#I could write a whole fanfic about how he's hallucinating

[infernothechaosgod]

okay kind of a long post that's less my theory and more of a backing up @rocking-space-dragon's theory

I 100% agree that that wasn't real, it would make no sense whatsoever The federation WOULD NOTICE also the whole stream we were given this weird hints if bad being capeable of eating living things and even domesticated one's I know it was mostly joking around but Even without that It was said in the stream that bbh ate both almost the whole cake and the whole chicken and that shit would fill one person up To the point where normaly they would comment on it after waking up by saying they feel weird or fuzzy something like that, so we know bad can eat ALOT and not really get affected by it

Also the scene itself seems so made up not only becuse it Was too perfect too domesticated too much good turn of events It was becuse it also seemed familiar Thats becuse EVEN BAD comments on how the plants ron grows are the SAME plants dapper likes, also ron who has been Used by the federation then kidnapped by bad and tortured...he would not dare to hit bad, he would not even dare to make any form of slightly agressive or even defensive actions around bad but you know who would? You know who would playfuly punch bad and easily forgive him while being slightly sassy?

Dapper

Whatever place we saw, it was not real, it was too good and someone would notice the making of it, the actions of both bad and ron were fake, animated even they were put to what bad wanted to see and feel

Also I know bad likes teasing us alot when were wrong, but he would do it in a diffrent way, directly saying things like "Im glad you didnt get eated!" Or "so happy you didnt end up in some monsters stomach" it feels too direct, it feels like not bad saying it to us or ron, it's like him saying it to himself

"Im so glad I didnt eat or hurt you beasicly"

But in reality Im sure that photo of bad and ron will either be him with a corpse, or him with nobody staring into nothingness

We already know bad hallucinates, Its not semi confirmed or teased or confirmed out of roleplay we saw it in action, we saw it in its direct action we know he's capeable of hallucinating both people and places And even both at the same time

Bad either killed ron

Either ate ron

Either damaged ron to extreme level and he SOMEHOW escaped and bad just assumed he was dead

i take no other options, something horrible happend there Something very horrible

[liminal---nightmare-aliza]

Plot for fanfic I’m really tempted to write:

So New Moon realizes WAY earlier on that he’s not… moon. He’s a different person. So he talks to sun about it and they chat and he comes up with the name Nexus, but shortens it to Nem because he’s ‘saving it for his villain arc’ which gets a laugh out of both of them.

Of course, professionally, he’s still ‘moon’ as it’s literally the Sun And Moon Show, but Sun get everyone to call him Nem while they’re not in the daycare doing their jobs.

Anywho, Solar dies, Nem starts having his slow mental breakdown, REALIZES he is slowly breaking down, but unlike New Moon, he actually starts talking to Sun about it once the hallucinations start. Sun’s been through those before, so maybe he could help? And it kinda works…

He realizes he’s getting worse, and was planning on using his own body to bring solar back (instead of using bloodmoons) but he’s actually open to other ideas. And Eclipse has a pretty decent idea, but he’s obviously kinda dying at the moment, and moon has no idea where the fuck he is.

Eventually, he does sort of snap, but in a really weird way where he KNOWS he’s gonna snap and kinda locks himself in the same place he is locked up in canon, and him and sun talk again.

Anywho, Monty figures out what’s going on, misinterpreting it a LOT, and still ends up shocking Nem into oblivion so he can talk to Moon. Obviously Sun isn’t really happy about this, and as soon as he finds out he lets Nem go and tells him to hide so that Monty wouldn’t do that again. Sun tries to yell at Monty for shocking his brother to near death, but during that time bloodmoon captures earth and Monty rushes off. Nem also find out about this and ends up going after bloodmoon himself, using a shield to keep earth out of blast range.

Anywho, puppet and Monty are under the impression that he wasn’t going to have a shield, promptly sends him to space to be picked up by Darksun. “I swear I left him right here.”

Darksun finds Nem, he thinks Darksun is a hallucination at first, they talk for a bit, and before going with him back to his hideaway dimension, he texts Sun.

“In space, agreed to a villain arc, will update soon.”

So anyway, that’s how we get SANE NEXUS!!

He’s still doing the whole ‘negative star power’ thing but he’s not a dick about it, and pretty much everything in the main canon still happens, just slightly differently.

so things like sun still having to choose between nexus and moon, the whole Goliath thing, and a few other things, but shaken around a bit, you know?

Oh and also Darksun is all like “…you’re genuinely proving me wrong about moons right now are you ok?” To nexus.

[blooming-sunrise]

how many jemily fanfics can I reasonably write? like I know I lack discipline and motivation but that's not what I'm talking about... like within canon, is it too much to write about every single way jemily could've gone?

like the one where jj and will never happened

and the one where they actually broke up in miami? because when will told her that he wouldn't have cared that his friend was gay because he loved him and wanted him to be happy she realized that she didn't have to hide either and she could be gay

and the one where they don't break up in miami and when emily tells her she should go for will jj does because she thinks her crush on emily is pointless and hopeless but emily told her to go for will because she thought her crush on jj was hopeless too

also the one where will actually dies, remember emily trying to get the bomb off will? well this is the one where jj begs emily to leave, "please Emily, I can't lose you both. I can't lose you both."

