#Harts Under Glass

[koiiiji]

Heyyy, What if reader is in the hummingbird crew and is in a secret relationship with joker

Can u make some Sfw and nsfw headcanon

sorry, i decided to do only sfw part because i didn’t really came up with the idea how to add nsfw part here ://

hope you’ll enjoy!!

warnings ; only my not proofed english erorrs.

joker saw you on league of streets before, for sure. he knew that you were from hummingbird crew and the fact that sangho choi had a request to sabbath to deal somehow with your crew.

he never liked that idea tho, in the first place because hummingbird had you and shelly, and joker could never compete with girls, it seemed unfair and unnatural for him.

but when he saw you leaving the changing room right after incident with missing drug from that guy in red glasses, and you clearly heard their conversation, wooin immediately bellowed to catch you and joker grabbed you by wrist and pulled your hand on the level of his eyes. that red glasses pice of shit immediately screamed that it was your team that stole "something" from him. your hart, in turn, has already sunk into your heels, and soul has left your body, a bunch of suspicious-looking guys were ready to tear you apart because of someones lost thing, while you and your team just tried to win cycling competition. joker didn’t immediately realize with what force he was squeezing your wrist, and when he looked from wooin to you, he felt as if his heart was pinched. he, being a huge guy, squeezed your hand so hard that there would definitely be a bruise... "a girl's hand.. so small" - he thought to himself and relaxed his grip on you. joker didn’t like to mess with girls. especially with someone nice like you. he clearly catched himself on the idea that he doesn’t like your scared face turned to him. one your still free hand started to pounding on his elbow and forearm demanding to let you go.

when wooin learned that that guy had no proofs that it was you or your team he was furious, and joker just knew that this guy is no longer safe. he actually didn’t care. the only fact that he cared, when he made sure everyone had left the room and discovered that he was right, there was indeed a bruise on your wrist. he was ashamed, really ashamed, to offend a girl who, in addition, had done nothing wrong.

you were sitting on the floor, leaning on the boxes, when you saw that white haired guy squatted down in front of you and held out his hand. "what does this thug need??" - your thoughts were spinning in your head, and you felt bad that you refused dom’s company to pick up your stuff from changing rooms.

"give me your phone" - you heard his harsh voice. what in the earth he wanted from you?. "hey your friends already learned that i didnt stole anything, now join them and leave." - tears were alredy welling up in your eyes and it was so insulting and unpleasant for you. "im sorry..." he paused and added "i wanted to ask your number. i know one good ointment, it helps with bruises. if you dont mind. just let me know were i could meet you."

on the evening of that day, you met in the park, and he shyly handed you a transparent bag with ointment and bandages.

he muttered an apology under his breath once more and was about to leave when you grabbed the sleeve of his jacket and stopped him.

“give me your phone” - now was your turn to ask.

he freaked out a little but handed you the phone and you typed in your number and made a call, so you had his number too.

you named him as a “nice big guy from snake team”

the next time you receive a call from joker was one week later, and he asked you to help him to patch him up.

you had no idea what happened to him, but you just felt that you need to return a favor and help him.

he said he was waiting for you in the park where you met, sitting on a bench. when you came blood was dripping from his nose, and there were abrasions on his hands and face.

worried, you rushed to the nearest store and bought water to wash the wounds and to apply that ointment that he brought you.

he didn't make a sound when you moistened a piece of screw, washed his wounds and applied ointment, sealed it with plasters, and as soon as you finished, joker thanked you.

you spent about 30 minutes more in each other company and he walked you to your house.

that night you received a “good night” text from him.

after that, your correspondence became more regular, as well as meetings.

and you both agreed not to share that information with your teams. you simply knew that dom will want to fight with joker because of the fact that he hurt you in first place and joker said that it is better not to let wooin know about him hanging out with “rival crew” member.

[medievalandfantasymelee]

THE HOT MEDIEVAL & FANTASY MEN MELEE

FIRST ROUND: 47th Tilt

Hugh Beringar, Cadfael (1994-1998) VS. Father Beocca, The Last Kingdom (2015-2022)

Propaganda

Hugh Beringar, Cadfael (1994-1998) Portrayed by: Sean Pertwee Defeated Opponents: - Prince John [Claude Rains], The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

“The One True Hugh! He deserves much support. I love Sean Pertwee's portrayal of the saturnine, intelligent Hugh, and the way he captures the character's warmth and humor and the frequency with which he is just Done. Also those cheekbones could cut glass, good LORD.”

Father Beocca, The Last Kingdom (2015-2022) Portrayed by: Ian Hart Defeated Opponents: - The Mayor of Hamelin [Claude Rains], The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957)

“We stan hot priests in this house. He is LITERALLY everything you could want in a man. He's so kind and sweet, so patient, so caring. AND HE’S A BADASS. He’s got a sharp tongue and a hot temper. If he says you’ll die by his spear and burn in the fires of hell, then by God (literally) it will happen. NO ONE loves his wife as much as Beocca, and that is SEXY.”

Additional Propaganda Under the Cut

Additional Propaganda

For Hugh Beringar:

“Idk what Sean Pertwee had going on in 1994, but whatever it was, I am HERE for it. The way he turns the keen gaze of those piercing blue eyes on you, and stands there, arms folded, back arched, intimidating yet approachable. Mmm! What crimes must a girl commit to get My Lord the Sheriff’s Deputy to give her the third degree? He’s not only stern and intelligent but he’s also so noble, and chivalrous, and he got his position by killing his predecessor in trial by single combat as the only way to settle a charge of murder and also preserve the dignity of his lady love. He’s a KEEPER.”

For Beocca:

[aew-needs-to-do-better]

Need I remind you that it was CM Punk who twisted the events at All In and said that he calmly approached Jack and said ‘he didn’t punch anybody’ or how it was Punk who leaked to Fiteful saying that Jack pushed and bumped Punk first and Punk retaliated with a chokehold? He waited until Jack calmly put his hands in his hair to throw a punch. Jack backed up. Then Punk grabbed Jack’s hair in order to put him in a headlock ie not a sleeper. Jack stepped out. And then Punk threw more punches before Joe, Hook, Hero, and the ref grabbed them both. Shit lasted a couple seconds. But not before Punk lunged at Tony and knocked over monitors. And no, this was not the incident that made Tony fear for his life. That happened after Punk’s match with Samoa Joe.

Jack Perry did nothing wrong.

Like it was Punk who leaked that story to Nick Hausman about the story regarding real glass to save face after he went on another tangent to burry Hangman Adam Page. That is why Jack was mad. He leaked a story that made Jack look bad so Punk could make himself look better. In hindsight, I am starting to believe it was Punk that was spreading stories about AEW like wildfire to the press. Before Punk, there were rarely any leaks that didn’t involve Sammy Guevara. It’s no wonder that since then, no story has been leaked. No locker room gossip. Nothing.

Punk was a condescending piece of shit in a company built on the idea that the type of hierarchy where top guys like Cena threatening Gabbi Tuft, then Tyler Reks. That is why Hangman broke script to begin with and what that promo was about. Punk kept needling at everyone backstage and bring a piece of shit. And Page saw the culture change with Punk openly disrespecting his peers and pushing people off of AEW like Colt Cabana and using his position to get his way.

Now I’m questioning Brawl Out. I starting to think that the Elite didn’t kick down that door and start that fight. Now I think hotheaded and paranoid Punk escalated that confrontation after the Elite went to his locker room. If Punk has shown those little tendencies to twist a story in his favor like saying Jack bumped into him or confronted him or threw the first punch or was condescending to him when we were just shown footage that it was Punk who did it, I am starting to think Punk was always the problem. In fact, him getting ousted from WWE the first time is starting to make sense. Punk is a carny piece of shit with a fragile ego.

Tony should have not punished Jack at all. He should have fired Punk from the jump.

Should the footage have been shown? Yes. Punk is a fucking lying narcissist who prides himself on being the realest yet he,under the guise of being some guiding veteran, tried to sabotage Perry’s career and reputation. For months, Jack has been made out like some little bitch and all he did was back away and let some 40+ year old man throw a tantrum. The Scapegoat moniker makes sense. Maybe they should have released it online.

They didn’t mention Punk once. The Bucks have been referencing Jack for weeks now since they started this EVP gimmick. Their angle was to accuse FTR of only beating them at All In because of what happened with Jack while redeeming Jack and welcoming him into the Elite. That’s the story. At the same time, it was petty. Will this convince Pepsiman diehards? No.

And this had nothing to do with WWE. It had to do with a former disgruntled employee who lied. Good fucking riddance.

That being said, this show was uncharacteristically mid. The Jerichoverse should die and Mox, Page, O’ Reilly, Thunder Rosa, or fucking someone should have had a ten minute match. The card was disappointing overall.

But regardless, we can stop creating fanfic about this stupid overblown event. If Punk were anyone else, he would have been blackballed from wrestling along with Teddy Hart. There is no excuse for attacking your fellow employee. If it were anyone else, Punk would have been arrested for assault.

Still would have preferred to see a Takeshita match.

[double-vandammage]

Title: Rude Awakening

Word count: 2,573

Rating: 18+

Ship: Bret Hart x Shawn Michaels

Tags/Warnings: Enemies to lovers, Bret POV, Handjob, Blowjob, Alcohol

Also posted to my a03: aa_beatrix

Here is my first fanfic in probably 6 years. I'm so nervous about it, but I hope you Hartbreak shippers like it. I'm fairly new to this ship so please be gentle. 🥹 Thank you to the encouragement of my sis @taydaq, @imabillyami, @crxssjae, and @superkickme 😘

Let me know if anyone wants to be tagged in future fics, I do plan on writing more. 🫣

Bret sat silently by his motel window, watching the rain gently glide down the glass. What a shit day he had, it was only fitting the weather was also terrible. The promo he had just cut with Shawn weighed heavily on his mind. He was so tired of the little prick. Night after night he had to observe Shawn flamboyantly parade around the stage. Not only did he have to watch the annoying spectacle, but also endure the man occasionally shake his bare ass at the crowd. The fans ate it up and he couldn’t fathom why. They were close once, it seemed a lifetime away. Thunder cracked, startling him from his thoughts. The universe was telling him to relinquish any thoughts of Shawn for the rest of the evening. He didn’t want Shawn in his head more than was required, especially while he was alone in his motel room. Bret made his way to the bed, climbing under the covers and slowly he drifted to sleep.  

Abruptly there was an aggressive and continuous rap at his door. Bret was barely able to open his eyes as he dazedly glanced at the bedside clock. The time read 2:00AM. “Who the fuck-?” he grunted as the knocking became louder. He whipped the blanket from his body while quickly swinging his legs over the mattress. “I’m coming dammit.” he spat, stumbling to the door in his sleepy stupor. He put his eye to the peephole. “Jesus Christ…” none other than a Heartbreak Kid disruption. “Hey! Big daddy cool! Open up big sexy!” Shawn half yelled, half giggled. Bret opened the door, “wrong room shithead. Some of us are trying to sleep.” Shawn was drenched. He had clearly spent some time in the rain. “Whoa.” Shawn raised both hands up in defense. “This isn’t Kevin’s room?” Bret made a show of moving his hands up and down his own frame, “clearly it isn’t you asshole, what are you drunk?” Shawn put his index finger and thumb together, “Mmmm…maybe just a pinch.” 

Rolling his eyes, Bret took in Shawn’s appearance. He was soaked, so much so he had created a pool of moisture on the motel floor. He was a mess. “Do you know which room Kevin is in?” he asked, not wanting Shawn to be his problem this early in the morning. “Hmmm…well I thought this was his room…so I guess…no.” he said with his signature smile, chuckling to himself. “You wouldn’t mind if I bunked here tonight, eh Hitman?” Shawn asked while running a hand through his wet hair. Bret thought this must be some cruel joke the universe was playing on him. The last thing he wanted in his room was a drunk wet dog named Shawn Michaels, but he couldn’t let him wander aimlessly up and down the halls, slamming on random doors, and calling for big sexy. 

Bret crossed his arms, “shit. Fine. Do not drip on anything.” Shawn grinned, “Thanks Hitman, you’re the best there is and ever will be.” he said, pushing Bret to the side and slapping him on the arm. Bret closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “The bathroom is to the left, I can get you something to change into.” He closed the door and turned to find Shawn already on the bed. “Are you fucking kidding me Michaels? You’re super fucking soaked. Get off the bed, now.” Shawn rose, propping himself on his elbows. “Oh man…I am?” he asked, real concern in his voice. “Uh, yeah. Get up.” Bret demanded. Shawn moved almost intentionally slow, the blankets getting more and more saturated. 

“Dammit Shawn. Get your ass to the bathroom.” he said, grabbing Shawn’s arm, shoving him towards the open doorway. “Alright, alright. Ya don’t gotta be so touchy.” Shawn almost immediately began stripping off his flashy costume. He shook off his vest and began removing those hideous chaps he insisted on wearing. He kicked off his boots next and in doing so Shawn had noticed Bret leaning against the door frame observing. Bret in an instant knew exactly what he was about to do. Shawn turned, his back facing him and commenced shimmying his tights down to wiggle his ass at him. “Like what ya see Hitman?” he taunted. Bret kept his face stoic, but could feel his cheeks beginning to flush. “Stop that shit and just get cleaned up would you?” he urged moving away. Shawn smirked, pulling his tights completely off. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”  

Bret began pulling the blankets and sheets off the bed, discarding them onto the floor. He could hear the water start to run and eventually steam wafted outside the door. He pulled out a plain white t-shirt and gray sweats from his suitcase for Shawn to wear. Bret climbed back into the bed to try and get some more sleep before they had to be on the road again. The shower stopped and after a few minutes, he felt the empty side of the mattress shift. “Absolutely not boytoy.” he murmured. “Oh come on Bret, there’s not even a couch in here.” Shawn whined. “Not my problem. This is already obnoxious without having dry blankets, you are not sleeping up here.” Shawn in a child-like tantrum, huffed off the bed and onto the floor with one of the pillows. Within minutes he was fast asleep.

Outside rain still poured and thunder intermittently boomed, a particularly loud burst was enough to rattle Bret awake again. The clock registered at 5:00AM. He could hear Shawn’s slow and steady breathing, surprised Shawn didn’t also wake. Rolling to the opposite side of the bed, Bret peered over. Shawn was lying on his side facing him. Long blonde hair fell down around his shoulder and pillow. His bangs draped over his eyes. Shawn was beautiful, anyone could see that. Bret found his eyes had lingered, observing the white t-shirt he let the man borrow had slightly uplifted, revealing a small glimpse of Shawn’s tanned stomach. Quickly he averted his gaze and rolled back over. Squeezing his eyes shut, focusing on the sounds outside in an attempt to stifle an unresolved hunger he had no business feeling towards the Heartbreak Kid.

Unable to rest, he again got out of bed to reside by the window in the lone chair. He needed air. He opened the window just enough to feel the cool misting of rain against his face. Minutes later he heard Shawn stirring, a small groan escaping from him as he stretched. Shawn sat upright, dreamily looking at Bret. “Can’t sleep Hitman?” he mumbled. Bret ignored him, keeping his view to the window. “I gotta take a leak.” Shawn yawned as he shuffled towards the bathroom. Bret listened as Shawn fumbled around in the dark, hearing the toilet flush and sink run. He came out in the middle of another yawn, “Fuck me, I’m gonna be sore. You think people will believe me when I say I’m sore after spending the night in the Hitman’s room?” he laughed. “Don’t even joke about that shit Shawn.” Bret spat. “I’ll kick you out right now, don’t test me.”

Shawn cautiously made his way to stand in front of him. “Come on, would it be so terrible? Maybe this is exactly what you and I need.” Shawn said, reaching out a hand to brush the inky strands of hair from Bret’s face. Bret caught his wrist, stopping him. “Don’t.” Shawn only invaded his space more, moving his leg to part Bret’s thighs. His free hand tilted Bret’s chin upward so he could meet his stare. “I know you look at me. Just like I knew you were looking at me over there.” he said, nodding his head in the direction of the bed. Bret jerked his head away irritated, but Shawn hadn’t released his grip. Shawn lowered himself, his mouth inches from his ear, “I like it when you look at me…”.

Bret felt many things for Shawn Michaels. Desire he could always snuff out, now he wasn’t so sure. Shawn closed the space between them, placing his lips to Bret’s temple. Bret involuntarily let go of Shawn’s wrist, finding he was nuzzling into Shawn as he continued to trail light kisses around the side of his face. “Touch me Bret…” Shawn sighed into him. Bret moved his hands to Shawn’s waist, tugging him forward so the younger man was situated between his thighs. Shawn moved his hands to cradle his face, lifting him slightly from the chair into an eager kiss. Bret let his own hands find their way under his t-shirt, running his fingers up Shawn’s back. “Come here.” Bret breathed against Shawn’s lips, guiding him to straddle his lap. 

