the ill-conceived "reboot" that is Season 7 which never should have been allowed to happen.

Tl;dr: this story arc sucks.

Characters - It's the lowest point for so many of them...

* Emma is a little better in Season 6 than she was in Season 5. She's still generally treated terribly due to the very nature of the arc and has some horrifically shitty things done to her, but she is also able to catch a break every now and then rather than the misery being an uninterrupted stream. She also marries Hook by the end and even plays a decent role in the finale showing how far she's come since Season 1. It was as good a note to go out on as she was going to get, and Jennifer Morrison made the right call to make this the end of her story.

* Snow and Charming...what is there to even say about them at this point? I guess I can say that not only have Goodwin and Dallas' performances largely flatlined and not only are they still written as more parental toward Regina than to their own goddamn daughter who Regina separated them from for 28 years, but they now have retcons applied to them that are ludicrous at best, character assassinating worse than Season 4's eggnapping subplot at worst.  No wonder that Goodwin and Dallas were all too glad to call it quits after this trash!

* Henry, despite all odds, is still one of the better characters in this season! Jared Gilmore continues to prove what a better actor he's become and bring a likability to Henry that sometimes is even enough to counteract less-than-ideal written material. Also, getting to see him more invested in Emma again after being hogged by Regina for so long is great.

* The Savior's Fate Saga is a tale of two Reginas. The Regina Mills of Storybrooke is still as insufferably written a Mary Sue as ever, but now we also have the Evil Queen, the dark side of her personality that split from her. With the exception of one episode, the Evil Queen is played excessively campy by Lana Parilla. Adam and Eddy's claims that this "purely evil" Evil Queen would be even worse than the previous one are laughable when we end up seeing what's actually on screen; the Evil Queen from the first two seasons was a legitimately frightening and formidable villain, whereas this Evil Queen is a clown. Sometimes she's an entertaining clown, while other times she's a cringe-inducing clown. But what she most certainly is not is a worthy adversary to the heroes, especially this late into the show.

And then there's the irony in her ultimate fate: rather than destroy her, Regina mixes her heart with hers so that they are both equal and both redeemed. On the one hand, this is a mind-boggling new level of Creator's Pet for Regina to reach, as you would think that the whole point of the Evil Queen is for Regina to suffer the karmic fatal punishment that she deserves for all her years of atrocities without actually having to kill Regina off. And yet in the end Adam and Eddy couldn't bring themselves to kill off any version of Regina, even after they gleefully killed off alternate versions of Snow and Charming a few episodes earlier. But on the other hand, the redeemed Evil Queen is honestly more likable than the redeemed Regina, actually apologizing to Snow for everything, temporarily sacrificing herself for the greater good of everyone in the finale, and getting to have a happily ever after with an alternate version of Robin Hood following a romance closer to what that relationship should have been from the very beginning. In the end, though, I'm just left wishing that the writers had done a far better job redeeming Regina so that this split Evil Queen wasn't necessary. Who knows, we might have had a better season if so many of it wasn't wasted on her.

* Rumple is awful in this season. Just...the absolute worst. After resolving the plotline that the Season 5 finale left him on in the premiere episode, he cuts his hair short and takes his Darkest Dark One shtick to a whole new level of unpleasant and abusive. He stalks and harasses Belle, attempts to take her baby away, makes out with the Evil Queen, and continues to casually threaten Storybrooke without any remorse or any repercussions. And once his new son Gideon and his mother the Black Fairy enter the picture, he dicks around in nonsensically written plotlines in both the past and the present, while Belle essentially takes him back yet again despite the horrific abuse he inflicted upon her. It's painful to watch, especially when Robert Carlyle has completely given up and is phoning it in like mad, with his regular delivery of lines being in a sleepy tone of voice that actually gets grating to listen to.

Much like in Season 5, Rumple improves in the last five episodes of the season, with Robert Carlyle regaining some energy as he declares war on the mother who abandoned him (if you know Carlyle's life story, you can understand exactly why this is) before learning the shocking truth that he was born as a Savior with his mother being his fated enemy, and that she was banished after she cut him off from that fate. Finally exhausted with it all - light, darkness, heroism, villainy, everything - after the emotions of this revelation hits him, Rumple lays his last cards down on the table, joining his mother's side for the Final Battle but with a magical contingency in case she betrays him (which she does). He then kills his mother, chooses to do the right thing for Belle and Gideon's sake even against the temptation of his dark side, and is rewarded for this one good deed by getting a do-over with the two of them as a family and even being accepted at the table with the other heroes. To quote Rumple back when his character was of the exact opposite quality as it is now: "Well, that was a bit of a letdown!"

Now, the "Rumple was born as a Savior" twist is out-of-nowhere nonsense, but it might have worked if Season 6 had been the final season. Not only would it had made him an effective foil for Emma, but it would also add more dramatic weight to his ultimate fate: his death. Yes, Rumple was in fact all set to die if either the show hadn't gotten renewed for another season or if it was and Robert Carlyle turned down returning for it as he actually was very close to doing, sacrificing his own heart in order to break the spell on Gideon's, conquering his dark side once and for all. A very similar scenario ends up being utilized for Season 7's finale, but it lacks the punch it would have had here, where it's the would-be Savior who, after having reached burnout, dies in his Final Battle, rather than the actual Savior who is able to survive thanks in part to his sacrifice. Of course, I still would have preferred Rumple's death after him being the sole Big Bad of a two-part series finale at the end of Season 5, but I digress. Bottom line: Rumple was a complete mess this season and it's sad how far he’s fallen.  

* Hook starts off well enough in this season, being Emma's stalwart emotional support who accepts her offer to move in with her (a pay-off that we should have had in the Season 5 finale if it only wasn't so crappy), bonding further with Belle and Henry, resolving the hanging plot thread of his younger half-brother while gaining a new father figure, and eventually making plans to propose to Emma. But then...it happens. It's revealed to both him and us that in the most contrived situation possible, Hook was the one who killed Charming's father. This derails his entire character for most of the remaining season, initially torn between telling Emma about this and covering it up before having a break with her which causes him to go mope and dope for a while before being forcibly sent off on a multi-realm misadventure by Gideon and, once he's finally gotten back to Storybrooke, has his transgression easily forgiven by Charming and his marriage proposal re-accepted by Emma, making this entire stretch of time absolutely pointless! Hook has some good moments in both the musical episode where he and Emma's wedding happen and the finale, but they aren't enough to salvage this from being his weakest showing in any season. Dark Hook was better than this!

* Belle...nope, not even gonna talk about her. Like I said before, she's done as a character.

* Zelena is this season's screwed over regular, and in comparison to Archie, Ruby, Neal, Will Scarlet and Robin Hood, she's got it easy. Her problems have less to do with her character, which is one of the better ones in the core cast at this point, but with her material. First, she and Regina have a sudden falling out because Regina...blames her for Robin's death. OK, all of that talk about how far Regina's come for not going evil over the loss of her romantic partner in the Season 5 finale isn't really worth much anymore when she's still resorting to blaming other people who aren't the actual murderer for that loss! Zelena then goes back to living at her isolated farm house, entering an alliance with the Evil Queen where she'll help her out in small ways but also not commit to fully teaming up with her as a villainess since she has a baby to take care of, plus she rightly doesn't entirely trust her alternate sister.

After the Evil Queen betrays Zelena but Regina still doesn't forgive her for what she blames her for, Zelena is absent or in minor roles for several episodes before she ends up joining the heroes' side out of altruism and the desire to become a good example for her daughter, eventually sacrificing her magic powers to aid the cause, which finally gets Regina to forgive her (probably because it's a sacrifice she's never been able to make). And that's about it.

Oh, but she does get to hit the Black Fairy with a car. That was awesome.

* The Black Fairy / Fiona is the Big Bad of the Savior's Fate Saga. Jamie Murray does a great job portraying her, being whimsically evil like you'd expect a dark fairy to be, and the Black Fairy being the person who created the Dark Curse actually makes a lot of sense when you go back and rewatch Season 3's "Going Home", a Dark Curse-heavy episode that first talks about her, or the Blue Fairy's knowing, worried expression upon Rumple's mention of a curse back in Season 1's "The Return". Unfortunately, that's all the praise I can afford her.

The core problem with Fiona as a character is a simple one: she is too derivative of previous, better Big Bads...especially Regina and Peter Pan. Like Regina, she is a powerful, larger-than-life villainess that Emma has always been destined to face as the Savior, and who ultimately casts the Dark Curse which makes herself mayor of Storybrooke, Henry's adopted mother, and a foe that Emma can only defeat if she believes in magic. And like Peter Pan, she is a parent of Rumple who also chose power over love and abandoned him, becoming the all-powerful ruler of a dark realm who occasionally went out and kidnapped children to bring there, and who is positioned as the story's Ultimate Evil who makes her last stand casting the Dark Curse in Storybrooke and being killed by her own son. This is especially bad when we already have an evil version of Regina to contend with this season and when it's following off of Hades, who was a better successor to Peter Pan's style of villainy (ruler of a dark realm that the heroes venture into to save someone) while still being unique.

She did improve somewhat in the last few episodes, where we see that she at least has sincerely loving Rumple as a differentiator from her ex-husband, has a warped belief that eliminating light magic and wiping out all realms but one is actually the right thing to do, and plays her role in the finale well. But it's too little too late for her to be considered as belonging among the great OUAT villains, let alone the Ultimate Evil that she's billed as. She needed a lot more originality and a lot more truly heinous deeds if that was ever to work.

* There are tons of new side characters in this season, usually either well-handled or not.

Well-handled side characters include the Tremaine family (particularly Lady Tremaine) who make Cinderella's life miserable in both the past and present, Captain Nemo who serves as a father figure for Hook and his half-brother Liam II, Gabriel the Woodcutter who makes an entertaining villain in an otherwise dumb flashback, Robert the father of Charming who is well-depicted in spite of how he dies, and Roderick, Gideon's brave but ill-fated friend.

Poorly-handled side characters include the Oracle who is a plot device character if there ever was one, Edmond Dantes (the Count of Montre Cristo in name only) and his lover Charlotte, Beowulf (another in name only character), Stanum the Tin Man who is pointlessly shoved into Zelena's backstory, Tiger Lily who is an exact carbon copy of Tinker Bell, and almost all of the Wish Realm characters because, as I will discuss later, the Wish Realm episodes are awful.

Then there are the in-between side characters, the ones that are handled...well-ish.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde carry over from the Season 5 finale at the start, then are both taken out of the picture in the 4th episode. Their backstory is well written, they are both well acted, and their death contributes to the ongoing Evil Queen plotline. However, it can't help but feel disappointing - we'd only just gotten a working relationship going between Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Whale in the previous episode, and now that's rendered pointless. And Sam Witwer is such an entertaining presence as Mr. Hyde, so it's sad to see him cut down so soon.

Robin of Locksley, the Wish Realm version of Robin Hood who crosses into Storybrooke, is cool in that we get Sean Maguire back and he is allowed to play something slightly different, since this version of Robin is a selfish, sarcastic asshole instead of a noble, chivalrous hero. However, it also reinforces how badly handled Robin Hood in general has been. Much like with what I said about Regina, I would have rather him and his romance with Regina been written well from the beginning so that this "do-over version' wouldn't be necessary.

After much hyping by the network, Aladdin and Jasmine kind of suck. Aladdin has an inexplicable cockney accent that is really distracting, he's written more selfishly and immaturely than his animated counterpart, and making him a Savior in order to tie him to the main plot is stupid. Jasmine fares better, especially when she receives some development in the 15th episode that largely focuses on her, but before that she was just kind of there and didn't possess the same strength of character she was so known for in the animated film.

