#Forceful Intervention AU

[mwolf0epsilon]

After a conversation with @gaeasun I have decided to incorporate Tup's chip being a nuisance well before his deployment in more ways than the occasional migraine, into the overall story of the FIAU.

By this I mean, even as a cadet random orders would fire off occasionally, but not to the extent where they completely overwrote whatever he was doing or his personality. Rather, he would sometimes just go nonverbal (Order 6), stop listening to his trainers in favour of someone else that seemed like they knew what they were doing (Orders 4, 5 and 65), snitched on his fellow troopers for the most minor things (Order 37), and other such oddities that seemed a little out of character for him compared to his usual friendly and helpful disposition.

You'd think this would have raised suspicion that something might be off with Tup early on, but this is where the second part of the headcanon gets a little more tragic: No one ever suspected a thing because Dogma went out of his way to overcompensate his own behavior (acting incredibly strict and very persnickety to the point where it got extremely annoying) to keep attentions off of his brother.

Over-time acting this way just became natural to Dogma (because he did it so much and he also took a little pride in being a good exemplary soldier) who's loyalty towards Tup and Perfect Soldier™ act certainly helped to divert people's dislike/ire towards his "infuriating boot-licking" ways. He wasn't one to really care for big crowds anyway. He was content having a friend in Tup rather than please the masses.

To rub further salt in the wound, after Umbara it becomes very obvious to Tup how much Dogma used to cover for him. He hadn't ever realized his bouts of migranes and "quirkiness" were so troublesome until he found himself having to hide it all by himself...

It certainly puts into perspective how much he took Dogma's dedication for granted.

[bcolfanfic]

if i make young vets au croz a little morally grey are you all going to beat me to death or can i sit inside his head in a way that’s nuanced and creates interesting group dynamics (:

[marshmellowtea]

not to be on my bullshit again but currently i am entertaining the thought of "incompetent egotistical businessman who think he's hot shit" ron x "younger assistant with a crush who's actually been carrying him the entire time they've been working together" henry

[kingonews]

CRISE POLITIQUE NIGERIENNE: LA DIRECTION MILITAIRE DE LA CEDEAO ÉCARTE LE RECOURS À LA FORCE.

La direction militaire de la CEDEAO a exclu le recours à la force contre le Niger, selon un communiqué des ministres de la Défense de l’organisation régionale. A  cet effet, la CEDEAO a décidé d’augmenter la pression des sanctions pour forcer les rebelles à libérer le président nigérian Mohamed Bazoum au lieu de recourir à une intervention militaire.   Ce mercredi, alors qu’une délégation de la…

[opencommunion]

"The Congo’s strategic location in the middle of Africa and its fabulous natural endowment of minerals and other resources have since 1884 ensured that it would serve as a theatre for the playing out of the economic and strategic interests of outsiders: the colonial powers during the scramble for Africa; the superpowers during the Cold War; and neighbouring African states in the post-Cold War era. To prevent a direct confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Security Council deployed from 1960 to 1964 what was then the largest and most ambitious operation ever undertaken by the UN, with nearly 20,000 troops at its peak strength plus a large contingent of civilian personnel for nation-building tasks.

This latter aspect of the Opération des Nations unies au Congo (ONUC) was a function of the fragile political revolution ... The Congo won its independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960. Patrice Lumumba’s MNC-L and its coalition of radical nationalist parties had captured a majority of seats in the lower house of parliament in the pre-independence elections in May. Lumumba became prime minister and head of government, while the Abako leader Joseph Kasa-Vubu became the ceremonial head of state. The victory of a militantly nationalist leader with a strong national constituency was viewed as a major impediment to the Belgian neocolonialist strategy and a threat to the global interests of the Western alliance.

Within two weeks of the proclamation of independence, Prime Minister Lumumba was faced with both a nationwide mutiny by the army and a secessionist movement in the province of Katanga bankrolled by Western mining interests. Both revolts were instigated by the Belgians, who also intervened militarily on 10 July, a day before the Katanga secession was announced. In the hopes of obtaining the evacuation of Belgian troops and white mercenaries, and thus ending the Katanga secession, Lumumba made a successful appeal to the UN Security Council to send a UN peacekeeping force to the Congo. However, the UN secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjöld, interpreted the UN mandate in accordance with Western neocolonialist interests and the US Cold War imperative of preventing Soviet expansion in the Third World. This led to a bitter dispute between Lumumba and Hammarskjöld, which resulted in the US- and Belgian-led initiative to assassinate the first and democratically elected prime minister of the Congo.

... Brussels’ failure to prevent a radical nationalist such as Lumumba from becoming prime minister created a crisis for the imperialist countries, which were determined to have a decolonization favourable to their economic and strategic interests with the help of more conservative African leaders. With Belgium’s failure to transfer power in an orderly fashion to a well-groomed moderate leadership group that could be expected to advance Western interests in Central and Southern Africa, the crisis of decolonization in the Congo required US and UN interventions. Working hand in hand, Washington, New York and Brussels succeeded in eliminating Lumumba and his radical followers from the political scene."

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People's History, 2002

[admiral-mason]

SAGAU x Forest Island

Based on this ask from @floofeh-purpi

This is Impostor AU again because why tf not lmfao

Reader is Gender Neutral

Warning: Violence, cult behavior, huntings

Ft. Yun Jin

Your ass can't be any more tired right now.

Ever since you were brought into Teyvat, you have been continuously hunted for "defiling Their Grace" or something. It started with Mondstadt- Jean personally sent all of the Knights of Favonius after you, forcing you to escape by hiding in Wolvendom.

Thankfully, reprisal came in the form of Razor, who didn't understand why he should be killing a random human that looked like a god. All the wolves near you also refused to attack you, and Razor treated you as if you were a Lupical.

Unfortunately, the Knights drove you out of Mondstadt, and you wouldn't have escaped if it weren't for a glowing yellow diamond you just happened to trip over.

Wait a minute is this Energy from Forest Island-

"You have nowhere to run, filth. By my sword, and in the will of Their Grace, I will strike you down-" Jean said before the diamond suddenly lifted itself up into the air and attacked Jean in the eyes, blinding her.

Suddenly, more of the same diamonds fell from the sky, attacking the other Knights and repeating what happened to Jean. This granted you enough time to escape from Mondstadt.

It didn't take long to confirm that the diamonds originated from Forest Island, an idle game you played in your pastimes alongside Genshin Impact. You obtained further confirmation when red heart icons suddenly appeared over local animals, whose affection for you grew tenfold.

These hearts regenerated stamina and helped foraged berries and fruits taste better, perfect boosts for a journey to Liyue...

...And suffer the exact same treatment. You'd be screwed right now if it weren't for energy diamonds blinding the absolute fuck out of your assailants with mere milliseconds to spare.

Then there's Yun Jin, who recognized you as the Creator, albeit with a weakened divine aura and in turn indistinguishable from an actual fraud with malicious intent. Even better, she actually tried treating you like a human, and within the short time you stayed with her, she got close to all sorts of wild animals that normally ran from humans.

"Oh, they're all so adorable, [Name]! Although I am an opera performer, never have I been given such treatment from animals before!"

Her family's great too! Although, with the amount of harassment the Yun-Han Opera Troupe gradually received for harboring an Impostor, you eventually decided to depart with a slightly tearful Yun Jin while reassuring her that you'll be back one day.

You head Inazuma, the same Impostor shit happens.

You trek on to Sumeru, and the same thing occurs!

Eventually, you just give up on all the nations, with everyone attacking you. So instead, you relegate yourself to an obscure beachhead, likely surviving on a crude fishing rod.

Sighing, you cast your rod into the waters, hoping to catch a fish to eat...

...Wait, why is the ground rumbling beneath you? And why is it intensifying?!

Suddenly, an absolutely huge-ass island slowly rose from the waters in the distance, and many diamonds fell from the sky, populating it with what appeared to be animals and fauna.

That finally solidified that indeed, your favorite pastime idle game decided to perform divine intervention that this world wouldn't give.

...Wait a minute- you get to live a cottagecore life without studying and taxes and shit!! Whoo!!!

General Headcanons

A green sea turtle helped you get to the island, offering to carry you on its back.

Immediately, all the animals left their respective areas and tackled you to the ground in their displays of affection. Thankfully, you weren't injured.

They all love you very differently; rabbits and foxes snuggle in your lap and nibble on the apples you feed them, while wolves and bears parade you on their backs and let you sleep with them during the night.

Ducks enjoy it when you sit near their pond's edge and pat their heads. Frogs just sit on their lily pads and croak happily at your presence.

Speaking of the night, all you need to sleep is a blanket on the floor! With a little energy from the island, you never feel too hot or cold.

You cleanse nature as a part of your new day to day cottagecore chores, and oftentimes the waste can be reused for cooking!

Sea turtles like lazing around with you on the beach. Sometimes, you'll even get sucked into the one indefinite whirlpool on the beach with them and feel the rush of a brief flight before landing on the mind-numbingly soft sand that somehow cushioned your fall.

Does and bucks like to scale and descend the island at running speed with you on their back. When they're not running, you lay up on them and they nuzzle you as you nap.

Alpacas and sheep shed their excess wool, allowing you to pick up other hobbies such as knitting and quilting, activities you would otherwise have lacked time back on Earth.

Raccoons play around with you, and they sometimes steal your food. Which is now effectively vegetarian although tasty thanks to the energy on the island. Other times, any leftovers you have go directly to them, effectively making them garbage disposal.

You climb trees while a gorilla carries you in its arms. Most would likely panic by now, but with the tight yet never harmful grip on you, you're reassured of your safety on this island.

Other fun things you do with the animals are swimming with dolphins, birdwatching, and stargazing with everyone at night.

Overall, a very nice time! And then one day, a ship from Teyvat appears in the distance.

They get blinded by island energy as usual, but they manage to get away...

...Oh boy.

Now, you have people and vision wielders on ships attempting to reach your island. However, it appears that the island recognizes what you suffered through.

Now, island energy does not just blind them- it actively forms literal yellow rods from god that tear away at the wooden ships.

Among the unwelcome figures, one welcome one stood out to you the most:

It was Yun Jin! She yelled and rapidly waved at you with a radiant smile, to which you promptly scaled down the island onto its beach and responded with your own massive wave.