Shawn smiled into their kiss, feeling Bret’s growing excitement beneath him. Shawn slid his hand down, teasing at Bret’s erection. “I knew you always had a hart on for me.” he joked. “Do you ever just shut the fuck up Michaels?” Bret gasped in between Shawn’s stroking. Their mouths fought for the upperhand, Bret captured Shawn’s bottom lip and bit down roughly. Shawn withdrew, taken aback, “Damn hitman.” he snickered, testing his lip for blood. He hated Shawn and this was probably a huge mistake, but all he wanted to do was make Shawn shut up. Swiftly he grabbed Shawn by the thighs, hoisting him up, and threw him to the bed. Shawn bounced onto the mattress, promptly grabbing at Bret’s shirt to yank him forward. Bret landed a quick peck to Shawn’s mouth before moving to devour his neck. Strategically he removed the pesky white t-shirt from Shawn, creating a makeshift tie to bind Shawn’s wrists.   

He ran his tongue down to Shawn’s shoulder; tasting sweat, motel body wash, and a hint of rain water. Not an ideal flavor, but damn did it taste good on Shawn. Bret flipped Shawn effortlessly onto his stomach, keeping hold of his bound wrists. He swept Shawn’s hair to the side, kissing the nape of his neck. Shawn arched into him, craning his neck to meet Bret’s lips. His fingers felt for the waistband of Shawn’s sweatpants, sliding his hand under the fabric, not surprised to find he wasn’t wearing underwear and grasping his cock. Letting go of his wrists, he tapped the side of Shawn’s hips, signaling Shawn to prop himself on his knees. Shawn read him easily as if inside the ring and elevated his backside, pushing against Bret’s groin, breaking their kiss and keeping his face down to the mattress.

“Holy shit, Hitman…I want you.” Shawn sputtered as Bret began to steadily pump Shawn’s dick. “Fuck, I’ve always wanted you, Bret.” he mumbled into the bed. How long had Shawn wanted him? Was it nearly as long as he wanted Shawn? Over the years he had indulged himself in the occasional sexy boy fantasy and every time he loathed himself for it. He was a complete hypocrite with each jab at Shawn for shooting that girly mag. Now he had Shawn under him, unapologetically jerking him off. He brought his free hand to clasp Shawn’s throat, easing him upward so he could relax against his chest. Bret continued his deliberate rhythm, relishing the low moans and the way Shawn began to thrust into Bret’s hand. “Jesus. Don’t stop.” Shawn whimpered, burying his face into Bret’s neck. He could tell Shawn was getting close, his panting becoming more rapid.

The feeling of Shawn nestled into his body was intoxicating. Sure, they had their physical history in the ring which was intimate in itself but maybe Shawn was right after all. Maybe this was exactly what they needed. What they couldn’t settle on the mat, they could settle behind closed doors. Bret pressed his lips to Shawn’s forehead, “You know I still hate you?” he said, his words muffled against Shawn’s skin and damp hair. “This doesn’t change anything between us.” The hold he had on Shawn’s neck became a little tighter. “Even with my…dick in your hand, you still…manage to be all business.” Shawn choked out as Bret’s pace began to quicken. Bret covered Shawn’s mouth, muting the wail expelling from him as he erupted into Bret’s hand. Shawn clawed at his hold with his own constrained wrists, his hips rutting wildly into Bret’s palm as he rode out his orgasm.       

Bret released Shawn, letting him drop to the mattress. He lay there exhausted, chest heaving and glistening with sweat. Shawn twisted his wrists from the tied up shirt, easily exiting his confines. “Bret baby…” Shawn with eyes still glazed over, rolled to face him. “Please, let me make you feel good too.” he begged, crawling between Bret’s legs to play with the drawstrings of his sweats. He lifted Bret’s shirt, kissing gently at his stomach. The touch of Shawn’s lips pressing at his skin made him shiver and the thought alone of the blonde going down on him was damn near enough to make him come. Against his better judgment, he leaned back and let Shawn take control. 

Shawn slid his sweats and underwear down, revealing his throbbing erection. Without much pause, Shawn took him into his mouth. He let his eyes flutter shut, Shawn clearly had done this a time or two. His mouth felt so warm, so good, his tongue hitting all the right places. He clutched at Shawn’s hair, allowing his fingers to entangle themselves. “God damn Michaels…” he managed to groan as Shawn licked up the length of his cock. He wasn’t going to last much longer. Shawn was unrelenting as he held tightly to Bret’s thighs, keeping him in place as his hips bucked desperately into the heat of Shawn’s mouth. He couldn’t help the mangled cry Shawn managed to pry out of him as he came. “Holy shit.” he breathed, unable to form anything else articulate. 

The rain seemed to intensify outside the window, brisk air filtering in and caressing their moist bodies. Shawn had positioned himself on top of Bret’s stomach, his chin resting on crossed arms. “I bet you didn’t hate me just now.” he purred. “Fuck you.” Bret smirked, propping a hand behind his neck. His dark eyes met Shawn’s baby blues. “What now?” Shawn asked. Bret’s other hand traveled down to brush the hair from Shawn’s face, tucking a rogue lock behind his ear. “I don’t know. We have to get up soon.” Shawn emitted a breathy sigh, “Let’s stay like this a bit longer.” he insisted. The Heartbreak Kid’s eyes closed as he leaned into the way Bret lazily threaded his fingers through his golden hair. 

Internally Bret felt the need to run, this dangerously bordered on affection. He should shove the younger man away, tell him to get lost, and figure out what to do before their next show. However, his needs and wants were very different. He had said nothing would change, but deep down he knew neither of them believed that. Would they fall back into their rivalry or back into bed? What was to follow after, they couldn’t know now and they didn’t have to address it just yet. This sweet silence was preferred to all the bullshit they put each other through. Even if they had got it wrong, they could figure out the details later. Before the other knew it, the sound of the rain mixed with their slow breathing lulled them to sleep. 

This quiet moment was theirs to keep.

[muiitoloko]

Title: Loyalty

Summary: Bedivere's loyalty is tested.

Pairing: Harry Hart (Kingsman) × Fem!Reader

Warnings: Obscenity.

Author's Notes: Bedivere is back!!! 📢📢

As Harry sipped his Martini, he couldn't tear his gaze away from you, sprawled on his bed, your wrists bound to the headboard as you squirmed and whimpered in ecstasy. The vibrator he had expertly placed inside you worked its magic, sending waves of pleasure coursing through your body.

He chuckled darkly, savoring the sight of you unraveling beneath his touch. "Such a pretty little thing, aren't you?" he mused, his voice low and husky with desire. "But you're mine now, all tied up and at my mercy."

You moaned in response, your breath hitching as the vibrations intensified, pushing you closer and closer to the edge of oblivion. Your body arched instinctively, seeking more of the delicious torture Harry was inflicting upon you.

Harry's lips curled into a wicked grin as he watched your every move, reveling in the power he held over you. "That's it, darling," he cooed, his tone dripping with sinful delight. "Let go for me. Let me see you come apart at the seams."

With a flick of his wrist, Harry adjusted the intensity of the vibrator, sending you spiraling into a frenzy of sensation. Your cries grew louder, more desperate, as pleasure consumed every fiber of your being.

But just as you felt yourself teetering on the brink of release, Harry cruelly dialed back the vibrations, leaving you dangling on the precipice of ecstasy. "Not yet, my dear," he murmured, his voice laced with wicked amusement. "You'll come when I say you can come."

You whimpered in frustration, your body trembling with need as Harry toyed with you mercilessly. But even as you begged for release, a part of you relished the exquisite torment he inflicted upon you, craving more of his sinful touch.

As Harry reclined in his armchair, relishing the control he held over you with the remote control in his hand, you gazed up at him with a mixture of desire and frustration. "My king," you breathed, your voice laced with longing. "You're evil, you know that?"

Harry chuckled darkly, his eyes smoldering with desire as he watched you squirming on the bed. "Only for you, my dear," he replied, his tone dripping with sinful amusement. "But you love it, don't you? Being at my mercy, completely under my control."

You moaned in response, your body trembling with need as Harry toyed with the intensity of the vibrations. "Yes, my king," you whispered, your voice husky with desire. "I love it... I love you."

Harry's lips curled into a wicked grin as he set his martini glass aside and approached you, his eyes burning with intensity as he leaned in close. "And I love you, Bedivere," he murmured, his voice low and seductive. "But I need you to tell me what I want to know. Are you ready to talk?"

You shook your head defiantly, a defiant gleam in your eye as you refused to give in to his demands. "Never," you spat, your voice filled with determination. "I'll never betray Kingsman, no matter what you do to me."

Harry's gaze hardened with pride at your words, his admiration for your loyalty shining through. "Good," he praised, his voice tinged with approval. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

This was a game, or as Harry referred to it: Training, that you were participating in. Harry was curious to see how much you would endure if you were captured by an enemy and subjected to such “interrogation” to extract information about the agency. However, to his pride, you resisted as much as possible.

As Harry knelt next to the bed, his fingers delicately tracing the contours of your face, he whispered in your ear, his voice a seductive melody, encouraging you to divulge what Kingsman was. "Tell me, my dear," he murmured, his breath hot against your skin. "Tell me, and I'll grant you the release you so desperately crave."

But despite the tears of pleasure pooling in your eyes from the relentless torment of the vibrator, you shook your head defiantly, a defiant spark in your gaze. "Never," you gasped, your voice strained with desire. "I'll never betray Kingsman, not even for this."

Harry's lips curled into a satisfied smirk as he watched your resolve falter under the relentless stimulation. "As you wish," he purred, his tone laced with amusement. "But remember, my dear, pleasure awaits those who cooperate."

With a cruel twist of the dial, he intensified the vibrations, eliciting a whimper of ecstasy from you as pleasure surged through your body. But just as you felt yourself teetering on the edge of release, Harry withdrew the vibrator, leaving you whimpering in frustration at the sudden emptiness.

However, true to his word, Harry claimed his reward for your loyalty. With practiced ease, he freed himself from his pants and plunged into you, your soaked core welcoming him eagerly. A gasp of pleasure escaped your lips as he filled you completely, his hand on the side of your head for support as he began to thrust into you with slow, deliberate movements.

"Oh, Bedivere," Harry groaned, his voice thick with desire. "You feel so good, so tight around me." His thrusts were steady and powerful, hitting all the right spots within you, driving you wild with pleasure.

As the friction of his pants against your core added to the sensation, you felt yourself unraveling once again, pleasure building within you like a tidal wave ready to crash. "Harry," you moaned, your voice a breathless plea. "Please, don't stop."

With a satisfied smirk, Harry quickened his pace, driving you both towards the brink of ecstasy. "I won't, my dear," he whispered, his voice dripping with sinful promise. "I'll never stop until you're completely undone."

And with one final, intense thrust, you shattered around him, waves of pleasure crashing over you as you cried out his name.

As the waves of pleasure subsided, leaving you panting and trembling in Harry's arms, he gently stroked your hair, whispering sweet words of reassurance. "Shh, Bedivere, you were magnificent," he murmured, pressing soft kisses to your forehead. "You did so well."

With tender care, Harry reached for the silk bindings that held your wrists, slowly undoing them as he leaned in to kiss away the tears of ecstasy that lingered on your cheeks. "There, my love," he cooed, his voice a soothing melody. "You're free now."

But as you felt the warmth of his skin against yours, a mischievous spark ignited within you. With a playful smirk, you grabbed hold of his suit, pulling him closer with a hint of urgency, your nails grazing his skin ever so slightly. "Not so fast, Mr. Hart," you teased, your voice dripping with sass. "I'm not done with you yet."

Surprised by your sudden assertiveness, Harry's eyes widened in anticipation as you wrapped your legs around his waist, spinning him around effortlessly until you were straddling him, your gaze locking with his in a challenge. "Seems like you let your guard down, my dear king," you purred, your tone laced with mischief. "Now, who's in charge?"

A wicked grin spread across your lips as you leaned in close, trailing teasing kisses along his jawline, reveling in the way his breath hitched with each gentle touch. "Let's test your loyalty, shall we?" you whispered, your voice low and seductive.

[sitp-recs]

You're a Kingsman fan?!? That is one of my top five favorite movies! Do you do any fic for it?

Yes! I wasn’t a big fan of the sequels but the first movie is one of my favourites too 😍 I was in the fandom between 2015-2017 and luckily had a bunch of bookmarks in my old account. They’re not recent but tbh I’d rec anything from the authors below, they’re all excellent. Enjoy!

Tongue in Cheek by venvephe (E, 4k)

Eggsy's never done this before - or, to be clear, he's never had this done to him.

Squeeze by rageprufrock (E, 5.7k)

From the start, Harry’s read Eggsy all over, seen right through him, so Eggsy’s not surprised that he’s barely had time to think about how he wants to feel ruined that Harry gives it to him — just like that.

under my skin (tried so not to give in) by venvephe (E, 12k)

This is a monumentally bad idea, Eggsy realizes, in the fraction of a second between reaching out and tugging at Harry’s tie and seeing his eyes briefly widen before their lips meet.

Only As Directed by rageprufrock (E, 12k)

“Arthur is a bad man,” Roxy had said. “Fucking tell me about it,” Eggsy had muttered, and gone to put on the tarty trousers Harry had picked out for him like a fucking high-end pimp.

Class Of Conduct by fideliant (E, 12k)

Or, Six Things Eggsy Has Learned About Being A Gentleman.

all the tables turn by DivineProjectZero (E, 23k)

Harry Hart has terrible taste in men. So it comes as a bit of a surprise when Eggsy smiles at him and the predator inside Harry cocks its head in consideration.

As Men to Fear the Dark by proxydialogue (E, 25k)

After V-day, the world is a jigsaw in a tumble dryer. Nations across the world have collapsed. Kingsman itself is in shambles. Eggsy, Merlin, and Roxy are working desperately to piece everything back together, while in the shadows, mad and malicious men find footholds in the rubble, using the chaos to their advantage.

Your Highness by Galahard (E, 40k) - AU

The international community is in chaos this morning in the wake of the deaths of many world leaders. The death of the president of the United States has been confirmed, along with the majority of his cabinet. Great Britain can count itself lucky that the Queen has been found and finally returned to her throne, but her heirs are another story. It appears that both princes and their own heirs are among the casualties of what is being referred to as the Valentine’s Day Massacre. Sources close to--

the parting glass by kirkaut (E, 48k)

The words shrivel and die between them. Harry's chest hitches on an indrawn breath. The contours of his face are cast dramatically in the fiery hues of the street at night, highlighting the wrinkle in his forehead and the soft slope of his chin and the silvery pink of his scar. He's beautiful, and Eggsy loves him.

The Spy who Loved Me (Or so they say) by ToriCeratops (E, 54k)

In the wake of V-day the world’s economy hangs in a delicate balance, liable to crumble without warning. One man has the knowledge and the power necessary to send it tumbling down, so that only he remains on top.

Bon Appétit by Galahard (T, 58k) - AU

“This is actually an excellent opportunity for you. Kingsman is one of the most elite cooking schools in London, and they so rarely offer evening courses like this. The fact that they were willing to work with us and allow you to attend is a miracle.”

Once Upon a Different Lifetime by missbecky (M, 58k)

The night before the final test, Harry makes Eggsy a promise: once he is a Kingsman, they will talk about their future together. Then V-Day happens, and although Harry recovers, he doesn't remember that last day he spent with Eggsy.

[coochiequeens]

This is why accurate information about sex and race is important. A study just gave a name to another way businesses pass over women for promotions and how women of color are impacted at greater rates.

Forget The Glass Ceiling, 'The Broken Rung' Is Why Women Are Denied Promotions

A new study finds Black women and Latinas in particular are the least likely to get that first promotion — and it’s not because they’re not asking for it.

by Monica Torres

Getting your first promotion into management is a huge achievement in your career. But a new study from consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and nonprofit Lean In shows it’s an opportunity that is not equally afforded to everyone. 

According to the study, which used pipeline data from 276 companies in the private, public and social sectors, women ― and women of color, in particular ― are the least likely demographic to get promoted from entry-level to first-time manager. 

For every 100 men promoted from entry-level contributor to manager in the survey, only 87 women got promoted. And this gap gets wider for women of color: This year, while 91 white women were promoted to manager for every 100 men, only 89 Asian women, 76 Latinas and 54 Black women would get that same opportunity. 

“As a result of this broken rung, women fall behind and can’t catch up,” the study states.

It’s not because those women were not asking for it ― the study found that the women were asking for promotions at the same rate as their male peers. And it’s not because these women did not stick around long enough to be considered for the job ― the study found that they were no more likely to leave their company than their male peers. 

The main culprit to this “broken rung” in the career ladder? It’s what known as a “performance bias.”

Why women deal with the “broken rung” phenomenon.

Under a performance bias, men get promoted more because of their future potential, while women get judged on their past accomplishments and have their leadership potential doubted.

“Because women early in their careers have shorter track records and similar work experiences relative to their men peers, performance bias can especially disadvantage them at the first promotion to manager,” according to the study. 

This research aligns with the “prove-it-again bias” studies have found women face throughout their career: where they do more work in order to be seen as equally competent to their male peers. 