Jafar, the Big Bad of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, is featured too. He is now played by Oded Fehr, and while Naveen Andrews is missed, Oded is one of the best replacements possible and does a stellar job. But while he's great whenever he's on screen, that's the problem - he isn't on screen very much at all. He also doesn't accomplish anything relevant to anyone beyond Aladdin and Jasmine in the time he has - even when he is released from his bottle in the present day, all he does is have a confrontation with Jasmine before BOOM! He gets turned into a wooden staff by magic dust thrown into his face and that's it for him. This was yet another sad waste of a great character with a great actor, but then again, Jafar returning in any medium tends to elicit diminishing results compared to his initial outings.

Finally, we have Gideon, Rumple and Belle's son and Emma's direct opponent in the Final Battle. The problem with Gideon is that the writers keep changing his character on a whim. First he's a projection of Rumple and Belle's future son from within Belle's womb, who masquerades as Morpheus in order to put Rumple through a test which he fails miserably. Then, after being kidnapped by the Black Fairy and taken to the Dark Realm, he shows up as angry, Kylo Ren-esque villain who claims that he wants to kill Emma so that he can somehow absorb her power, become the Savior and defeat the Black Fairy. But then it turns out that this was an act he was forced to play - after having been raised to be a villain by Fiona, Gideon rebelled, so she ripped his heart out and has been using it to control his actions so that he could free her from the Dark Realm for good. So he's a pure innocent, then. But then, in the Final Battle, he is rewritten by Fiona's curse into a stingy, spiteful businessman before reverting back to his innocent but controlled self...and then reverting back into a baby. Gideon, you've come full circle....and I still have no idea just who the Hell you are.  

Returning characters include Violet, Ashley / Cinderella, Dr. Whale / Victor Frankenstein, the Dragon, August Booth / Pinocchio, King George / Albert Spencer, Baelfire, Tinker Bell, Ariel, Blackbeard, Malcolm, and Isaac Heller. Some of these returns are successful (I always love to see Ariel, and Isaac receiving some closure as a character was fantastic to see), others not so much (Tink's cameo was contradictory and pointless, and there was no excuse bringing back Baelfire in a flashback - for God's sake, Dylan Schmid is as tall as Robert Carlyle now!)

Atmosphere - There really isn't much of one anymore for the majority of the season. There is nothing remotely special about Storybrooke or the Enchanted Forest at this point, new places like the Dark Realm are woefully underexplored, and there aren't any locations like Camelot, the Underworld, or the Land of Untold Stories from last season that make a big impact.

However, there is certainly atmosphere in the two-part season finale, "The Final Battle". Unfortunately, instead of being an epic atmosphere like you would expect, it's dark and miserable and claustrophobic up until the happy ending. Kind of sums up the show now!

Episode Quality - A few episodes in this season are so bad that they're downright unwatchable, and I was able to watch the worst of late Season 2. "Changelings" is all about Rumple taking his abuse of Belle to a new level all while the episode tries to use the Evil Queen and the Black Fairy as scapegoats so that you can feel bad for him. "Ill-Boding Patterns" continues the whitewashing of Rumple at the direct expense of his sons, completely butchering Beowulf in the process. "Page 23" is an exercise with boredom in both the flashback and present day stories and comes to a truly awful conclusion for Regina's character that doesn't even make sense for her. And "Awake" has the ugliest-looking, most ill-conceived flashback story ever: Snow and Charming actually woke up during the Dark Curse and then woke up Rumple so that he could take them to Emma, only to then choose to abandon her so that she can achieve her destiny as the Savior before everyone goes back to sleep (quite literally in Charming's case, how the fuck does that work!?) The only reason this exists is so that Adam and Eddy can say "See? Snow and Charming totally DID abandon their daughter!" whenever anyone says it's Regina's fault Emma grew up without parents.

Perhaps most insidiously, we have the two-part midseason finale, "Wish You Were Here" and "Tougher Than the Rest". Aladdin is turned into a genie and the Evil Queen takes advantage of a passing statement Emma made about sometimes wishing she wasn't the Savior by making a wish that Emma's desire was granted. Thus the Wish Realm, an alternate world where the Dark Curse was never cast, is created. And the insults just keep piling up from there: the depiction of Emma as a wimpy princess if she had been raised by her parents, Regina trying to prove to Emma that "none of this is real" by crushing Wish Snow and Wish Charming's hearts (I can vividly envision Adam and Eddy having an orgasm over this scene), Emma snapping out of it when Wish Henry tries to kill Regina and that's "everything Emma never wanted him to be" (a fucking hero who will bring down the monster who slaughtered his grandparents!?), Charming similarly being considered "dark" for trying to kill the Evil Queen, the explicitly stated notion that Emma owes Regina for ruining her life because that's what made her strong, the appearance of Wish August who is so much more boring than the real August, the appearance of Wish Hook as a fat old drunk, and Rumple and Belle getting back together due to what's going on with Gideon, with Belle asking "What have we done to each other?" (NO. There is ZERO moral equivalence between Belle and Rumple here.)

"The Savior", "A Bitter Draught", "Street Rats", "I'll Be Your Mirror", "Mother's Little Helper", "Where Bluebirds Fly" and "The Black Fairy" are all watchable, if not particularly good.

All the other episodes have their strong points. "The Other Shoe" is a fun breather episode the likes of which this show desperately needed more of. "Strange Case" features a great take on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "Dark Waters" has Hook and Henry at their best and introduces Captain Nemo played by the great Faran Tahir. "Heartless" is the only episode in the season where Lana Parilla plays the Evil Queen with old-school menace, with the curse she ends up placing on Snow and Charming being legitimately ingenious and diabolical. "Murder Most Foul", until its literal last minute twist, is a highly engaging story and features a (rare at this point and thus even more appreciated) explosively emotional performance from Josh Dallas in its climax. "A Wondrous Place", if you ignore the awful Storybrooke scenes, is a weird and wacky crossover between characters of various stories that reminds you why you liked this show to begin with, and features Oded Fehr's last and best performance as Jafar where he is finally able to match Naveen Andrews in raw intensity.

Then there's the musical episode, "The Song In Your Heart". This is the textbook definition of an episode that is really good and enjoyable in a bubble, but is utter nonsense when applied in context. The flashback is a total filler story about a musical curse being cast by the Blue Fairy so that its result can be used by Emma in the present, and it’s only being used by Emma in the present because the Black Fairy suddenly decides "forget casting the Dark Curse and having the Final Battle, I'll take the Savior out now!", and when she fails it's right back to casting the Dark Curse and having the Final Battle as if nothing ever happened! And Emma and Hook having their rooftop wedding where the whole town starts singing and dancing about "a Happy Beginning" despite knowing damn well that the Dark Curse's arrival is imminent is hysterical- all logic dictates this should have been saved for after the crisis is over, not before it's even begun! It's dumb as Hell, but the songs and dance moves are fun (except for the Snow and Charming vs. Regina one, that was just cringy) so it gets a pass.

Lastly, there's "The Final Battle". For all of its many, many faults, it is better than Season 5's two-part finale (and also better than Season 7's, as we'll get to in the next post), and the areas where there could have been improvement are so blatantly obvious that what could have been is easy to imagine (ex: Rumple dying, a few questionable shots from the final happy ending montage cut, and the entirety of the dumbass Season 7 lead-in framing device removed entirely). It's the closest to a decent series finale we have, even if in terms of satisfaction it pales in comparison to the likes of "A Land Without Magic", "Going Home", "There's No Place Like Home", and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland's "And They Lived..."

Overall - I need to issue a formal retraction about the statement I made in this long-ago post. Not about how Season 5 would have been better with an even stronger connection between its two arcs; I still believe that. But returning to a full-season story arc format was a terrible idea, because with Season 6 we see that Season 1 was lightning in a bottle that's never getting recaptured. Every other time Adam and Eddy are given a full-season story arc, their ADHD style of storytelling won't let them stay focused and they'll end up throwing everything but the kitchen sink into it, resulting in a disjointed, convoluted, borderline incoherent mess. This is especially bad at a point where the vast majority of their most talented scriptwriters have long since departed from the writing team. Season 6 isn't the worst season (that comes up next), but it's probably the most miserable and depressing one, especially considering the fact that it was enough to make several main cast members quit. Back in Season 3, I'd have been ecstatic if you told me that this show would be getting 3 more seasons. Now, when actually at Season 6, I was horrified when I was told that it was getting 1 more season. 

[nickysurfer28]

Summary: Now that you know the truth about what Chris has done, can you find it in your heart to forgive him?

Characters: Dr.Nicky Ransom x Chris Evans , Judith, Denise Ames (Cousin),Clare- sister to Nicky (mentioning) ,Adrian -(mentioning) (twin to Chris )

Warning ⚠️: 18+ only , swearing smut,nudity,angst,paranormal

Chapter 13:

Dream sequence **

The final door opens to a familiar room.

“Is this... my room at the Marina Blanca Motel?” Nicky replied.

And on the bed, writhing in sexual ecstasy...

“Oh my God, that’s me!”

But it isn’t the wanton moans escaping her dreaming self’s lips that make the blood drain from her face...it’s the sight of Chris sitting beside her, a look of deep concentration on his face as his hands over over her body.

“It’s the safest to feed while humans dream.” Chris answered.

The Nicky in the bed sighs blissfully- dreaming, she knows, of a lover on a twilight beach.

“And erotic dreams yield the most energy.” Chris replied.

She staggered back, her heart in her throat.

“It’s was Chris! I thought they were just dreams, but the whole time it was him! I feel so...confused. How is this happening?”

The Chris at the sleeping Nicky’s side lowers his forehead to hers, an unearthly golden glow suffusing his body as she comes. Sated, he rises from the bed.

“Do you understand now?” Chris replied.

“You...you fed on me...” Nicky answered.

“I didn’t seek you out, but I sensed the strength of your life force the night we met.” Chris answered.

“You fed on me!” Nicky answered angrily.

“Only because I knew it wouldn’t harm you.” Chris replied.

He reaches for her, but she shoved him away with all her might.

“That doesn’t make it better, Chris! I didn’t consent to it! To any of it! Nicky yelled.

“I know, Nicky, and I’m sorry. Please believe that I never meant for it to go this far.” Chris replied sadly.

“I do believe you.” Nicky answered. “And we’re finished here.”

Dream sequence end.

She breaks free of the dream, waking abruptly in Chris’s library. Chris is crouched before her, concerned blue eyes boring into her. She rises unsteadily from her chair. The room spins.

“Carful, now-“ Chris answered.

He reaches out, as if to help her up.

Sighing, she let him reach out to steady her. His strong arms are careful, almost delicate as he touches her.

“Are you all right?” Chris answered.

She leans against him as her visions swims.

“I...I’m fine.” Nicky answered.

Gently, she breaks away from him.

“Chris, I need to think.” Nicky answered. “No matter how you look at it, this is a betrayal of trust. I can’t believe I thought... I can’t believe I wanted...”

“Nicky...” Chris answered sadly.

“Don’t.” Nicky replied. She sighs. “I’m sorry, Chris, but I need space. I don’t want to see you right now. Maybe not ever.”

She turns on her heels, fleeing into the safety of the bright morning sun.

A car pulls up just as she reaches the street. Judith rolls down the window.

“Need a lift?” Judith answers.

Somehow, she’s not surprised to see her. She clamber silently into the passenger’s side, and Judith pulls away from the curb.

“You know, don’t you? What he is.” Nicky answered.

“I did. He texted a while ago for me to pick you up.” Judith answered. “He thought you might need to talk to someone...human.”