Then, you noticed that the same green sea turtle that approached you that day performed the same action with her instead of you. It beckoned her to get on, and she did so hesitantly.

Once her little trip was over, she gracefully stepped down from the turtle before rushing to you to give you a gentle hug.

"I missed you, [Name]! I never thought I'd find you here of all places but I guess the commotion was right!"

And you quickly introduce her to the island's residents, who treat her with the same respect as you.

She decides to stay a while and you help her write a letter to her family, and an albatross volunteers to fly the letter to Liyue.

It's a peaceful life on the island, with Yun Jin constantly obtaining new ideas for opera and living a very domestic life. No need to worry about anyone you dislike either- the island is very protective over you and its inhabitants.

@floofeh-purpi Alright I finally answered your ask lmfao

[facioleeknow]

Dive ° Hwang Hyunjin

After spending years at sea, you thought you had seen everything until one day you saw something that wasn't supposed to exist. And so your life was changed completely.

Genre: Pirate AU, Mermaid AU, fluff, smut 18+ ONLY minors DNI

WC: 3k +

Warnings: pirate captain! reader, pirate! itzy, mermaid/merman! Hyunjin, fighting, weapons and guns, kissing, drowning, dry humping, violence, badass women, monster x human, attempted kidnapping, threatening, let me know if I missed anything

A/N: Inspired by the fantastic work of @skzms . Banner by @strangergraphics .

First meeting

The ship swayed to the rhythm of the ocean, gently and elegantly. The crisp night air filled your lungs and refreshed your spirit.

‘You are going to regret leaving everything here, young lady,’ your mother's words echoed in your head. Since you had run away from home to live at sea, every day had felt like a dream. The thrill of the rush, the unknown, those were all things that you loved and hoped you could experience for a long, long time. Until the ocean had decided your time had come.

A flash of light blinked in the corner of your eyes. You swiftly turned and then gasped at the sight. The vice grip of your fingers on the banister made the wood creak and whine. 

A mermaid, or merman, they were so ethereal you couldn't really tell, was taking a peek at you from behind a rock. His jet black eyes and hair and shiny fish-like skin drew you in. Your body pressed against the wooden railing. Your lungs burned and begged for a breath of fresh air, but you just couldn't, you couldn't breathe, you couldn't move, you couldn't speak.

A little pinching pain, little pins prickling, broke the eye contact and the magic between you. A tiny wooden splinter had pierced your skin and a little droplet of blood dripped down your finger and onto the deck of your precious ship.

When you raised your head back again to catch another glimpse at the inhabitant of the sea, they were gone without noise, just like they appeared.

Hyunjin had never seen such a creature before. Human, he believed they are called. He had almost thought that his friend Seungmin had lied to him, he was known for causing a little mischief, but he hadn’t and you were the tangible evidence. Humans, if that was actually their name, were strange; no fins, no tail, no scales, no gills and they had hair! on their arms, not only on their heads!

Strange, strange creatures, but still, when he had laid eyes on you, he had thought he had never seen a more beautiful being. His heart beat fast against his ribs as he swam to the seabed, his home. Did humans have luring ability like mermaids and sirens? Because if so, he was sure you had used his powers on him. Why else would he feel so attracted to you?

The intervention

“Are you sure we must leave now?” 

The storm blew strong all around you. The sky looked sad and angry, the palm trees whipped around and snapped under the enormous force of the wind. The howling was so intense and strong that your crew could barely hear your words. 

“Yes, it will only get worse. See the clouds up there?” Lia, your navigator, pointed at the right corner of the sky, to you it looked as bad as the rest of the sky but you were sure she was seeing something.

“We should wait it out! We can stay on the island,” Chae, another member of your crew, screamed over the overbearing noise.

“No, we can’t, we’ll be stuck here for days and the marines are too near. Besides, I’m pretty sure that in the open sea it won’t be as bad,” Lia barked back. Judging by her tone, there was no arguing with her, not this time. Chae glared at her, but deep down knew what she was suggesting was the best option; highly dangerous but the best. 

“Stop it, both of you. Gather your things and load them into the boats, it’s an order from your captain,” you tried to sound as stern as possible. Fighting with your girls wasn’t something that you enjoyed, and you were sure that they didn’t enjoy it either, but you knew what a captain had to do and you wouldn't have stepped up if you weren’t ready for the hardships. Chae and Lia immediately quieted down, Yuna and Ryujin had stayed silent through it all.You turned to your second in command, Yeji. 

“You get one of the boats, I get the other one. We gotta be as quick as possible.” Yeji just nodded and ran towards one of the lifeboats where two of the crew were.Once the small boats were out of sand and into the water, everybody got in except you and Yeji who still had some heavy work to do, to prevent the boats from getting stuck into the wet sand. The waves were high, higher than you had anticipated, and strong; so strong you had to hold onto the boats for dear life. 

“Yeji, get into the boat, I’ll do the final push by myself.”

“But-” Yeji tried to argue, you had never seen her that worried.

“This is an order from your captain, remember that you are the second in command so your first thought should always be the crew.” You could see her battle against her sense of authority, you were her captain but also her friend; instead of talking back like Ryujin or Chae would’ve done she pursed her lips and gripped your hand tightly, and then jumped on the boat.

The waves stood tall and angry in front of you, the sea looked like a stranger: gray and white unlike the usual blue, sparkly water. 

“Captain, please, get on the boat,” Yuna the youngest member of your crew pleaded. 

“Yuna, you know that if I stop pushing the boats right now, we’ll only be overwhelmed by the waves. Look ahead.”

After pushing the two small boats full of people for what seemed like forever, you stopped. The water lapped at your chest, the boat would have had no problem continuing on to your ship. A sudden colossal wave towered over you and you barely had the time to look Yeji in the eyes before it overwhelmed you. 

Air came out of your lungs at a concerning speed, a mixture of sand and foam made seeing where you were going an impossible feat. Your eyes started to feel heavier and heavier until you blacked out. 

When you came to, you were on one of the small boats with your crew, at the corner of your eyes you saw a glimmer of fish scales and dark hair. Drifting in and out of consciousness, you didn’t even realize when the girls dragged you on the ship, The Pearl, and then to your cabin. Behind your eyelids you could still see the pearly light blue scales of your saviour.

Hyunjin was worried. Seungmin had told him that humans couldn’t breathe underwater, it didn’t make sense for you and your other humans to go near the sea when it was this angry and swollen. He could see you talking, almost fighting with your friends and then pushing the small boats by yourself. He knew you had no hope of succeeding, not when his house looked menacing even to him. He dived. When he got underwater, you had already been taken by the currents. Hyunjin swam as fast and as hard as he could, until his fingertips could grace your skin and his hands could close against your limbs. When he came in contact with your skin, he felt his body tingle, a sensation of warmth and safety spread through him. 

He clutched you to his chest and hoped you hadn’t been in the water for too long. He was fast, one of the fastest inhabitants of the ocean, so reaching the little boat and depositing you there without being seen was a very easy task. He watched and watched until he saw you open your eyes and sputter out an alarming amount of water. You were alive. 

He dived again and swam straight down with a precise location in mind.

“Seungmin, teach me the human language.”

First words

“Let’s dock here for the night, I don’t want to steer too far from the route we decided on,” your navigator was strict when it came to following the agreed path, so no one had the guts to protest, even if it set you back a few hours. 

“There are a few rocks there, we should drop the anchor. We're not too close to the shore, they won't see us,” Ryujin grumbled, already with a rope in her hands, ready to tie up the sails. 

“So, there’s something else on your mind besides your swords,” Chae giggled, mocking her friend. Ryujin scoffed but looked at Chae with an amused glint in her eyes.You just watched from afar; those girls had gone through hell, the sea had strengthened them in the worst way possible. But here they were still joking around with each other.

Once the Pearl was settled, in the distance between the rocks you saw the familiar glimmer of scales.

Everytime he laid his eyes on you Hyunjin had felt like his breath was stuck in his lungs, like that one time when one triton had messed with his gills. He watched you descend from the ship and onto the slippery rocks he laid his torso on. 

“I won’t hurt you,” you whispered sweetly. He was now glad that he had pestered Seungmin to learn the human language, he could understand you and he could hear your voice up close. He felt like he was in a land of dreams. 

“I…am …Hyunjin,” the language felt weird in his mouth but when he talked your eyes lit up so prettily that he didn’t care how unharmonious it sounded.

“I’m Y/N. Hyunjin is a nice name.”

His name on your tongue tasted like honey  and milk and sounded even more luscious. He was glad he went to the dry world because he was curious. Now he had discovered his own treasure.

Roles reversed

Being on an island full of pirates was never something any of your crew enjoyed, and when said island was full of slimy disgusting men it was even worse. The way they looked at the waitresses at the inn, the way they talked about them when they thought they weren't listening, it made bile rise to your mouth. Unfortunately everybody needed supplies for the journey and pirate islands were the safest since there weren't any navy posts. 

Chae and Ryujin appeared from behind a bush and on the shore, you had instructed everyone to sneak around. A woman, even an armed one, was never safe in the company of men. They were scowling.

“I see I'm not the only one this island has put in a bad mood,” you half joked. 

“Let's just go,” Chae, not one to usually talk back to her captain, murmured. Oh she was definitely in a bad mood. 

Getting all of the supplies into the small boats was easy, but there was this urgency that nobody could shake off. Everybody knew what happened to most women pirates. Just as you were about to push your only means of transport to your ship off the shore, something caught your attention. A voice, male one and judging by the tone it wasn't anything good.

“This one is worth a lot of money, John, I tell you.”

“I thought mermaids were extinct.”

“Apparently not.” The men laughed like one of them had said the funniest joke ever heard on planet earth. 

At the word mermaid, your head shot up. It couldn't have been, but what if it was?

“Yeji, Ryujin, come with me. Chae stay with others.”

Chae straightened her posture and grabbed her sword while the other two were at your side in mere seconds. You dived into the bush again, the element of surprise was always a good thing and assessing the situation and surroundings was a must when you got into a fight with a pirate. The men weren't far from you, it only took a few steps. 

Your fingers tightened around your pistol; Hyunjin laid on the ground, bound and scared. 