As for why it’s hardest for women of color to make that first leap into management? Workplace consultant Minda Harts, author of “The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table,” said it’s because systemic biases and stereotypes cause women of color to be less trusted for the job. 

“This lack of trust can manifest in several ways, such as doubts about competence, commitment or ‘fit’ within a leadership role,” Harts told HuffPost. “When senior leadership is predominantly male and white, an unconscious bias might lead them to trust individuals who mirror their own experiences or backgrounds ... As a result, women of color may be disproportionately overlooked for promotions.”

The McKinsey study found that women of color surveyed this year were even less likely to become first-time managers in 2023 than they were in 2022.

Feminist career coach Cynthia Pong told HuffPost it’s because in tough financial times, companies often operate under a scarcity mindset and might see women of color as a bigger “risk” to promote when they are underrepresented in leadership. 

“We just had to go through layoffs, and we only have three [manager roles]. You can easily see how in times like that, it would just end up replicating these systems where we only trust and only give the benefit of the doubt to certain folks,” Pong said. “And it’s not going to be women of color.” 

That sends a dispiriting message to people who watch their peers advance while they get told they are still not ready.

“It’s even more frustrating and infuriating ... when you see that there is a pathway for others, but not for you. Because the injustice of it makes your blood boil,” Pong said.  

This should not be on women and women of color to fix. Employers should proactively take steps to make a clear promotion path for all. 

There is a lot of talk about the “glass ceiling” and the barrier women face that prevents them from becoming executives at the top. But this study illustrates that there is a more fundamental problem happening to women early in their career: the systemic bias that prevents women from being seen as a leader who can manage other people. 

“Our success must be something other than a solo sport,” Harts said. “We can’t promote and advance ourselves.”

For companies to be part of the solution, employers should be more transparent about how managerial promotions happen.

“Trust is enhanced when employees understand what is expected of them and what they can expect from their leaders,” Harts said. “This transparency can help mitigate unconscious biases or misconceptions about capabilities or trustworthiness.”

To break down stereotypes and build trust between employees of color and leadership, Harts also recommended companies to implement programs where women of color are paired with sponsors in senior roles. 

What you can do about this as an employee.

If you keep being told vague “no’s” after every promotion request, start asking more questions about what your peers are doing that you are not.

“They’re not going to admit to having a systemic problem. They’re going to say, ‘We just don’t have it in the budget,’” said Elaine Lou Cartas, a business and career coach for women of color. 

“I’ve seen people that got promoted to this where they are also doing the same amount as I was, but I was doing A, B and C. Help me understand,” is the kind of assertive framing you can use to ask more questions, Cartas said.

And if you find the goalpost of promotion metrics keeps moving after your conversation with your manager, that might be the time to start job hunting. 

“Once you already have that conversation, and nothing’s being done, or at least there’s no steps or actions for it to be done in the future, that’s when [you] could start looking,” Cartas said.

Ultimately, one missed promotion may not seem like a huge setback, but it adds up over time with lost wages and earning potential, Pong said. 

“And then that also ripples out generationally to all the families and family units that each woman of color is supporting, and then those to come,” she said. “So it seems like it might be like no big deal to have this person promoted one or two years later. But ... these things really snowball.”

[fantasies-fairytales-n-fics]

Thranduil and Josie Pt. 166- Mouse Trap

Summary: Dr. Legolas Greenleaf is in the house. An impaired Josie remembers and reveals important info. Bash and Charles enter Dorwinion city. Upsetting info comes to Charles' attention and then more comes to light as a group unites. Cat and mouse anyone?

*Chapter Warnings* language, angst, graphic depictions, mild violence, mentions of rape

Chapter characters: Josie, Legolas, Merlin, Bash, Charles, Delphine, Nun, Haldir, Rumil, Rahl

Chapter word count: 5,216

Stories Stories Stories Masterlist:

After an hour long session of your palm being stitched up by an elf who's only skills of proficiency were archery, swordsmanship and flinging himself from tree to tree, you were well under the influence of Dorwinion's wicked whiskey to kill the pain.

"I am finished my lady." Legolas exhaled in relief as he bandaged your hand, which you could have sworn he did not breathe the entire time.

"Now, Josie...do you want to tell me how this deep cut really occurred? This is not the markings of being cut by glass, which the healing water would have cured, but Lola told me it burned you."

"Oh sweet Leggy...you're too smart for your own britches...or should I say stitches??" you giggled with a snort, which brought Legolas' brow to an astounded arch.

A soft amused grin finally formed on his thin lips. "And you my lady, have had enough of the golden giggle juice."

His jestful remark had you snorting again. "And you're funny too."

"Well, there's nothing funny about this wound or finding you unconscious on the castle floor....or your spiteful words earlier this night."

"Well..." you frowned, pouting out your bottom lip. "That's all Stephy's fault..kind of...ok not really...it's the poison in my blood that his wicked twin put there by his beastly claws!"

Now Legolas' brow arched again as the other one furrowed. "Alright, maybe you should just rest for now and..."

"What? You do not believe me?? Tell me Leggo...did you or my Kingly King of all Kings know that Narcisse, well, actually Rahl, can turn onto a giant fucking cat?? Oh wait...BOTH of them can...one white as snow, one black as charcoal, but Stephy, he's the good witch and Rahl, he's the wicked witch of the west, only he's not a girl and definitely not green and ugly like her. Anywhooo, he freaking cut my hand when he shifted. I was standing too close."

"Josie...you have been seeing things that are not there. This happened tonight on the patio. You said Narcisse was there, but he was on the shoreline remember? And..I also found you talking to a wall."

"Ohhh, yes! There..there was a little girl...Rosie! I'm supposed to find her daddy. But noooo, that was not Narcisse, that was Rahlllll. He was a huuuuge raptor and flew down from the moon, morphing into a man wearing the devil's blood red robe with Stephane's face, minus the horns and pitchfork, and he walked right through me!! Come on Lego..las! I know what you and Thranduil can change into. The white hart. I saw you in Rivendell remember?? And I saw Thranduil in the forest only weeks ago, although that was just his ghost... so stop acting like it's impossible and that I am just drunk and delusional! And you yourself just said this cut did not happen on glass! Why do you think Mirkwood's water burns it?"

Legolas realized you were actually right as he sighed, and then his mind drifted to his father, knowing that was not a ghost that you saw whatsoever.

"I..I believe you. All things are possible with magic. As far as Narcisse, or this Rahl? I am not aware of it...but, possibly my father knew. What didn't he know?"

"That is true....but Rahl..he was brought back by Jareth. He's not even real. He's something Stephane's mind created long ago to protect himself from a terrible trauma inflicted by his father. Surely you knew him?? Didn't Thranduil trade with him as well when the Dorwinion King was alive?"

"Yes. He was quite wicked, just like the whiskey you have devoured."

"I fought Rahl tonight. Blade to blade. He was taking advantage of Claude. I saw her before I got to his chambers and she told me what he tried to do. You said that Lola saw Stephane kissing her, but that was not him Legolas."

"You fought Narcisse with a sword???"

"No! Rahl! but...I..I don't remember what happened after that...I woke up here...and...oh my god, my dream! There was a magic elf statue. It was Thranduil! and the bottom, it said...."

Legolas swiftly stood with gaping moonstones peering down at you.

"Gúl -o Aran Thranduil. Ech- a ithil sarn iest no i clair de lune." Legolas whispered.

You sat right up, also with gaping eyes as you too, whispered.

"Magic King Thranduil. Make a moonstone wish under the moonlight. Legolas?? You mean it is real???"

He slowly sat back down with a stiffened stance. "It is. My grandmother carved it and as she did so, her magic was carved into it. It was lost years ago during my grandfather's reign. You..you dreamt of this..where did you see it??"

"Peter's cabin. I...I was there again..and...I can't believe this. How could I have forgotten?? It..it was Christmas and Peter brought me this box of mostly junk, claiming he got the stuff at a thrift shop in Northern New Zealand. He said some gypsy like lady said it granted wishes and gave it to him for free, that the price was in the wishes. But then the asshole took it from me when I...oh my god, that came true!!"

"What came true??"

"I..I wished out loud in anger, right in front of Peter, for him to be devoured by a giant spider in the forest and that happened Legolas, in Mordor!! And then, he got angry and wished to come back from the dead and haunt me and...now he has by Jareth's doing. I just know he's out there! I saw him...a vision of him at my birthday party during a palm reading and he told me he was coming for me!!"

You began to hyperventilate as you sobbed and Legolas quickly pulled you into his arms.

"Never. Never will I let him harm you. Do not cry. Josie...I am sorry I was not here for your birthday. I am so sorry I left you. I will get you a proper gift someday soon."

You sniffled and hiccupped into hair, breathing in his calming tree leaf scent.

"No, I am the one who's sorry. I said horrible things to you tonight. You are the gift Legolas, wrapped beautifully with your giant big bow."

The Prince softly smiled at your double meaning as he tightened his embrace with closed eyes. "Happy birthday my lady."

"LEGOLAS!!" you shouted and pushed out of his arms, accidentally waking Leean.

"I know where the amethyst pendant is!!! I dreamt of it too."

"One of the six needed? Where is it?"

"Yes! At the cabin. I..it...it was Sarah's, hidden among some of her things I kept...but..I don't understand why she would have it? I...I've even dreamt of it before. Her mother, Jocelyn, told me to find Sarah and then put it on me and then I was sucked into some kind of portal. Leggy, we have to go there!"

You jumped out of bed and frantically began rummaging through your clothes to change as Legolas picked Leean up and tried to talk some sense into you.

"We cannot go there tonight or any night, for many reasons Josie. Most importantly, Harker is out there and the dead too. Also, that cabin would take days upon days of travel from where we are. We would be lucky to arrive before the solstice."

"Well we have to do something Legolas, especially while my mind is clear. I don't know what's happening to me with all these hallucinations and the way I have been acting. Look how I treated you and what I said about Lola...Lola? Where...where is she?? I need to speak to her about...something."

That something being about Rahl being her father.

"Out for a walk. I too...said some unpleasant, but warranted things to her."

"What??"

"Lola is of no matter at this time. You are. Your mind is not clear as you said. We must find a way to heal you, but first, you must sleep. We can discuss this further come the morning."

The morning that Legolas dreaded, for it was the deadline that his father had given him to begin the journey back to his halls with you and Leeanduil or Thranduil was going to come and reclaim you both himself, bringing his elven army with him that would incite a war. The Prince would have to decide the wiser option, for both scenarios could carry deadly consequences, the latter being of the higher risk and either would be a very heartbreaking outcome for you to see your King who wasn't your King at all. Should he just tell you the truth and let you decide? That was an immediate hard no for Legolas considering your state of mind.

"Oh god...Bash. Yes, I forgot...he told me there's a witch doctor in the city who can do so and I saw him leave tonight with Charles to go find her. Ok, let me think."

Still tipsy, you paced about as Leean quietly watched you from her brother's arms.

"If only Garrett were here. He could go and get it in only a few hours time...or even my crow..if I even knew where either of them were, but then again, Garrett is off with Kate somewhere probably getting it on. That jerk has my moonstone that I told him to hide. We need that now too. OR...I could try and summon the eagles!!!"

"Alright, slow down. The vampire Kate that my father beheaded?"

"Yep! I saw them, in the mirror, there in the trash. Garrett told me himself he had chosen to be with her again...but...it can't be true, it just can't be."

"Maybe it was another hallucination?" Legolas suggested as his eyes wandered to the trash to view the pulverized mirror.

"No. This happened before I was scratched. It...it must be real then. Why? Why would he do this to me?"

You turned to conceal your eyes that burned of tears over the vampire you secretly and deeply loved and then the room began to spin.

"I...I feel sick." you muttered and ran to the bathroom to rid of the wicked whiskey in your stomach.

Legolas laid his sister back down and kissed her tiny fingers, then he came to you, holding your hair back as your other beloved elves, Haldir and Thranduil, had done.

Once you were finished, you began to teeter from side to side.

"I've got you."

Legolas swooped you back up in his arms and carried you once more to tuck you in for the night and within seconds of Legolas patting your forehead again with the medicinal cloth, you were out.

As he then made his way to feed Leean, Legolas' ears twitched at the scratching and patting noise coming from the door. One of his white knives were swiftly drawn as he moved with great stealth towards the sound.

"Speak your identity!" he firmly commanded.

"Mrrrrow." sounded at the base of the door, drawing Legolas' astonished eyes downward with furrowed brows.

Upon swinging the door open, in strutted Merlin with his bushy tail straight in the air and greeted the elf with a single figure eight sway around and through his legs, then the purring Maine Coon of long lustrous black and gray fur, leaped upon the bed and curled up beside you.

Legolas offered the Kingly feline a soft grin as he closed and locked the door.

"Alright. I suppose you can stay...as if my approval is needed for that of an entitled cat."

Merlin's round cerulean eyes twinkled of magic, stunning the Prince where he stood and then the giant royal beauty lowered his lids to slits and went to sleep.

Bash and Charles disembarked the ferry to Dorwinion city while the small squad of warlock guards that tagged along for extra safety measures held back to not alarm the locals. To begin their search for the infamous lady witch doctor, they chose the nearest tavern for a brief rest and a much needed drink, not so much out of thirst on the bitterly cold winter's night created by the Elvenking's earthly wrath, but out of anxiety.

"Bash, I have been thinking on the way here. Is this really the only option? You know as well as anyone that black magic is not to be toyed with and Delphine is notorious for such acts. Look what happened to my mother and sister for tempting fate. Taking anything from a devil or a witch most always comes with a price. Can she even be trusted?" Charles asked, sipping his wicked ale as his nerves were now getting the better of him.

"Your mother was already evil and deserved her fate which was torture too kind if you ask me. Without the help of your father, this is the only known option and yes, I trust Delphine. This is what she does."

"But Josie is not evil. She is good and kind."

"She won't be for long if she is not cleansed of Rahl's venom. Any repercussions of the healing far outweighs what she will become....wicked like Rahl himself. Drink up, but carefully. We must keep our wits about us."

"So...Is it true?" the young warlock asked of his confused uncle after a moment of silence.

"Is what true?"

"The King of Mirkwood. He lives and caused the destruction this night?"

"No dear nephew. That was the Elvenking."

In that eerie moment of truth, a city guard approached the duo with discerning eyes.

"Sebastian Narcisse. What brings you and the young Prince to the city on a cold, dark and dangerous night? Surely it's not solely for our Lord's crafted ale that is quite plentiful in his kingdom. Is this in relation to the evening's earthly event?"

"It is one reason yes, to ensure our people are well and to assess the damage. Are there any wounded or fatalities?"

"No deaths reported, but there have been some minor injuries from shaken structures. Is all well at the castle? I would have expected Lord Narcisse to have accompanied you."

"My brother is tending to matters there, so we have come in his place. We are also looking for others. Have you happened to cross paths with Haldir of Lorien? Two men and a dwarf had come here as well in their own search for him."

"Ahh yes. The elven Marchwarden. I saw him not long ago on the docks with his brothers and the others you speak of, the Ranger, the Bowman and the dwarf. They were ready to depart when the violent rumble occurred. I am not sure of their whereabouts now, for the waters were too treacherous for the ferry to transport at the time."

"There is one other we seek. One all here know of."

Bash moved in closer and whispered to not be heard by others. "Delphine."

The man immediately stiffened up. "Why on earth would you seek the wicked??"

"She is not wicked, only perceived to be. There is one who desperately needs her help."

"A perception well deserved. Her help will be costly. You know this, for your brother does not permit black magic of any kind. It is considered a crime as you also know which is why she hides. I am sure you recall the village near here. The boy she healed of the black plague became blind and the farm animals fell ill with disease solely from her presence."

"His blindness was caused by the disease. The animals suffered from it too."

"Witches leave a trail of evil. Birds fall from the sky when they are near." the man argued as Bash recalled the pile of dead blackbirds on his terrace.

"Not all witches. Only wicked ones. I would not seek her if I believed her wicked. What happened to her was not her fault. Much more wicked this way comes. She is the least of anyone's worries. Now, do you know of her whereabouts?"

"Harker was indeed her fault. No one gives something to a warlock of evil without a price. It is my understanding that the witch is in God's hands now. From what we have been informed of here, Harker is in the area and has killed some of your men. He is no different from her. She probably assisted him."

"He is and has done as you heard. But as far as Delphine, you know not what you speak of. What she gave was not freely given and she would not aid him in any manner. I thank you for the information. We must be on our way now. Charles, come!"

Bash and Charles left and headed down the long winding docks that encased the colossal city that never sleeps, in hopes of finding Haldir and the others to bring them and the Marchwarden back to the castle, going against Narcisse's banishment of the elf. Bash knew they would be needed for the impending winter war and he knew you needed Haldir. He also had figured out where Delphine was.

"Bash...what did Delphine give Harker??" Charles soon asked with a curious brow.

As Bash continued his hefty strides, he glanced at Charles.

"Lola."

Charles halted his steps as Bash carried on around the corner.

"What?? Wait! Where are we going??"

"Guards!" Bash called to them as they stood at the boarding port. "Follow me."