“Oh my God...” Nicky replied sadly.

Nicky scrubbed her hands over her face. “I’m so overwhelmed, all I can do is...cry.”

Huge, soul-shattering sobs tear from her throat. Judith says nothing, only hands her a pack of tissues.

“Let it all out, honey. That’s the only thing for it.” Judith replied.

Nicky sniffles into the tissue as Judith parks near a park.

“How long have you know about him?” Nicky answered.

“Why...since about 1942.” Judith answered.

Her jaw drops.

“But...you’d have been-“ Nicky answered.

“A little girl?” Judith answered. “I was. In occupied France. My parents died in the resistance. When the Allied forces arrived, Chris found me hiding in what remained of our village. He took me in. Not long after that, I walked in on him...”

“Feeding?” Nicky answered.

“I was trying to think of a nicer word for it, but yes.” Judith replied.

“And... you weren’t afraid?” Nicky replied.

Judith shrugs.

“I was a child of war, honey. By that age, I’d seen humans do worse.” Judith replied. “ Chris’s unique needs were easy enough for me to accept.”

Judith takes in the scenery, than looks back at Nicky.

“How about a walk? I think some fresh air might do us both some good.” Judith answered.

Nicky nods, following her lead.

“What I don’t know is why Chris decided to tell you about all this now.” Judith answered.

“I...might have forced his hand a little.” Nicky answered awkwardly.

She giver her a quick recap of her confrontation with Chris , and her expression grows steadily sadder.

“I had no idea about your sister I’m so sorry.” Judith replied.

“Did you know about Adrian?” Nicky replied.

“Only that he existed and Chris hadn’t seen him over a hundred years.” Judith answered. “If I’d suspected that bastard was the one who took my Denise...”

Despite herself, she smile. “Judith...I’m pretty sure you’d have kicked his ass. You’re a tough old broad.”

“And don’t you forget it!” Judith smiled.

Nicky lapse into easy silence as she walked, watching the boats drift along the clam water.

“Judith? Did Chris ever feed on you?” Nicky answered.

Judith shakes her head.

“Never. He makes a paint of never feeding on people he knows personally.” Judith replied.

“Until now.” Nicky answered.

“Until now.” Judith replied. “So you can see, then, why I suspect you’re so special.”

“I don’t feel special. Just used. Manipulated.” Nicky answered sadly.

“Well. I do see why.” Judith replied.

Judith inclines her head toward the car. “Come on. Let’s head back.” Judith answered.

When Nicky returns, Judith pauses.

“I brought something to show you, if you’ll let me. To shed some light on who Chris really is.” Judith replied.

“Show me. Please.” Nicky replied.

Judith pops the trunk, producing a shoebox full of photos. She hands her one.

“This was taken the day he found me.” Judith replied.

Nicky heart aches for the little girl in her ruined village.

“Oh, Judith...” Nicky replied sadly.

“It gets better from here, I promise.” Judith answered.

Judith shows her 15th birthday. Her high school graduation. Her wedding. And ever present in the background....

“Chris. He was with her every step of the way. No wonder she loves him so much.”

Nicky’s eyes begin to well as Judith hands her a portrait of herself in her 20s.

“You were so beautiful.” Nicky answered. “Thank you for sharing this with me, Judith.”

“Do you understand now? Who he is?” Judith replied.

“I think I’m starting to.” Nicky replied.

Nicky sighs.

“Chris didn’t ask to be what he is,Nicky. He’d be something else in a heartbeat if he could.” Judith answered. “But he is a good man. And he is crazy about you.”

“Judith-“ Nicky replied.

Judith waves her hand.

“You have every right to be furious with him, I know. But I also think it may be worth giving him a second chance.” Judith replied. “Just promise me you’ll think about it.”

“I....will.” Nicky answered. “I have a lot of thinking to do.”

“Thank you, honey.” Judith replied.

Judith drops you off at home, and Nicky goes about her day as if her entire world hadn’t just changed forever. Her final client of the day is an exhausted-looking woman. She wrings her hands nervously as she sits on Nicky’s couch.

“Can you tell me a little about what brings you here,Mrs. Sahir?” Nicky replied.

She frowns down at her hands.

“I...I’m afraid to go to sleep.” Mrs. Sahir replied.

“ And why is that? Nicky replied.

“It’s ridiculous.” Mrs. Sahir replied.

“Not if it’s negatively impacting your life, it isn’t.” Nicky replied.

She breathes a heavy sigh.

“Every time I close my eyes... I see monsters lying in wait to attack me.” Mrs. Sahir replied sadly. She clenches her fists.

“But I’m sick of being afraid! I’m ready to take control of my life.” Mrs. Sahir replied angrily.

And in that moment, Nicky realize it’s time for her to do the same.

That night, Nicky returned to Chris’s house to find him watching the stars through a telescope. The stars above look like small crystals, the moon like a beacon. Yet, somehow, Chris out shines it all.

“You... look like you have a lot on your mind. Anything I can do to help?” Nicky answered.

Chris whips around at the sound of her voice.

“Nicky!” Chris yelled. “ I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”

“Yeah, well. That makes two of us.” Nicky replied.

“What changed?” Chris answered.

“Nothing. Everything.” Nicky answered. “Chris, I ...”

But her words fail her.

Nicky takes his face in her hands and kiss him. He stiffens in surprise....

“Nicky!” Chris answered.

...then kisses up her back passionately, clutching her to him as though her never wants to let her go.

“Nicky...” Chris answered blushing.

“Mmmm...”Nicky replied.

She wind her arms around his neck, parting her lips to admit his questing tongue.

“I’m taking control of my life. And I know I want Chris to be part of it.”

He holds Nicky close, and she feels as though she could conquer the world. But then he steps away, his blue eyes pained.

“You should go.” Chris replied sadly.

“...why?” Nicky answered.

“Isn’t it obvious, Nicky?” Chris answered.

He lets out a long sigh.

“You know what I am, Nicky. What I’ve done. What I’ll continue to do.” Chris replied sadly. “I’m... I’m a monster.”

Something in her heart feels like it breaks as he says that.

“Chris... you’re not a monster.”Nicky replied.

“Hah.” Chris replied.

His smile is bitter, but she shakes her head.

“You’re not. And I mean that.” Nicky answered. “I’m not going to stand here and tell you what you did was okay because it wasn’t. But I understand. And I forgive you.”

Nicky cups his cheek, looking deeply into his eyes.

“You mean so much to me, Chris.” Nicky replied. “I know that makes no sense because I just met you, but I’ve never felt this way before. It’s new, and it’s terrifying, and I don’t know which way is up anymore, but...I do know I’d regret it forever if I let you go. So I forgive you. Chris. I forgive you completely.”

He swallows hard, averting his eyes.

“And Adrian? Do you for him, too?” Chris answered. “ I preyed on you, just as he preyed on Clare and Denise.”

“Chris, you’re nothing like your brother!” Nicky answered.

“I’m exactly like him, Nicky. Right down to our DNA.” Chris answered sadly.

“Chris, that’s ... silly. Our actions make us who we are, not our genetics. You’re not like Adrian, Chris. You’re not even close, and I’m pretty sure you know it. I think what you may actually be struggling with is a fear of emotional vulnerability.” Nicky replied.

Chris laughs.

“Ever the therapist.” Chris replied.

“You have to admit you kind of need one.” Nicky replied with a smirk.

“You have no idea.” Chris replied with a smile.

Then, he pulls her into his arms, kissing her as though his life depends on it. But when she reaches to undo his belt, he stops her.

“We can’t. Nicky.” Chris answered.

“It sort of... feels like we can.” Nicky replied.

He steps away, putting some distance between his erection and her misbehaving hands.

“Not in the physical world. It’s would be too dangerous for you.” Chris replied. “It’s too easy to lose control at the moment of climax. To take too much.”

“Chris...I trust you.” Nicky answered.

“But I don’t trust myself.” Chris replied.

Disappointed though she is, she can understand his concern.

“What do you propose, then?” Nicky replied.

“Perhaps you should take control.” Chris replied.

With a smile that makes her shiver, he takes her hand and leads her into one of the bedrooms. He lays her on the bed and draws her down into sleep.

**somewhat dream sequence **

Nicky awakes nude in a familiar study.

“No fair.” Nicky answered.

Chris grins wickedly.

“Maybe I need to be taught some manners. What do you think, doctor?” Chris answered.

“Get on the couch.” Nicky answered.

“You didn’t say “please” Chris replied.

Nicky seized his chin on her hand.

“And I won’t.” Nicky answered.

“Yes, Doctor.” Chris replied.

He stretches out, grinning as she straddles his hips. He reaches out for her, but she swats his hands away.

“No. Hands behind your head.” Nicky replied.

He obeys, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

“Oh, Dr. Ransom, what do you have in mind?” Chris replied.

“I don’t recall giving you permission to speak, Mr. Evans.” Nicky answered.

She catches his lower lip between her teeth, and he groans. She trails her hands lovingly down his body.

“Ahh...” Chris yelled.

Nicky giggles, pressing wet kisses down his abdomen. Chris draws in a sharp breath as she presses her lips to the head of his cock.

“Let’s see what other sounds I ca get you to make.” Nicky answered with a smirk.

He gasps as she licks a long stripe along the underside of cock...holds his breath as she flicks her tongue against the knot at the base of head...and moans loudly when she’s taken him in her mouth.

“Fuck...” Chris yelled.

She hums around him, her lips sliding wetly up and down his shaft.

“He even tastes good.”

She relaxes her throat, taking him deeper. Soon she feels his fingers in her hair, tugging her away.

“Not if you want this to last much longer.” Chris replied blushing red.

She drags her tongue back up his body and position herself over his hard cock.

“Say “please.” Nicky replied.

“Please.” Chris answered.

But then, Nicky feels a great sadness.

“I want to be with him in real life. I wan to be with him...”

Nicky closes her eyes, imagining that you’re being pulled from the dream.

“Wake up....”

She and Chris groan in unison...and she wakes suddenly with him Inside her.

@denisemarieangelina @joannaliceevans-fanficblog @daliaevans @waywardodysseys @tanyam93 @pine-fresh-kirk @star-spangled-beard-burn @lovinevans @ohmy-captain @iguessweallcrazyithinktho @sweater-daddiesdumbdork @jtargaryen18 @megan-meg-chrisevanswifey @patzammit @trishevans @branflakes82 @oddsnendsfanfics @optimistic-dinosaur-nacho @jms358 @denissjmaddox @littlefiercequeen @mizcaptainphoenix @deidrashouseofpain @bit-of-a-timelord @chris-evans-indian-fanfic @chris-butt @captain-rogers-beard @imanuglywombat @wintrcaptn @shreyaaaaaaaaaaaa @shellbilee @whiskey-cokenfanfic @iamwhoiamtmblr @icanfeelastormbrewing @inamarvelx @gothamlovr91 @captaincrazyexlover @thatgirly81 @thatsxamericasxass @amazonx @nbarnes @captainchrisstan @kelbabyblue @kellyn1604 @katiew1973 @kailyndavillier @donutloverxo @comebackandhauntme21 @nekoannie-chan @wordywarriorwrites

[bssaz97]

Juane and ruby go missing for a year only to show back up to tell yang she’s an aunt and ren is The Godfather

Missing For A Year… (1)

*At the newly reopened Beacon Academy, a large groups is congregated in front of a new statue inside the school, currently covered in tarps. Of this group consists the remains of team (R)WBY, (J)NPR, SSSN, CVFY, C(R)D(L), FNKI, Ace-Ops, (S)TRQ, Penny and Pietro Polendina, Maria Calavera, Winter, Willow and Whitley Schnee along with their butler Klein, Ghira and Kali Belladonna, the redeemed Illia Amitola, Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, and Neo Torchwick, as well as the entirety of the Arc Family and Athena Nikos, and the old Beacon Faculty. They are all seated in the auditorium as the newly appointed Headmistress Goodwitch takes the podium.*

Glynda: Good Afternoon everyone, I know for many today may not be such a good day. Today we are here to commemorate the death of Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc, two of Remnant’s greatest heroes. They sacrificed their lives today precisely one year ago at the final battle against Salem. You here are the many who know what the war was like and what it has cost. ‘Sigh’ I knew both Miss Rose and Mr. Arc, I want to say that they were two of the most exceptional students during their time here, but that would obliviously have been a lie.