“Fuck,” you whispered. With just a few gestures you instructed your women on what to do, you had done plenty of ambushes. The darkness was a pleasant advantage, a way of Mother Nature of saying ‘I'm on your side, child’. It all happened in a second and by the time the man closest to you had noticed you, Ryujin’s blade was already uncomfortably close to his throat. His mate’s hands shot to his pistols but he froze instantly.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” Yeji came out of the darkness, rifle pointed at him. You stepped out as well and with a knife in your hand, you made your way to Hyunjin. The knots were tied poorly by clearly drunken hands and they came undone in seconds. 

“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” you exclaimed without even looking at the pirate in front of you, “ Yeji is the best sniper of the whole sea, you'd be dead before even taking out your pistol.”

When you looked up, the man gulped and visibly started shaking. He knew who you were.

“I suggest you run away now while you still have legs.” The men scrambled away from your weapons and off into town. Your eyes landed back on Hyunjin again.

“Captain..” Yeji started.

“Thank you,” Hyunjin croaked.

“Do you need help?” Your fingers wrapped around his and squeezed.

“No, I will be fine. You and your companions have my deepest gratitude.”

Exploration

Since you had saved him, Hyunjin had gotten closer to you, both physically and emotionally. He was less careful, he was starting to trust you. Maybe what his preceptor said about humans was wrong, maybe they were not all bad. Some of them were good, he was sure of it, and you were one of them. 

That day the merman had followed you everywhere, from the moment you had stepped foot on the island to when all of your companions had entered a mysterious building, leaving you to yourself. All alone. Hyunjin went back into the water and swam to the nearest creek. You had a routine every time you stayed on an island: he would follow you to ensure you were safe then you would meet at a creek or on the beach and talk for hours until you fell asleep together on the sand. 

The small pond was beautiful, the water shone and twinkled with the light of the moon. Your skin looked soft, Hyunjin wanted to wrap himself around you and lose himself until there was no him, only you.

Hyunjin looked breathtaking under the light of the moon. His scales looked iridescent and glittery. Until then you had never thought about the difference in species between you two, but in that moment under the light of the moon, you were sure that he wasn’t human. Such a beautiful creature could have only existed inside the most beautiful of dreams. 

That night was different from the others, there was a certain something that hung in the air; maybe it was the coming of the spring or maybe it was the insane beauty you were witnessing, but your skin felt hot to the touch and inside your stomach pooled different emotions that you hadn’t felt in many years. Without even realizing your clothes slipped off you body, undone by your own hands and fell to the floor. Hyunjin was staring at you, at your exposed skin; his eyes didn’t stop for an instant. 

When your feet touched the water you gasped, it was cool and refreshing but you longed to feel some other type of sensation. Like two magnets attracted to each other you and the mermaid embraced one another. You lips found his in an instant, Hyunjin was clumsy but after a mere few seconds he proved himself the fastest learner on the planet. His tongue was colder and longer than a humans, and while it danced with yours you couldn’t help but think what it would feel like on your pussy, lapping at your folds. 

After a few seconds of heavily making out, you separated, both of your breaths heavy and ragged. In the midst of the heat of your kiss, you had started to gently but rhythmically move your hips up and down. Hyunjin’s scales felt cool and smooth on your clit, a little slimy too, but you didn’t mind. It felt too good and you never wanted it to stop. 

“Oh, Hyunjin, you feel so good,” you threw your head back while you moaned. The half human took the opportunity to place a tentative kiss on your neck and when you keened and sped up your movements on his tail he placed his mouth at the base of your neck and licked a long strip of skin. 

Your clit bumped against something big and hard and Hyunjin let out a strangled moan. He had never felt like that, not even when during lonely nights he had  teased his cock through his slit. You were warm and slippery, way better than his hands, your breasts pressed against his chest. Your nipple rubbed against his.

Both of your highs fastly approached, you were strung up because of the life of a pirate and Hyunjin was very inexperienced. 

Your mingled breaths bounced off the sides of the creek. The place became hotter and hotter until both of you wailed and shook when you came to your highs.

You loosely wrapped your hands around Hyunjin and buried your face in his neck. His presence was comforting even if the water was starting to get cold. He clutched you to his chest and started humming a sweet melody.

Satisfied and loved you closed your eyes and let the siren song lull you to sleep.

Forever 

The sun shone brightly on the deck of your ship while Hyunjin laid sprawled on the damp wooden deck. He had waited for you for more hours than he could count but apparently being a captain was more demanding than he thought. 

“I am here, my love.” You laid on the floor next to him. 

“I have something for you, my little human.”

Hyunjin extended a closed fist towards you, his eyes twinkled full of expectation. Then he opened his hand. A round sparkly pearl laid in the middle of his palm, a delicate little chain wrapped around it.

“We are forever my little human.”

“Forever, my love.”

@kflixnet

[envysparkler]

au where the justice league is known and well established as Earth's official planetary defense system.  Batman was offered an invitation to join but he hissed at the idea of revealing his identity and said nope, you guys stay out of Gotham.  in return, the JL was like 'okay you can't leave Gotham then'.  for around a decade, Batman sticks to that rule, no real issues, but the JL gets bigger and bigger and it reaches a point that he knows, even with all his contingencies, he'll never be able to take them in a fight

Robin and Batman get into an argument because Robin wants to stretch his wings and Batman refuses to let him.  Robin leaves despite all of Batman's warnings and goes to NYC and cuts all contact.  a couple months later, there's a new hero who calls himself Nightwing who's on the JL.

Bruce freaks out and tries to call Dick, but Dick ignores all his calls.  Bruce ends up keeping tabs on him from afar, always worried.

fast forward to the new Robin.  this time, Bruce impresses from the beginning the importance of never leaving Gotham.  Jason agrees.  three years later, Jason leaves to Ethiopia, Batman follows, the Joker shows up.

it ends with JL intervention and a beaten Jason being taken away by Wonder Woman and the Joker taken away by the JL.  Bruce tries to infiltrate Themyscira, is caught, Diana snaps at him.  Bruce begs asks her to be able to speak to Jason.  Jason is visibly upset and doesn't want to talk to Bruce and tells him that Batman didn't save him and orders him to get out.  Bruce leaves, heartbroken.

a young boy observes a devastated Batman on the streets of Gotham and is determined to help him.  this time, Bruce impresses upon Tim the severity of the situation.  if he leaves Gotham the Justice League will get him.  Tim agrees to be very careful.  Damian shows up and for the first time in a long time, Bruce lets himself relax.

Bruce gets lost in time.  Tim has to leave Gotham to find the clues to help him, he stumbles upon the Titans who offer their help and a spot on their team.  once they find Bruce, Tim forces himself to leave with the Titans, knowing that at least Bruce and Damian will be safe.

Bruce is exhausted and hurt and upset.  he keeps losing children.

meanwhile, the JL is getting increasingly fed up about this brooding vigilante that treats his sidekicks as disposable and never once checks up on them after they leave his fold.  it's a giant miscommunication.

things come to a head when Bruce is forced to go to Metropolis to stop some alien threat or whatever.  Damian sneaks after him, despite express orders to stay, and when Bruce wakes up in a medical tent, Superman tells him that Damian is okay and he's staying with Superman's family.  Clark was not expecting Batman to go back to Gotham, stone-faced, without asking about or picking up his kid.

Bruce is heartbroken, he's lost four children and he just stays in the Cave and cries.  meanwhile Damian, with the Kents, is distressed by the abundance of people his father's warned him about.  he just wants to go home.

[evangelical04]

A Single Daffodil || 1

Summary: Getting arranged to be married to your long-time crush wasn't exactly the fairy tale romance you were hoping for. Nor is the dynamic of the marriage, with your husband treating you like you don't exist. But you're going to make this work, whether he cares about you or not. And he definitely doesn't...right?

Pairing: Min Yoongi x Reader

Rating: 18+ minors DNI

Word Count: 2.7K

Genre: angst, romance, unrequited love, smut, enemies to lovers, arranged marriage au, businessman yoongi

Warnings: parental trauma, sibling trauma, toxic parents, unrequited love, explicit language, alcohol usage, yoongi's kind of mean, future smut

Author's Note: hello! i'm Eva and this is my first fic on tumblr ever! I've been a reader for so long and I've always wanted to write my own stories, so I figured I finally would. I know it’s kind of short but I promise the other parts will be longer. Please give me any feedback you have and let me know if you'd like there to be a tag list or anything! I hope you guys like it!! p.s. I'm totally posting this instead of doing my morphology homework that's due in 15 minutes

masterlist / next

The door to your childhood home looked artificially welcoming. There were too many flowers lining the walls encasing the looming wooden door. The grass on the lawn just was a bit too green without a blade out of place and the paved walkway was freshly powerwashed and missing even a speck of dirt. You let out the deep breath you were holding and gently took hold of the overly ornate bronze knocker adorning the painted wood of the door. Two loud thuds rang out as you knocked and the door quickly opened afterwards.

“Hello, Miss Y/N, your parents have been expecting you.”

“Yes, I know. Thank you, Mrs. Oh,” you responded quietly, nodding at the grey-haired woman. She shot you a sympathetic smile before ushering you in, taking your coat and carefully laying it over her arm. After removing your shoes, you followed her past the foyer to the living room where your parents awaited. 

You knew what was coming, you knew that this had been decided long before you were born. Yet, you still felt unprepared. You had grown comfortable, living in your simple apartment in Gangnam and your quiet work routine. Biting your lip, you reprimanded yourself internally, You should’ve brought this shit up in therapy before it happened.

“Here we are, Miss Y/N,” Mrs. Oh said, snapping you out of your self-pity session. You nodded gratefully at her, sending a small smile her way. Her eyebrows wove together in her own pity-ridden expression and she quickly whispered, “Good luck,” while exiting swiftly. You steeled your nerves and forced your chin up high, knowing that you’d most likely cower inwards as soon as you faced your parents anyway.

Stepping into the room, you noted the almost intervention-like setup your parents had arranged themselves in, with your father sitting proudly in his reclining, leather armchair, clad in a dark blue quarter zip and khaki pants. Your mother stood facing the fireplace, arms crossed, in a simple and elegant turquoise dress and hair tied up in a tight and neat bun, with her baby hairs smoothed back to prevent any imperfection. You could almost imagine her pinched mouth, forever encased in a stern and unamused expression. 

“Hello father, mother,” you started, trying to smooth the slight trembling in your voice. Your mother turned around, eyes narrowing at your form, “Sit down.”

You promptly obeyed.

“Your father and I have decided on your marriage. It’ll be to the Min family, to Min Yoongi.”