"My lord. We were informed by the boatman that another ferry had taken Haldir and the others across the bay just before we arrived."

"Then we must hurry. Let's go!!"

"Bash!" Charles angrily shouted. "WHERE are we going??

"The nunnery." he huffed as his fast strides turned into a gallop.

Charles' brows scrunched in confusion over his crinkled nose.

"Church?? We are going to...church???"

"Please. No more. I beg of you. You said you would help me." Delphine pleaded as the elder prioress neared her with a glowing red hot iron bar from the fireplace.

"I am helping you child by ridding Satan of your soul."

The weakened, perspiring witch knelt on the dirt ground, her hands bound tightly behind her back by coarse roping that scoured her wrists like sandpaper, rendered helpless to fight back, for she had been stripped of her power by the previous iron branding of a cross upon her bare chest. It wouldn't have mattered what symbol was burned into her flesh. Iron was iron to a witch, whether good or bad, except for the immunity you had formerly acquired to the power draining magnet.

"You tricked me. I came to you for refuge of the evil one but it seems you are the real evil here."

"Hush your wicked lips now. This is the 7th marking. The final one. If you are not evil like you claim, you will be healed."

"I will be dead!! I cannot take anymore. Please!"

"Back away from her!!" Bash shouted as he kicked the door in with his guards following and immediately cut the feeble witch's ropes free.

"What are you doing?? She needs cleansed of the devil!"

"It is you that needs cleansed, you fool!" Bash snapped at the nun as he swooped up the debilitated Delphine in his arms and swiftly departed.

Once embarked on the ferry, Bash covered her with a wool blanket as she laid barely conscious upon a wooden bench.

"Bash, what good is she to Josie in this state??" Charles whispered.

"A long bath in the healing waters will aid her recovery and use of her power."

"Why does it not help Josie? You said it burns her wound?"

"It's like pouring water on hot grease when it reacts with Rahl's venom."

"Then let me ask you this. Once the Queen is healed... how do we stop Rahl without killing my father???"

"I don't know." Bash replied with great worry.

"Rahl? He's...back too?" Delphine muttered as she opened her chocolate eyes and then became quite agitated as she sat up. "No..no, Bash, you cannot take me back there!"

Bash sat beside her and took her trembling hands into his.

"I will protect you. We have others that will protect you as well. Someone dear to us needs your healing, for she has been tainted with his venom and Lola...she's believed you dead all this time. She needs her mother...she needs you Jocelyn."

Delphine's hand swiftly covered his mouth as her eyes gaped wide with fear and Charles' jaw dropped open.

"Don't ever say my name out loud! They both will hear you! I have been hiding from Harker for so long and I know he is near. Those farm animals did not die because of me...and that boy...it's Harker's curse upon me that made him go blind. I..I cannot heal your friend without cost and if I go there and attempt to, Rahl will surely punish me or even kill me this time. I can not attempt to take what he has marked for himself...not even our daughter."

"WHAT????" Charles roared. "Lola...she is my sister?????"

"Charles, calm down and let me explai..."

"Do not patronize me!! Why was I never told this??? Does my father know??? Does Lola even know??? My god, I...I had a cru...I can't even say it aloud. I feel ill..."

Charles rushed to the front of the ferry and leaned his head over the rail in hopes that the chilled wind would hold his vomit down.

"Charles. Please listen." Bash sympathetically said as he walked up behind him. "Your father does not know. There are some things he cannot remember. Possibly from the trauma of what Rahl did while consuming his body and Lola, she was too young. Neither Delphine nor Rahl told her."

The mad warlock spun around. "Then how do YOU know??!!"

"Because Rahl made sure I knew all those years ago."

"And you never told my father??!"

"Charles...I..I couldn't. Delphine swore me to secrecy because...Rahl..he..used his magic to force her in his bed. She was ashamed and never wanted Lola to know either and I...I could not tell Stephane what he had done. It would have destroyed him. Our father made him do similar things when he was a young boy like you and that is what made Rahl exist in the first place..."

"I can hear no more of this! I have been lied to about everything from the day I was born and now this. Leave me alone!"

The ferry docked and Charles was the first one to disembark, immediately heading straight to his horse as Bash followed with Delphine in his arms once more.

"Wait! Someone is out there!" Delphine warned before Bash could place her up on his horse.

The warlock spun his head around to the forest as he continued to shield her body, protecting her like he promised he would do, when Haldir and company appeared from the darkness.

"Sebastian. Charles. We recognized your horses so we waited for your return."

"Haldir. We have been searching for you to bring you back. All of you. Terrible things are happening back at the castle."

"I have been banished by your brother. More terrible things will most likely occur if I return."

"There are things you do not know."

"Do not feel left out Haldir. It's something my family likes to do. Keep secrets." Charles retorted as he walked off to relieve himself.

After the Marchwarden watched the boy walk away with a raised brow, he turned back to Bash.

"If you are referring to the earthly disturbance this evening, we are well aware of it's cause."

"Well, no, I was not speaking of that, but yes. If my suspicions are correct, it was King Thranduil. He is alive?"

Rumil's Silvan eyes jolted to Haldir as Haldir's moved to Delphine, consumed with caution.

"I know who you are. Your reputation precedes you. I sense evil upon you. You are marked with it. Why is she here?"

"Haldir. It was placed upon her long ago by Harker by no fault of hers. Josie needs her help, for she too has been marked by evil."

Haldir's sapphire eyes dilated and bolted back to Bash as Delphine's eyes widened.

"What has happened to Jo?? Is she alright???" Haldir barked as he stepped forward.

"The woman's name is...Josie?? and called Jo?? Red...hair???" Delphine cut in, highly astonished.

Bash peered down at the woman of long brown locks like Lola's. "You...know her?"

"I...I...." she fearfully stuttered. "I cannot speak of this here."

Haldir's eyes fixated on hers and they began to narrow.

"You can and you will, for I can make you speak the truth witch."

"Haldir, time is of the essence. We must get back and heal Delphine so she can help Josie. She will tell you what you need to know on the way."

"No..no I won't. You don't understand. None of you do."

Haldir moved before her with intense intimidation plastered all over his sullen face as his jaw clenched.

"Then you will make me understand, for you will not go within eyesight of her without my approval. Now speak before I force your tongue."

"I...I...well she...she was...best friend's with my daughter long ago. In the civilian world. Please...I am not supposed to speak of Josie to anyone."

"You are...Sarah's mother, Jocelyn?" Haldir asked as he tilted his head.

"Well this just gets better and better." Charles piped with a smug grin. "Did you know she's also Lola's mother??"

"Shhhh!!!" she whispered to both the elf and the warlock in a panic and then continued to Haldir in a barely audible tone. "For all intents and purposes, yes. But please...H..Haldir. If it is true about the goblin King bringing forth the dead...Caroline will most certainly be one of them and...she will come for me. I...I told you Bash...I cannot go back there!!! I won't!"

A crackling of twigs came from the forest behind them and Delphine gasped in fright, then unsteadily bolted off into the trees.

"Delphine!" Bash shouted and ran off after her with all of the others quickly following.

"Halt!" Haldir commanded, causing everyone, including Delphine to freeze in their tracks.

Haldir's chin lifted for him to smell the air, his nostrils boldly flaring as he sucked it in.

"Narcisse is here. Or shall I say Darken Rahl?" Haldir snarled as his keen nose could pick up both the peppermint and pepper scent of the conjoined entities.

Swords, bows and and axe were all raised and shimmered in light of the waxing moon and then out of the darkness appeared the wicked warlock lord, caped, hooded and holding a charged up ball of golden electricity in his palms as he glowered at them.

"Well if it isn't Haldir of Lorien and his pointy eared sisters. Long time no see girls. Are you ready to dance?"

Rahl pursed his lips tight and raised his hand, chucking the lightning ball at lightning speed into the center of the group, knocking each of the nine to their backs with the blinding explosion.

He then turned on the guards and gave them the same dose of medicine.

"You are MY army. Are...we...clear??! Or shall I start singing a good old Christmas carol for you? Warlocks roasting on an open fire." he sang. "Lord Rahl nipping off your toes."

All but the guards flung to their feet with great agility and resumed their fighting stance with weapons raised, but not Charles. He became enraged at ran at the man with his father's face, wielding his sword.

"Give me back my father!!!!"

As Charles brought the razor sharp blade to the imposter's throat, Rahl bellowed in cackling laughter as he knocked the blade from his hand and the stunned boy to the ground, then held his blade to his chest in return.

"Let us see if you are all as simple minded as this young witch! My blade rests only centimeters from his heart."

"Rahl! Leave him alone. It is I you want yes?? Here I am." Bash shouted, panting desperately.

"If there's one thing I despise, it is a martyr...and a traitor!" Rahl snapped back at Bash.

"You're the traitor!" Charles fearlessly riposted. "Would you really kill your own son???"

"You, my foolish boy, are NOT my son, just as I am not your father, which you so hypocritically just displayed as you rushed me with your sword! You cannot kill me and if you could, you kill daddy dearest!"

"I was not trying to kill you, only slow you down."

Charles swung his hand up and hurled a magical fast ball of his own at Rahl's chest, whipping the dark lord's shoulder back, but not taking him to the ground.

A sinister grin formed on Rahl's lips as he brought his shoulder back with a snap, then he advanced on Charles.

"Weak just like your father. I have had enough of you."

"NO!" Bash shouted and dived over Charles, whipping his body to the side just before Rahl's sword pierced the ground where he had lied.

"AND you!" Rahl continued and raised the blade again.

"Stephane!! STOP!!! I'm your brother! Charles is your son!! I know you're in there!!! Fight him!!! You are the stronger one!!! You are the REAL one!!!"

Rahl's hand that held the sword began to shake and in anger, he grabbed his wrist with the other hand to steady it. As he desperately tried to swing the weapon down at the huddled pair, his hand slingshot the sword through the air and then his eyes burned a blinding yellow light as his head arched back as a peppermint breeze stormed through his hair.

With a heavy exhale, Rahl's head lowered as his the glow of his eyes faded to a soft white shimmer, then became their normal icy blue hues.

"Ch...Charles? B..Bash? Where...where am I?"

"Father???!!" Charles whimpered as he and Bash slowly stood up.

"NO!" Delphine screamed. "It's not him! He still is in Rahl's form!"

"Oh Jocelyn, you always too smart for your own good. Run witch run, all of you run while you still can. I'm hungry and ready to hunt! I love cat and mouse games!"

Before their very eyes, Aragorn's, Bard's, Gimli's, Haldir's, Rumil's, Orophin's, Bash's, Charles, Delphine's and the guards', Rahl shapeshifted into the big black beast with eyes that lit up like there was sun in the dark of night as it's tantalizing tongue slurped over it's cold wet nose.

And then a low malevolent growling purr rolled up it's broad neck and steamed out into the brisk air.

"RUN!!" Delphine cried as she wasted no time in sprinting off.

The jet black panther then ferociously pounced directly at Bash.

@redeemer46

How wickedly purrfect and true!

[mothgodofchaos]

Three

A take on the Bloody Mary myth that any of us kids with spooky interests tried when we were younger. Although my attempt was in a well-lit classroom as we were washing our hands after painting. So perhaps not the same thing.

Also I had a very specific image for how he's holding you, specifically that one Kevin Hart meme.

Eldritch!Darkiplier x GN!Reader, TW: panic attack, bullying Words: 932

You face the mirror, shattered lines reaching the exterior of the frame. The closer you get, the more uneasy you feel, unsure on whether you actually want to be doing this. The air feels stuffy and cold, an interesting combination that feels like breathing pure menthol. Your lungs sting and your eyes begin to water, but you can’t back out now. They’re waiting outside for you to do this, so you can properly be accepted into the group. A weird initiation, trying to summon a demonic entity from a supposedly haunted mirror, but these people seem cool. Surely they wouldn’t willingly put you in danger just to seem edgy.

In your hands you hold a piece of paper with just one word on it, barely readable in the dim candle light.

Ténèbres

With a deep breath, you spin in place. 

“Ténèbres.”

Another spin.

“Ténèbres.”

One last turn.

“Ténèbres.”

The candle blows out and the air around you freezes, almost suffocating you with how thick it feels. The paper falls to the floor as you clutch your chest, unable to tell if this is panic or something is truly going wrong. You look up at the mirror, to see a voided figure staring back at you, only the chromatic outline and the glow of his irises visible in the pitch-black room. You panic, stumbling backwards as he reaches out towards you, hand reaching through the glass and shattering it further. Like a window made of paper-thin sheets of spun sugar. His hand grabs the frame of the mirror, shattering it into splinters under his sheer grip strength.

You run for the door, banging on it for your companions to let you out. All you can hear is laughing on the other side as you scream at them to unlock the door.

They don’t believe that it worked.

You spin back around to face him, unable to see anything in the darkness.

“Yes my dear? Did you want something?”

Your legs carry you away as he speaks lowly in your ear, heart pounding in your ears as you try to get away. Find another exit, a window, another door, something. You know that he’s following you, a piercing ringing in your ears as it sounds like the house is cracking and disintegrating around you. Unable to process the pure demonic power within the walls of this manor. You sprint upstairs, hiding in one of the bedrooms as you hope he’ll just pass you by. Your hand is clamped over your mouth, muffling sobs and hyperventilating breaths, trying to silence every part of you in hopes of survival.

His ringing gets louder, covering your ears with your shoulder and other hand, trying to save at least some part of your hearing. The doorknob turns, and your breathing stops. Instinctually you try to shrink smaller, pressing your body closer to the bed you’re hiding behind.

“Darling, are you alright?”

The ringing quiets, and a cold hand rests on your shoulder. Tears are streaming down your face, terrified for your life, cursing the people who should have been there for you. Tormented for their amusement, and now you’re trapped in here with a demon.

“Hey, breathe. Deep breaths…”

His hands gently cradle yours, pulling them down from your ears and mouth. You can’t make out any features, but his eyes look saddened, pitying your state. 

“What happened? Why are you so scared?”

Through sobs and vocal breaks you explain the situation, and multiple times he squeezes your hands, some mixture of trying to comfort you while also growing increasingly frustrated at how cruel they can be. He pauses once you stop, slowly moving in to wrap you in a hug.

“Here is what I am going to do, you just hold on tight, and I will handle those people. Is that alright with you?”

You nod, just hugging him closer to you as you continue to calm down. The darkness surrounds you like a blanket as you feel the two of you drop down into the shadows, with the sounds of crickets and frogs filling your ears as you reemerge. Several people gasp, and you open your eyes to see them all looking up at you in terror, on the hip of the demon they dared you to summon. He pokes an accusatory finger in their direction, leering down at them with paternal disappointment.

“How dare you abandon them in a house where their life could have been at risk, ignoring their screams for assistance. I do not care what you have put each other through, the one time it is real and you were to come to their rescue, you failed. You are a waste of the air I let you breathe. I will count to three, and you better all be gone.”

They all stand there, scared out of their wits that the demon they thought they made up turned out to be real.

“One.”

They start scrambling back, heading towards their cars.

“Two.”

Car engines start in a haste, and several begin peeling out of the driveway.

“Three.”

The lights of the last car fade into the distance, leaving you in the care of a demon with no real way of getting home.

“Now, let me get you a cup of tea, and we will worry about getting you to your place of residence in the morning. For now, you need rest.”

You’d try to argue with him, but the emotional turmoil you endured has left you exhausted, and you are quite ready for bed. “You are safe here, go to sleep, my dear.”

[thecourtscorkboard]

Reunion, and Turnabout (2-2)

Phoenix Wright finds himself in Maya's hometown... once again defending her on charges of murder.

2-2 is the first multi-day case of Justice for All, introducing quite a few new characters. A murder in Maya's hometown leads to her arrest, and it's up to us to prove her innocence in this prequel: this takes place two months before 2-1!

THE CORE CAST:

Phoenix Wright: After the events of 1-4 and 1-5, Phoenix is approached for his help in a civil case. Didn't know we did litigation, but alright.

Maya Fey: Maya returns as the defendant for this case. She's not taking it very well, and it's up to us to pave the way for her!

Pearl Fey: Pearl is Maya's younger cousin and a wonderful addition to the core cast. She's only 8 years old, yet gifted with incredible psychic abilities...

Franziska von Karma: The daughter of one Manfred von Karma, Franziska takes over the prosecution for this case, becoming the main antagonist for this game and immediately taking over the courtroom in her debut!

THE MAIN CAST:

Dick Gumshoe: Gumshoe returns, this time under Franziska instead of Edgeworth. Wonder what's up with the change of bosses?

Ini Miney: A spacey (see: high as balls) college student with an interest in the occult and either an eye problem or in dire need of glasses.

Morgan Fey: Maya's aunt, Misty's sister, and Pearl's mom. Strict, but understandably so... to an extent.

Lotta Hart: Lotta returns to her job as a paranormal investigator: this time determined to learn the truth about spirit channeling!

THE SECONDARY CAST:

Dr. Turner Grey: A doctor of some repute... and infamy. Allegedly behind a terrible malpractice incident.

Mimi Miney: A former doctor at Turner Grey's clinic who died in a car crash. Allegedly, this was Grey's doing...