and the one where will lives but the fear of losing him is as strong as the fear of losing emily so jj doesn't get married because she's too confused

and also the one where once jj hallucinate that emily comes to save her and when emily actually does jj starts to realize she has some unresolved feelings about emily

and the one with weekend visits to Paris and late night calls that set the perfect situation for them to realize how much they need each other

the one where on a drunken night out they have sex (because the cheating trope cannot be missing from here, I'm sorry) and the both say it's a mistake even though emily is thinking that the mistake is not doing it sooner and jj feels bad about cheating on will but she's starting to think that maybe being with will is the mistake but they say it's a mistake because they work together and it's all way too complicated and even if it wasn't and even if they start dating they wouldn't be able to work together anymore and breaking up the team is selfish and jj is married after all so it has to be a mistake and they have to take it back and they have to be 100% professionals and it's killing them both

and the one where jj ends it with will and they do start secretly dating but of course the whole team notices there's something going on with them

and the one where they don't start dating and everything is too much so when the team kinda breaks up they are relieved but then when the team gets back together they realize that their feelings are as strong as ever

and of course the one occurring during evolution, where there's stuff going on with will and jj and jj realizes she cannot longer pretend she isn't still madly in love with emily

those are the ones on the top of my head and I feel like each one is necessary but... is it too much?

[wanderingmoonmen]

Hi! I just wanted to come here and gush about how much I love your half doomed and semi sweet series real quick! I binged it all in two days and you guys have done such a good work on it. I honestly think the first installment is probably one of my favorite pieces of fanfic ever just due to how great the mix of character interaction and action is within the fic. I also just adore how Mary is handled with James and how he realizes that Mary wouldn’t say a lot of the stuff his hallucinations are saying but also it’s still overwhelming and hurts despite this! I’ve also been enjoying the lot more day to day ness of the sequel fic too, where issues still come up but it’s also not, running from monsters all the time (unless those monsters are silent hill remnants/bad thoughts, sorry James!).

I don’t know if it’s ever detailed anywhere, but what exactly inspired you to write the sequel fic if you don’t mind me asking?

aaaaa this has been sitting in my inbox for a bit because I saw the nice words and it makes me melt into a puddle and I want to take time to properly answer your question. Thank you ❤️

I ended up writing way too much in my answer so the tldr; I have way too many thoughts and ideas and with @fly-rye 's encouragement and participation we're now in a place where there's a whole timeline and already drafted events still out there to do.

My ramblings and more detailed explanation under the cut

I think in the preface to Promise, or somewhere, I've said that literally all of this started as a joke. I'm also going to keep to my guns of coming up with it back in 2018 (albeit a joke that I kept to myself lmao). I had sort of kept my 'joke' meeting in some sort of filing cabinet in my mind. And honestly if @fly-rye wasn't a super cool and amazing friend and didn't indulge my bullshit we wouldn't be here (also I'm pretty sure that DBD audio of Leon sounding very......... y'know affected it too. I also started a playthrough of RE4 on Oculus at the same time. Also also this literally started I swear a couple months before remakes were formally announced.) ANYWAY this isn't an answer to your question, I just like rambling.

Now that sort of plays into what inspired the sequel, I think I am a 'too many thoughts head full' type of person and just have too much to say sometimes (and perhaps also too much imagination). I also like trying to explain things so the in-fiction lore makes sense (like... extensively thinking about how to actually for real explain how James got to Spain or What Is The Scientific Explanation For Silent Hill etc etc. I just like to make things Work in my head, idk how to explain it).

When Promise turned into a project, there was more serious thought into how their relationship worked and how to explain Leon's character changes in future media. Then it was a thought of 'how could things be better for the both of them?' Or 'what if they were allowed to heal and grow as people' and whatever else that can be narratively satisfying about seeing hurt people finding each other and helping each other.

Then that turns into 'let's put that thing into a situation.'

Which, of course, there are A Lot Of Situations considering Leon has... 4 movies and 1 game he's in after RE4.

There's also the interest of exploring the mechanics of Silent Hill and exploring how SH3/SH4 can become entangled with the mess.

There's then the flip side of the domestic life and living as """""normal"""""" people.

So to fill the gaps between Situations we've brainstormed a Lot of timeline stuff and certain relationship beats that should occur (yknow like their gay wedding, spoilers). I'm also trying to show how James integrates with the rest of the RE crew and with Harry and Heather.

So... Basically I've thought... a lot about how to make their ship and this universe integrate into all the canon events and have some random drafts for it (of course much credit goes to @fly-rye to a) indulging me b) getting sucked into this c) being super supportive d) brainstorming the Situations with me) because there's just so much potential!!

Now, this is kinda where I get stuck and why there hasn't been more posted, if you're wondering

I like to be thorough and in my head I think I need to explain and show character development in detail because, again, in my head, I think it'll then be viewed as 'bad' or idk, 'not well written' or 'not making sense' (as if any of this makes sense). So I feel like I need to show how these relationships develop so it's more convincing or whatever. I think about how some media is panned or criticized for bad relationship writing, ie 'we've been best friends for 10 years and he really helped me out, right bob?" Like who says that.

So in starting PE I wanted to try and thoroughly and logically explain how we get to the current point.

Obviously this is also literally fanfic and [insert meme here] it's my AU and I can do what I want [just tell you This Is How It Is]

But... I'm not great at writing fluff or character interaction stuff just for the sole purpose of development. I thrive on hurt/comfort and angst stuff (if that wasn't obvious) whereas trying to come up with story beats for a beach trip or something is much more difficult for me. So I've struggled to move forward because it's just not my forte and it takes practice and patience...