“What? To him? But,” you began protesting but your mother quickly cut you off with a steely glare. 

“It has already been decided. Your wedding will be in eight months. I’ll forward you the invitation list and you can add three people of your choosing. You’ll be having dinner with us and the Min family on Friday at six. I’ll have Yujin send you an email with further details. Don’t be late.” 

You looked to your father in a desperate plea but were only met with stony silence and a passive face. You turned back to your mother and registered the composed expression painting her face. Your fate had been decided, and it had not worked in your favor at all. Rising slowly, you set your hands by your side and bowed towards your parents, “I understand. I’ll be there.”

Your mother swiftly exited the room, evidently deciding the conversation was over. You could hear her dangling earrings tinkling against each other in what felt like a mocking melody. Your father calmly produced a cigar from the table next to him and lit up, no longer acknowledging you either. You let out another slow breath and walked out. 

Collecting your coat from Mrs. Oh, who tried to give you a comforting shoulder squeeze but it felt more like condolences than anything, and made your way to your car parked in front of the gate closing off your parents’ home. 

That’s it then.

You felt eerily calm yet stressed as you started up your car and carefully reversed out, making sure to avoid hitting the carved statues your parents had in front of the iron gate. As you drove home, your mind started racing with the information you had been relayed. 

Min Yoongi as your soon-to-be-husband? What irony.

Does he even know you exist?

Will you be able to survive this?

Hand gripping the steering wheel hard, you quickly dialed the most recent number in your contact list. She answered after only two rings.

“Y/N! Are you still alive? How’d it go?”

“Hi Joohee, not great. I’m completely and totally fucked.”

Joohee chuckled on the other end of the line, “Want to come over?”

“Yes,” you breathed, “I was hoping you’d offer.”

“I’ll get the booze.”

“Min Yoongi? Now that’s ironic,” Joohee chuckled, seemingly at your expense. You shot a glare her way which she shrugged in response to.

“How long have you been crushing on him? This is, like, practically fate. Maybe this’ll be a good thing.”

You scoffed in response, “A good thing? Joohee, be serious. The last thing I want to do is get with my long-time infatuation, not crush, by forcing him to be my husband.” You took another swig of wine. It was a cheap pink Moscato, perfect for nights like these with Joohee. 

Joohee shoved a pillow in your direction in an effort to gain more room on the couch you had stuffed yourselves onto. The trash reality dating show you had on in the background was showing a rather dramatic fight but you paid it no attention, “It’s just…I haven’t talked to him in the last, what, five years? He probably doesn’t even remember me. And you’ve heard the rumors, I don’t think he’ll be exactly thrilled at giving up his playboy lifestyle just because he has to marry me.”

“What if he doesn’t give that up?”

You stared at Joohee in slight surprise, “What do you mean?”

“Like, what if he says that he doesn’t want to stop hooking up with other people? What will you do?”

Your brows furrowed as you considered the question, “I don’t know, I guess. I mean, I can’t really stop him. I guess I’d just have to live with it.”

Joohee hummed in response before continuing on, “Well, this is happening whether you like it or not. Just try to make it amicable at the least. Maybe it’ll work out, you never know. Just look at Jin oppa.”

Kim Seokjin, Joohee’s older brother and a friend of Min Yoongi’s, was arranged by Joohee’s parents to marry Song Yeonhee, and the two had seemingly fallen in love after a rocky start to their nuptials. You had seen them recently at Yeonhee’s baby shower and she had been glowing, looking unbelievably happy. You recalled the loving gaze that Seokjin had sent her during the party and the pang of envy you felt, knowing that you would likely never get to experience that. 

“Yeah, well,” you responded, “He’s an outlier. Most of these types of marriages don’t work out. I have a feeling I’m going to be a part of that group.”

“You’re too negative, you haven’t even met him for dinner yet. Maybe he’ll surprise you. You just have to give him the chance.”

You mulled over Joohee’s words and nodded, “Yeah, maybe you’re right. I guess I’ll see how Friday goes.”

You weren’t technically late. 

While you still had about 5 minutes before the dinner officially started, you weren’t early, and that was unacceptable by your mother’s standards. A mini emergency at your job had left you scrambling to leave on time, only noticing the late hour when one of your coworkers asked if they should order take-out for the team. After profusely apologizing to your team, they encouraged you to go, practically shooing you out the door, claiming they could handle the situation for now. 

Which left you barely on time to park in the lot outside the ridiculously fancy Japanese restaurant your mother’s assistant, Yujin, had sent to your email earlier that week. You quickly stepped out, smoothing out your dress that you had kept in the backseat of your car and had hastily changed into in the parking lot of your office. Tugging down the hem, you took a moment to look at your reflection in your car window and attempt to look more presentable. Your hair was slightly frizzy but nicely combed back, and you had extremely minimal makeup on from only remembering last minute this morning, and your eyes looked tired. 

You felt tired.

Shaking off your nerves, you headed inside the restaurant giving your family name to the hostess who took you back to a private room where your mother and father were waiting. Your father spared you only a cursory glance before returning his gaze to his phone and your mother looked you up and down before uttering a curt, “Hm.” You held in an eye roll and quickly sat next to them, trying to calm your heart rate for the sure-to-be exhilarating dinner ahead. At six on the dot, you spotted the same hostess leading the Min family towards your table. Your mother stood, welcoming them and urging them to sit down. You stood as well, a little less welcoming, a lot more obligated. 

Mrs. Min looked like the epitome of a rich older woman with dark black hair combed back and glittering jewels lining her ears and neck, complementing the midnight blue gown she had on. Mr. Min was dressed quite similarly to your father, in a simple suit, the only difference being his starkly greying hair providing quite the contrast to his dark blazer. Close behind them was the person you were the most anxious about meeting, Min Yoongi. His pitch-black hair complemented his slightly tanned skin nicely and his feline eyes remained straightforward and untelling. He was dressed in a simple black suit as well with an expensive-looking watch adoring his wrist. His mouth was closed tightly and he did not smile at your mother when she greeted him, not at your father when they sat down across from your family, and certainly not at you.

Your hands nervously played with each other in your lap as you took your seat again. You listened quietly as the mothers exchanged pleasantries and the fathers gruffly greeted each other. You were trying to avoid looking at Yoongi as much as possible.

“So, Y/N,” Mrs. Min started, making you startle to attention, “How old are you now?”

“Twenty-nine, ma’am.”

“Ah, so only a bit younger than Yoongi. That’s good then. How is your work?”

You felt your father stiffen next to you and prayed your discomfort didn’t show on your face, “Good. I’m in the middle of producing a new project with my team.”

“How lovely. Although I’m sure you’ll be leaving that soon after the wedding. You won’t need to work then after all,” Mrs. Min smiled at you. It was hard to read her so you couldn’t tell if she was being genuine or not, though if you had to guess, it was likely the latter. Your job was a point of contention with your family. Choosing to work in a video game production company did not go over well, and if your older brother, Kyungsoo, hadn’t been in line to inherit Seo Industries, you would’ve never been able to keep it. 

You smiled awkwardly in response to Mrs. Min and returned your gaze to the empty plate in front of you. 

As the conversation dragged on, you couldn’t help but steal a glance or two at Yoongi, who was periodically checking his phone and looking permanently bored of the conversation. Not that you could blame him. The dull talk of social circle gossip and work was beginning to get grating, and even the introduction of fancy entrees wasn’t enough to stop your stomach from feeling queasy. 

Yoongi had yet to say one word to you. To be fair, you hadn’t said anything to him either, but he had barely looked in your direction since he entered the private dining room. How exactly were you supposed to start a conversation with that? 

Soon after the desserts came out and were finished, with you politely refusing, feeling like you were going to throw up any second, Mrs. Min suddenly pushed her chair back and stood. She looked down at you and Yoongi and announced, “Well. I think we can leave them to talk on their own for a bit. Why don’t you join us for a drink at our home, Eujin-ssi?”

At the sound of her name, your mother stood, nodding, “Yes, that sounds lovely. Let’s let them get to know each other a bit more.” With that, the parents swiftly gathered their belongings and left, before you could even protest, leaving you staring open-mouthed at the exit. 

Slowly, you turned to face Yoongi and were startled, seeing his eyes already boring into yours. 

“Let’s get one thing straight,” Yoongi stated, his deep and stable voice wrapping around you for the first time that night, “This marriage means nothing to me. It shouldn’t to you either. I’ll do my thing and you do yours. Most importantly, stay out of my life except when necessary. Just because my parents are forcing my hand doesn’t mean I have to adhere to every little thing. Nothing will be changing except for our living situation and a ring on our fingers.”

A little stunned, you could only stutter a passive agreement and watch as he rose and left without sparing you another glance. 

Letting out a deep breath, you closed your eyes, trying to understand what had just transpired. Your heart raced as you quickly stacked up the dishes to be a bit easier for the busboy and quickly made your way to your car. Sitting down in the driver’s seat, you vaguely registered Min Yoongi’s cold demeanor towards you.

It seems he didn’t remember you after all.

The dress you had on was itchy, but you knew if you complained, you would only end up with a sharp stinging on your cheek and tear-filled eyes. You had escaped the boring party with grown-ups and were sitting outside on a stone bench in the garden, trying to remedy your hurt feelings at the hands of the mean, older boy, Hyunsoo. 

He had confidently poked fun at your appearance, saying the dress was a bit too small on you and that your parents should’ve sprung for a size that could fit an elephant instead. He continued on, saying your parents must’ve forgotten to vaccinate you for measles considering all the red spots on your face that were actually acne. Being a tender twelve years of age and going through the worst bits of puberty, his words hit you hard and you quickly ran from the scene into the garden. 

Unable to contain your tears, they slipped down your face in large droplets and soaked into the front of your dress. 

“Hey, you.”

Startled, you looked up to see a boy a couple of years older than you standing in front of you, black hair shining in the light from the garden lamps. His sharp eyes trailed down your tear-stained face. You quickly turned away in shame, not wanting to undergo any more embarrassment tonight. 

“Hey, snot-face.”

You shot him a glare but softened when you saw his hand extended, holding a handkerchief, his face turned slightly away, “Use this. You look ugly while you’re crying.”

You gingerly took the cloth from his hands and blew your nose, noticing him wince out of the corner of your eye. 