A BRIEF RECAP

We open on a red car speeding on the freeway. At the same time, somebody is narrating their own backstory; they were murdered by somebody. As soon as they tell us, the car gets into a horrific accident; the narrator says that they took their revenge, asking "Ini" if it was only fair.

We then see what's going on. Maya has been arrested again, this time telling us that she did kill the victim... already?

I'd make a joke here, but Maya's too distraught.

Investigation, Day One

The first person we see in this case isn't Maya; it's some man in an ugly brown suit and rocky road-style hair. This is Dr. Turner Grey, who's requesting our services to help clear him of malpractice and murder.

Fun fact: in the original release, Grey pushed up his glasses with his middle finger.

Apparently, Dr. Grey is rather fond of suing people; he wants to sue the weather girl for getting the weather wrong. He's saying that a nurse is responsible for the malpractice, not him; and that he wants our expertise in spirit channeling. Well, not ours: Maya's! He wants us to introduce him to her to force a "confession" from the nurse, who died in a car accident (or, as he rather blackly hilariously puts it, "turned her car into the accordion model"). We ask Dr. Grey why he's taking up this case now: apparently his customer base has completely tanked. Maya gave Dr. Grey a condition to channel the nurse's spirit: that she'd be able to see Phoenix again! Dr. Grey eagerly accepted, and Phoenix agrees: but only because he wants to see Maya again.

Maya's hometown!

Welcome to Kurain Village, the humble abode of one Ms. Maya Fey! She is incredibly happy to see us, but before we see her a mysterious girl dressed in similar clothes also passes by. Wonder who that was? Anyways, Maya and Phoenix are ecstatic to see each other: she tells us that pretty much most of the people who live here are spirit mediums, including most of Maya's ancestors. Apparently, only the women of this village are mediums: the men who live here usually work outside of the village itself. The girl that waked by is Maya's cousin, Pearl. Pearl is apparently a genius spirit medium, and apparently under the influence of a controlling mother; Maya lets us into her house as the channeling is set to begin.

Dr. Grey is in Fey Manor, Maya's home, already. He's still pissed about the weather: the weather girl called for rain, but it's rather nice outside today. Huh. He gives us a guidemap to the manor and we talk with him a bit more, telling us his plan: he'll have the nurse sign a confession about the malpractice and the car accident. He apparently heard about Maya from an acquaintance studying the occult at college.

We enter the Channeling Chamber to check it out: the door is blocked with very heavy iron locks and a reinforced frame. The Channeling Chamber has a rather serene atmosphere, complete with flickering candles lighting up the room, and we come to face-to-face with a new person!

I can't be the only one who thought she was drinking a candle as a kid, right?

This is Morgan Fey, the sister of Misty Fey, the aunt of Maya Fey, and the mother of Pearl Fey. Apparently, she's heard quite a bit of us from Maya: talking to her, we learn that Maya is actually the last of the original Fey bloodline. I guess that makes sense: Misty is gone, Mia passed away, leaving only Maya. Morgan is a member of a branch family, and her spiritual powers are not nearly as strong as even Maya's. She also explains that this will be Maya's first official channeling, even though she'd managed to channel Mia's spirit twice: the victims of traffic accidents are easier to pull back into the real world. Last but not least, she explains that the locks exist just in case something goes wrong in a channeling.

The conversation begins to wind down. Morgan asks us if we've met Pearl, and when we say we really haven't she asks us to stay away. Controlling much? In any case, we say our goodbyes and exit the chamber. We do a bit of exploring: this is a big house, after all, and in the Winding Way...

Well butter my buns and call me a biscuit!

It's Lotta! She's very happy to see us, but before we can talk to her she tells us that the channeling is about to start. Maya and Dr. Grey go into the channeling chamber and Lotta gets rather upset about not being allowed to go inside. She and Morgan get into a spat, which is cut short by a bang from inside of the channeling chamber. Then another one! Our resident expert in loud bangs (and, since she's a fellow Southerner, probably guns) notices that it's a gunshot: panic spreads throughout the room.

We don't even bother asking Morgan for permission, tell her to send the repair bill to the Law Offices, and break down the door. Inside, Dr. Grey is dead: and the spirit that Maya was channeling is his evident killer.

Does she remind anybody else of Sadako?

Lotta takes a few pictures. Morgan rushes in and tells us to leave while she takes care of this: there could be even more victims at the hands of an angry spirit, after all! Phoenix uses the payphone to call the police: both us and Lotta are worried sick, but we get to talking anyways. There's only one real conclusion: the spirit of the nurse killed Dr. Grey in Maya's body. Doing her part as an investigative journalist, Lotta also did some digging on Grey. Apparently, he was an abusive control freak: yelling and berating employees who messed up even the slightest mistakes.

Going back to the Medidation Room, Morgan tells us that Maya is unconscious: she performed something called the "spirit severing technique" to exorcise the nurse's spirit from Maya's body. The first detective to arrive on the scene is none other than Gumshoe himself, who goes into the Channeling Chamber with Morgan. We talk to Lotta one more time outside: apparently this has convinced her to give up on paranormal journalism. She's gonna be a celebrity photographer now! I'm sure that won't come up in two cases.

We move into one of the side rooms and a young woman is here: she asks us when the channeling's gonna start! Apparently she doesn't know. This is Ini Miney, who suspiciously has the same name from the intro.

The 'ohm' symbol on her shirt reminds me of that one Sam O'Nella joke.

It turns out that Ini is a bit of an... airhead. She doesn't even know what a murder is off the top of her head: and the way she's keeping her eyes closed... are we sure she's sober? Anyways, this is the college student that Dr. Grey was talking about: she's researching 'parapsychology', involving supernatural powers, ESP, stuff like that. Apparently, she had accidentally eaten some sesame seeds and was taking a nap to power through an allergic reaction. We tell her that Dr. Grey was dead, and for once she doesn't react. Either she's processing it or doesn't care. She quickly says that she didn't know Dr. Grey, though: she was a patient at his clinic once, but that's it. Curious...

Walking out the Winding Way, we come face-to-face with Pearl. We have nothing to say to each other, though, and we quickly go back inside of Fey Manor: Gumshoe says that the investigation won't be done for a long time and Morgan graciously lets us stay the night in Fey Manor.

The next morning, we rush down to the Detention Center. Maya is quick to confess: she says that she couldn't have controlled the spirit's power, and we tell her that people won't care. After all, most people don't even believe it after DL-6. We believe her, though, and we're going to do our utmost to defend her.

Maya tells us what happened. She locked the door, sat down with Dr. Grey, and then blacked out. When she channels a spirit, Maya herself loses consciousness as the spirit takes over her body: she does tell us that she had a dream, however. A dream about being buried, unable to breathe, unable to move. Heavy stuff. She doesn't want us to defend her: she sees her own case as hopeless.

But we don't care.

Before we leave, Maya gives us a very vital tool. It's called a "magatama", and it's apparently a magical charm that has protected her. She tells us to show it to Pearl: apparently that'll make her help us. We say our goodbyes and go back to the office to pick up a newspaper clipping that Dr. Grey left behind: it's about the car accident last year. Heading back to Kurain, we go into the Channeling Chamber and are met by Morgan Fey.

Morgan says that she's going to visit Maya in the detention center and bring her some treats from Kurain to lift her spirits. We ask her about what happened: she apparently hit Maya on the head and then exorcised the spirit. She explains that spirits can become violent and revolt against the medium's own body, which is what the lock on the door was for: and exactly what happened yesterday. Morgan says that she's lucky nothing of importance was damaged: the most precious of which is a paper folding screen, which is one of the village's most prized possessions.

We take a look at the folding screen: there's a small hole in it, and Morgan says that a bug or some other vermin might've chewed through it. Phoenix, however, thinks that it might be from one of the bullets. We leave Morgan to prepare for her visit to Maya after a thorough investigation of the crime scene: there's enough space behind the folding screen for somebody to hide behind it.

We meet Ini again in the side room. She says that she asked Morgan if she could stay for a bit more for her research: apparently Morgan said yes. Talking a bit more, we definitely have a suspicion that she's hiding something: but we can't keep pressing her. We go out into the Winding Way and come face-to-face with Pearl again!

I've mentioned her so much and haven't put in a single picture of her...

Pearl is very excited to see the Magatama: apparently, she's heard about us from Maya... and started shipping the two of us. Okay, well, it's popular in the fandom, can't blame her (even if I think it's best left until T&T, but we'll get to that). We try to tell her that we're not dating Maya, but she won't have any of it: I guess we'll leave her to her ship wars, then.

Apparently, Pearl has her hands on the key to the Channeling Chamber: she was holding on to it yesterday, too. How did she get her hands on it? She's happy to give it to us. Apparently, she found it while playing in the garden. Now... why would it be there of all places? We talk to Pearl a bit more. She's absolutely enamored by her older cousin, looking up to her as a role model. We're about to leave, but Pearl asks us to wait: we ask if calling her "Pearls" is okay and she acquiesces. She says that she can't keep the Magatama, but she can do something else: charge it up with spiritual energy! Woah. It's glowing. Apparently, it'll let us "see people's secrets". Cool!

Well, if there's one person who's keeping a secret...

Try again in two games, lady.

We try talking to Ini about her relationship to Dr. Grey and are met with my favorite part of JfA: psyche-locks. Pearl tells us that we'll need to break that lock with evidence to get her to tell the truth: and that's exactly what we do. Ini says that she has no relationship to Dr. Grey? We know better. We talked to Gumshoe earlier and he gave us a newspaper clipping outlining the car accident. The person who died was Mimi Miney... a nurse at Dr. Grey's clinic.

Ini admits the truth. Her sister, Mimi, was the nurse that Grey was trying to channel: and the nurse that killed him. She was overworked by Dr. Grey, who Ini calls a "slave driver", and Ini has come to blame her sister's death in the car accident on him. After all, she fell asleep at the wheel after the malpractice incident: which she, apparently, was responsible for (but never would've happened if Grey didn't push her so hard). Now that we know the truth, we plan to go back to Maya. Pearl is scared of leaving Kurain Village, though, and runs back.

When we return to the center, it's not Maya that we meet...

MOM!

It's Mia! She's happy to see how far we've come, but tells us that we have to keep smiling no matter how bad it gets. We tell Mia what happened, and she tells us that there's only one thing we can do: fight for a complete acquittal. Maya's not guilty, after all. How does she know that? Well, it's pretty simple.

Mediums can't have dreams.

That only means one thing. Somebody was masquerading as Maya, who was never channeling a spirit at all! They played us like a damn fiddle! She tells us that there's a key to this case: we show her the "key" we have. Apparently, the fact that it's here at all is contradictory.

We ask Mia how we can keep going if we don't know the real killer, and investigation comes to a close...

...with a turn for the interesting!

Trial, Day One

Apparently, von Karma's gonna be prosecuting this case. No, not that von Karma, silly! His successor; a relative? Maybe a child, considering his age. With the constant use of 'was', we get our first few implications on the elder von Karma's fate: it appears that he's dead. Good riddance.

Pearl suddenly shows up: apparently she ran all the way here, on her own, using just a map. Jeez! Talk about a wild child. Maya reminisces about Edgeworth: she's also talking about him in the past tense. Has something happened with him, as well? Phoenix suddenly snaps at Maya to never mention Edgeworth's name again: something's definitely happened with him. No wonder: his own trial and then Lana's must've been a suffocating burden. Being put on trial by your mentor only to learn you convicted a man with forged evidence... it's not good for the soul. Phoenix ominously says that Edgeworth is "gone, and not coming back": this can't mean what I think it means... right? Nonetheless, it's time for court...

she's so pretty...

This is Franziska von Karma (not 'Francesca', PixelPartners...), the daughter of Manfred von Karma. She declares that she's here for revenge, and when His Honor asks her to leave personal vendettas outside the courtroom she hits him with a whip! That's assault! Who cares? Not us, apparently! Franziska, like her father before her, declares that her role is that of a perfect prosecutor; we enter a plea of not guilty and she calls us a foolish fool who foolishly dreams of foolish dreams: giving us ten minutes before we enter a plea of self defense. Not three? Seems she's not as confident as her father.

Nonetheless, Franziska calls Gumshoe to the stand. He gives the court some evidence, namely floor plans of Fey Manor, and goes into a bit more detail: Grey was stabbed in the chest before he was shot and he was shot from point-blank range. We grill him for some more information via pressing: they know that Grey was killed at point-blank range from gunpowder residue found on his forehead, and both Maya and Grey's fingerprints were on the murder weapon. Gumshoe brings out both weapons: and His Honor is ready to reach a verdict.

But we're not.

Franziska demands one more testimony from Gumshoe. He says that Grey was definitely not fighting back: but then how does he explain the bullet hole in Maya's clothes? Right below where her left arm would be, there's a hole: Grey fought back! Franziska is ready for this, though. Doesn't this just help a case of justified self-defense? Gumshoe gives a second testimony: and he slips up.

He says that Grey and Maya were too close and that's why he missed. If that was the case, then where's the gunpowder residue on her sleeve? Franziska fires back: obviously some distance was made between Maya and Grey. She tries to argue it was Grey at first, but we easily shut that down. When she tries to argue it was Maya, we point out the bullet hole in the folding screen. It's only about eight inches off the ground: and last I checked, Maya wasn't eight inches tall... but her sleeve might reach that low to the ground if she was squatting down. There's only one explanation: Maya was right in front of the folding screen, not right in front of Dr. Grey!

This changes everything. Why would she be right in front of the folding screen if she was fighting Dr. Grey?! Logically, she'd be right on top of him! With this, the rest of the trial should be in the b--

...blast radius of disaster.

She kicks Gumshoe out and prepares a new witness: Lotta Hart. His Honor calls a recess for both of us to prepare for her testimony. After a brief recess, where Maya talks to Pearl about Mia, we go back into court and get ready for Lotta's testimony.

The main issue with Lotta's testimony is... well, it's exactly how we would've said it, just with less of an accent. Lotta has something else to give to the court as well: one of the pictures she took in the Channeling Chamber.

I respect people choosing a revolver in this day and age.

We press every inch of Lotta's testimony, but nothing sticks out: it's all true and it's all air-tight. We're asked if we can present any evidence that it's not Maya in the picture, but... we can't. The trial seems over. We're about to give up, when all of a sudden... it's Mia! Not being channeled by Maya, no, but instead by Pearl! Remember how Maya said that she's a genius at channeling?

Mia reminds us of what we told her: that Lotta took two pictures! We object for another testimony: His Honor overrules us but Franziska is fine with it. Lotta is forced to give another testimony. This time, it's vague and non-committal. Pressing Lotta's fourth statement lets us confirm that she took two pictures: as for why this picture wasn't shown? Franziska told her to keep quiet about it! The court gets understandably peeved about this, and Franziska defends herself by saying that since the two pictures are "practically the same" there's no point in submitting the second. She submits the second regardless, and...

TRIGGER DISCIPLINE, TRIGGER DISCIPLINE, TRIGGER DISCIPLINE!!!

We try to do something a little dirty here: play into the court's opinion that spirit channeling is hokum to manipulate the outcome of the trial. Franziska is ready for this, though, and presents as proof... a picture of our conversation with Mia yesterday in the detention center! Undeniable proof that spirit channeling exists: and that Maya can do it!

Mia tries to stop Franziska. A picture like that, taken illegally, cannot be submitted as evidence. That's not what Franziska's doing, though. She's just making sure His Honor sees it. Keep this particular point in mind; it'll come up in about eight cases' time. Anyways, we're left with only one option: to prove that the person in this picture isn't Maya. Can we do that?

Well... there's one thing. Look at the bottom left cuff of the murderer's clothes: there's not a bullet hole there, even though the clothes that Maya was wearing had one in that spot! Von Karma is about to be penalized (which famously ends well for defense attorneys), but she manages to cook up a lie about the police missing the hole instead of her withholding evidence. Nevertheless, there's only one explanation for the hole's existence: the person wearing those clothes isn't Maya. After all, if it was, then the hole would be there after Grey shot back!

Two big questions are raised at the end of today's proceedings: who is the other person and where did Maya go? At the very least, we can answer that last one: remember when we found Pearl with that key? There's only one key in the world, and we had to break the door down to get in. Franziska's catching on: why in the world would we have that key if there's only one? It's simple.

Our first turnabout of the case is a relatively small one, but we get to enjoy this awesome pursuit theme!

Maya must've left the room before the channeling started. She didn't have the key when she was arrested, after all... and we got the key from Pearl! Maya had to have left the room: if she didn't, then there's no way we could've had this key in our possession! Franziska flies into a temper tantrum about her perfect case having such a massive flaw: His Honor makes her stop and adjourns court for the day.

In the defendant's lobby, Maya tells us that she doesn't remember ever leaving the room. Pearl also doesn't think that a third person could've gone in: these are questions that we can answer tomorrow, however. For now, it's time to go back to Kurain Village!