Unfortunately, I can be rather impatient.

It's really annoying when you're trying to be thorough! So even when I've got a plan, I just get annoyed with my writing because I just wanna get to the good stuff!!! Why can't I write this out faster!!!! I need to beam my thoughts into a document!!!

I keep on feeling like I'm making empty promises, but I do really wanna keep writing and posting. I am trying and I think about sitting down and writing a lot, but between all those other hangups and not having time, I just haven't.

I know a lot of this isn't exactly what you asked, but I hope it answers your question and then some. Thank you again for reaching out it means a lot to hear from readers!!!

[coolbeanzeaglbones]

The fanfic chapter for the murder mystery one. I have no clue how to write murder mystery. I'm so sorry

Jimmy fixed up Eaglebones' arm. It took a while, but he was able to fix it. This would actually make it so Eaglebones didn't have a weapon for a couple of days, as his arm would be in a sling because of muscle damage.

It was the middle of the night when he got done and, as he was passing the little medical area of the lab, something grabbed his arm, “Woah, Eaglebones, hi.”

Eaglebones had this weird unfocused look in his eye, “Something is going to happen. Someone is going to get killed.” He sounded so scared.

Jimmy grabbed Eaglebones' hand and gently pried it off of his arm, “Who?”

“I don't know, but it's going to happen in an alley. Behind a restaurant.” Jimmy was getting a bit freaked out.

But before he could ask anything else, Eaglebones just went back to sleep like nothing happened. It was almost as if he hadn't even gotten up in the first place.

The more Jimmy thought, the weirder the whole thing got. Logically, Eaglebones should've still been under the effects of the anesthesia. He shouldn't have even been able to wake up at that time. He should have been coming out of it at least the next day, if not the afternoon, but he had just woken up to give him this creepy ass message.

Jimmy shuddered. Surely what he had said had to be some after effect of the sleepy time drugs. But still, it nagged in the back of Jimmy's mind. That nag turned into a full on panic.

What if what Eaglebones was saying was a true thing? Like a premonition. Weird.

Jimmy decided to tell the commander about it the next day.

XXXXXXXXXXXLINEBREAKXXXXXXXXX 

The next day, the others were in the living room, Eaglebones was still loopy a bit, but fine and having a one sided conversation with Crash about aliens.

Jimmy grabbed the commander, “Can I talk to you for a minute.”

The commander was actually being entertained by the weird conversation, so he was a bit miffed, “Uh, can it wait? This is hilarious.” He said through a bit of laughter, “No, it can't wait.” He grabbed the commander by his arm.

Eaglebones stopped his completely followable lecture about monoliths to say, “Oh, they're gonna get nasty in the other room.” before laughing and getting back to talking about stupid esoteric stuff.

Everyone just stared at him, “No.” Was all that was said, but they let it slide because he was high as a kite.

Jimmy and the commander went to the other side of the room, “First of all, what the shell, Eaglebones?” the commander said.

“Commander, last night something really weird happened.” Jimmy's tone caught the commander off guard.

The commander gave Jimmy his full attention and Jimmy recounted the entire incident of what happened the previous night.

The commander just stared at him, “Are you sure?”

“I mean, I don't think I hallucinated, I'm a robot.”

The commander had a face of contemplation, “When Eaglebones is more sober, we go into town and we split up, give everyone something to smack a killer with, if necessary.”

Jimmy nodded and the commander went back to the makeshift classroom that was happening, “Oh, he passed out, like, as soon as you guys left, but wow, that was savage.” Ricky laughed.

He and the commander got into an argument about how Ricky kept hiding the donuts, but Jimmy was just thinking.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

Sorry shippers, I don't ship them at all and I think it's weird, so...

[marnerlue]

(untitled)

So about this: do you know the feeling when someone close to you dies and all the thousands of questions you wanna ask stay unanswered?

I think I wanted to show this in this one-shot I did I guess like a few weeks ago.

!Only read this after you've read the whole thing!

Leo in this is just Donnie hallucinating. If it wasn't clear enough, sorry. Leo doesn't exist on his own, it's just Donnie's imagination, all the things he says, asks, how he answers is Donnie. The back of his smart little brain. It meant to represent how he of all people always looking for answers and wanting to find logic is now stuck with all these questions eating him up. So his brain especially in grief is trying to find a way to deal with everything, but how could he answer these questions when he doesn't have an answer?

So I wrote this when I was drunk, I edited it but left most of the things as they were cause it's just funny how everyone passed out at like 4 in the morning and I was there not even knowing where tf I am writing an angsty fanfic like a maniac. My brain knows what it's doing even when I don't😂

[stormxpadme]

🤡 🎢 📈 ✅ for the fic asks!

Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask

🤡 What’s a line, scene, or exchange you’ve written that made you laugh?