“Thank you,” you managed and he only rolled his eyes in response. 

“Yeah, whatever. I think Joohee’s looking for you,” he grumbled before turning on his heel and stalking off back towards the party. 

Confused, your eyes followed after him, not knowing how he knew that Joohee would be looking for you. You unfolded the handkerchief and noticed an elegant embroidering of three letters in black near the bottom, MYG. 

Oh, you realized, Min Yoongi. Joohee’s older brother was friends with him but you had never seen him before. Joohee had described him as kind of rude and quite closed off, but you disagreed. He certainly didn’t seem that bad.

masterlist / next

[thaltro]

Will your nightwatch au have any reimagining of how determination works, especially when it’s mixed with positivity, negativity, or void? Does it invert negativity/positivity by creating hope in despair and discontentment in happiness? Is it a force that resists the will of the creators/narrative (pro free will) or enforces it (anti free will)? If determination is amplified by the presence of negativity in order to ensure survival, can a determined character with negativity-based powers (not to assume what other ship kids may appear in the au or anything) with enough negativity going through their system doom spiral until the determination is tearing them apart at the seams?

(I have uh, been thinking about the logistics of this since mid 2018 don’t mind me)

Yes kinda - I’ll explain rn I medicalize a lot of concepts. I’ll also explain it inside the comic but here’s some minor stuff:

The main medical condition I focus on is “corruption”

In nightwatch, monsters bodies are incredibly vulnerable to foreign code. The most common example of this is getting sick, a monster absorbs a small viral bit of code, their body is overwhelmed and get symptoms of sickness, and eventually their body deals with the minor illness and everything is fine. But sometimes code changes can be too potent for a monster, creating chronic and sometimes terminal syndromes. This is what is called corruption.

Here are the three known corruptions (they are umbrella diagnoses)

Substance corruption:

substance corruption is the most common, (think nightmare and geno)

A potent substance that shouldn’t be within a monster gets in a monster and overwhelms their code permanently. This is a big category holding many different syndromes but the one thing in common is their physical form literally breaking down.

Some examples could be monsters having human soul substance injected into them, wether it be kindness or determination their bodies will be corroded slowly from the overwhelming code substance. Nightmare eating the apples count too, it’s code being too potent and quickly destroying his entire body.

This can be slowed down with treatment, reversion therapy is one but substance blockers are an alternative.

Void corruption:

Void corruption is rare, (think error, blue error, or fatal error)

When a entity is exposed to the Voids for too long, they may go through a slow process of void corruption. starting with sickness, then symptoms of confusion and amnesia, and lastly physical changes. The most identifiable trait is their final physical appearance, changes in color, additional limbs, open code numbers on anatomy, and glitching.

Their code gets randomized, new traits are gained and old traits are lost. Chronic pain, paranoia, hallucinations, delusional obsessions, and emotional instability are all caused by the distortion of their mind (and isolation of the void)

Treatment is difficult as a majority of patients show hostility to medical intervention. However reversion therapy is theorized to be affective for treating the patients.

Passive corruption:

Passive corruption is less common then substance but more common then void (think cross and killer)

When a conscious entity purposely changes another’s code. The victim goes through periods where they loose autonomy to the entity’s influence. The symptoms vary because it’s up to the foreign entity’s desire but it’s possible to see a change in voice, physical appearance, mental stability, and magical capabilities within the victim. The most well known example in the fandom is overwriting someone, but killer being controlled and reworked by the player is also passive corruption.

Reversion therapy and substance blockers work affectively as treatment.

Additional notes:

A monster can inhibit more then one category. For example, killer while gaining the substance of determination through passive corruption, would technically have both substance corruption and passive corruption.

This is a huge concept in nightwatch. There’s many additional elements like the specific affects of human soul substance, but i fear that would be too much of a rant from me.

Human traits are a medical thing in nightwatch, monsters cannot naturally have human substance, but can gain it through corruption. It’s not a trait of personality or belief or emotion.

It would be difficult to quantify and explain how human traits connect with feelings even within humans themselves, all systems I’ve seen do that don’t really make sense to me (cough glitchtale) so I made it a medical thingy. I’m not too sure if this is the answer you wanted but I tried.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Pondering if I should add Jek-14 to the Forceful Intervention Verse.

Mostly because I think it'd be very interesting to have Fox, who's been tortured by a Sith Master, had his neck snapped by said Sith Master's pet project, been forsaken by the GAR for choosing the Guard's well being over Ahsoka's or Fives's (who he never met under better circumstances other than them being fugitives of the law), and is currently going through a purposeful vengeance arc where he searches for and rescues clones that were never taken in by Rex's rebellion (for this or that reason) to take them to Epifania where they can be free, only to come across this very strange anti-social clone with unnatural eyes, a lightsaber strapped to his belt, and a goddamn Force Lightening arm.

Now, Fox is (unsurprisingly and very understandably) suspicious and somewhat fearful of Force Sensitives. Especially ones that can zap him into oblivion. But this is a vod and, even if he doesn't act like it, Fox shouldn't just give up on him and carry on his merry way. So he won't. He's better than that. He has to be better than that if he hopes to save all of the renegades like himself and the Guard Remnant. It's both penance for his prior compliance and a vow to fuck Palpatine's shit up.

Meanwhile Jek-14 trusts literally no one because there's always some ulterior motive for everyone's vested interest in him (considering the circumstances of his creation). This strange clone showing up one day and insisting on dragging him somewhere where he can "live free among other clones", doesn't really strike him as a selfless endeavor. Especially considering Jek-14 doesn't see himself as a vod because he wasn't raised with other clones and has killed many in the past (he regrets it now that he's no longer Dooku's pet project, but there's no going back and he knows clones don't take kindly to outsiders who murder their kin even if they were just following orders/their life's purpose).

I'm not really putting it into words the way I want it because my brain is pretty fried from the current heat wave. But like...

This. This is what I see:

[maplesyrupsainz]

˖⁺｡˚⋆˙lover | DR3˖⁺｡˚⋆˙

pairing: daniel ricciardo x reader y/n (she/her)

genre: social media au, established relationship

warnings: extreme fluff i fear LOL

summary: in which you and your boyfriend are each other's "lover"

a/n: i made a kind of more angsty dr fic with a pregnancy announcement (HERE) so this is baso a way more fluffier version!! based on taylor's song lover🩷 hope it's not trashhh & also not sure if it's obvious that it all takes place over a period of time

request!!!: danny ric x female reader anouncing shes pregnant maybe idk and theyre so in love idk

fc: various brunette girls from pinterest

my masterlist

instagram ->

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danielricciardo

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danielricciardo my bad

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user15 ENOUGH!!

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liked by maxverstappen1, danielricciardo, and 389,998 others

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user16 are you highly suspicious y/n

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danielricciardo i only want you

yourusername & you have me

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maxverstappen1 staging an intervention for you both to stop being so in love on the tl

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danielricciardo 🤔

user20 MAXIEL

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danielricciardo

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danielricciardo loved u three summers now, but i want them all ☀️

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user22 🥹🥹🥹🥹

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yourbff not more

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yourbff my babies🥹🥹🥹

landonorris you switched up rq...

maxverstappen1 🤨🤨🤨

yourusername shush every1

danielricciardo my wifeeee

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charles_leclerc congratulations 🥂

liked by yourusername, danielricciardo

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user31 loverrrr🥺

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danielricciardo could we always be this close? our life since baby was born. sorry for being so silent 🥰

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user36 omg never apologise for that congratulations to you both

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THE END 🤍

[pandafruit]

Ok, I’ve been tossing this AU around in my head for AGES, and I have to get it out or I’m gonna explode.

So in TEC, it’s made pretty clear that there are numerous risks to reviving Butler that even the fairies can’t fully account for. No healing like his had ever been attempted before, and there was really no telling what was gonna happen.

What if, in the face of all this, Holly refuses to heal him?

She’s not a trained medical warlock. She’s on her own. And she’s being asked to desecrate the body of her friend, with unknown, possibly catastrophic results. She refuses, tries her best to console Artemis and goes home.

Now, a lot changes from here.

Artemis obviously isn’t giving up hope. He transfers Butler to longer term cryogenic storage and has human surgeons fix his wounds as best they can in the meantime.

Artemis and Holly’s friendship is shattered. Artemis could never forgive her for not even trying to heal Butler. Holly doesn’t hate him in turn, but she does (mostly) believe she did the right thing, and wishes he would see her point of view. The LEP might still occasionally contact Artemis for help (though not for long - I’ll get to it) but the two of them remain, at absolute best, frosty around each other from then on.

Spiro and Blunt are no longer getting the “off to prison” treatment lmao. Artemis contacts Carla Frazetti and convinces the Chicago mob to turn on Spiro and assassinate both him and Blunt. Afterward, Artemis ends up taking Spiro’s place as benefactor and strategist for the mob. In return, Carla provides him with a security detail when needed (which is how I’m getting around Artemis not dying without Butler every 5 minutes lmao). The relationship proves very beneficial to Carla, and absolutely horrible for Artemis’s moral compass.

Artemis becomes obsessed with learning how to use magic - if the fairies won’t heal Butler, he’ll do it himself. This strains his working relationship with the LEP to the breaking point, and he eventually becomes a fairy fugitive. (I’ll be honest, this one is just bc I think Warlock!Artemis is cool as hell. They should’ve let him keep the magic >:(((( ) (Also cue tragic-yet-awesome scene where Holly is trying to bring him in and they get into a magic fight. The drama. The cinema).

Speaking of his magic! Artemis is no longer actively monitoring Foaly’s work, and the calculation error for the demons goes unnoticed until far too late. Thousands die in Hybras’s return to Earth, and the fairies come dangerously close to being revealed altogether.

When Artemis’s Atlantis Complex hits, because of his decidedly more amoral life path and extra dabbling in magic, it’s a hundred times worse. He has full blown hallucinations, panic attacks, multiple alters, and can no longer access fairy help for any of it. He stumbles by with human OCD treatments, but it’s not nearly as effective. He still refuses to see a psychiatrist.

Eventually, years down the line, Artemis masters magic well enough to revive Butler. It’s both better and worse than it would’ve been had Holly healed him - he no longer has to deal with the Kevlar strands thanks to the human medical intervention, and Artemis was able to train for years specifically to heal him, but the extra time in stasis means it takes even more of Butler’s life force to revive him.