Investigation, Day Two

We get to Kurain Village ready for another day of investigation. We talk with Pearl a bit, and she tells us that she was a little overwhelmed by the trial: understandable, given that she's never been outside of Kurain Village. We talk with her about prosecutors for a bit, trying to explain them to her: we get to reminiscing about Edgeworth, though, and a very uncomfortable truth is spilled.

O! what a fate...

Phoenix refuses to give Pearl, or us for that matter, any more information about what happened. We ask Pearl if she somehow knows who the killer is: she says she doesn't, and we get to thinking. Where was she during the murder? That's a question we need to answer. We ask her, and... psyche-locks! What could she possibly be hiding?

Oh, well. We can't answer that right now. We go back to the scene of the crime, and...

...um...

Morgan is... talking to a picture. Rather ominously, might I add. Telling Misty to "prepare herself", that she's been "waiting for this day"... we approach her and she quickly puts the picture aside and dodges all of our questions. Apparently, she had to watch over training today: it's part of her role now that Misty is gone. Nobody's quite sure what happened to her: she just up and disappeared one day. Anyone who's disappeared from the village for up to 20 years is considered dead, and a new Master is declared; and if Maya is in prison... well, things are starting to fall into place, aren't they?

We go into the side room to look for Ini, but there's nothing here except for a storage box that got moved here for some reason. Apparently it's a clothing box filled with channeling costumes. Huh. We keep walking through Kurain Village, but there's nothing else for us to find. Talking to Pearl again, apparently she found the key near the incinerator. We go to check that out, and... there's something in there! Ini is quick to come up to see us: she was hanging by the incinerator... with a cloth sticking out of it. We talk to Ini about the spiritual traditions of Kurain: apparently the founder of the Fey family's spirit is in a nearby jar. She tells us that she can't tell us about the murder, but we know that she has a connection with Dr. Grey. We ask her about the accident and get psyche-locks! Checking out the urn, it looks cracked and chipped and has "I AM" written on the front. Weird. We also check out the incinerator. Opening it up, we see a torn piece of cloth: definitely from Maya's, given the blood on it! Somebody tried to burn Maya's clothes and hid the key inside of the incinerator as well...?

There's nothing else for us to do in Kurain, so we go back to the Detention Center to talk to Maya. She's even worse off today than she was yesterday, poor girl. At the very least we know one thing for sure: she did not kill Dr. Grey, spirit or no spirit. The big problem? There was nobody else in the room. Maya even checked behind the folding screen. We tell Maya what Mia said about dreams and spirit mediums: if Maya wasn't convinced of her own innocence before, then she certainly is now! The problem? The idea of a set-up ruins her. She just can't catch a break...

We do get to ask Maya one last thing: what Pearl was doing during the murder. She obviously doesn't know, but she has an inkling—Pearl might've been playing with a ball. Maya and Pearl played with it together quite a lot, after all. She puts it in the clothing box in the side room: guess it's time to go back there and check it out!

When we go back to Kurain, Lotta sees us and immediately hightails it. Ooookay, then. We walk through the manor and Lotta is still running from us. Anyways, we go to the Side Room. The ball is on the floor! Wonder what it's doing there. We take another look at the clothes box. There's a hole in it...

And a Lotta!

She runs the fuck away again, but we have two important new insights: that the box is big enough to fit a grown woman... and where Pearl was during the murder. We confront Pearl and break her psyche-locks: the truth is, she was playing with her ball in the Winding Way, accidentally hit the urn, and broke it. She tried to put it back together, but because she can't read accidentally spelled "AMI" as "I AM". That's one mystery solved, at least!

Speaking of that hole, let's think about it a bit more. That hole was 8 inches above the ground and can fit a grown woman... I think we're finally starting to piece together what actually happened. Before we go back to the detention center, we're stopped by Lotta: I guess she was chasing after us now. She asks us to forgive her for her testimony and we reluctantly do so. She also shares a very interesting theory with us: that Ini Miney is the real killer! This must mean that she's got some dirt on her. Lotta tells us the info she has for free: about half a year ago, Ini was in the hospital. She gives us the clinic's address and tells us to find out ourselves.

Welp. Nowhere else to go but there! We meet with the director: a rather itchy, balding man with three missing teeth. This is "Director Hotti", at the less that we say about him the better. He does give us some information, though: the Hotti Clinic deals primarily in plastic surgery, and after showing him our attorney's badge he admits that he's a weird fuckin' pervert interested in young women who come to the clinic. This, and I'm not sure if I should say "fortunately" or "unfortunately", means that he has info on Ini Miney. Apparently, her case was an emergency one: her whole body was wrapped in bandages and her arm was in a cast! What could've caused that...? He tells us that it was a traffic accident. Looks like Lotta might've been onto something.

It was so bad that her entire face was charred: she needed emergency surgery. She just got her license and happened to her license photo on her: "Hotti" here stole it and gives it to us. Apparently, Ini Miney was in the passenger's seat. We look at the newspaper article he gives us, and it talks about a car accident... one year ago. It's all falling into place.

Before we go back to Fey Manor to talk to Ini, we stop by Lotta one last time. She tells us a rather important piece of information: Morgan was supposed to be the Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique, but got passed over by Misty!

I smell a conspiracy!

After getting that bit of info from Lotta, we go to the Winding Way and run into exactly who we wanted to see: Ini Miney. We finally have enough pieces of evidence to break her Psyche-Locks, and the truth of the accident is put together: it wasn't her accident, but her sister's, Mimi Miney's. They were the same accident! Ini is convinced that Dr. Grey drugged Mini to make her crash her car: in other words, Dr. Grey murdered Mimi Miney. Sound familiar? Ini's demeanor suddenly shifts: she's confident, cocky, even a little insulting. She knows that we know that she killed Dr. Grey, but she also knows that we don't have enough evidence to prove it yet!

It'll be no holds barred tomorrow in court...

It looks like Gumshoe might be catching on as well: when we go back to Kurain proper, we see Pearl trying and failing to beat the shit out of him as he's taking Morgan away for questioning. Pearl tells us to go back to the Detention Center to see Maya: when we do, Mia is waiting for us. I think it's finally time to break her psyche-locks.

Mia asks us if we think we're hiding information from her: we tell her that we know exactly what she's hiding. She's protecting her aunt, Morgan Fey. She wants us to prove it. Fortunately, we've got the evidence two: the key and the cloth, remember? Morgan is the only person who could've gotten those two things from Maya's person to the incinerator, since Maya was keeping the key and it was her costume that was burned (as proven by the blood on the scrap and the fact that the key was hidden inside of Maya's sleeve). Somebody had to have changed her clothes: and the only person who could've was alone with her. Morgan Fey. There's one last wrinkle in our theory, Mia says: how did she commit the murder if she was outside with us the whole time? That's an easy question to answer: she didn't. After all, Ini Miney killed Dr. Turner Grey. The two of them were conspiring to get rid of both Dr. Grey and Maya!

Mia is satisfied with our conclusions, for the most part. There are a few issues still remaining, though. Why did Morgan cooperate with Ini Miney: and if she did, where's the concrete proof? Mia gets the answer right. It all ties back to Misty. Morgan was supposed to be Master before Misty took the position from her spiritually weaker sister. If Maya, the last living sibling of Misty Fey, was in prison and Misty remained missing for 2 more years, then Morgan would become Master. Who would succeed Morgan? The most precious person in her world: Pearl Fey.

Mia congratulates us on a job well done and the second—and final—day of investigation comes to a close.

Trial, Day Two

This is it: the day of reckoning. Phoenix tells Pearl to channel Mia's spirit, both for her guidance and to shield Pearl from what's going to happen in court. Maya is left in the dark, confused about what's going to happen today: and her inferiority complex rears its ugly head after she continues to compare herself to Franziska.

In any case, it's time for trial. Franziska and Mia have a very heated verbal spar before His Honor brings up yesterday's theory that Maya left the channeling chamber. Franziska is quick to agree: Maya did leave the room! She's not saying that Maya isn't the person in the picture, though. All she's saying is that, at some point, Maya left the room and dropped the key. To substantiate this claim, she calls Morgan to the stand!

Hell hath no fury...

Morgan is quick to say that Maya escaped from the room while she was trying to exorcise Mimi's spirit. In her testimony, Morgan says that she was hit on the back of the neck and had a fainting spell before being able to subdue Maya again. Mia warns us that Morgan is smart and sly; her testimony is very carefully woven. We press her testimony and Morgan says that her hitting Maya was a lie; she was trying to simply protect her darling niece, you see. She fainted for about ten minutes, not knowing where Maya went due to her being unconscious.

Morgan's testimony is solid and she's called off the stand to make room for Ini Miney: after all, that's where Maya went. Mimi was Ini's sister after all: with Franziska still arguing that her spirit was being channeled, she's basically telling us to think what Mimi would've done (even though we know that's wrong).

Ini says that Mimi came into the side room and told her something "terrible": Franziska asks her to elaborate, and Ini says that Mimi told her that she was drugged by Dr. Grey.

A callback to the very beginning.

Mia knows the truth: this entire testimony is a massive lie. A well-constructed lie, but a lie nonetheless. There's gotta be a crack in it. It's a pretty clear one: we press her for a bit more detail about what it was like seeing her sister, and because Ini is a parapsychology student she said it wasn't too strange.

Bingo.

Her sister would be in a uniform absolutely soaking in blood! Ini is pressed further on this by His Honor and she snaps. Ini says that the blood blended into the dark purple costume, and Ini went with Mimi back to the Channeling Chamber because Ini wanted to apologize to Morgan. Apparently, though, she didn't see anybody on the way there. That's another lie: after all, right when the murder happened, Pearl broke Ami's urn and was putting it back together right in the middle of the Winding Way!

Franziska and Ini double down on her sleeping in the side room. There's just one little issue with that, though. She said earlier that Morgan was the only person in the Channeling Chamber, right?

Now THIS is a contradiction!

There's no way that somebody who was asleep could not have known that Morgan was alone in the Chamber! She went into the Chamber, but not through the Winding Way! How did she go to the Chamber, then? Franziska objects: if we're asking Ini where she was during the murder, why don't we answer it ourselves? Where was she? It's pretty simple.

She was already in the Channeling Chamber, hiding behind the folding screen! Remember the box having a little hole in it 8 inches off the floor? There's a hole in the folding screen at the same height! Furthermore, it's a bullet hole. The person in the picture? It ain't Maya. It's Ini Miney! Franziska calls it mad: there's no way one person could've done it all by herself!

And she's completely correct. Ini had an accomplice: Morgan Fey! If it wasn't somebody from Kurain, then they couldn't have gotten a costume: if it wasn't somebody in the Fey clan, then she couldn't have gotten the box!

We have a very strong case with a lot of supporting evidence and lay out our theory. Ini had planted herself in the Channeling Chamber long before the crime, hiding inside of the box. Maya and Dr. Grey entered, at which point Ini drugged Maya, stabbed Dr. Grey, and put Maya in the box. With the last of his strength, Dr. Grey shot at her, shooting through the screen, box, and Maya's sleeve. Ini then took Grey's own revolver and shot him point-blank in the forehead. This is why Morgan chased us out: using her authority as an elder member of the Fey Clan, no less!

I can't exactly place why, but this line in particular is one of my favorites.

Franziska starts laughing. If Ini is the real killer, as we claim, then why would she go through this entire charade?! Where is her motive? We have enough to prove her motive, though: the car crash! Ini wanted revenge for her sister's death. She's quick to counter, though (Ini, that is, not Franziska), with a simple question: why in the world would she wait this long? It was Dr. Grey that thought of Kurain Village in the first place!

His Honor ultimately rules in favor of the prosecution: it's incredibly unlikely and with very little conclusive evidence. Mia objects before His Honor can give a verdict, however, and tells us that there has to be a reason why Ini killed Dr. Grey this way. We press forward, even though we're not confident. Intrigued, von Karma lets us have a moment to prove our theory: she's determined to knock our will to fight into the ground. She's not just here for a trial: she's here for a battle!

Panzers on courtroom soil, a thunder in the East!

Trial is suspended for a brief recess. A distraught Maya asks us if what's happened with her aunt is true; we confirm it is, and Franziska tells us that everything is going exactly as she predicted. Wait. Franziska? Gah! Franziska's here!

We have a brief conversation with her: she not-so-subtly tells Maya to shut up, and we taunt her a bit by telling her this won't bring Manfred back. Probably hurt, she retreats back to her own chambers to prepare for the grand finale.

Trial reconvenes and His Honor asks if we're ready to prove Ini's motive. We say that we are and ask Ini to testify about her car accident. We drill her testimony for answers, and eventually she's forced to add that she didn't have her license, which Mimi had to drive. That's a very lame lie, Phoenix says. After all, her face was reconstructed from her own license photo! Franziska shuts us down and Ini says that she got her license last November. Either out of fear or belief His Honor suspends our questioning, but not before Ini says that Mimi probably wouldn't have let her drive anyways.

Ini testifies about this: apparently Mimi's car was a brand new shiny sports car and she wouldn't have let her sister touch it. We press her testimony and Ini eventually says it was imported from the UK... which blows her entire testimony wide open. After all, on the newspaper clipping, Ini's own statement is that she got out of the right side door.

Why is this an issue? After all, the passenger's side is on the right, right? Wrong. It's a British car! The UK drives on the left side of the road: as such, their driver's side is on the right! If Ini was on the right side of the car, she'd be the driver!

Fun fact: in the original Japanese version, Ini was driving an American car and got out on the left side—Japan drives on the right side of the road.

There is only one possible conclusion, and it's an insane one. If Ini Miney got out on the left side, that means she was the driver. If she was the driver, that means it was her car. And if it was her car, that means she's not Ini Miney at all. Ergo! If Ini Miney got out on the left side, she's not Ini Miney at all: she's Mimi Miney, who reconstructed her face to look like her sister! Ini Miney died in the car accident!

This is her motive! Dr. Grey wanted to call the spirit of Mimi Miney. Dr. Grey couldn't have called on Mimi Miney's spirit, though. After all, she wasn't dead! This is why she had to kill Dr. Grey. Mimi admits it: we're exactly right. Mimi breaks out into tears on the witness stand.

Mimi had to change her face to run from the truth: that she fucked up and was responsible for the malpractice incident. Franziska is distraught over her perfect record being broken, and after gloating about it she whips us into submission (joke DEFINITELY intended). In any case, Maya is found Not Guilty, and we tell her why Morgan helped Mimi: it was all for Pearl's sake. If Maya was found guilty, then she'd be disinherited. Inheritance would go back to the branch family, and since Morgan was already disinherited, Pearl would automatically be made Master once the 20 year threshold on Misty's disappearance passed. After all, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

In any case: 2-2 comes to a close with a bittersweet ending, a sympathetic murderer, and a great twist.

What Really Happened?

Many years ago, Misty and Morgan's mother died. Although Morgan was born first and therefore in line to Kurain's style of primogeniture succession, her spiritual powers were deemed too weak. Although she pretended to accept this with grace, she was incensed: and this was further compounded when Misty gave birth two not just an heir, but also a spare—Mia and Maya. When Misty disappeared after DL-6 and Mia left the village to become a lawyer, she projected all of her anger onto Maya. Morgan eventually had her own daughter, Pearl: and an idea formed in her head.

Incidentally, last year there was a horrible malpractice incident at Grey Surgical Clinic in which 14 patients died. Dr. Grey blamed a nurse, Mimi Miney, although in truth it was ultimately his fault for driving her so hard: he hired us to clear his name, but not before Mimi got into a terrible car accident alongside her sister Ini after falling asleep behind the wheel. Ini died and Mimi was burned beyond recognition: Mimi took Ini's face and name for herself, becoming Ini Miney to run from the truth of the malpractice incident.

Mimi wanted to kill Dr. Grey (and knew that if Grey tried to channel her, the gig would be up: you can't channel the spirits of the living, after all) and Morgan wanted Maya out of the picture to clear a path for Pearl's succession, so they hatched a scheme. Mimi would drug Maya, taking a spare set of apprentice clothes and a wig provided by Morgan to make it seem that Maya was channeling Ini. She drugged Maya and stabbed Grey in the chest, seemingly killing him. As she was hiding Maya in a nearby clothing box, however, Dr. Grey used the last of his strength to pull out a pistol and shoot at her: he missed, but the bullet went through the folding screen and through both the box and Maya's sleeve. Mimi then used his own pistol to shoot him execution-style. Morgan and Mimi quickly burned the clothes and wig they used, rearranged the crime scene, and covered Maya's clothes with Grey's blood.

During Dr. Grey's murder, Pearl was playing in the Winding Way with a ball. She accidentally knocked over an urn reportedly containing the spirit of Ami Fey, the founder of the Kurain Channeling Technique: she tried to put it together, but because she can't read very well accidentally put it back together as "IAM" instead of "AMI". Because Mimi didn't see Pearl in the Winding Way, however, her alibi was broken: leading to the collapse of her and Morgan's plot.

THOUGHTS

I quite enjoy 2-2. For a case revolving around Maya, it's a much better showing than 1-2. It's not a standout case or anything, but for a second case it's pretty good. It's definitely solid enough to stand on its own two feet, and I think checks all the boxes to be a perfectly fine case. It's really good in the role it's meant to serve.