From this oneshot of my X-Men main verse

This time when he turned to Hank, he finally seemed to really see him. "Out?" "Yes. You’re out." Hank squeezed his good shoulder encouragingly, then went about opening the softly padded straps on Scott’s wrists and ankles. "We’re all home. No casualties." With that, he injected those remaining 100 ml into the most recent IV line, to counter at least the worst of what was so brutal on Scott's body right now. Much to his patient's confusion. "Didn’t you say …?" "Just trying not to stuff your veins to the brim when it's not absolutely necessary," Hank gave back with an apologetic shrug. "Told you, I need your system up and running, not you hallucinating from drugs." Scott's eyebrow went up high, slowly. "Why can’t I shoot you right now?" "Complaining already. Welcome home." Logan briefly knocked that stretcher's mattress as an amicable salute and left for somewhere then where he could smoke his nerves back into place in peace. Which made it Alison's job, quickly raising that reversal weapon Scott's way, muzzle turned downwards this time. "The effects will wear off soon. You probably got another five minutes without your blasts. We just needed to be sure you’re orientated enough not to send them the wrong way." Scott acknowledged that with a stiff nod and by at least briefly pushing up his glasses but didn’t waste any time examining Alison’s expressive features with the thick blond curls, those ocean blue sparkling eyes, her fine freckles, in detail, unwilling as usual to dwell for long on the both so loved and so dreaded, so tempting effects of that weapon originating from Lehnsherr's hands. He was scowling at the sight of Alison's wrecked wrists instead. "Hank, patch her the fuck up."

"Yeah, you definitely are feeling better." Hank took only another second to roll his eyes in mock exasperation before starting to hook Bastian to the lines necessary for a long-term treatment as well, as Alison was signaling him she still was in a state of aftershock that didn’t demand immediate attention.

This whole exchange amused me a lot because Scott is literally just out from days of straight up torture and all he can think about, the second he's no longer in pain delirium is having Hank patch up Dazzler aka his team being safe and taken care of. Also Hank withholding too much painkillers on him because Scott already basically lived off that the last few years because of his migraines, will never fail to crack me up.

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

Funnily enough, in the sense of wild, probably a part of the American Idol season (German version) I've written. Not to mention the whole research work (including going to TV casting show castings personally) that went into the series, describing the whole casting and recall progress, the live shows themselves, with all the songs the contestants sing, show acts, costumes etc., the whole series is something I enjoy reading a lot still. But part 3 is probably the wildest ride. While it's describing the last few shows and the finale, of course, along with the love story of the two protagonists, it also deals with the fact that one of the other contestants and the best friend of the protagonists just fell off a roof drunk and died in a freak accident with the two protagonists watching and holding his hand. There's obviously a lot of feels in this fictional TV reality show season, and I certainly didn't expect it to move me as much when I started that thing back then.

📈 How many fics do you have?

That's always a loaded question. Written? Published? On my PC? Written, I can't tell because I started writing at the age of 9 and my earliest stories on school notebooks sadly were trashed at some point. On AO3, I have 202 works mostly in English published as of now. In our German fanfiction archive fanfiktion.de, I have 131 German stories which are mostly not the same as on AO3 though. On my PC, I have dozen of other finished and unfinished additional stories that are only for my enjoyment.

✅ What’s something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don’t mean to?

I think most of my OCs at least start out as somewhat shy or having self-confidence issues. 8 years of mobbing at school left their mark, it's really as simple as that. There's always a lot of growth though, and most of these girls had no fucking idea in the beginning how much ass they'd be kicking in one way or another someday.

[cartoonsbyandie]

Uglytie and Critias the Traitor 👀

WIP Challenge 5. Uglytie

Ugly tie is a doodle I never posted! Divorced from its context:

10. Critias the Traitor

This was/is(?) a Yugioh fanfic to go along with my Orichalcos!Kaiba AU, which I still have a massive soft spot for. It was going to be a canon rewrite of all of Season 4 from Kaiba's POV, with the twist being that Kaiba starts using the Seal of Orichalcos and wild stuff happens to him. I hit a snag in that I didn't know how to do Canon Rewrite well, and was strictly trying to use all the same dialogue that's show on-screen, only writing original stuff if I was changing a scene or adding things. Which made things kinda boring.

That said there are about 10,000 words to it so far. Funnily enough I stopped right before the first Seal use, you'd think that'd be the fun part. XD

I couldn't narrow down a part to post, so uh. Here's most of Chapter 2. (Context you need is that in this AU, Seto goes to the Industrial Illusion's American branch early, and is there for the whole first duel between Joey and Mai. He and Mokuba break in and are in the security booth, trying to unlock the rest of the doors. Then Joey unlocks Hermos, and...)

… Something flashed, from the corner of his eye.

“Huh?” Kaiba looked down-- it’s coming from his Duel Disk? The top card-- it’s glowing! Again! This is exactly what happened before, during his duel with Alister! He couldn’t resist the urge to draw it, knowing it was The Fang of Critias. “That dragon…!” He murmured-- he thought he’d been seeing things when it glowed the first time, but now it was brighter, the white color growing more intense until--

A pulse of light, forcing Kaiba to shield his eyes with his arm. And when he opened them again…

Ah-- He’s floating…! In a bubble of white light, but he could still see all around him. And what he saw was… unbelievable. It’s like a fairy-tale castle! Scratch that, it’s like a fairy-tale everything. Lush green forest, pristine blue sky, a waterfall nearby projecting a rainbow over the land. It was so positively storybook that Kaiba could vomit. “What is this…? I must be dreaming again…!”

“Kaiba…”

“Nnh--!” That wasn’t the voice he heard, when he hallucinated the first time. It had the same ethereal air, like it was coming from all around him, but this one sounded more masculine.

“We don’t have much time, before Hermos is released. You must listen.”