Everyone: *Laughs*

Glynda: While they may have not been the most prominent of their peers, they held the most promise. I know for a fact that Ruby Rose was born to be a huntress, but it was her heart that made her a great one and Mr. Arc....I knew when he first came here that he was wildly unprepared for the trials that were to come before him. He did not excel in any subject he was in, and at the time he wasn’t particularly strong, but he more than made up for that with his desire to learn and to support his team. They were.....

*The Audience saw that Glynda took a moment to compose herself. Those who knew Goodwitch always aware that she cherished her students very much. After the Fall of Beacon, she had to count the amount of students had been slain by Grimm, Atlesian Knights and White Fang Insurgents. It was difficult for her to keep her emotions hidden at times but kept a strong front for many years, but she wasn’t perfect. As she recomposes herself she continues.*

Glynda: They were wonderful students and showed us all that even the most simple souls can conquer great forces. As such, we are here to commerate them and those who have fallen throughout this conflict by adding this monument to our newly reestablished Beacon Academy, so that others may know of their heroic deeds and ultimate sacrifice for all mankind.

*With that the tarp is removes and showcases a statue of Jaune and Ruby together in similar poses to the statue at the front of the school. Behind it is a large marble wall to serve as a memorial to those who had fallen at the fall of Beacon and its reclamation.*

Yang: ‘Sniff, sniff’ See sis...I told you you’d be the bee’s knees. Just wish you’d be here to see it.

*The group gathered are so preoccupied with the commemoration to notice that the main doors opened and someone walking through. At the stage, Oscar Pine prepares to say his own words.*

Oscar: I hadn’t known Ruby and Jaune as long as many here, but they have had a profound impact on my life. They encouraged me when I was pretty much thrusted into a conflict I was gradually unprepared for. But they were there for me and I will always be grateful to them. Ruby...Jaune if you can hear us, we miss you and we hope you two are in peace.

*The person walk towards the group, while everyone is too busy to focus on the new guest. At this point Weiss Schnee has taken the platform.*

Weiss: Ruby was my partner and team leader but more importantly than that she was my friend and sister in arms. I can’t say we started out that way, I constantly butted heads with her and wasn’t the best teammate at first. As time continued, I saw her for the qualities that made her a great leader and a powerful huntress. But she is more than that...she’s my best friend. Who I miss every day.

*The person stops to take a seat behind everyone else and waits until the event is almost completely done.*

Yang: That was great Weiss, thank you for saying that.

Weiss: I meant every word, I....I just wish Ruby and Jaune were still with us. ‘Sniff, sniff’

Neptune: You did great, I’m sure she would have appreciated to hear that.

Weiss: ‘Sniff’ Thank you. I just miss them so much.

Yang: Me too, Weiss. Me too. *Wipes a tear with her bionic finger, when someone next to her hands her a tissue. Which she takes and blows her nose.* Thank you.

Ruby: Any time sis!

* * * * * ‘Ding!’

*Everyone in attendance does a double take and looks to her right to see her ‘deceased’ half sister right next to her with a box of tissues. One of which she uses herself.*

Ruby: Everyone has said so many nice things it’s *Blows Nose* So beautiful!

Everyone: RUBY?!?!?!?!

Ruby: Huh? Why is everyone so surprised? I mean I was a bit surprised nobody invited me to the reopening of Beacon and a little ticked no one tried to contact me.

Yang: Ruby? You’re here? You’re...YOU’RE ALIVE! *Grabs her sister in a tight embrace that almost turns Ruby blue*

Ruby: Guh...Yang...can’t Breathe!

Yang: Wait a minute! *Lets her go* You’ve been alive this entire time? Where have you been?! We looked for you for almost a year!

Ruby: Oh, well I was preoccupied with my-.

Voice: Look I’ve already told you I’m a former student here, now if you just let me through!

*The front door opens once again to reveal another guest, this time in the form of the ‘deceased’ Jaune Arc, with baby carriers strapped onto him. He looks over the crowd and stops the person he’s looking for.*

Jaune: Ruby, there you are I was looking all over for you! Man you won’t believe how rude these new guards are. Barely let me in here without a fight.

Ruby: Hehehe. Sorry Jaune! I just got so excited to see everyone again that I guess I forgot to wait for you.

Everyone: JAUNE?!?!?!?!

Jaune: Huh? Oh hey guys, long time no see!

Nora: F-Fearless Leader? You....YOURE ALIVE!!! *Prepares to glomp him. Making his eyes enlarge.*

Jaune: NORA STOP!!! *Outstreched his arms.*

*Nora almost collided with him when she stops mid air, she falls down when she takes note of the little people on his chest. One girl and one boy.*

Nora: Are...are those...?

Jaune: Yeah they’re babies. Well more particularly me and Ruby’s babies.

Everyone: BABIES?!?!?!?!

Ruby: Well of course they’re our babies, I mean Jaune and I have been married for almost a year now.

Everyone: MARRIED?!?!?!?!

Yang: OH FOR GODS SAKE WILL EVERYONE JUST CALM DIWN FOR TWO SECONDS!!!

* * *

Babies: *Start crying*

Yang: Oh shi-! *Rushes to the two infants sides* No, no! I didn’t mean you two! Oh I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to scare you. Please don’t be mad at Auntie Yang.....oh gods, I’m a Auntie!

Ruby: Yep. Also Ren and Nora are the godparents.

Ren: G-Godparents! *Blushes*

Nora: ‘GASPs!’ I. Have. God Babies! *She grabs the boy and holds him above her.* Oh my gods you and I are gonna have so many adventures together! Oh my wittle, shmittle, melittle...what’s this baby’s name?

Jaune: That would be Rowan.

Nora: Rowan! My little man, I’ll take you on all my conquests and together we will rule the lands!

Rowan: *Cute baby laughter*

Jaune: Not even a day and she’s already claimed him. Sorry little guy.

Yang: *Moves towards his side* Annnnd this one would be? *Gestures to the baby girl*

Ruby: This is little Summer.

Yang: *With permission from Jaune she grabs the baby gently and hold Summer in front of her* Summer huh?

Summer: .....*Cute baby giggle*

Yang: *Blushes* ....I’ve only known this baby for five seconds but I would protect her with my life.

Ruby: Yep babies will have that effect. But I’m really surprised that you didn’t know about them until now. Haven’t you been getting our letters?

Yang: Letters?

Ruby: Yeah, the letters we’ve been sending you every month for the past year.

*Everyone looks perplexed about what the young mother was talking about.*

Jaune: Wait you guys are serious you haven’t been receiving any of our mail to you all?

Neptune: Dude for a year we thought you guys were dead!

Ruby/Jaune: HUH?!?!?!

*Both finally noticed that everyone was wearing all black and that the decoration around them was fit for what seemed to be a wake. Including the giant memorial statue in the back of the auditorium.*

Ruby: What the-? JAUNE! Did you not send any of those letters through the mail!

Jaune: Of course I did! You had them all stamped right?

Ruby: .......oh gods I forgot about the stamps.

Jaune: What?! How could you forget about the stamps! That’s the only way to make sure the mail gets to where they’re supposed to go!

Ruby: It’s hard ok! They get so sticky and at the time it was hard to do so without ripping them. I thought they’d make a exception.

Jaune: Ruby, the postal services always check for stamps, otherwise they don’t send the mail!

Ruby: Oh~ I’m sorry.

Jaune: ‘Sigh’ Look it’s fine Ruby, I didn’t check and assumed the stamps were there in the first place so we’re both to blame.

Ruby: ‘Sniff’ Thank you dear! *Hugs Jaune* I love you!~

Jaune: I love you too Rubes!~

Weiss: .....Ruby....Jaune.....

*The lovey dovey couple suddenly stop their affection when they feel an icy chill up their spines. Slowly they turn around to see their longtime friend Weiss Schnee behind them with a shadow overcasting her eyes and Myrtenaster in hand.*

Ruby: N-Now Weiss! Let’s talk about this!

Jaune: Y-Yeah it was a honest mistake!

Weiss: I know...that’s why you get a five second head start. Right now.

*Without a word, both husband and wife race outside the doors and run for their lives.*

Jaune: The kids will be ok right?!! We can trust the others to handle them right!!!

Ruby: Yeah they’ll have a blast!!! Just don’t look back!!!

**Explosion!**

Weiss: YOU DUNCES!!! COME BACK HERE AND TAKE HOUR PUNISHMENT!!! YOU’RE GONNA PAY FOR ALL THE TEARS I’VE SHED!!!

-Fin-

Author Notes:

Yes i made a JoJo reference.

I decided to add my two OC Lancaster babies. This is not canon to that particular AU but I loved the idea and consider it a AU to the AU.

I may continue this for a little if you guys want. Probably nothing too serious but fluff.

[daredevile]

Illuminate [1/5]

Summary: James Barnes, an upcoming artist in Brooklyn lives a routine life. It’s all sunshine and rainbows until you show up at his building, hesitantly becoming his roommate.

Warnings: Not Steve approved language

A/N: Hey guys! It’s my first time writing an AU and this one’s for @ruckystarnes‘s summer of AUs. Nearly had a heart attack when I almost deleted this entire post just after finishing. Also, I apologise if it sucks. Hope you enjoy!

“Hello? Mrs Potts? This is Y/N. I saw an advertisement for your apartment, I would like to have a look if it’s still available,”

And that’s all it took for you to end up in front of a modern building, right in the middle of Brooklyn. Logically, you knew that the rent in this particular area would be sky high, however, desperation got the better of you. Before you knew it, a stylish woman dressed in white greeted you with a warm smile, her unwavering, straight posture resembled one of a businesswoman’s.

“You must be Y/N,” She waited for your assurance, stretching her hand out, “I’m utterly delighted to see you, it’s been ages since James had had a roommate,” 

“Roommate? I thought I would be living alone,” Your eyebrows shot up. Sharing an apartment was already not too high on your list, but sharing an apartment with a guy, that was rock bottom. 

“Oh no, honey, it’s mentioned on the flyer,” Mrs Potts noticed your hesitation, placing a hand on your shoulder as she guided you to the elevator, “Don’t worry, James is an absolute sweetheart. He’s quite easy on the eyes too,” She winked.

Hope filled your mind, and with Mrs Potts’ descriptions of James, maybe sharing a living space with him won’t be so bad after all. She continued rambling on about the apartment’s amenities, but all that whooshed out your head when you stepped inside the lavish area. The first thing you noticed was the abundance of paintings all across the apartment, some hung on the walls, some placed on the paint-splattered floor. You were completely mesmerised, recognising the classics—Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet—whoever James was, he must be filthy rich to afford all of these. 

“James is out of town, he’s returning this evening,” Mrs Potts stated, watching you observe the art, “He’s an aspiring artist, and a great one too. Unfortunately, he hasn’t gotten his big break yet,” Her phone rang interrupting your conversation, “Well, what do you think? I mean, if I had known you were coming earlier, I would have asked him to clea—“

“I’ll take it,” You interrupted, “It’s great, thank you, Mrs Potts,” A wide smile erupted on the woman’s face upon hearing your words. She threw her arms around your shoulders, gleaming.