The setup in the first day of investigation is fantastic. It's an incredibly strong opening, genuinely being on par with 1-3 and even exceeding it at times. There's a lot of early clues that players are allowed to pick up on when it comes to Ini/Mini and Morgan: from the second case in the game it's clear that JfA trusts its returning players. Speaking of returning players, we get a lot of fanservice here: Edgeworth and Manfred are both mentioned, Franziska has a lot of mannerisms that mirror her father's, and Mia shows up! ...Making fanservice a little more literal, but I digress.

This does not mean that 2-2 is without its problems, and there's a pretty big logical one I'd like to point out. Franziska's argument in day one of trial is that Maya and Grey were fighting: Maya then stabbed Grey, pushed him away, retreated to the folding screen, was shot at (explaining there being no gunpowder burns on her costume), walked back towards him, wrestled the gun away from him, retreated again by a good foot or two, and shot him in the forehead from a distance of at least a foot instead of holding the pistol right at his head. It's unnecessarily convoluted, which is either good writing making Franziska overconfident or poorly written overcomplication with little room for any in-between.

Speaking of Franziska: what a debut! She's honestly at her best in 2-2. It's the beginning of a rather intriguing arc and I'm admittedly biased given that she's my favorite prosecutor. She has the same dirty tricks up her sleeve as her father, although her tricks and confidence are obviously on a lower level: she's trying to puff out her chest and portray confidence, even though it's pretty clear that it's an act if you squint hard enough. It's good character work for her first appearance. Her trick of not presenting the picture of Mia as evidence, just making sure that His Honor sees it, is really clever stuff: and Takumi will use it again in the future.

Another big problem is how all over the place the investigation is: especially Day 2. A lot of things don't feel like they logically lead into one another, and it's a matter of exhausting options before finding the right place to turn. It's boring. The pacing in this case is kind of all over the place in general; it's not terribly consistent, but at the very least it doesn't overstay its welcome. Its length is near perfect for a second case, and I think that 2-2 knows where it fits in the game very well. It's not quite filler, but it's not completely plot-relevant, either.

The last thing I'd like to bring up is this case's major turnabout and my favorite contradiction. The twist that Ini is really Mimi is honestly my favorite JfA turnabout: even more than 2-4's, which we'll get to! It's really clever and cerebral twist that straddles the line of unbelievability very well. It's also pretty fucked up if you think about it too hard: Mimi decided to take her dead sister's name and appearance to start a new life to run from the truth. My favorite contradiction is that Mimi testified about knowing Morgan was in the chamber while claiming to be asleep: it's a very simple one that's easy to miss, but it's really cool and a type of contradiction I wish popped up in AA more often.

Anyways: 2-2 is better than I remembered and I still remember enjoying it a lot! It's not a perfect case by any means but I really enjoy it. I like the succession plot cooked up by Morgan a lot: it makes me think of these grand plans I'd enact while playing CK2 or something. Next time, we'll be covering the one and only 2-3: Turnabout Big Top. See you then!

Final Rating: 7/10

FAVORITE LINES

"It's hopeless! If you defend me, you'll lose, I'm sure…" "Stop it!" - Maya Fey and Phoenix Wright, after her arrest

(Alright! With this, the rest of this trial should be in the b-- ...blast radius of disaster.) - Phoenix Wright, after the folding screen argument

(Well, Maya's already naturally short, so…) - Phoenix Wright, after Pearl says Maya looked small in the defendant's chair

"Oh, you simpleminded fools. I'm sorry, are you still by chance, evolving?" - Franziska von Karma, after Phoenix presents his theory

"Not you too, Mia! With the whip… And the pain… And the oww…" - Phoenix Wright, after Mia tells him to keep pressing Ini

"Did you go cry to your mommy like a little bitch?" - Phoenix Wright, to Pearl Fey in the anime bloopers after she admits to breaking the jar

CASE RANKINGS

Reunion, and Turnabout (7/10)

The Lost Turnabout (4/10)

[datotherd00d]

RSA Fanmade Dorms

Thought I should share a fleshed-out(ish) list of dorms that me, @chohouse , and @dizastermango made for Royal Sword Academy. Honesty thought that RSA should get more love (plus it was a lot of fun to make this, especially since I have some OCs that go to RSA). Also I made a Pinterest board for the dorms, the dorm uniforms, and their ceremonial robes.

The overall inspiration of these dorms were the supporting characters in the stories of the Big 7, but it’s the characters that were associated with the heroes. Now with that out of the way, here is the list!

- Iterspeculo: Spirit of Carpe Diem

Themed off of The Mad Hatter

Pronounced as “I-ter-speh-coo-loh”

Carpe Diem roughly translates to “Living in the Moment”

The complete opposite of Heartslabyul when it come to organization and tidiness

Basically an eyesore, and constant game of ‘Eye-Spy’

Dorm name was made with: ‘Speculo’ which is Latin for mirror, ‘Iter’ meaning journey, so it completely comes out to ‘Journey (through the) Looking Glass’ 

- Baoheart: Spirit of Mindfulness

 Themed off of Rafiki

Pronounced as “Bau-hart”

ALL DORM MEMBERS LIVE IN A GIANT BAOBAB TREEHOUSE! It’s pretty cool ngl

This dorm is SO chill and can be wise. They have a lot of relaxing activities like yoga and meditation sessions. Literally living that Hakuna Matata life 

Dorm name revolved around the tree that Rafiki lived in which is a Baobab tree, and the heart because it sounded better and more whimsical than tail or fang lmao

- Plimsoll: Spirit of Sharing

Themed off of Scuttle

Pronounced as “Plim-sl”

Nautical and sea port vibes with this dorm (ngl was hard to figure out, so I mixed it together)

Heavily community based! Everyone helps everyone out because why not? The more the merrier! 

Literally a silly headcanon, but the common room has a deep brown wood flooring to imitate a ship and someone made the joke of it looking like shit, so now everyone calls the common room the “Poop Deck”

Name came from the Plimsoll Line of a ship, which is a mark on the hull of a ship indicating how deep a cargo ship can travel safely to trade goods

- Sadjinn: Spirit of Friendship

Themed off of The Genie

Pronounced as “Sah-jin”

Kind of similar to Scarabia, but it has that overall “goodness” to it

Not as many parties, but still very much so community based

It’s a more creative dorm that leans more into enjoying what you have and making the most out of it with the people you have. Literally if Kalim was a dorm it would be this one.

Also, the Cave of Wonders is where the dorm resides, and it is surrounded by a beautiful oasis and small forest of sorts

Name came from: ‘Sadiq’ meaning friend in Arabic, and a Djinn (Jinn) is another name for the mythical creature of a genie (this is under the pretense of fiction and fantasy rather than the Arabic/Islamic religious aspect of Jinns) 

- Septierre: Spirit of Humility

Themed off of the Seven Dwarves

Pronounced as “Sep-tea-error”

Such a hardworking yet humble dorm. Like omg- this dorm is that meme that is like “It’s not much, but it’s honest work”

COTTAGECORE VIBES!!!

Literally all of the produce and materials for the school is from this dorm! The students in this dorm are basically all in agriculture and geology, it is wholesome and very simple living

Mostly flatlands with cottage dorm rooms/dorm housing. It’s cute ngl. A lot of orchards and mines and woodland creatures

Name came from: ‘Septem’ which is Latin for 7, and ‘Pierre’ roughly translates to ‘stone/rock’

- Fulgyros: Spirit of Growth

Themed off of Philoctetes (Phil)

Pronounced as “Fuhl-ger-ose”

Dorm of perseverance and growth (emotionally, physically, and mentally. Literally in every possible aspect)

Basically the gym bros/fraternity of the school lmao, but don’t worry, they’re usually himbos. Just want what’s best for everyone and will help achieve that goal

All Ancient Greece influences, kind of a mix between Mount Olympus and Phil’s home/training area. Ethereal and godly vibes with white and earth tones. One of the more pristine dorms, especially with their mostly white uniforms

Name comes from: ‘Fulger’ which is the Latin root word for ‘lightning’, the suffix ‘-ysos’ from Dionysus who Satyrs would be associated with (along with Pan), and ‘-os’ from mythos

- Rosasci: Spirit of Harmony

Themed off of The Three Fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merrywheather)

Pronounced as “Roh-zeh-see"

Spirit comes from the three fairies working together to raise Aurora despite how chaotic it was. They worked in harmony together and were able to make things work. So that same vibe of responsibility and harmony of oneself and community is prominent in this dorm.

All roses imagery with no thorns. Thorns are a big nono in this dorm

Was another difficult dorm to figure out, but then again this whole school can be viewed as pretentious, so why not add in that overly sweet ‘goody-two-shoes’ aspect lol

However, this dorm is so pretty and very Fairycore with flowy and whimsical uniforms and decorations

Best way to describe the dorm vibe is the Moors in the first and second Maleficent movie

Name came from: ‘Rosaceae’ which is the botanical family name for roses. It’s a simple but pretty name.

- Bonus HCs

Snow White’s Wishing Well is the magical object(?) that sorts students into their dorms

The way it works is that you have to sing a tune or something into the well, and the well sings back to you what dorm you are sorted into. Note that the voice singing back is a collection of voices that are in perfect harmony. It’s creepy if you think about it because do those voices belong to anyone??? Who knows.

Also, students arrive to RSA in a brilliant, blinding white, pumpkin carriage drawn by horses, pegasi, unicorns, even comically large seahorses/dolphins, you name it! It’s magic- anything is possible.

Honestly think of the flying carriages in Sophia the First, and bam it’s that, but a white pumpkin! 

Everyone is alert and awake during their journey to the school, with various magical accommodations to make the trip as pleasant as possible. Hungry or thirsty? No worries, a menu with simple summoning spells fixes that. Bored? Don’t sweat- free wifi in the carriage AND a hidden movie screen to watch the latest block buster starring Vil Schoenheit  and Neige LeBlanche. It’s basically a first class seat on a magical airplane. Straight up comfort.

However, once you do arrive to the school and land, your luggage disappears (of course there is a notice before you land). Once you get your dorm and room assigned, your luggage will already be there waiting for you

Students are dropped off towards the back of the castle where staff greets the new students on the outskirts of a whimsical tree line. Upon crossing into the forest, students are magically dressed in their ceremonial robes and matching makeup . They all flood into a large whimsical pavilion full of seats (think of the one from Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses) that surrounds a very well known wishing well

After the ceremony, the headmaster opens portals to the Heart of the Castle where the main portals are.

RSA has a similar portal system to NRC, but the room is full of really pretty ports that fit the decorum of each dorm/school location. It’s located in the heart of the castle, which is easy access for the students and staff

That is basically all of the headcanons I had, and I hope it helps in any creativity process, or was enjoyable! Let me know if you want any more HCs or have any comments, questions, or concerns! It was a blast making this!

Also! If you want to use any of this for OCs or fanfics, please go ahead!! Just please link this post and like/reblog 🖤 I appreciate those who want to use this! Thank you!

[myheadphonesareneverloudenough]

major fuckin spoilers for Agatha All Along and a bunch of theories surrounding Teen under the cut...

Teen killed Mrs Hart and probably Alice too.

the whole reason they're on the road is because Teen wanted to, right? he needs something at the end of the witches road, BUT he's not officially in the coven... so how the fuck is he supposed to get what he wants most at the end of the road?

by the end of the first trial, Mrs Hart is dead, and it's Teen who calls it. while Agatha looks down at Mrs Hart's dead body, she says "I didn't think you had it in you" and then looks up and WINKS at Teen. then, as the coven discusses needing a new green witch, Teen says, "people can't be replaced" and Agatha replies, "can't they?" while looking directly at Teen. i think Agatha has known of Teen's plan to kill and replace one of the witches in the coven since the very beginning, however, she wasn't trying to stop him because she still believed that Teen was her son, Nicholas Scratch.

just look at how desperate and heartbroken Agatha was when Teen was bleeding out from the glass that cut into him. she watched over him like a concerned parent, because at the time she thought that she might actually be his mother.

despite the fact that Rio tells Agatha that Teen is not Nicholas, it isn't confirmed until Teen finds the Ouija board and calls out "Nicholas Scratch". when he does, the sigil does not cover his mouth which means that is definitely not his name. after that, Agatha starts to realise who Teen could actually be.

when Agatha says she couldn't control it when she killed Alice, she sounded genuine. is she a manipulator and could very well have been lying again? probably, but lets just believe she was telling the truth here, okay? Teen tells her that killing people to get what he wants isn't part of his agenda, and Agatha says "are you sure?" because she was the first to figure it out Teen's plan.

my boy is the VILLAIN, honey, and i can't help but love him for it. i'm still not entirely sure how Agatha was able to piece together the fact that he was actually one of Wanda's children but that'll come to light sooner or later.

let me know what you think!!

[lasudio]

VeronaHills, Round Nine: Goldstein

Bianca sat at the breakfast bar and nursed an espresso. The fridge's whirr - and Juno's purr - kept her company.

At five o'clock that morning, Bianca had woken for a glass of water and found Andrew elbow-deep under the dishwasher. He was grumbling to himself as he swept his screwdriver across metal and wires, looking for the culprit behind the dud electronic. "Betty must've overloaded it", Bianca thought she heard under his breath, and then - zzt! The screwdriver shot across the tiles and Andrew was in the air, convulsing like he was at the mercy of an inexperienced marionettist.

Bianca sipped hot brew to calm her nerves as she recalled the scare. Perhaps Betty was sending a message, all the way from Suncreek Cemetery. Stranger things had happened in this village.

Thankfully Andrew wasn't injured, whatever the shock's prerogative. In fact, he bounced back with a renewed vigour to chat up Candy Hart. He probably wasn't mentioning the repairman coming over in the afternoon, but he had a heck of a story to tell nonetheless.

[muiitoloko]

hii!! i love your writing!!! are you going to post something for harry hart? thank youuu🩷

Author's Notes: Thank you so much for the 10 followers!

Title: Girls' night

Summary: Bedivere persuades Harry to join her for a girls' night out.

Pairing: Harry Hart ( Kingsman) × Fem!Reader

Warning: None.

In the cozy living room of Harry Hart's house, the soft glow of the TV illuminated the space as an old James Bond movie played. Harry, now the new Arthur and head of the Kingsman, was seated on the sofa with his secret girlfriend, Bedivere, by his side. It was a rare moment of relaxation for them, but Bedivere seemed anything but content.

You shifted beside him, letting out an audible sigh for what seemed like the hundredth time. Harry looked at you, raising an amused eyebrow. "Something bothering you, my dear?" he asked, a hint of a smile on his lips.

You fidgeted uncomfortably. "Well, to be honest, I'm a bit bored with this movie," you admitted. "It's not really my cup of tea."

Harry laughed, turning off the TV. "Fair enough," he said, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. "What do you suggest we do, then?"

A mischievous smile spread across your face. "How about a girls' night?" you suggested, enthusiasm in your voice.

Harry blinked in surprise. "A girls' night?" he repeated, furrowing his brows. "I'm not exactly a girl, love."

You playfully pouted. "I know, but you'd look adorable with a bit of makeup and your nails done," you said, a glint of mischief in your eyes.

Harry hesitated, unsure about the idea. "I'm not sure about that," he said, but your puppy eyes were hard to resist.

"Please, Harry," you pleaded, giving him your best innocent look.

Harry sighed, knowing he was defeated. "Alright, alright. But just this once," he conceded, shaking his head with a smile.

Your face lit up, and you practically jumped with excitement. "Yay! You won't regret this," you said, taking his hand and leading him to Harry's bedroom.

You grabbed the bag you brought with you and pulled out an array of skincare products, makeup, and nail polishes. Harry watched you with amusement, realizing you had planned this from the beginning.

"You've been planning this all along?" he asked, a playful glimmer in his eyes.

You smiled shyly. "Maybe," you admitted. "I just thought it would be fun to pamper you a bit."

Harry shook his head, laughing. "Alright, let's get on with it then," he said, sitting on the bed as you took out a cleansing lotion and climbed onto Harry's lap to take care of his face. You applied the cleansing lotion gently, your fingers massaging his skin in soft circles. Harry held onto your hips, allowing you to work your magic while pampering him.

Next, you applied a skin moisturizer, your touch delicate and caring. Harry closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the feeling of your soft hands on his face. He couldn't help but admit that he enjoyed being taken care of by you.

Then came the makeup. You picked up a makeup brush and dipped it into the foundation, applying it lightly to Harry's face. You took your time, blending it carefully to create a natural look.

Harry chuckled, feeling the weight of the makeup on his skin. "I never thought I'd receive a makeover from a Kingsman agent," he joked, earning a playful slap on the arm from you.

"Oh, hush and let me work," you said with a smile, focusing on your task.

With skillful hands, you applied a subtle eyeshadow to Harry's one visible eye, as his other eye was hidden under the eyepatch he always wore when not using his custom-made Kingsman glasses with a single darkened lens. You added a touch of blush to Harry's cheeks, giving him a healthy glow.