Hermos? What is-- Rrgh, who cares!? “No thanks! I’ve seen enough for one day! Just who-- uh?” He felt movement on the edges of his vision, glancing down and spotting a black, three-pronged tail swishing beneath him. Kaiba turned around.

“Critias…!”

The black dragon towered over him, Kaiba hovering at about its chest height. Steam escaped from its open mouth-- Kaiba wondered if it was stuck open like that, with those two massive fangs at the edges of its jaws.

“You must stay true.”

The dragon’s mouth didn’t move when it spoke, yet somehow, Kaiba knew it was the owner of that voice. He stared wide-eyed, waiting for a moment, hoping the dragon might say more, but heard nothing. “And just what is that supposed to mean?!”

Before he could get an answer, a distant roar ripped through the air-- one that didn’t come from Critias. Both Kaiba and the dragon peered over towards the castle, white beams of light shooting through the windows and slowly engulfing the world. Kaiba thought he heard Critias try to say something else, but it felt too far away to make out.

“Ungh--!” Gravity fell back on top of him, Kaiba stumbling backwards until his back hit a wall.

“Seto? Hey, Seto! Are you okay?” That was Mokuba’s voice. Kaiba’s eyes snapped open-- he was back at Industrial Illusions. The Fang of Critias was in his hand, not glowing at all. What in the world was that!?

“Did you notice anything strange, Mokuba?” Kaiba rarely asked things like this. He knew what the answer was, it was always the same. But this time, he couldn’t stop himself.

“Besides the way your acting…?” Mokuba answered, making Kaiba’s heart drop into his stomach. “I was just gonna tell you, I got the security open, and then you smacked into the wall!”

Mokuba saw nothing. It was all in Kaiba’s head, just like every other hallucination he had. Mokuba didn’t know about those. No one did, and no one ever would. (At least Critias hadn’t been melting, with an image of his baby brother trapped inside.) “I’m fine. Forget I asked. Do you have access to all systems?” Kaiba asked, stepping into the security room to peer over Mokuba’s shoulder. Looks like he did a good job! That lifted his spirits a bit, and so did placing Critias on top of his deck once more. (Next time it glowed, he was leaving it there.)

“I will in a sec… Open sesame!” Mokuba announced, with a satisfying ping from the computers. “Access granted!”

“Good. Get the doors open. The sooner we get out of this dump, the better.”

“I’m on it!”

“Hm.”

“You’re about to meet my new friend, Hermos!”

That proclamation from the ground floor, followed by a rumbling growl, got Kaiba to turn back towards the railing. That was Wheeler-- and did he just hear that right? Hermos, wasn’t that--?

Kaiba stepped back out of the security room and onto the walkway, about to peer out at the duel again, when suddenly...

“Huh-- Woah!” A new voice yelped from his left, making Kaiba’s eyes widen, his whole stance shifting as he dodged backwards, out of the way of the black-haired man that skidded past. Looks like he’d been sprinting-- and failed to stop in time. They would’ve both been knocked to the floor, if Kaiba hadn’t moved. Instead, the other man simply stumbled to a stop, before whipping around. “Hey! Kaiba-- You’re here too?”

“Devlin,” Kaiba acknowledged. Recognized that haircut anywhere.

“Hey Duke!” Mokuba chimed in, making Devlin glance through the door at him.

“Mokuba too? Man, it’s a party. How’d you guys get here?”

“It’s a long story. Why are you here?”

“That’s what everyone keeps saying.” Devlin ran a hand through his hair, sighing. “I got a tip that Pegasus had some information about Yugi’s Egyptian God Cards, so I drove over to help. Course, I didn’t expect to see all you guys trapped in here! Need any help with the security?”

“Hmph. If you think we’re trapped, then you’re delusional,” Kaiba scoffed. (Egyptian God Cards? Since when did Devlin have his eye on those?) “We certainly don’t need your help. Don’t you know who I am?”

“Scuze me, sorry I asked,” he scoffed, sarcastic. “If I knew you had it covered, I wouldn’t’ve wasted my time. Tea and Tristan didn’t even mention you guys when I showed up.”

Good, Kaiba thought.

“So what’s goin’ on down there? They wouldn’t tell me.” Devlin peered over the edge, and Kaiba joined in.

“It’s Valentine vs. Wheeler, and Wheeler’s losing, obviously.” Seems he’d missed the best part. Kaiba swore he heard a dragonic roar earlier, but there was no such dragon on the field. Just Wheeler’s Fiend Megacyber holding… some kind of hammer? Was that supposed to be ‘Hermos’? That didn’t answer why Wheeler said the same name that Critias had--! No, he’s being foolish. His mind was playing tricks on him, or he misheard. It’s not like Kaiba had really been paying attention, when he heard it-- Wheeler could’ve said ‘hammer.’

… A hammer that didn’t look like any card he knew, but that was becoming a more common occurrence today.

“I got that much,” Devlin sighed. “But why are they dueling?”

“Seems Valentine is out for revenge. And that circle card gave her the power to do it.” He had listened to her little sob-story. The Duel Monsters tournament scene had become utterly heartless over the years, and popularity was fickle. Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood learned that the hard way; apparently so had Valentine, despite her winning tournaments. Disgusting… Kaiba couldn’t blame her for being angry. He would do the same thing, seeking a source of overwhelming power to prove her naysayers wrong. The ones that said she wasn’t in the same league as Wheeler, Kaiba and Yugi. (Anyone who said that was a fool. How dare Wheeler even be on the same list as him and Yugi, for a start?)