A couple of tiring hours later, you were done shifting your things into the apartment. Just as you plopped down on the couch with a satisfied sigh, the door burst open, revealing one exasperated James Barnes. He took notice of your presence with a curt nod before turning his attention to his phone.

“Um...hi?” You extended your hand, “I’m Y/N, your new roommate,”

“Hi,” Ignoring your hand, he walked towards his easel, preparing his art supplies.

Annoyed at his lack of communication, you turned your attention towards the masterpieces on the wall, “Did you do these? They’re amazing,” A look of awe displayed on your features as you faced his back.

“Yeah, yeah,”

“It must have taken forever,” You gushed, not paying attention to the phone in his hand.

“Mhmm, one second, Steve” James spun around, blue eyes meeting yours, “Hey sweetheart, I’m on a call, do you mind?” He gestured to his phone, a smirk forming as you blushed in embarrassment. He resumed his phone call, marching his way to his room.

“Ok, first interaction could have gone better,” You muttered under your breath, leaning against the wall. A soft, brown-furred kitten brushed past your feet, leaping on the couch with immense effort. You chuckled at him struggling before pushing his hind paws up, “What have we gotten ourselves into, Milton?” The cat cuddled against your arm, burying his head into your side. 

The apartment glowed by the vivid pieces, each sporting its own story. The ones you didn’t recognise, the James Barnes originals, were quite random: a family at the park, a ballerina, a garden of flowers and many more exquisite pieces. Pieces of various sizes adorned by modern frames intricately placed on the walls. You hovered your fingers over one of them, ever so lightly grazing over the dried paint.

“Sorry, let me start again. I’m James Barnes,” His deep yet soft voice shook you out of your thoughts. His bright eyes followed your gaze, watching your fingers trace the texture of the piece, “A perfectionist who gets irritated when people touch his art, so please remove your undeserving fingers from the canvas,” The words quickly flowed out his mouth, piercing cerulean eyes observing your movement.

“Also, I’m not a big fan of crowds, so no parties, no loud, uncultured music, and,”  He paused, focus shifting to the small creature, who was poking the plushy cushions on the couch, “No pets,”

“Excuse me? I’m paying half the rent. Milton isn’t going anywhere,” You retorted, frustration seeping through your body. You weren’t about to let a second-rate douchebag boss you around in your own house. You moved away, leaning against the paint splattered counter.

“Listen, sweetheart,” He stepped dangerously close to your form, a firm expression on his face as he spoke, “I’m the boss here. You either listen or beat it,” He placed his hand on the counter behind you, trapping your body between the table and himself. Your breath hitched at his proximity, he leaned closer, his nose millimetres from yours. In one quick motion, he swiped the coffee cup placed behind you and dashed into his room.

The cool Brooklyn breeze along with a perfectly made hot chocolate topped with mini marshmallows were the elements present that evening. James had requested absolute silence while he worked on his pieces, so you decided to hit the nearest coffee shop for a relaxing time with your friends.

“So, is she nice? Bitchy?” Natasha asked, sipping on her tea. She leaned against the velvet couch, perching her legs on the wooden table, “You better not ditch us for her,” She nudged Wanda’s shoulder, laughing at the immediate drop of your smile.

“Well, he is a jerk,” It was your turn to laugh at their awestruck faces, Wanda gasped in disbelief while Natasha snorted, “And don’t worry, I’m never ditching you guys,”

“No way! You’re living with a guy!” Natasha exclaimed, “Damn Y/N, never would have thought,” She clapped her hands.

“Don’t get excited, he’s just like the rest of them. Possessive, bossy and not to mention incredibly annoying,” You rolled your eyes, Wanda placed a comforting hand on your shoulder.

“Come on, you just met him today, I’m sure he’ll warm up in no time,” She sent a warm smile, hiding her laughter behind her mug.

“Yeah, and soon enough, we’ll be crying at your wedding,” Natasha added, dodging away from the cushions you were throwing at her, “Would it be a summer one? No, you seem like the winter type,”

You nearly spat out your hot chocolate at her remark, “What! Never,” You exclaimed, “He’s already on my hate list. And he doesn’t like pets. Come on, that’s already a red flag,” You defended, glaring at the two of them and their shit-eating grins, “And, for your information, I am the winter type,”

“Girl, I already know what’s gonna happen. Don’t you watch movies?” Natasha stated as a matter-of-fact, a mischevious glint in her green eyes.

“No, James isn’t that kinda guy,” You shook your head, scoffing at the mere thought of a cheesy, romantic relationship forming between the two of you.

“Then what kinda guy is he?” Wanda inquired, watching your demeanour slightly shift with your thoughts.

“The one that’s a pain in your ass,”

Milton shuffled across your lap, tiny paws carefully treading on the soft furs of the couch. His quiet meows resonated through the apartment, you watched his actions closely. Moving in with James did not take off in the direction as you would have hoped, nevertheless, you had no choice. Putting up with his demanding attitude would be a small price to pay until you found another place. Slowly, your eyelids began to droop, feeling heavy due to today’s tiresome events. A few minutes after sleep had conquered your mind, a loud ring echoed from the kitchen. 

“Fucking hell,” You muttered, rubbing your eyes in frustration. The noise was coming from James’ phone, one that he had conveniently left behind. Just as you were about to answer, it went to voicemail.

“Hey, Buck. Lara came, she dropped off a box of your stuff. I’ll swing by tomorrow morning, alright?” A masculine voice spoke, you caught the underlying tone of pity weaved into it.

“Buck?” Your eyebrows scrunched together as you stared at his phone, curious.

“Is that my phone?” The sudden voice broke the silence that filled the air, making you jump. James leaned against the wall with an amused smile, placing his sketchbook on the counter.

You blinked at him, trying to form a reasonable excuse, “No...I mean yes, but I wasn’t going through it. You got a call, so I picked it up, it went to voicemail and I listened to it and you came,” You blurted, moving away from his phone.

A smile tugged on his lips at your rambling, “Ok stalker,” He smirked as you scoffed. To his surprise, the kitten gently brushed past his legs, James scowled before looking back at you, “Thought I said no pets,”

“Thought I said he’s staying,” You retorted, yearning to wipe that stupid smirk off his perfect face.

“Actually, you said, ‘Milton isn’t going anywhere’,” He playfully crossed his arms, horribly mimicking your voice.

“First, I do not sound like that,” You stomped your foot, attempting to hide the tiny tug of your lips, “Second, you’re an asshole,”

James immediately held his hand on his chest, “Oh sweetheart, that struck my heart and here I thought we were becoming friends,” He feigned hurt, blue eyes burning into yours as he burst out into laughter. You rolled your eyes, walking away to avoid looking at his charming smile.

To be continued...

[addictedforbooksquad]

P I C K (S)  O F  T H E  M O N T H: M A R C H

Shades of Magic series by V. E. Schwab

Make Me Bad by R. S. Grey

Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

The Winner’s Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski

Text series by Teagan Hunter

Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Magic

Synopsis:

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand. After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure. Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.

Why we love it:

thief turned pirate badass heroine

great premise with a storyline that felt very different

fabulous world-building with an interesting magic system

if you love London like us, there are four of them instead of one xD

full of morally gray characters!!!!!

don’t get attached to anyone

Trigger warnings: mind control, (mentions of) homophobia, character death

Make Me Bad by R.S. Grey

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult

Synopsis:

I was issued a warning: stay away from Ben Rosenberg. As Clifton Cove’s resident “king”, he thinks he’s entitled to anyone and anything. The trouble is, I’ve spent my whole life following the rules and playing it safe. I know what it feels like to be the good girl. I’m the police chief’s daughter and a librarian—for adorable children, no less. An all-nighter with a fictional hunk is about as exciting as my life gets until one day, fate decides to take pity on me and shove me straight into the path of Mr. Off-Limits himself. Just as I suspected, every inch of him promises to be my demise. Up close, he’s tall, menacing—a lawyer who looks like he’ll bite. A well-behaved girl would do as she’s told and avoid him at all costs, but I’m overdue for a little rebellion. So, I ignore the warning and throw caution to the wind. But Ben doesn’t just nudge me out of my comfort zone—he thrusts me into a dark corner and presses his hard body against mine, covering my mouth with his hand to ensure we don’t get caught sneaking around. In that moment, I finally understand why everyone thinks he’s going to ruin me. To him, this is all a game. He wants to tempt me with his dares and taunt me with his words. I should play along. After all, I asked him to make me bad. I just never thought he’d take his job quite so seriously...

Why we love it:

honestly the cutest thing ever

entertaining characters

friends to lovers done well

pretty angst-free (in a good way)

reading this book just makes you feel good

Trigger warnings: assault (one scene)

Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Adult

Synopsis:

In a world where ash falls from the sky, and mist dominates the night, an evil cloaks the land and stifles all life. The future of the empire rests on the shoulders of a troublemaker and his young apprentice. Together, can they fill the world with color once more? In Brandon Sanderson's intriguing tale of love, loss, despair and hope, a new kind of magic enters the stage — Allomancy, a magic of the metals.

Why we love it:

amazing world-building

unique and interesting magic system

lots of unexpected twists

the story follows different characters and their POVs

amazing, quality writing

Trigger warnings: violence, sexual assault (mentioned/suggested)

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Regency

Synopsis:

A Devil's Bargain Easily the shyest Wallflower, Evangeline Jenner stands to become the wealthiest, once her inheritance comes due. Because she must first escape the clutches of her unscrupulous relatives, Evie has approached the rake Viscount St. Vincent with a most outrageous proposition: marriage! Sebastian's reputation is so dangerous that thirty seconds alone with him will ruin any maiden's good name. Still, this bewitching chit appeared, unchaperoned, on his doorstep to offer her hand. Certainly an aristocrat with a fine eye for beauty could do far worse. But Evie's proposal comes with a condition: no lovemaking after their wedding night. She will never become just another of the dashing libertine's callously discarded broken hearts—which means Sebastian will simply have to work harder at his seductions... or perhaps surrender his own heart for the very first time in the name of true love.

Why we love it:

our favourite book from the Wallflower series

Sebastian with his fallen angel looks has amazing growth in this book and he isn’t quite the villain he led us to believe

Evie, our shy timid Wallflower really comes into her own in this book when she decides to take her future into her own hands with an offer that Sebastian can’t refuse

wickedly sexy dialogues

their chemistry is off the charts !!!

LK is the reigning Queen of historical romance

Trigger warnings: (mentions of) domestic violence

The Winner’s Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance

Synopsis:

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love... As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined. Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

Why we love it:

angsty AF

awesome world-building

best character development

enemies to lovers trope YASSS

one of the best but underrated YA series

heroine who is written as both badass and feminine

Trigger warnings: slavery, violence, racism, attempted sexual assault

Text series by Teagan Hunter

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult

Synopsis:

A wrong number is supposed to be just that—a wrong number. Delete. Done. Do not continue to text. Do not flirt. A wrong number shouldn’t be the first person on your mind in the morning, or the last at night…and you’re definitely not supposed to talk them into buying a baby goat. Because that would be weird. When Zach Hastings and I get into a wrong-number mix-up, we don’t follow the rules. We keep texting and flirting, because he’s wicked funny and perfectly nerdy and a wonderful distraction. I’m not looking for love, and Zach definitely had the wrong number. But maybe… Maybe he’s the right guy.