When Butler finally awakes, he no longer recognizes the cold, paranoid, angry young man he used to dutifully protect. Butler may have been the one who was revived, but it’s Artemis who came back wrong.

There’s a million different ways this AU could go, but this is the stuff I’ve been tossing around. Also I know for a fact I haven’t hit every plot hole - PLEASE please share what you guys think would happen with me!! As of rn, I have no name for this AU, so I would appreciate suggestions for that too lmao

[wynnyfryd]

Trailer park Steve AU part 24

part 1 | part 23 | ao3

cw: alcohol, throwing up, brief reference to canonical character death

"Oh, my god!" Robin barks, nearly throwing herself off-balance again with the force of her laugh. "This is too good, man. You truly cannot escape your babysitting duties."

"Can I help you?" Max seethes.

Help him? Help him? "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" She gestures to the guy she's holding onto, some fluffy-haired kid with a cut-off vest covered in safety pins that Steve sort of vaguely recognizes as one of Eddie's friends. Oh, shit. Is Eddie here finally? Has he seen him?

"Wait, where's Lucas?" Steve asks.

"Who cares?" she bites back.

The guy gives a nervous chuckle and loosens his grip on her waist. "Uh-h. Did you say babysitter?"

"He's not actually, Jesus. I'm fourteen; I don't need a babysitter. And he was just leaving, anyway, right?"

Her glare feels like a slap. Girl's got daggers in her eyes, holy shit. It's like she's hoping some of El's powers magically transferred to her; like she's picturing him flying ten feet into the air and landing with a splat on the far side of the concrete, and he doesn't need this. He did not come out tonight to be bullied by a teenager. "Okay, that's it, I'm taking—"

"—me to the punch bowl!" Robin interrupts, putting her hands on Steve's chest to stop him from grabbing Max and hauling her back to the car.

"Robin, what—?"

"Yep!" She shoves him hard, pushing him to the edge of the dance floor. "Silly me, just dying of thirst, ha ha. Okay, cool, see you both later!"

—

"What the hell was that?" Steve demands when they're safely on the far side of the pavilion.

"An intervention."

Oh, my god. May he never hear the word 'intervention' again in his life.

"Un-ruffle your Mother Hen feathers for two seconds and think, would you? One: it would look really, really, seriously weird for you to be seen dragging a dead jock's kid sister kicking and screaming to your car."

A dead jock’s kid sister. Jesus, tipsy Robin has no tact.

"Two: you said we were going to go out and have fun and get, and I quote, 'very drunk.' Take your babysitter hat off for one night. She's a high schooler, and this is a high school party."

"Yeah, I know," he sulks. Doesn't need the reminder that he's technically past the age limit.

"Okay, so then let her have fun! It's not like you weren't out drinking and smoking by her age."

'I'm always so right about everything. I'm, like, cosmically correct.' Goddammit. Steve needs another drink. "I just don't want her to do anything dumb and get hurt."

"She won't. We can just, like, keep an eye on her from a distance, right? Let her come to us if she needs anything."

"So we should just act like your parents?" Steve snorts.

"My parents are amazing, thank you!"

"Your mom offered me mushroom tea once."

"Like I said: amazing."

Steve huffs a laugh, flips his hair out of his eyes and snags a handful of tortilla chips. "Okay," he says around a crunchy bite, "so what's the third thing?"

"Third thing?" Robin asks. She’s not even looking at him anymore, her eyes eager and distracted as she scans the crowd.

"You're biting your lip weird, there's clearly a third thing."

She turns to him, and the smile springs free from its containment, spreading all over her flushed, ecstatic face. "Vickie just showed up."

—

Steve’s hammered.

Whoops.

Didn’t mean to do it; feels a little bad about it as he tips his head up to the sky and all the stars go raining in bright streaks across his vision. Reminds him of the ceiling at Starcourt, nauseous and spinning under a swirl of bright fluorescence. He hopes Rob’s flirting is going well.

He meant to get politely drunk.

A socially appropriate amount.

But then Robin ran off to flirt with Vickie, and Steve was doing his best to just lay low, steer clear of Max and maybe find a way to casually run into Eddie if he could find him, when he spotted the girl he went on that disaster of a date with instead and realized his options were either: stay there by the beer coolers while she came over with her new date and subjected him to the most painful small talk of his life, or retreat to the dark edges of the party with as much booze as he could carry, so.

He's slumped on top of a picnic bench downwind of the bonfire, bad ear ringing, belly full to bursting, trying to remember when one beer became… more than one beer.

Five?

Six, maybe?

Fuck.

“‘M gonna puke,” he confesses to the splintered wood beneath his feet; to the pine bough overhead, the smoky fire at his back.

“Wow,” someone says, an amused lilt to their tone, and Steve knows that voice, he—

Oh, no.

Ohhhh, no.

Now? Really?

Steve whips his head around, opens his mouth to ask ‘Eddie?’ and barfs all over his shoes.

—

part 25

tag list part 1 below the cut, let me know if you want me to add you tomorrow (21+ only, please confirm your age if you're asking to be tagged)

@a-little-unsteddie @ahsokatanoss @aliea82 @alyelf @anne-bennett-cosplayer @aol19 @awolfstudio @bambibiest @bananahoneycomb @bookbinderbitch @bronwenmarie @cheonsazu @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @courtjestermunson @cuips-not-cute @dauntlessdiva @dawners @dontwasteyourchances @eddie-munsons-missing-nipple @eriquin @estrellami-1 @fandomfix8 @gregre369 @griefabyss69 @grtwdsmwhr @hallucinatedjosten @hellion-child @hiimlevi @honoragreyskull @hotluncheddie @jackiemonroe5512 @kas-eddie-munson @kingelyx @lifeisacrisis @littlebluejane @marvel-ous-m @melonmochi @messrs-weasley @milklechee @mrsjellymunson @mugloversonly @munsonslure @nburkhardt @nerdyglassescheeseychick @notsopersonalcharlie @novelnovella @nuggies4life @phoenixtheone @questionablequeeries @runninriot

[shadow4-1]

Shadow4-1's Masterlist for Headcanons/Imagines/Ficlets (Part 1)

I finally got around to making my masterlists! Under the cut is most of my headcannons, ficlets, you name if. They're in order by character - or group! I will be making a part 2 soon as Tumblr refuses to let me edit this anymore!

All links will be tagged with either an [NSFW] or appropriate genre tag like [Fluff] next to the title. Okay, I hope you enjoy. And please remember - MDNI! No age listed blogs will be blocked! (Banner Source)

Feel free to use any and all of my headcanons, imagines, etc. to make your own content! Credit/a tag would be nice! If not, I'd just appreciate a DM so I can read your content!

(Also, this isn't ALL of the content available on my blog! It's only the stuff I'm proud of. For everything I've ever written you'll just have to go swimming through my blog!)

Group Headcanons - {141} / {Los Vaqueros} / {Kortac}

(First) Kiss Imagines w/ the 141 Boys + Alejandro, Rudy, & Konig [NSFW]

No Boundaries - Task Force 141 Headcanons/Imagines [SFW]

Smelly - Reader & 141 Drabble [SFW]

Getting Drunk Imagines w/ the 141 Boys + Alejandro, Rudy, & König [SFW]

Getting drugged at a bar with the 141 [NSFW]

Captain Price:

Heart Eyes (Love At First Sight AU/Imagine - Reader x Price) [SFW/AU]

Getting bent over Price's knee and spanked with his belt in front of the boys [NSFW]

Simon "Ghost" Riley:

Sweet n' Silly Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Headcanons [NSFW]

Man Thoughts - Ghost Edition [NSFW]

"King of the Forest" Ghost [SFW]

"There's only one bed" Trope [SFW]

You and Soap Trigger Ghost's PTSD [SFW/Fluff]

Doing yoga in secret some but Ghost's been watching the whole time [NSFW]

Ghost makes Soap get you on webcam [NSFW]

Pulling a knife on Ghost during sex [NSFW]

Soulmate!AU where you and Ghost are tied together through shared dreams [SFW]

A make-out session with Ghost [NSFW]

Ghost is a vampire AU [SFW]

Kissing both Soap and Ghost goodnight at the door [NSFW]

John "Soap" MacTavish:

Silly Little Soap Headcanons (w/ A Few Wee Nasty Ones) [NSFW]

You're Not My Boyfriend! - Crazy!Soap x Reader Imagine [SFW]

Ex-boyfriend Soap having a dirty polaroid of you [NSFW]

Doing a clothing swap with Soap for a training day [SFW]

Soap and Gaz getting unreasonably jealous over who you spend more time with [SFW]

Kissing both Soap and Ghost goodnight at the door [SFW]

Kyle "Gaz" Garrick:

Making out in a motel bed with both Gaz and Soap [NSFW]

Soap and Gaz getting unreasonably jealous over who you spend more time with [SFW]

Konig:

Man Thoughts - Konig Edition [NSFW]

Makarov:

A chance encounter with Makarov [SFW]

Reader-Centered Headcanons:

Reader who's just trying to do her damn job. [SFW]

The first time the 141 sees you in something other than your fatigues [NSFW]

The 141 purposely picking you out of a pool of potential candidates [SFW]

Scuba diving training with the 141 [SFW]

The 141's jealousy at you harboring a crush on another task force's star member [SFW]

The 141 stages an intervention for you (they don't like you seeing people that aren't them) [NSFW]

Moments between the members of the 141 that attaches them to you forever [SFW]

Having to break up small fights between the 141 [SFW]

Your first spat with a member of the 141 and how you might be dealt with (by either Price or Ghost)[SFW]

A "lazy day" with the 141, except, it's really just you getting them to finally wind down [SFW]

The 141 wants you to leave your normie boyfriend, and you do eventually [SFW]

Being annoying as fuck and the boys decide to fuck with you back [SFW]

Waking up in a 141 dog pile [SFW]

You start to become an Omega (A/B/O Dynamic AU) [NSFW]

Texting your usual fuck buddy (Soap) to come to your room, except he doesn't - but Ghost does [SFW]

The 141 rents out a "haunted" mansion only for the place to be exactly as advertised [SFW]

Promising a kiss to whichever 141 guy wins a mock FIFA tournament [SFW]

Becoming the 141's medic by accident and tragedy [NSFW]

Doing some vent maintenance on base and getting stuck [NSFW]

Being nervous around the 141 and yet STILL garnering their attention [SFW]

A "lazy day" with the 141 (or getting them to calm down after a mission) [SFW]

Catching glimpses of the 141's search history [NSFW]

Unknowingly giving the 141 boners [NSFW]

Trapped for a week in a shithole safehouse [SFW]

[syndrossi]

went to check your tumblr to see if there was new content or to reread my favorite au content and saw the post of one follower being sick… and it made me laugh because i too am sick

this made me realize that it is Syn’s utmost duty to provide us (pretty please with cherries on top) with bullet points and or a paragraph as to how Daemon would take care of the boys when/if they get sick with like the common cold. and interestingly enough, how the boys will respond to it (pretty please and thank you)

Bullet points? A measly paragraph! Pah! So many people suffering through being sick merits 4.1K words of sick!fic. Also, for those of us in the US it sure was, uh, a day.