Beep. Beep. Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep--

Devlin and Kaiba both looked around, hearing beeping coming from all directions. Every door along the walkway was unlocking, and a distant, metallic rattling could be heard as the shutters keeping Yugi and his friends trapped lifted. “Mokuba!” Kaiba turned towards him.

“Booyah! I did it!” The kid announced with a grin. “Almost every door in Industrial Illusions is now open!”

“That’s amazing, Mokuba!” Devlin complimented. “Then I’m gonna go up to Pegasus’ office! He’s gotta be there-- I’ll bring him downstairs so we can all get some answers!”

“Fine.” Saved Kaiba the trouble. He watched as Devlin ran off, walking back towards Mokuba. “What doors didn’t open?” The fact that Mokuba said almost hadn’t escaped Kaiba’s notice.

“Just one,” Mokuba replied as he jumped down from the office chair. “This door on the tenth floor didn’t open no matter what I tried, it’s labeled as storage. I don’t even think there’s any cameras in it.”

“Hm.” How suspicious… Still, a door that wouldn’t unlock even after the normal security was broken was Pegasus’ style. But only for things he really wanted to keep secret… things that were part of his plans.

Finally leaving the security room, the brothers walked towards the nearest elevator. The duel had gotten awfully quiet, Kaiba resisting the urge to glance at what was going on. All he could hear were faint voices-- Did someone lose already?

He detected movement out of the corner of his eye, and wheeled around.

“With this fragment of the Orichalcos stone, I unlock the Seal! Hyaaaaah--!”

What-- What the hell--!?

A massive, bright explosion, as the entire dome-shaped barrier that the Seal of Orichalcos created seemed to detonate all at once. All because that brunette he saw earlier jumped off the balcony, shouted that, and punched it. Someone explain that sequence of events to him! All Kaiba could see for several seconds was billowing, white smoke that almost looked like steam.

“Big brother--!”

“Stay back, Mokuba!” Kaiba barked. He didn’t know how intense that explosion was, if the walkway they were on was going to collapse. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Instead, the entire ground floor lit up with green light, forcing the two brothers to shield their eyes. What was going on!? When he finally opened them again, it was quiet. Finally peeking over the railing, he could see everyone on Team Orichalcos had disappeared into thin air.

Nice party trick.

At least those nerds weren’t stuck anymore, by the shutters or the Seal. Maybe they’d stop complaining now.

“Seto, what was that!? What happened with that duel!?” Mokuba asked.

“A bunch of nonsense. Come on, let’s go.”

“G-go? Go where!?” Mokuba demanded, his eyes wide. “Wait up!”

Kaiba didn’t answer, his face twisted into a scowl.

-----

“She’s gone… I failed…”

“Face it, dude. She turned her back on all of us, and joined the bad guys! Whatever happens to her now is her own fault.”

“Take it easy, Tristan! Joey’s got enough on his mind now!”

“He’s gotta face facts. Come on, you saw! Mai wasn’t just playing a friendly game of Duel Monsters out there, Tea. She was after Joey’s soul!”

Kaiba already missed being out of earshot of these nerds, unable to eavesdrop on all of this inane bickering. He and Mokuba appeared from the elevator, approaching the group-- not too close, naturally. But enough for everyone to notice.

“Tristan, that’s enough,” Yugi scolded, before glancing over. “Kaiba. You’re still here.”

And so is Wheeler, Kaiba thought. Soul intact. Interesting. “You expected me to leave? I told you I had business with Pegasus.”

“And? How’d that go?” While Wheeler was busy glaring at the floor, it seemed Tristan decided to take up the ‘yelling at Kaiba’ task. “We tried to tell you before! Mai Valentine got to him before we did, and took his soul with some Orichalcos thing!”

Kaiba’s eyes narrowed. “And you saw it happen?”

“Yeah! Well-- No, but--!”

“She showed us the card containing Pegasus’ soul. I promise you, it was no trick,” Yugi explained. Kaiba half expected him to go into some bogus shpeal about how he could sense Pegasus within the card. If that had been Yugi’s plan, he wisely changed his mind. “… Kaiba, have you experienced this card before? The Seal of Orichalcos?”

“You bet!” Mokuba blurted, before Kaiba could answer. “Seto just wiped the floor with someone who played it! He pretended to be Pegasus, and then made us fly all the way to Duelist Kingdom to duel him!”

“And then he ran away,” Kaiba continued. No point hiding it when Mokuba gave out all the details like that. (Especially when Mokuba was framing it in such a flattering way.) “So we came here to get some answers. Devlin’s looking for him now.”

“Well, nice to know someone’s helpful around here,” Tristan grumbled.

Yugi glanced down, seemingly losing himself in thought for a moment. Then, unexpectedly, he reached into his pocket. “We came here in search of answers as well, and I believe I may have a clue that will help us. Pegasus sent us this card-- it seems to contain the image of a key.”

A key…? “Seto! That door--!” Mokuba gasped, before looking back over to the group. “When we cracked the security, there was a door that didn’t open no matter what!”

“Wait, you guys did that?” Tea blinked. “I thought Duke did!”

“You two didn’t even act like you were gonna help us, and now you’re taking all the credit!? What gives!?” Tristan hollered.