Why we love it:

a series of four books but can be read as standalones

cute, funny and sexy aka the best romance combo

original formatting - lots of dialogue in text messages (which can be annoying to some but we found it refreshing)

roommates, second chance romance, forbidden romance - a mix of our fave tropes all in one series

Trigger warnings: n/a

[kathyprior4200]

DBS: Baby

DBS: Baby (fanmade)

(Inspired by Geekdom101’s movie plot pitch)

DBS: Baby / DBS: Parasite

“Age 730”

A flashback to the Saiyan/Tuffle war is shown in Age 730. The Tuffles are first shown enslaving some of the Saiyans, making them do menial work and treating them like animals. These Saiyans are later freed by their comrades in the dead of night, dodging stun lasers firing from Tuffle created drones above. Cut to the Saiyan’s territory, with the caves of rock and sand. Male chiefs fight over game and young Saiyan children are starving. The war has been a stalemate for a decade. Then, like a glimmer of hope, the full moon emerges from behind the clouds one fateful night. With new confidence flowing through them, their leader, Vegeta the 3rd leads them toward the city to launch a surprise attack…which works perfectly. The Tuffle citizens scatter in terror, running from exploding vehicles, and the heavy stomps of the primate-human giants. One by one, the Saiyans stare at the moon, then they rapidly transform into Great Apes. Their eyes glow demonic red, and fur covers their bodies. Gaping mouths with razor sharp teeth fire destructive blasts at the Tuffle soldiers and the buildings. By the time dawn arrives, the Tuffles have been obliterated. The Saiyans celebrate in victory and rename the planet after their king. Cut to the Tuffle King Frutsu’s last dying moments, an old bearded man lying below an advanced machine. Once he passes on, his body disappears into the device. His genes are transferred to a glass sphere, cracking with power. The sphere and the start of a supercomputer are then put into a spaceship. The ship takes off, following the course of another ship containing Dr. Lychee’s ghost. The Saiyans as Great Apes fire blasts at them, but miss.

 “Age 735”

Baby exists as a supercomputer in the spaceship that files through the dark reaches of space. The supercomputer creates Dr. Myuu, the blue skinned mad scientist. Dr. Myuu then contacts Dr. Lychee’s ghost. The two ships first crash land on planet Vampa. Broly is seen training in the distance. Dr. Lychee’s ghost and Dr. Myuu create several machines which spew out the destructive gas. The gas creates supervillains like Frieza, DBZ Broly, and a darker Goku (not Turles or Goku Black). Broly fights them and finishes them off, but is weakened by the gas. Hatiyack appears and manages to suck some of Broly’s energy into it. The rest of the planet’s energy is used as an extra source of the “Tuffle hatred” that had already been collected from the fallen citizens. Broly’s energy and the energy of the creatures enables Baby to grow a new body while in an incubator. A cloaked alien race arrives and offers to help the scientists repair their ships in exchange for money and scientific research for weapons. (Little do they know it’s Frieza and his lackeys in disguise, like the Acrosians with the Saiyans).

The evil scientists are then briefly seen conquering M-2, gathering more energy for Baby. Giru, the druid sneaks into the ship one night and frees Broly from the powerful restraints. Broly and the bot escape through space, but the villains follow them. (A tracking device had been put in Broly). All of them head toward the next destination, Earth. In the incubator, Baby breaks free and later devises the Tuffleization Plan. Dr. Myuu attempts to take Dr. Lychee’s power for himself, but is killed by Hatiyack.

  “Age 778”

Broly and Giru arrive to warn Goku, Vegeta, and the gang of the Tuffle’s plan. Soon, however, Baby had possessed some of the citizens, even slaughtering an entire crew later on. The infected citizens begin to attack the heroes, but Trunks, Gohan, and Goten easily defeat them. Baby enters into them through cuts, causing extreme pain in their heads. The citizens suffer horrific delusions and the only way to stop them is to give into the voice in their heads: Baby’s voice. Baby implants more eggs into more people, the virus rapidly spreading. Finally, the infection starts to reach our heroes.

Trunks gets possessed first, but fights Baby off, causing him to retreat.

Baby then infects Gohan and Goten, who fight Goku in the air. (Gohan’s worst vision is him watching the Androids destroy the city. Goten’s worst vision is Majin Buu absorbing his family and Earth blowing up).

Trunks eventually gets possessed as well, when the two Saiyan hybrids wound him. (Trunks experiences Goku Black and Zamasu)

(Piccolo’s worst vision is him giving into his evil side, becoming King Piccolo).

Chi-Chi, Videl, and Bulma get infected next, causing arguments between Vegeta and his family and Goku and his family. (Bulma has visions of Majin Vegeta killing Trunks and going back to his evil ways. Chi-Chi has visions of Goku dying of a heart virus.) Bulma had sensed that something was wrong, so she provides capsules to the Saiyans.

The rest of the remaining heroes fight off the villains appearing from the destructive gas. Uub, Dende, Vegeta and Goku defeat the villains. Goku uses the capsules to counteract the effects of the gas. Broly helps prevent Baby from escaping for a time, but with every attack, he uses his body to regenerate. When the machines are destroyed and Hatiyack is defeated, the citizens stop having the horror visions. However, the distraction allowed Baby to infect the remainder of Earth…soon infecting and taking over…Broly. Not Vegeta. Not even Goku. Broly. He gains even more power when the citizens give him energy, him creating a Death Ball that nearly destroys the entire city.

 SSB Goku and Baby Broly fight for a while…

 Possessed Bulma uses Blutz waves to turn Baby Broly into a Golden Great Ape to fight Goku and Vegeta at Super Saiyan 3.

Dende, Mr. Satan, Lemos, and Hope head to the Lookout for the Sacred Water to cure Baby’s victims. But first, they have to get past Popo and Shin.

Goku manages to go Super Saiyan Blue, but Bulma puts herself in danger to distract Vegeta. Falling for the trap, Baby infects Vegeta, and then goes back inside Broly. Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Majin Uub continue the fight. Baby Broly goes “Kakarot!” like DBZ Broly, going insane. SSB Goku then deals the finishing blow and slices off the golden tail. Baby is forced to leave Broly’s body. He tries to go into Vegeta, but Uub holds him back. In a last ditch attempt to escape, Baby goes into a spaceship…taking infected Bulma and Cheelai with him!

Broly is cured by the Sacred Water and he teleports into the ship, rescuing the women (while having to knock them out). Goku then fires the finishing Kamehameha, destroying the ship and launching Baby into the sun. All the victims are then cured. Uub and Goku go train some more.

Broly hugs Lemos and Cheelai. Whis and Beerus later arrive, asking if they had missed anything.  Goku says that they were lucky that they didn’t get infected, and Beerus replies that his god powers wouldn’t allow that to happen. Whis says he could’ve defeated Baby Broly easily, but decided it was good training for Goku and the others. Goku then looks slowly in surprise at Frieza and his advancing army out in space. Broly, Vegeta, and Goku then stand together, getting ready to fight. Goku asks Beerus to join in, and he says only after he’s had a quality meal and pudding. Frieza grins at Broly, thinking of using him for his own goals.

 Cut to the epilogue, where Baby is reborn as a human named Frutsu Jr. He spreads Tuffle culture and science to Earth. He is shown making a wish to Shenron to build a new city on Planet Tuffle and to send it toward M-2. Vowing never to encounter another Saiyan again, the reborn villain heads off alone, to create his culture anew, and to help the robotic inhabitants on M-2. But is he fully redeemed, or perhaps building an army?

[laurens-lil-fics]

Hallucinate - Matt Murdock x Powered! Reader Part 3

Series Summary: When members of a criminal organization start flooding precincts all over New York, turning themselves in, Daredevil must investigate to see what new player has them running for the hills.

Chapter Summary: Daredevil struggles to keep his new partner in check. Meanwhile, Matt attempts to play it cool during a lunch date.

Word Count: 2700

Warnings: violence, mentions of blood, cursing, and cuteness lol

Author’s note: I’m having way too much fun with these Star Wars references

“I saw a couple of my old... pals show up the other night...” Mr. Mackie murmured, sipping at the cup of coffee Matt had finagled to get him.

“I told an old buddy of mine to keep an eye out for anything suspicious out there... you did a good thing telling me about it, Mr. Mackie.” Matt said, giving his client a small smile. He was much less anxious now that he knew Matt wasn’t a threat.

“Jim... call me Jim...”

“Okay, Jim,” Matt nodded, “is there anything else you can tell me? The more information you give us the more we can help protect you from...” Matt motioned his hands vaguely “whatever it is that’s going on.”

Mr. Mackie slowly nodded, sighing softly before setting down the styrofoam cup. “You know what they did down there?” he asked, his eyes low.

Matt bit his lip slightly, leaning back into his chair. “My buddy told me...”

Matt could hear him sniffle, his nerves beginning to bite at him again. “I never helped with any of that... I was a driver...”

Matt tried his best to hide his discomfort. Driver or not, he was still complicit in what was going on. Of course, Matt couldn’t tell him that and risk losing his only informant. 

“If you want to right any wrong that you've done,” Matt began, feeling Mr. Mackie slowly look up at him, “You need to tell me more...”

“City Morgue.”

Matt’s jaw tightened at that, gripping the flip phone.

“God, I’m just kidding.” (Y/n) huffed.

“I got a lead.” Matt said, turning on his Daredevil voice.

“Well well well,” he could practically see her coy smile just from her tone, “and here I was thinking you just wanted a pretty girl’s phone number.”

Matt bit his lip, lifting his head and listening for anyone nearby that set off any red flags for him. He lowered his head again, continuing on his way to the office. “Do you want the info? Or would you rather keep scouting that dock, hoping your guy shows up?”

“Sure sounds like a dumb plan when you say it with that attitude, lemme have it.”

There were two locations Mr. Mackie had given Matt, warehouses on opposite ends of Hell’s kitchen. Once the drivers would pick up their ‘cargo,’ the vans would split up and go to the separate buildings. 

“I have no idea which one your guy would be at, but our best bet is to scope out those buildings.” 

“It’s a date. We meet at the docks at 11. Don’t be late.” Before Matt could respond, (Y/n) hung up, earning an exasperated sigh from him.

He got to the office and relayed the information to Foggy and Karen, hoping to retreat into his office before either of them started to interrogate him about the case.

“Matt are you sure you can trust her?” Karen asked, just as he was about to close his office door. “I mean, sure she’s not killing people now, but you don’t know what could set her off. What could make her turn on you...”

Matt turned back to her, keeping his hand on the doorknob and leaning against the door frame. “My safest bet is to earn her trust, work with her and try to keep that from happening...”

“And the bar?” Foggy spoke up, his tone unusually serious.

“If I can keep tabs on (Y/n) (L/n) the person and (Y/n) (L/n) the Sith Lord, it’ll be easier to make sure she doesn’t do something dangerous.” Matt explained. 

He could tell his friends were hesitant, he didn’t have to be a mind reader to know that.

“I know you guys are worried... but this is the best way to make sure no one gets killed while she’s on her war path-”

The sound of his phone ringing cut him off. Not his burner phone, but his personal phone. 

Call from: (Y/n). Call from: (Y/n). Call from-

Matt quickly retreated into his office, slamming the door shut before Foggy and Karen could lunge for it and try to eavesdrop on the conversation. 

“Hello?” he answered, turning his back to the door.

“Matt?” there was that voice again, as sweet as it was Friday at the bar.

“Yeah, this is Matt.”

“It’s (Y/n)... from Josie’s...”

Matt chuckled softly at her nervousness, making his way towards his desk. “Thank God, thought it was the (Y/n) I owed money... I don’t owe you money, do I? I was pretty tipsy that night.”