So warm up some soup or a hot beverage of your choice and settle in! This ficlet is set in a hand-wavy time period 2 months or so from present-day Resonant. We'll call this sickness a particularly nasty cold...

Sick Days

It was not often that Daemon was summoned by his sons, though he vastly preferred such summons to any other, and yet that was how he found himself following Ser Arryk to the training yard.

“Nothing is amiss?” he asked, because all the Kingsguard had uttered was that Rhaegar had requested his presence at the yard. Though if either had been injured, he was certain that Arryk would have stated such immediately.

“The princes were in disagreement,” the knight said after a moment, “and Prince Rhaegar decided that your intervention was necessary.”

Daemon frowned, further mystified. His sons rarely found themselves at odds, though it warmed him that Rhaegar trusted him to settle the matter. It did occur to him that his younger son might simply believe that Daemon was easier to convince than Jon, but he decided that the reason did not matter.

Both were at the edge of the yard, Jon with his arms crossed and mouth drawn into a scowl that was all the more ferocious beside his brother’s calm poise. Daemon gave Ser Perkins a curt nod of acknowledgement and ignored Cole entirely. His nephews were locked in some contest, but clearly distracted by both his arrival and whatever was troubling his sons.

Jon’s shoulders slumped when he caught sight of Daemon, as though his very presence signalled defeat, and he turned back to his brother with clear outrage. “You sent for our father?”

“You were being unreasonable,” Rhaegar said.

Daemon leaned to drop a kiss on the crown of each head, regretting as always the waning years he would have to do so before his sons grew too tall. “Am I so unwelcome?”

“It is unnecessary,” Jon insisted.

The words were not intended to sting, yet they did so nonetheless. So much of their days were spent apart: his sons at their lessons, and Daemon attending to the upcoming Stepstones campaign. He should be teaching them the sword, rather than relying on others to do so.

Rhaegar fixed him with a plaintive look. “Jon is ill. He needs rest, but he insists on training.”

“Ill?” Daemon turned to his other son, alarmed. He had not seemed out of sorts at breakfast, but as he studied him now, the flush to his face was not one of anger or exertion, and there was a glassiness to his eyes. He reached for both of his sons’ foreheads, and Jon’s was notably warmer.

“I feel fine,” Jon protested, ducking out of his hand.

“I bested you in all five of our bouts,” Rhaegar said. “And you had to lean against the fence after each!”

“Bed,” Daemon said firmly, moving behind his son to undo the straps of his practice armor. “What else ails you?”

“It is only a fever.” Jon sounded sullen at even admitting that much, which likely meant there was more to it.

Daemon slung Jon’s armor over the fence, then turned to his other son. Whenever Viserys had fallen ill as a child, Daemon had usually followed soon after. “You as well.” Rhaegar glanced at his brother, his concern plain, and let Daemon remove his armor without complaint.

Back at their apartments, Daemon had them bathe and change, though he did not force Rhaegar to rest. Instead, his son set Rolen to the task of securing cloths and ice water for a cold compress while Daemon settled anxiously beside Jon’s bed, noting his shivers beneath the blankets.

He tested his forehead again, not certain if it was worse, and wondered whether to fetch the maester. It hardly seemed worth it, given that Mellos would likely prescribe a leeching. My brother has not once improved under his care.

Daemon stared at Jon for a time, until Rhaegar appeared to drape a cool cloth over his forehead, which heightened his son’s shivering. He could not recall if that was better or worse, so he absently sent Rhaegar for another blanket just in case.

A book was placed into his lap instead, the Valyrian children’s tales that he had read to his sons before. Jon’s gaze was fixed upon the ceiling, stoic in his misery, and Daemon read until his son’s eyelids drooped, stopping only once to change his compress, and the shivering slowly abated as sleep took him.

Then Daemon watched him, book open on his lap. The sight of his son resting should have set him at ease, but each stab of fear grew sharper still. Everything that had threatened his children thus far had come from without, enemies that could be cut and bled and held at bay with enough swords.

They could die. Somehow that had never occurred to him before. His sons could be stolen, yes, and hurt by people like Allard Royce and Marten Crayne. But he had stolen them back before, and could do it again.

He could not steal them back from the clutches of death.

The evening hours crept by without him noticing until Rhaegar gently prodded him to eat supper, and he realized he had been ignoring his other son, who would be equally in need of reassurance. They ate together, and Daemon asked him about his lessons, letting his son’s voice wash over him without comprehending, then resumed his vigil.

The next day, he barely moved from Jon’s bedside, overseeing his meals with growing anxiety at his decreased appetite. His son’s fierceness from the day before had been stolen by exhaustion and fever, dulled to listlessness. Even so, rest seemed to elude him, as coughing joined the parade of misery.

Rhaegar must have made excuses for his absence to king and court, for no one came knocking at the door in summons. He did not realize that his son had taken up the task of parenting him until late in the day, which was the same time that he noticed a telltale flush in Rhaegar’s cheeks as well.

“You did not tell me you were feverish,” Daemon said, unable to keep the sharpness from his voice and regretting it when his son’s expression blanked. He kissed his cheek in apology, finding it warm to the touch, and then his forehead, which was hotter still. “To bed.”

I should have noticed sooner. His son had barely eaten at breakfast, and been much quieter today.

Rhaegar’s fever worsened with the onset of night, accompanied by the same violent shivering that had plagued Jon the day before, and Jon could barely go more than a minute without coughing or telling Daemon that he should tend to Rhaegar instead, both of which were equally upsetting. He could feel their misery like it was his own, worsened by his helplessness.

Once they had both finally drifted into sleep, Daemon left their room, ignoring the tray of supper that Rolen had set out at the table, or the steaming bath meant to tempt him into washing, and instead stumbled into the hallway, feet taking him nearly all the way to Rhaenyra’s apartments before he remembered himself and continued slightly past, to Laenor’s.

His cousin had started his evening with some drinking, judging by his befuddled expression upon seeing him. “Daemon?”

“I must speak with Rhaenyra,” he said.

Laenor’s mouth opened, then closed, as though he had meant to say something then thought better of it. “And you require a chaperone.” His cousin sighed. “Very well. A moment.”

The moment took forever by Daemon’s reckoning, the time spent away from his sick children weighing heavier by the minute, but at last he emerged. “What is it? You look terrible.”

Daemon did not answer, turning back toward Rhaenyra’s apartments and lengthening his stride, hearing Laenor mutter under his breath before trotting to keep pace. The Kingsguard guarding her door, Ser Steffon, stepped aside after announcing them, and the door opened barely a second later.

Rhaenyra had not yet retired for the night, though she had exchanged court dress for something more suitable for lounging within the privacy of her apartments. Her stare at him was not unlike Laenor’s and he wondered just how terrible he looked. He could not recall if he had even changed out of his clothing for bed the previous night.

“Daemon,” she said, her polite nod one of perfect propriety, followed by a smile at her husband. “Laenor. Come in.” Once the door had shut, she ushered them to the hearth, then stepped over to the boys’ room, opening its door to reveal Jace. She kissed his cheek, then shooed him. “Back to bed, dragonling.”

She then settled on the couch beside Laenor, regarding Daemon with a concern so sweet that his heart clenched. “You look frightful, what’s wrong?”

“What if they die?”

It was not what he had meant to say, and even saying it aloud felt like speaking the possibility into being. His hands ached for a weapon to wield against the unbearable uncertainty, but he could only clasp them in his lap and feel his blood thrum.

Laenor’s brow remained furrowed in confusion, while Rhaenyra’s softened in understanding. “Your boys?”

“They are sick with fever, and I—” Had never considered the possibility. Had not prepared for it. “I do not know what to do, or how to know what help they need, or if—”

He was gently shushed and then peppered with questions. Could they speak sensibly. Could they move. Were they eating. Did they need help to the chamberpot. How were their hatchlings.

“I did not think to check,” Daemon said to the last, lurching to his feet. It seemed so obvious in hindsight. At the very least, their hatchlings’ presence should be a comfort.

“If they are eating and sleeping and speaking, then it is not necessary to fetch their hatchlings at this very moment, Daemon,” Rhaenyra said, with an authority that kept him from moving to the door. “Children sicken. They will be sick again, and you will be brought low by their illness more often than not. That is the nature of being a parent.”

“My aunt Daenerys died of sickness,” Daemon said, remembering how even decades later, his grandmother could not speak of her first daughter without pain. He had not understood why at the time when it had been so long ago, but after knowing his sons for a mere three moons, it seemed impossible that he might survive losing either. “How can you be certain that any illness might not take your child?”

“The Shivers were deadly to nearly all who were afflicted, but they have not been seen within the realm since. Such illnesses tend to reach the smallfolk first, so we will have warning should it ever return.” He must not have looked reassured, because she added, “She did not have a dragon, I recall my father saying. The king sent for a hatchling, but it was too late. Your sons and mine are dragonriders.”

“My father was a dragonrider,” Daemon said, gripping the back of the chair he had vacated. “And yet sickness took him in his prime.”

Rhaenyra rose with a soft sigh and met him on the other side of the chair to set her hands atop his. “There are grave illnesses and mild. Some claim the young and frail, and others the hale and hearty. The maesters are trained to know the signs of those that can be deadly. Has Mellos tended to them?”

“No,” Daemon said. His jaw clenched. “I will not trust their health to a bloodsucker.”

The corner of her mouth twitched downward briefly, her stare growing distant. They had both spoken before about the man’s treatments for Viserys, and he knew that she shared some of his opinion. “Would you like me to see them? My own sons have weathered over a dozen illnesses apiece.”