“What gives?! We’re taking the credit for something we did, you dork!” Mokuba shouted right back. Kaiba had to suppress a smirk.

“It doesn’t matter now! That door must be the one this key goes to!” Yugi stated with perfect confidence. “Kaiba, where is this door located?”

----------

Kaiba wasn’t thrilled about escorting the Nerd Herd around. Quite frankly, he wouldn’t’ve been interested in doing it at all, if it wasn’t for the fact that Yugi was holding the key to the door. (And that Kaiba didn’t actually know the way-- Mokuba was leading on this one.) Wheeler had even decided to tag along, after getting a short pep-talk from Yugi-- just when Kaiba was getting used to not hearing his grating voice.

Once Yugi had opened the door with his key-card, the group of eight-- Yugi, Kaiba, Mokuba, Wheeler, Tea, Tristan, Rex, and Weevil (who were there for some reason)-- flowed into a cartoon hell. Rrgh--! And Pegasus ribbed Kaiba for putting Blue-Eyes statues everywhere, when he had a room decorated with nothing but Toon monsters! If you could even call it decorating. Kaiba could believe it was a storage room, in all honesty. Toons were piled all around the room, hanging from the ceiling-- of course with a massive Toon World book positioned front and center. He hated it.

Then a Pegasus hologram appeared, and Kaiba hated it even more.

It started out innocently enough. Pegasus confirming that his soul must’ve been taken, and that someone had attempted to take over his company-- just like what was happening with KaibaCorp. Not only that, Pegasus had a name to put to this supposed villain: Darts. Or Dartz? Just what kind of name was Dartz? Kaiba was starting to think Pegasus was making all of this up, and that was before he said that the creatures that inspired Duel Monsters hadn’t originated in Ancient Egypt like Pegasus always claimed-- they existed beforehand. Yugi muttered, “In the city of Atlantis,” and everyone except Kaiba acted like that wasn’t the most bonkers thing they’d ever heard in their lives. Then Pegasus declared that this ‘Dartz’ person was draining the souls of man and beast (Was he seriously claiming Duel Monsters cards had souls of their own? He was, what the hell--) to resurrect some kind of Great Leviathan monster, and Yugi just went, “Yes, of course!” and--

Kaiba felt like he was going insane. No, actually he felt like the only sane one in a room full of crazy people.

The Pegasus hologram pointed Yugi in the direction of a special card-- completely blank, amazing-- and then exploded while Kaiba glared at the floor. He came here for answers, and only got more questions-- and the first thing anyone said was Wheeler complaining about why Valentine would sign up to destroy the world, as if that was the main takeaway here.

“Why don’t you all wake up?” Kaiba snapped, fed up. He already worked this out-- the correct answers were often the simplest. “This is a hoax, all designed by Pegasus. There’s no one traveling around stealing people’s souls with some magic playing-card. It’s the same nonsense Pegasus pulled in Duelist Kingdom!” And he didn’t make that statement lightly. There were very few things Kaiba hated to talk about more than what happened to him and Mokuba there. Kaiba’s voice raised into a roar. “Think about it! He’s trying to distract me for long enough so he can take over KaibaCorp!”

“That’s enough! You should wake up!” Yugi shouted back, with almost equal intensity. “It’s not always about you! There’s something going on here that’s bigger than all of us, and you know it!”

Calling Yugi gullible and naive was on the tip of his tongue, until the other duelist drew the top card of his own deck and showed it. “Ah-- That card…!” The light blue border, a picture of a dragon standing in some kind of wasteland… It couldn’t be. “Where did you get it?”

“Same place I did,” Wheeler mused, pulling his top card now. Same blue border. Same image of a dragon. The Claw of Hermos...So… Kaiba wasn’t imagining things before, Wheeler really did say Hermos before… But then, that means--

“Kaiba… You have one of these too,” Yugi stated, his tone suddenly accusing-- to the surprise of everyone else in the room. “Don’t you.”

Ghh… Kaiba shouldn’t’ve reacted so strongly, if he wanted to keep this a secret! But it’s too late now. Kaiba did the same as the others, plucking his top card, glancing at it briefly. “You’re referring to this?”

The moment he turned The Fang of Critias around, all three cards began to glow white in their hands. Oh no, no no no-- Not now, not in front of other people…! But then, everyone else was staring too. Was this glow not an illusion? Was it really happening? It’s as if the cards themselves were reacting to being together!

“I believe the only way to defeat this Great Leviathan is to use these three cards together,” Yugi theorized out loud, glancing from his own card-- The Eye of Timaeus-- to Kaiba. “So trust what’s inside your heart, and join us.”

You must stay true.

Is this what Critias meant? Follow his heart, and join up with Yugi and his friends?! Tch, if that’s what the two of them were talking about, then they clearly didn’t know him at all! Kaiba was listening to his heart, and it was saying exactly what he’d said before! That this was all a hoax constructed by Pegasus! It couldn’t possibly be that hard to make cards glow, Kaiba could invent a way to make a card do that, if he really wanted to…

As soon as the glowing had begun, it stopped. No vision this time. Guess the things ran out of juice. “I was told that fate had chosen three modern-day warriors to release these legendary beasts,” Yugi murmured.