(Y/n) laughed on the other end, causing a genuine smile to break out on Matt’s features.

“No, no you don’t owe me money... but I was wondering if you had any plans for lunch?”

Matt, who had been in the process of sitting back into his chair, fell to the floor with a THUD that felt like it might have alerted the people downstairs.

“Are you okay?! What was that?”

“N-nothing, nothing! Just thought I knew where my chair was!” He laughed nervously, quickly getting up and sitting in his chair. “I don’t have any plans... where did you wanna meet?”

“Somewhere close to you, you’re probably busy so I don’t wanna keep you long...” she trailed off.

“There’s a good deli nearby... is that good?” he asked, tapping his fingers against the arm of his chair. Why the Hell was he so nervous? Maybe it was because he thought he’d be the one calling her to make sure she was on her best behavior, not her calling for a lunch date.

Matt gave her the address and a time he was free, breathing a sigh of relief once he hung up.

“Matt, the deli’s fine, really!”

“The deli was fine until you told me you haven’t had a slice of actual New York style pizza yet.” he smiled, snickering as he led her towards one of the few pizzerias that didn’t kill his tastebuds with over-processed, frozen ingredients. 

“Here I am, trying to be considerate and keep you from skipping work, and you run me all over town just to get me some pizza.” (Y/n) huffed, tightening her grip on Matt’s arm as he sped up.

“It’s literally around the corner, cmon.” he insisted.

Once they arrived, Matt gave her a chance to take her time with the menu. Her giggles caught his attention, causing him to raise an eyebrow at her.

“They have a ‘Daredevil Special.’” she laughed. Matt obviously hadn’t seen that addition to the menu, he couldn’t hold back his own chuckle as she read off the toppings.

“It’s got pepperoni, spicy Italian sausage, mushrooms and red hot chili peppers that, and I’m quoting, ‘give it a kick even the devil can’t handle.’ Oh, I gotta get this.”

“Think you can handle all that hotness?” he smirked, earning another giggle from her.

“If he asked nicely I could... oh, you’re talking about the pizza?” she smiled, the waiter taking her attention off him long enough for him to hide the slight flush of his cheeks.

He told her about his parents, leaving out the part where his mom was a nun, told her about the orphanage, and meeting Foggy in college.

Even though he was being as honest as a vigilante could be about his past, he could tell she was holding back as well. All she told him was where she grew up, what her family was like, and that she had gone to school for photojournalism.

She didn’t specify whether or not she got her degree, but Matt wasn’t able to press for details since she hastily changed the subject.

It was hard to discern what was flirting and what was just Matt trying to keep up the charm, those things often intermingled with one another. He knew who she was, what she was capable of, and that once she was finished in Hell’s Kitchen she’d probably leave. All that to say, it wasn’t enough to keep him from actually having fun during their lunch date.

He almost spat up his coke when he heard her panic at one of the hot peppers on her slice of pizza. She kept insisting it just got her by surprise, but her failure to compose herself and each little sniffle had him biting back his laughter. He made it up to her by buying her a milkshake, which she gratefully accepted.

The walk back to the office was relatively quiet, save for the clunk of (Y/n)’s boots beside Matt’s formal shoes. He could feel her occasionally turn to look at him, hear the muscles in her cheeks move as she would smile softly before looking back down at her feet. 

“If it’s not too soon, maybe we could go out to dinner?” Matt asked, despite the voice in his head telling him he was going too far.

Her smile dropped, “O-oh, uh, I actually have plans tonight.” she sputtered.

“Oh...” Matt totally forgot, maybe this was good? Keep himself form looking suspicious. “Sorry-”

“No no, it’s not your fault-”

“I got a couple case files I gotta look at anyway. Maybe we can try for a night when we’re both not busy?” he offered.

She nodded slightly, catching herself after a split second. “Yeah, just gimme a call.”

They exchanged their goodbyes, Matt listening to her heart beat grow further and further away as he made his way up the stairs to the office.

When Matt got to the docks, he immediately went towards the scent of pizza that lingered on (Y/n). 

“It’s 11:01.” (Y/n) said, her eyes glued to the Hudson as she spoke.

“Had a hot date.” was his simple reply. 

(Y/n) scoffed softly, turning to face him and crossing her arms.

“So which warehouse are we making a move on first? It would be easier to divide and conquer-”

“We don’t do this alone. We go together, that was the deal.” he interrupted her, his tone stern.

She opened her mouth, ready to object, until Daredevil held up a hand to silence her.

“You hear that...?” he asked, tilting his head to focus his hearing, an action that didn’t go unnoticed by his partner.

“No... but I feel it.” She approached the edge of the roof the stood on, slowly crouching with Daredevil following suit. 

Black vans, almost identical to the ones the other night, parked at the shipping containers as they had before. In the distance, Matt could hear the familiar yacht engine approaching.

“It doesn’t make any sense... why come back here when they know this space is compromised?” He wondered aloud.

“This is the only dock that Blum could get his grubby hands on without any cartels or gangs objecting to it... If they’re still conducting business, this is his only access to the goods.” (Y/n) murmured, watching as armed guards exited their vans, awaiting the arrival of the cargo.

“How do you know?” he asked, turning his head her way.

She seemed to tense at this. Attempting to seem unfazed, she took hold of his hand and stood straight. “Just something I overheard.”

Before Matt knew it, he and (Y/n) were in the air high above the shipping containers, an uncomfortable feeling for someone who was used to keeping his feet on the ground.

He felt as if his whole weight was supported by her, easing his nerves about the endeavor. 

“We have to destroy that yacht, it’s our only hope of making sure they don’t get ahold of anymore innocent people while we’re on the job.” she said, keeping her voice low as she pulled him closer.

“We make our move once the people are off the boat... there’s only a handful go guards, we can take them easily.”

(Y/n) nodded at his instructions, ready to strike the second he gave the signal. 

Once the yacht was docked and the people were being dragged to the vans, (Y/n) let go of Daredevil, controlling his fall and helping him land just beside a guard so he could knock them out.

He heard her swoop down and take a second guard out, but something was up. None of the prisoners were trying to make a break for it, none of them were crying, not even breaking a sweat.

Just as it clicked, each ‘prisoner’ grabbed the secondary weapon from the holsters of the person restraining them, and began firing at the vigilantes.

Daredevil leapt towards (Y/n), narrowly dodging the gunfire and ducking behind one of the large, metal containers with her safely in his arms.

“Son of a bitch, they knew we’d come!” she shouted over the gunfire.

“Can’t you freeze them in place?” he yelled back, the sounds of their approaching footsteps forced him to pull her further into the mini maze of containers.

“Not a group this big, I can only get a couple of them!”

“That’ll have to do!” With that, he leapt out from their hiding spot, fighting off a goon who was attempting to sneak up on them.

(Y/n) flew into the air, one arm shielding her from the bullets while the other froze the guards furthest from her partner. Daredevil made quick work of them, bouncing back and forth between the guards she had been unable to get ahold of.

She decided to let her guard down and use her free hand to pull the weapons from the guards Daredevil was trying to take down, ensuring none would be able to land a blow or fire at him while his back was turned.

Matt heard the gunshot before he heard the sniper that had been waiting patiently on the yacht. He then heard the bullet plow through her left shoulder.

It wasn’t deadly, but it was enough to make her lose her concentration and fall onto one of the containers. The newly freed guards, though clearly winded, raised their weapons, forcing Daredevil to focus on them rather than run to his partner’s aid.

It took a moment for the pain to set in, especially from all the adrenaline. Once it did, (Y/n) yelped and whimpered, reaching up and poking her fingers through the wound. Matt heard her squeal as she yanked out the bullet, a small metallic clatter following suit.

(Y/n) slowly sat up, breathing hard as she stared at the glint of the marksman scope on the balcony of the vessel. 

“No, get down!” Daredevil barked at her. He shoved the last of the goons to the ground and tried to make a move to get to her.

But it was too late.

He heard the sniper scream as he was flung off the boat and into the freezing waters of the Hudson.

(Y/n) slowly got up, her arms outstretched towards the yacht.

Her arms shook as she slowly levitated into the air, ignoring Daredevil’s calls for her to stop.

Grinding metal, screeching wires, and busting pipes engulfed his hearing. He turned to the ship, his radar allowing him to see the work she was doing.

With a howl that was a mix of sheer anger and pain, (Y/n) split the ship in two, sending the halves sinking into the river.

“Holy shit...” Matt breathed, slowly turning his head back in (Y/n)’s direction in time so hear her fall back onto the shipping container.

He hoisted himself up, kneeling beside her and pressing his hand to her wound. He ignored her groans of pain, instead telling her they needed to get her treated.

“No hospitals...” she grunted, “can... do it myself...”

She gasped as Daredevil lifted her into his arms. He jumped onto the ground and held her tighter once he heard the police approaching.

“We won’t get far like this...” he panted.

“Just hide us... I’ll take care of it.” she groaned. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but still attempted to give him a reassuring look as he ran into an open shipping container.

Matt leaned her up against a crate, sitting beside her. She sounded like she just ran a marathon, he could hear her head lulling back and forth. “You sure you can do this?”

Before she could answer, the breaks of the numerous police cars squealed to a halt. They listened as the officers began handcuffing baddies and searching the area for any stragglers. 

One approached the open container.

(Y/n) grabbed Daredevil’s hand, giving it a small squeeze. She slowly raised her hand in front of them, shutting her eyes and focusing on the officer about to find them.

Matt swore she was looking right at them. But she turned and left.

The duo gave a collective sigh of relief and (Y/n) opted to rest her head against his shoulder.

“I think we better call it a night...”

“Took the words right outta my mouth, D...”

[randomnessunicorn-imagine]

Love letters + AOS Scotty? Where s/o keeps finding sappy anonymous letters for her and Scotty eventually confessed that they’re from him?

{ I laughed writing it, it was funny,lol!

Leave a like or reblog if you like mywriting, that would make me so glad! }

Everyone can still asks for Prompts:

>>Fluff Bingo Prompts

💌 SCOTTY 💌

“My shirt is red.

Spock’s is blue

But the most beautiful woman in thegalaxy is always you.”

Perhaps this was not the most romanticpoem you ever read, and maybe this could not even be considered as a real poembut it was hilarious. You were smiling like an idiot in your quarters, sittingon your bed as you read the letter you found under your door.

For about two weeks you were receivingmysterious letters from a secret admirer, it seemed a silly joke, maybe someonejust wanted to play with you, you were curious, you wanted to know who the mysteriouspoet was and congratulate him on his originality.

The only thing you knew about him nowwas that he was a red shirt but this information was not a very useful cluesince the red shirts on this ship were hundreds. You did not know every singleofficer or ensign, you were just a nurse and you worked with McCoy. Working inthe sickbay did not give you the chance to visit other places on the ship, youcould not even investigate the mysterious poet because the patients and thediseases to cure were always so many and the job never ended.

The doctor often made fun on you in his cynical but affectionate way and your secret admirer became one of the maingossip topics of the infirmary. The doctor always got the biggest laughs.

Another working day came and McCoy andyou were discussing about it, you were talking to him about the new letter youfound under your door yesterday. He was as curious as an old gossipy.

“Then? Did you get any new letters from your mysterious Casanova, Y / N?” Leonard asked.

“Yes, a pretty odd poem this time,Doctor.” You said, sighing.

“It couldn’t be more terrible than thatone where he compared your eyes to a dilithium crystal.” the doctor saidsarcastically and he rolled his eyes thinking about that sad poetry.

“Well, listen to his new poem: ‘Myshirt is red. Spock’s is blue. But the most beautiful woman in the galaxy isalways you’” You recited the poem you received the day before and thedoctor held his laughs.