Daemon’s grip loosened, relief filling him. “Yes.”

“And if I find cause for worry, either Laenor or myself can fetch Maester Gerardys from Dragonstone. He is most capable and does not rely upon leeching.”

Daemon remembered the maester from his own youth, from various scrapes earned when visiting his uncle’s family. The maester had been much younger then, but with gentle hands and a patience for questions, even from a child.

“Why don’t I fetch him right now?” Laenor offered. “I have been itching for a good ride while the weather is still warm.”

“I would be most grateful,” Daemon said, feeling his nerves begin to settle with the outline of a plan.

Rhaenyra lifted his hands from the chair and squeezed. “Then let us go.”

Ser Steffon remained behind to guard Rhaenyra’s sons within, and Daemon counted himself lucky that he had negotiated with his brother to only require the company of Sers Arryk or Erryk when outside of the holdfast. Even so, he invited the knight outside of the door to his apartments within. Hightower was more eager than ever to find suggestions of impropriety between him and his niece.

His sons were both asleep, and Rolen informed him that he had changed their compresses ten minutes before. Neither were shivering, though their cheeks were still warm to the touch. Rhaenyra repeated his test with a kiss to their cheeks, and Rhaegar stirred to sleepily mumble, “Muña?”

Daemon tried not to look as though he had been punched in the gut, but Rhaenyra’s glance toward him was one of knowing. It hurt to think that he alone might not be enough for his children, or that he could not give them a mother who would love them as Rhaenyra would.

And even then, would she ever love them as much as sons of her own blood?

It was an unkind thought, but that did not make it untrue. Were Daemon ever forced to choose between the lives of her sons or his, he knew his heart. He was not ashamed of it; he could no more be ashamed of the need to breathe.

They are mine and I hold no life above theirs.

Rhaegar seemed to recognize Rhaenyra at last, and his face fell as he uttered a stricken apology that she shushed, stroking the hair from his forehead. The noise woke Jon, who sat up with an urgency that Daemon did not understand until the front of his tunic was splattered with sick that dripped down to the floor.

The smell was awful. Daemon reminded himself that he had endured far worse on the battlefield, and Jon looked so horrified, blurting apologies of his own, that he could not be annoyed for more than half a second.

“It is not the worst fluid I have been sprayed with,” Daemon assured him, and despite Rhaenyra’s dubious reaction on the other side of the bed, a ghost of a smile appeared on Jon’s face.

Rolen appeared to help him out of his soiled clothing, and then to tend to the mess on the floor. Once finished, his servant brought a clean chamberpot and set it upon the small bedside table for future spells of nausea.

Jon accepted a cup of water, and when Daemon mentioned that he would bring their hatchlings for company, Rhaegar offered to summon them himself from the Red Keep’s enclosure, an ability that he still found perplexing. Caraxes often seemed to know to find him, especially in dire moments, but Daemon had never tried calling his dragon with the expectation of him heeding.

Within minutes, however, the hatchlings were shrieking at the door to be let in, and Daemon caught Shadow mid-inhale of a gout of dragonflame. “Kelītīs!” he hastily commanded, and the hatchling coughed, only a tiny flicker escaping his mouth.

Daemon offered his shoulder, which Qelebrys took gladly while Shadow zipped past him. It was only a matter of time, he mused, until the hatchlings were forbidden from the holdfast if they could not learn to restrain their enthusiasm with their newfound dragonflame. A matter to discuss with his sons when they were feeling better. Scholarly and martial lessons had their place, but dragonriders needed lessons of their own. For all his duties, he could not neglect that aspect.

His sons seemed cheered by their dragons’ company, which granted them what seemed an extra vitality, and Daemon felt a fresh impatience with himself for not thinking of it before.

He watched them play with their hatchlings, showing off their impressive command to Rhaenyra at her prompting. As ever, Jon seemed to hold himself at a distance from her, demonstrating a deference that still puzzled Daemon, because his son had a natural command that he did not hesitate to apply even to the king.

Rhaegar, who possessed a similar command, albeit one that tended to rankle fewer men with excessive pride, was the opposite. Though he afforded Rhaenyra the respect she was due as the king’s heir, he treated her almost as an equal.

They are most certainly your sons, Rhaenys had remarked to Daemon more than once.

The play tired his sons quickly, however, and they did not even need the aid of a story to drift back to sleep.

“I do not think it is anything to worry about,” Rhaenyra said once they had re-entered the main chamber. “It seems very like the minor ills that plague my sons on occasion. Once the fever goes, it will be sniffles and prodigious quantities of snot.”

Daemon rubbed at his eyes, fatigue setting in. “Thank you.” His earlier terror had eased to a more manageable fretfulness over the course of Rhaenyra’s visit. He did not think he could shed it entirely, but he might actually sleep that night.

“And they will likely become crankier once they begin feeling better,” she added.

He nodded politely, not voicing his skepticism. Raging fits and whining seemed to afflict his nephews quite often, and even Rhaenyra’s sons were not immune, but his own were far more composed. He doubted he would face more than a few half-hearted attempts from them to win free of bed.

“Get some sleep, Daemon,” Rhaenyra said, holding herself to a nod in the presence of the household knight.

Daemon nodded back, feeling the distance between them particularly keenly tonight. “I shall.”

Her lips quirked. “You will find yourself in need of it soon enough.”

x~x~x

His sons were in fact capable of impressive crankiness, Daemon quickly learned, expressed in myriad creative ways. Jon seemed to view being sick as a personal insult, and that extended to being treated as sick. He complained incessantly about being forced to rest, insisting that he required fresh air and generally implying that he knew better than Daemon and Maester Gerardys.

On the third night, after Jon’s fever was mostly gone, Daemon’s refusal to allow his son to take a walk within the walls of the holdfast seemed to stretch him past his limits. A screaming fit ensued wherein his son accused Daemon of treating him like an infant to make amends for the years they had spent as orphans.

Daemon held himself together long enough to reiterate his decision, and then he locked himself in his chamber, vacillating between tears of heartache and tears of rage. It proved not enough, and he sought Caraxes’s company instead, finding an isolated copse of trees a short distance from King’s Landing to burn to charcoal and ash.

His son was contrite when he returned, assuring Daemon that he knew that he would have come for them sooner if he could have, and took the peace offer of a story.

Rhaegar meanwhile was an exercise in patience and understanding. Where the nigh-mortal blow of Jon’s words had not been meant to wound him so badly, his other son exhibited a flair for cutting his heart to ribbons with calculated precision. Every accusation and taunt seemed designed to provoke fury or sorrow, depending on how tired his son was, and being denied the former only further upset his son.

Daemon learned at last that where it was kinder to spare Jon the signs of his upset, Rhaegar somehow needed his tears and frustration in order to release his own, at which point he accepted Daemon’s hugs with hiccuping apologies.

In all, Daemon was vomited on three times, reduced to tears a dozen times, driven to burn four separate groves of trees, and restrained himself from regicide by way of fratricide while on the receiving end of smug superiority from Viserys twice, as though his brother even knew when one of his own sniveling brats was sick, much less tended to them.

This would be easier if they had a mother, Viserys had even dared suggest at one point, and Daemon had smashed a vase in front of him in lieu of punching him.

His sons’ misery eventually eased, especially once Daemon started letting them chase one another through the halls of the holdfast, or recruiting an unlucky Kingsguard to be in the role of chaser. As Rhaenyra had predicted, the snot ran freely along with his sons, but with their energy spent, their mood improved dramatically.

When Daemon himself fell ill at last, he let them order him around to their hearts’ content. He was deemed confined to bed, where each of them traded turns changing his own compress as they debated what soup he should have from the kitchens, with Rhaegar pointing out that they needn’t rely upon what the kitchen had already made and could order whatever they saw fit.

The days of fever were unpleasant and somewhat hazy, the accompanying aches and shivering occupying most of his attention. Through it, he remembered the worry on their faces as they tended to him, and it was a far more powerful balm than any soup.

He had weathered sickness on the Stepstones before, but Corlys’s worry had been first and foremost for his dragonrider, not for Daemon himself. At Runestone, his wife had viewed his illnesses as brief respites of her own—perhaps even hoping that one might free her of him entirely. The last time someone had tended to him as his sons did now would have been when he had caught a bad fever at fifteen. Despite his grandfather’s protests, his father had remained by his side throughout.

Jon read to him in Valyrian, struggling only a little with some of the bigger words, and Rhaegar sang lullabies to him that evoked a hazy memory of his mother’s face, and voice rather less sweet. Qelebrys watched him from the foot of his bed, while Shadow performed tricks at Jon’s command. Visitors were turned away, except for Rhaenyra and Viserys, and somehow his sons had secured the two differing plans for the proposed holdfast at Bloodstone that the heads of the masons and builders had been squabbling about for the past fortnight and negotiated an agreement between them.

“You should let us assist you more often,” Jon said matter-of-factly. “It is more interesting than our daytime lessons.”

His fever gave way to a truly irritating stuffiness that made it difficult to rest, and equally difficult not to hate everything. His complaints seemed to amuse his sons, and although that should itself have been irritating, their good humor took the worst of the edges off.

“I have read that dragonriding can clear one’s breathing,” Rhaegar informed him once he felt well enough to take supper with them at the table. His hopeful expression was only partly out of a love of flying, Daemon knew, as his sons were also still afflicted by sniffles.

They tested it together, finding the adage to be true during the flight itself, and for a short time after, but the stuffiness did creep back with each passing hour. At supper, they composed lists of their preferred soups, and found that none of them liked the sweet carrot soup. He and Rhaegar shared a favorite in chicken and mushroom in broth, while soups with broccoli edged that out for Jon.

His sons belatedly “permitted” him hallway privileges, bestowing upon him the honor of chasing them through the halls, and though his chases ended with some light coughing, their delighted grins made the effort worth it.

It wasn’t until he felt almost completely better that he allowed them to sleep in his bed, a habit that had gone from every night for a long stretch to something they requested only on occasion. As he neared sleep, he felt Jon shift beside him, and he opened his eyes to find his son staring at him with upset.

“What is it?” he whispered, shifting his arm to lay a hand on his hair.

“You cannot die,” his son whispered back. “You must promise.”

Daemon shifted to press a kiss to his forehead. “I promise.”