But when you reached for the bright red lipstick, Harry hesitated. "I think that's enough makeup for me," he said, trying to draw the line.

You playfully pouted, waving the lipstick in a seductive manner. "Please, just this once," you pleaded.

Harry shook his head with a smile. "Alright, but only because you asked so nicely," he relented, knowing he was powerless against your persuasive charm.

You beamed triumphantly, applying the lipstick to Harry's lips. When you stepped back, you admired your handiwork, and Harry looked at his reflection in the mirror, raising an eyebrow at seeing himself with makeup.

"I look like a cheap and one-eyed prostitute," Harry quipped, trying to stifle a laugh.

You burst into laughter, your eyes sparkling with amusement. "You look fabulous," you teased, adding playfully, "Ever seen a fabulous one-eyed cheap prostitute before?"

Harry chuckled, shaking his head. "No, I don't think I have," he replied with a playful grin. "But you certainly know how to make me look like one."

You leaned in and planted a gentle kiss on his cheek. "You look beautiful no matter what, my king," you said sincerely.

Harry's heart warmed at your words, realizing that his appearance didn't matter as much as the love and affection you shared. With a tender smile, he pulled you into a warm embrace, makeup and all.

"I love you," Harry whispered, his voice filled with emotion.

You hugged him tightly. "I love you too, Harry," you replied, your voice just as sincere.

In that moment, as you sat together, wrapped in each other's arms, Harry knew that it didn't matter if he looked like a fabulous cheap prostitute or a sophisticated gentleman; what mattered was the connection you had, the love that bound you together.

And so, you spent the rest of the night in each other's company, sharing laughter, affection, and tender moments, cherishing the girls' night and the beautiful love you had found in each other. The world of espionage and daring adventures could wait - tonight, all that mattered was the love you shared.

"Hey Bruv, couldn't help but notice your... stylish nails," Eggsy said the next morning with a wink, trying not to burst into laughter as he looked at Harry's brightly painted pink nails, the work of Bedivere from the night before, which both had forgotten to remove.

Harry raised an eyebrow, maintaining his composure. "Ah, yes. It's a new grooming technique I've been experimenting with," he replied smoothly, playing along with Eggsy's game. "You see, this is a new top-secret experimental Kingsman technique to distract our enemies with fashion, leaving them vulnerable to our attacks."

The other agents exchanged glances, unsure if Harry was being serious or not. Bedivere, sitting among them, found it hard to suppress her amusement, covering her smile with her hand.

But the next morning, when they gathered for another mission briefing, you couldn't contain your laughter as you noticed Eggsy's nails painted in a vibrant shade of blue.

[meowmeow-motherfucker]

The Fox & The Squirrel- Chapter 1

Hey gang! If you've read this series before or over on AO3, you're not seeing double! I decided to make some changes to the story going forward and will be re-releasing chapters on a weekly basis starting next Wednesday!

Summary: Chasing yet another demon in a long line of hunts, the Winchesters get help from an unlikely source. But their new recruit isn’t exactly who she says she is. Savannah is used to looking over her shoulder. Life in hiding doesn’t leave much room for enjoyment, but traveling with the Winchesters just may give her a new lease on life.

Pairing: Dean Winchester/OFC Savannah Hart

Trigger warnings: elements of horror and witchcraft, references to past torture/trauma, Crowley is a dick, lies and deception, mutual pining, flirting, sex, typical Winchester shenanigans.

Word count: 1.1k

Read it on AO3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16242644/chapters/37972217

Decorah, Iowa

“I hope they have pie.” Dean grumbled as the pair climbed out of the Impala.

The brothers were seated almost immediately and made themselves comfortable in the booth as they waited for their server. Sam immediately buried his nose in the menu, scowling at Dean when a straw wrapper pelted him in the face.

“What?” Dean asked innocently.

“What are you, five?”

“Maybe. Come on, it was a good shot. It was a good shot, right?” Dean asked the server as he heard them step up to the table.

“I couldn’t say, to be honest. I didn’t see any shooting going on.” The server replied coolly. Dean glanced up, shock lancing through him at how beautiful the woman was. Light blonde hair, pale blueish gray eyes hidden behind dark framed glasses…pale skin, wine colored lipstick and gorgeous curves.

“Ignore him, he’s a child.” Sam said apologetically.

“I can see that,” The server offered a tight-lipped smile at the older Winchester’s expense, ignoring his protest without batting an eye. “Have you had enough time to look at the menu? I know it’s a lot; I can give you more time if need be.”

“No, it’s fine. I think I’m gonna have the California salad and he’ll…well he’ll probably get something that’ll kill him.” Sam replied. The server gave another tight smile as she scribbled Sam’s order on her pad. “Do you have poppyseed dressing?”

“Sure do,” the server scribbled a note on her pad and looked over at Dean. “What can I get for you?”

A thousand filthy responses flitted through Dean’s brain, but all that came out was an order for the bacon cheeseburger.

“Good choice,” the server gave another tight smile as she scribbled away. “We’re actually famous for the bacon cheeseburger.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

“Would you like French fries or onion rings?”

“Definitely fries, and is there any chance you have pie?”

“We have several kinds of pie. Any flavor in particular?”

“Cherry?” Dean asked hopefully. The server pursed her lips in thought, clicking her pen repeatedly.

“We might still have some, but last I knew we were down to our last slice and Mr. Reynolds always orders cherry. I’ll check for you.”

“Steal it from him if you have to.” Dean joked.

“You want me to shake down an old man for pie?” the server snorted. “You’re cute, but not that cute.” She tucked their menus under her arm and turned on her heel, disappearing from their view as she returned to the hostess stand.

The server returned to refill their drinks and again to deliver their food.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Dean asked as she placed her bacon cheeseburger in front of him.

“Oh, you don’t know? I figured you would have seen my nametag while you were staring at my chest.” Sam choked on his salad, quickly swallowing his food so he could laugh at his brother.

“Right. I deserve that.” Dean blushed, offering an apology when the server raised a judgmental brow at him.

“Yes, you do. Can I bring you anything else?” she asked Sam as a bell started dinging from the kitchen.

“No, thank you, um…do you need to get that?” Sam asked as the dinging intensified. The server clenched her jaw, her eyes glued to the ceiling as she exhaled.

“I’m gonna kill him if he keeps dinging that fucking bell at me.” She muttered angrily.

“The cook?” Sam asked.

“Yeah. He thinks he’s being funny but really, he’s just being an ass.”

“Maybe you should stab him.” Dean suggested.

“Oh, don’t tempt me.” The server grumbled as a Hispanic man emerged from the kitchen.

“Savannah! Window!”

“For fucks sake,” Savannah hissed, stepping away from their table. “It’s not mine, pendejo. I just picked up the food for my only table.”

“Think she’s who we’re after?” Dean looked across the table at his brother as he picked up his burger.

“I don’t think so,” Sam shook his head. “Yeah she’s got anger issues, but she seems well adjusted.”

“Alright, so we’ll just stay put, keep our eyes peeled.”

“Yeah, I mean...everyone seems on edge around here.”

“Maybe whatever it is is affecting the whole town?”

Savannah came back ten minutes later to check on them, and to drop off the coveted cherry pie for Dean, topped with a mountain of whipped cream.

“Cherry?” Dean asked in awe.

“Cherry,” Savannah nodded. “Freshly stolen from a defenseless old man.” She grinned. She was lying, of course. They’d ended up having a back up cherry pie, so both Mr. Reynolds and the hottie in booth 19 got a piece.

“You’re too good to me.”

“Remember that when you cash out.” Savannah teased, her eyes darting up to connect with his as she refilled his coffee.

Savannah did her best to keep her distance from people. Being a succubus tended to instantly exclude her from most circles, and she’d learned to be okay with that. She didn’t want to accidentally enthrall someone, so solitude was her best bet. Never mind that she’d been around for well over a hundred years now and had learned early on how to control her powers of persuasion.

Savannah didn’t have friends. Sure, she existed in the social orbit of some of the folks in town, but that was as close to friendship as she dared get. She’d only gotten this job when her funds got low. Succubae had bills too.

But dating? Out of the question. Completely off limits. While it was true that her kind needed sexual energy to survive, there was no rule it had to be derived from intercourse. Savannah had learned to survive on what energy she could derive from milder interactions, like flirting and occasional makeouts. She never went further. She had no desire to turn someone into her slave. She didn’t really miss sex that much anyway.

That’s what she tried to tell herself when Hottie smiled at her. God, his eyes were so green. He thought she was pretty, too. Gorgeous, in fact. Sometimes being able to read minds came in handy.

~~~~

In the wee hours of the morning when he should have been sleeping, Dean lay wide awake, unable to get the server from the diner off his mind. Something about her just...drew him in. Almost like...he didn’t know what.

~~~~

Across town, Savannah was restless. She knew Hottie was still awake and thinking of her. It was driving her up the wall, to feel the sense of yearning she could feel in him. Had she accidentally enthralled him?

Savannah’s stomach dropped. No. No. She was so careful! She’d barely flirted! She hadn’t even felt the urge- no, this was something else. Could this be nothing more than a crush?

[madsmilfelsen]

RUST ANON I READ BOTH OF THEM AND THEY WERE BOTH AMAZING 😭😭😭 PLS I BEG FOR MLRE CRUMBS OR ANYRHING RUST RELAted oR WRITTEN BY YIU

You know it’s funny because Chevy has me daydreaming about them at the grocery store so that will have to be written, I really need them to argue about fresh vs canned fruit and Rust to teach Sugar how to make sweet tea :(

I have some incomplete stuff that I started and thought 1. Lazy writing warm up that does nothing (Maggie going to Doumain’s) 2. this would never fucking happen (circa early 2012) and 3. This is entirely too horny to put in a chapter with already exceedingly long smut (post stabbing recovery) lmao so here they are

Sugar lost a coin flip and is on her knees under the bar for the afternoon. Rust does the bookkeeping for the next inventory order and Bob drinks himself face down onto the bar, the lucky bastard.

“Don’t forget to clear the lines,” Rust reminds her, too cheerfully, and disappears into the back room before she can tell him to go fuck himself. Sugar keeps scrubbing the fridge out, not stopping when she hears the front door open. Doumain’s can run on the honor system so she doesn’t get up to see which regular straggled in for their post-fishing refreshments.

“Excuse me? I’m looking for Rustin Cohle.”

“I don’t know anyone by that name, ma’am,” Sugar responds, voice echoing in the cool cavity she has her damn head stuck in until she can get the back corner clean.

“Oh,” she sounds disappointed, rather than irritated, which piques Sugar’s interest but not enough to look up. This woman, whoever she is, sounds polished and put together and Sugar doesn’t know why she’s in a place like this. “Well, if you see him—” Sugar stops herself from snapping at her— “will you let him know Margaret Sawy— Hart, Maggie Hart wants to talk to him?”

The bar rattles when Sugar bangs the back of her head hard enough to wake Bob. She’s holding the back of her head when she stands, meeting eyes so, so blue and wide in concern.

“Who’s the bird?” Bob asks, voice rough with sleep.

“Are you—?” Maggie asks as the same time.

Sugar can’t register either question and calls out, “Rust!”

Maggie quirks a brow that makes Sugar feel reprimanded enough to mouth a quick sorry, before patting Bob’s shoulder and tilting her head to the back room for him to follow her.

“I ain’t clearing those lines, you lost fair and—” Rust falls silent mid-step, halting in the doorway that was Sugar’s escape.

“Rust,” Maggie greets softly, “It’s good to see you.”

“Bullshit,” he replies, flat without any true menace. Sugar wants to be anywhere but here.

“I talked to Marty,” Maggie starts.

“I hear you talked to the cops, too,” Rust says, heavy with accusation, but he steps forward enough that Sugar can dart out.

“Yes, them, too,” she says. Sugar can feel Maggie looking at her when she pulls on Bob’s elbow. “How are you?”

“What’d Marty tell you?”

“Who is she?” Bob asks in the backroom, just out of sight.

“Maggie,” Sugar whispers back and his brows jump.

“He wanted to know what the police asked me about. He said he was helping you with something. That’s it. How long have you been back?”

“Hear you got a big house,” Rust says, choosing again not to answer her question, voice only slightly less hostile. “Marty says the girls are doing fine. That’s good.”

“Rust,” she says, the edge of pleading make Sugar and Bob exchange a look, “Just tell me it’s something that’s not gonna get him hurt.”

“Well, I can’t tell you that. It never sat right with me, and it doesn’t now, you asking me to lie to you about him. Now, get out of here. You’re classing the place up.” A stool scrapes the ground and the door opens and closes again but Sugar and Bob don’t move until Rust says, volume conversational, “Come on out.”

“You know how to hold a grudge, brother,” Bob comments first as he retakes his seat and Rust only grunts, watching the white SUV pull away before he grabs a bottle of whiskey and three glasses.

“I think I’m concussed,” Sugar mutters, rubbing the back of her head.

The lock jingles and Sugar looks up but doesn’t move from where she’s curled up. Rust swings his keys into his palm with a low whistle.

“What are you doing?” he asks, stopping mid step when he sees her on the couch.

“Reading.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Rust says with a shake of his head, walks over without taking off his boots to hook a finger into her necklace. When he pulls slightly Sugar sits up straighter. “Get down.”

The embarrassment is a show, unfolding her legs slowly and not looking away from him to not miss any further instruction. Sugar sits on her heels, chasten on her knees and at this level she notices for the first time her bed is a few inches shorter than his. She’s about to snip about how he should just crate her when he goes to work if he doesn’t want her on the furniture, but his hand curls around her necklace before she can open her mouth. The chain and clasp are sturdy, on purpose likely, with how easy it is for him to hold her down by it. His curled knuckles press down on the back of her neck until her cheek is on the floor and holds her there until the lesson takes root.

“Daax,” he says, not stern but firm enough for her to not move. Heat flushes her cheeks even as she relaxes further onto her forearms and she stays, just like he said. Sugar might find this degrading if it weren’t for the absence of tension as her entire self decompresses.

Rust moves some things around in the kitchen cupboards, ice hits glass, a liquid splashes. He returns without saying a word and Sugar can hear him take a drink after he sits down, his leg bends over her lowered shoulders, boot near her flat hand.

“Ts’uus.”

Sugar carefully sits back on her heels as he told her to do.

“‘Aani.”

Her first instinct is to stand but she swallows, putting her palm on the floor, one and then the other to crawl between his spread knees. She sits with her hands in her lap, poised to break at the first askance of compliance. Rust touches under her chin with a slight smile, “Gheli.”

Sugar can’t help it, she really can’t, when her hips cant forward— good.

Rust is awake and smoking already when she rolls over, her back to the room, sheets tight over the curve of her hip.

“Sugar.”

Her answer is a questioning hum.

“Can you do something for me?”

“What’s that?” she asks sleepily, rubbing her eye and twisting to look at him.

“Get on your hands and knees.”

He exhales, billowing and cloud-like, as she rises slowly, positioning herself as he requested, the sheet slips off and she’s bare. Sugar pushes her messy braid over her shoulder where it coils down her spine.

“Like this?”

“Yeah,” Rust confirms, taking his time in the next drag, “stretch your arms out, lower your chest— no, all the way, Sugar.”

Her eye, peeking over her bicep, doesn’t move from him.

“The fucking sight of you,” he mutters, “Now how can I keep you just like that?”

“What’s all this for?” Sugar asks, smile hidden behind her arm as she adjusts her hips.

“My health and safety,” he replies, deadpan, hand falling onto his stomach where the skin is still pink from having staples removed. Rust stands with a grunt, dropping his filter into an ashtray, before walking to Sugar’s bed. “Now, don’t move and just let me figure a few things out.”

Standing behind her, Rust pulls on one of her ankles and then the other until her knees are on the edge of her mattress. He yanks her hips back so her ass is where it’s supposed to be and smoothes his hands up her back, feeling her spine arch and stretch. Her body still loose with sleep in the morning sunlight. Rust covers her shoulder blades with his hands, holding them down into the mattress.

“Try pushing your hips back,” he says. She presses against his pelvis, the heat of her bleeding into his skin, and he smiles at the annoyed noise she makes against her sheets when she can’t move any further, “This might work— how much rope do we have?”

“I’m not some bitch who keeps killing her studs. I can stay still,” she promises with a laugh.

“You sound sure and all, honey, but it’s been, what, four weeks, now, and you’ve been eyeing me like you’re ready to pounce,” he states, standing straighter with his hands fitting to the curve of her waist. “Can you understand my trepidation of wrasslin’ you? I’m very fragile right now, Sugar.”

“The hell you are,” she scoffs, folding her arms and resting her cheek on her forearms while he rubs the heel of his palms into her lower back. “You moved a keg yesterday.”

“It was empty,” he argues, before he pushes her hips forward a few inches to look down between them, “have you missed me?”

“We’re together everyday.”

“That’s not what I mean—” Rust guides her hand to the wet spot on his briefs— “that’s you, honey.”

Sugar tries to hide her face but he’s already clocked the redness on her cheeks, light and splotchy between her shoulder blades.