“Hey, I also wear a blue shirt,that guy sympathises with that Vulcan. I feel offended.” Leonard saidironically, “At least he said you’re beautiful.” Leonard said, thinking thatmaybe your secret admirer should have limited to say these simple sentencesinstead of pretending to be a real poet.

“Ah, anyway I don’t understand ifhe jokes or if he’s serious, it’s absurd!” You said, chuckling.

“This man certainly is not boring: sympathy is a precious quality nowadays. Keep it in mind!” The doctor said and hedefined himself as the funniest man of the universe, in his cynical way, but he was always the lifeof the party.

“Now I know he wears a red shirt sohe can be an engineer or a security man.” You explained.

“This is not a big clue, becausethe red t-shirts are not really rare.” He said while he was cleaning uphis medical tools.

“Yes I know. It’s hard to find itout, however, I’m very curious.” You said, sighing.

“Can’t it be a joke? Would you bedisappointed if it was?” The doctor asked in a friendly tone, he was still yourfriend and he did not want you to be sad or with a broken heart.

“Well, I don’t know. It’s possible,I don’t want to delude myself and I’m ready for this possibility. I’m an adultand not a little girl so I’ll deal with it. But it could be also a person who doesn’t know a lotabout poetry. His intentions seem sincere.” You said.

“If you have a good feeling thenthat mysterious admirer could also be the man in your life.” The doctor supposed,shrugging.

“Who knows.” You said dreamily.

*

*

The mystery would not last long becauseyour mysterious admirer was about to show up at your door, namely MontgomeryScott, the chief engineer.

He was tired of hiding himself, of admiringyou from afar and dreaming. He could not stand it anymore, being a secretadmirer was stressful and he would prefer to talk to you than continue withthis stupid game. Scotty was no longer a kid and so he had to declare himselfas real men did, but it had been fun, this was something he had never donebefore. Then he realized he was exaggerating, he had to be serious and declarehis feelings to you in a more normal way.

He counted to five and then he asked tocome in, you had returned to your quarters a few minutes ago and you were not waiting for anyone.

“Come in.” You said and thenScotty appeared.

“Hi, Y / N, do I disturb you?”He asked, speaking seriously.

“No, not at all.” Youanswered, smiling graciously.

Then Scotty stopped to observe yoursmile, forgetting the reason he came here.

“Mr. Scotty? Are you okay?” You askedhim, he came back into reality.

“Yes, I’m fine and you? I wanted totalk to you! “He said, smiling nervously.

“I’m glad you’re fine, usuallypeople who talk to me feel never fine. But this is not the infirmary.” Yousaid jokingly. You noticed his nervousness and you wanted to break the ice.

“Oh, I see you’ve learnt a lot ofhumour from McCoy. But it seems hard to be a nurse.” He asked.

“It’s tough but interesting. Whatdid you want to talk to me about?” You asked and some ideas were whirling inyour mind.

This was the exact hour of the day whereyou received a letter from your mysterious poet. Today you have not receivedany letter yet. Scotty showed up here at about the same time and maybe thesetwo things had something in common.

“Well, yes … It’s very difficultand I don’t want you to think I’m a weirdo, an idiot or a maniac. I’m none ofthis … But I have to confess that…” Scotty took a deep breath.

“Are you my secret admirer then?” You said before he could talk.

Scotty smiled shyly, “You understoodthat, wow. Are you a Detective?” He told, chuckling.

“Elementary Watson. I felt it, sois it true?” You asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, you got it… It’sembarrassing.” He said, scratching his head, “I’m not a kid any morebut it seemed fun, I hope you didn’t find it too weird.”

“No, it was fun actually, anexperience I’ve never done. But I’m not angry, I was pleased in a way even if…” you said thinking about how to explain it.

“Even if my poems were disgusting?Seriously, they were really bad!” He said fully ashamed.

"No, not that bad. You’re originaland amusing.” You said, nodding and maybe you did not want to ruin this momentand Scotty was a nice guy, you would have never imagined he could be yoursecret admired. It was a great surprise.

"I’m an engineer and not a poet, butat least you think it’s fun.” he said, smiling amused.

“Sympathy is a precious quality nowadaysbut we can talk about it in front of a coffee if you like.” You proposed, speaking like the Doctor. Yes, you were very influenced by him but in a positive way and then Scotty smiled happily.

“Yes, I think it’s a good idea. Butlet me offer, you found out my secret and be the first to ask for a date. Let’ssettle the score. ” He said, very determined to conquer your heart andwithout using his bad poetries this time.

[injoonies-aliens]

Student!Mark

The party hard senior who was still true to himself and his friends

He was so ready for the real world, but still made sure he was in tune with where he came from.

Always made sure his younger friends had someone to go to for advice on their years to come in hell highschool

Doesn't openly show affection towards his friends because they're in younger grades (at least in public)

Still makes sure they're comfortable and knows they're wanted around...even if it's just to hang out in the Senior parking lot and brag to all the other under classmen

Doesn't mind being looked up to as a role model because it makes him rethink everything he does and how it would look to his friends

An overly fatherly figure sometimes

He tells one of them to go home and finish homework before coming to hang out

Yet he still hangs loose and let's the boys drive his baby car for the monthly road trip they take together

Makes sure they all are okay at all times and they're not hurt

Still does the head count in secret and has a mini heart attack when Hyuck runs to the bathroom without saying anything

"A music video?" Mark asked, just to make sure he didn't misunderstand.

The boys had hopeful gleams in their eyes and a pleading expression across their faces.

"Yeah okay sure," Mark said and they got ready to celebrate.

"over my dead body." Mark slammed his locker closed and they all groaned -- drawing attention from other seniors walking down the Senior Hallway.

"Oh come on. We're only going to the train tracks to shoot one scene. And then you can drop us off at home and go on your way and go to your old man job or something." Hyuck waved off the last part.

"No! The train tracks?! Get out of here!" Mark said and they all bummed out.

Mark began walking away but came back to justify something.

"And making floral arrangements at the flower shop is not an old man job! It's art!" Mark said to Hyuck's face and stomped away.

"Yeah, for women in their 70's!" Hyuck screamed one last attack.

~~~~~~~~

"One scene. 20 minutes. Then you're all going home." Mark said as he walked by the lunch table filled with his friends.

"I got a date tonight." Mark wiggled his eyebrows.

All the boys slapped him on the back except one;

"So I guess Grandma Edith from the flower boutique finally returned your calls?"

Everyone snapped their heads to Hyuck who sat their sassily with his chin resting in his palm.

Mark cocked an eyebrow, "what did you say?"

"He said he wishes you luck and we'll see you at 8." Renjun said as he got up and dragged Hyuck out of the Cafeteria by the ear.

"And now a speech from an Honor Graduate: Mark Lee." The principal introduced

The crowd was quiet except for the 6 other boys sitting in the crowd that were being too loud.

"I KNOW THAT GUY!!"

"HE'S MY BEST FRIEND!"

"GET OFF THE STAGE!"

"DON'T FORGET US MAN!"

Mark motioned for them to shut up, and everyone chuckled at his actions.

"Friends, faculty, families, and everyone else who is present today: Welcome. Welcome to the last day of this chapter, but the beginning of anew." Mark read and everyone smiled and were waiting for the intelligent man to continue.

"Ya know...I never thought I would be standing on this stage giving this speech. I didn't even think I would finish highschool at some points." Mark admitted

"But I can thank today to my teachers, family, and most importantly my friends." Mark said motioning to the different mentioned people.

"Yes, the group of boys who decided it upon themselves to make themselves known before I could even begin talking...those boys." Everyone chuckled.

Hyuck, Renjun, and Jaemin held up hearts while Jisung tried to hide himself from the attention.

"Now you're probably thinking: Mark...why are you friends with under classmen?? You're a senior...right??" Mark said and some actually wanted to know why.

"Well...at some times I wonder that too...but then I realise that I would be lost without them." The boys perked up, hearing Mark finally talk about how much they mean to him.

"They found me and leeched onto me when I couldn't find myself. I was cutting class, skipping school in general, and getting in fights...I'm not proud of it...but I'm proud of myself for admitting it; because their are some people who want to bury their high school life so deep inside their memories that they can't remember things even if they wanted to."

"...they lose themselves more..."

"But I found myself again...thanks to those 6 dorks sitting right over there." Mark chuckled, and everyone could see the gloss in his eyes.

"They taught me that I need to look after them...but also myself." Mark cleared his throat.

"They taught me patience, leniency, and discipline." Mark counted on his fingers.

"I went from letting them drive around with me at 2 in the morning to not letting them get near my car without getting their homework done."

"And I realized how much I rubbed off on them...but much more how they rubbed off on me."

"Because I sometimes forget that I am an 18 year old in highschool and not a 28 year old dad." Mark scratched his neck as everyone laughed.

"But sometimes we need to come from a rougher past to set out on a steadier future." He got more serious.

"Nothing will be easy in life. Not even pumping gas, have you seen those prices?!" Everyone laughed again.

"No but really. I'm not promising an easy future for any of us." Mark was talking in a room full of a people, but made eye contact with his closest friends.

"We're all going to a hit a bump in the road that we were never prepared for...but we need to strap in and understand that these 18 years is what have prepared us for those types of things."

"From cramming for Mr. Kim's bio test an hour before, to cramming a stock write up to have it on your boss' desk in 20 minutes...everything shifts."

"But we adapt, overcome, and conquer these battles...for there are people around you to help you when you feel like you can't get up again."

Hyuck quickly wipes a tear as he blames it on allergies.

Hyuck: "That damn pollen."

Renjun: "...this is a winter graduation..."

"There's someone just a shout away..."

"...just don't forget the way I called you. Because I hope it always stays like this..."

Applause erupted as Mark took his seat again.

~~~~~~~~~

"Mark Lee. Attending Seoul National University in their English Language and Literature Department."

The 6 groups of boys start crying together.

Mark was supposed to be studying in the States...but this was unlike anything they could've asked for.

They got on their feet and cheered as loud as they could for their friend walking across the stage.

"Well I guess this it." Chenle said as he closed Mark's trunk.

"Dude...I'm moving closer to all of you." Mark rolled his eyes as he made sure it was fully closed.

"Can you not let me have one moment?!" Chenle argued and Mark couldn't help messing up the younger boys hair.

"I'm gonna miss seeing you guys crowding around my locker." Mark pinched Jeno's cheek.

"Then I guess we'll crowd your apartment till you get home..." Hyuck shrugged.

"You leave us with no choice." Jaemin added on and everyone played along.

"Haha. No. Didn't say that." Mark laughed as he put a hat on his head.

"So what's your roommate's name?" Jisung asked and Mark shrugged.

"Wong Yukhei, but I've been texting him and he goes by Lucas." Mark fixes his hat in the window of his car.

"Seems...fishy." Renjun raised is eyebrows.

"No. No conspiracies. He's my age, he's from Hong Kong and he's in the physical fitness department. He's a regular boy." Mark cut Renjun off.

"...that's what the government wants you to think..."

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

Mark rolled his eyes and looked at his friends.

"I'm not replacing you guys, if that's what you think." He said and they stayed silent as they looked at each other.

"I'm still gonna drive you guys everywhere and boss you guys around to do homework. Makes sure Renjun flosses near his braces. Makes sure Jeno wears a mask around his cats. Make sure Hyuck never stays up too late. Makes sure Chenle never loses his awesome laugh. Makes sure Jisung stays the same mochi mouse he is now."

The boys started looking up on the situation.

"I'm here guys." Mark said and they all attacked him in a sudden hug.

"And I'm not going anywhere."