Who the hell told him that? Sounded like Ishizu all over again, pushing some nonsense that Yugi bought hook-line-and-sinker. “This again? Chosen by fate--!? Get real! I’m the one who decides my fate, Yugi! Not some fairy tale about mythical dragons and giant, man-eating monsters!”

“Ugh-- Be reasonable for once! The world needs us! We must do this as a team!”

Kaiba would love to hear Yugi explain his definition of reasonable. “Sorry. I don’t do the teamwork thing.”

“Kaiba, listen!”

“You geeks have wasted enough of my time already! I have a multi-million dollar company to run. Playtime’s over.” And that would put an end to the debate. Hoax or not, one thing was absolutely certain: He wasn’t teaming up with the Nerd Herd. It’d be a cold day in hell before he did that willingly, no matter how much Yugi tried to call after him. Kaiba could hear Mokuba following along behind, which was everything he needed to make his exit.

For a few minutes, the brothers stormed ahead in silence. It wasn’t until they were inside the elevator, and certain that no one was following them, that Mokuba spoke up. “So what are we gonna do now, Seto?”

“We’re heading back to KaibaCorp.” They did get that email from HQ not too long ago, requesting their return. It’d be a long flight back to Japan… Ugh. This was all just a colossal waste of time. “I have enough on my mind, dealing with that.”

“What about Alister, and those other Orichalcos guys?”

“What about them?”

“Do you think Pegasus hired them? For his hoax?”

Kaiba growled under his breath. That’s… a good question. Alister seemed too serious to just be some kind of hired goon. Then again, how else did he know so many details about Kaiba’s history with Pegasus, if he didn’t hear them from the man himself? Something didn’t sit right with him… Something’s not adding up. Pegasus can’t be behind the Orichalcos guys and the dragon cards at the same time. That was self-defeating, it made no sense! Even Pegasus wasn’t that deranged.

“I don’t know what to think, Mokuba, but I’m going to get to the bottom of it,” he eventually answered, as the elevator dinged on the ground floor. The Blue-Eyes Jet was in sight just outside, next to the flashing red and blue lights of an ambulance.

Looks like Devlin found Pegasus after all.

[foreverindreamlandd]

Bucky wanted to read her fanfictions and she always declined. So he begged and begged and begged... until she finally gives up and let him read one. 'Cause who could really say no to Bucky making puppy eyes?!

Let me know what you think about it

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Plus Size!Reader

WC: 1.5k (I am apparently incapable of writing a drabble)

A/N: Thank you again for another awesome request! I was basically cackling the whole time I wrote it. Want to read about how Bucky and this reader got together? Check out their origin story in my To Be Wanted series! Only warning in this one is the usual swearin’ like a sailor.

----

“See, this is why I always order Thai food. I can never do it justice.” You frown over your wok, mixing the noodles around with a wooden spoon hoping it will somehow make your creation taste better.

“I’m sure it tastes great, doll.” Bucky walks up next to you and grabs a noodle, tilting his head back as he drops it into his mouth.

His eye twitches almost imperceptibly and you groan.

“It’s good,” he coughs out, trying with all of his strength to regain his composure. “I think you just went a little too hard on the chili paste. I can feel my sinuses clearing up though, which is good, right?”

You roll your eyes. “Can you check the recipe on Pinterest again? I swear I put in the right amount.”

Bucky walks over and picks up your iPad. Right as he’s scrolling to find out if you should have used 2 tablespoons or 2 teaspoons of chili paste, a notification banner pops up and he accidently taps it, opening up your Tumblr app.

Omg! This fic is amazing! The way Bucky is there to support the reader. My heart completely melted! Your Bucky stories are amazing, Y/n! <3

Above the comment is a photo of him. It’s a shot from the news where he’s helping a civilian stand up after one of the attacks made by The Red Hand.

“Uh….love? What’s this?” He holds the iPad up to you and you shift your gaze over to him.

You drop the wooden spoon into the wok as all of the blood drains from your face. You’re frozen in place for a millisecond before you pounce on Bucky to grab the device from him. He’s never seen you move so quickly and it catches him off guard.

“Bucky give me the iPad right now,” you fling your arms toward it and he pulls it away, both amused and a bit concerned by your reaction.

“Wait, what is this? Is it something I should be worried about?”

You see a flicker of panic flash in his eyes and you stop flailing. You close your eyes and let out a deep sigh.

“No, I mean, I should be concerned because if you read that I’m probably going to combust and you’re going to dump me and run for the hills.” He furrows his brows in confusion and you slowly lift up your hand. “Can I please have that back before I have a mild panic attack?”

He stares at you, trying to gauge your emotions. All he can see is panic and sadness and it breaks his heart so he instantly gives in and hands you the iPad.

“Don’t worry about it, love. I trust you.” He leans forward to give you a chaste kiss.

You let out a pained groan against his lips and Bucky is once again confused.

“Ughhhh I hate hiding things from you.” You lock your iPad so the screen goes dark. “Okay, fine, I guess this conversation is happening. Remember when we first started dating and I, uh, mentioned I used to read and write stories about….us being a couple?”

Bucky nods, trying not to reveal any emotion to you that might make you spiral into a panic, and you continue.

“Well, that was one of those stories I wrote. I stopped looking on Tumblr basically as soon as I met you because it got all weird and meta and I got super uncomfy by the idea of reading fanfics - that’s what they’re called - about my new friend/now boyfriend Bucky Barnes. And then we started dating and I was all happy and shit and I totally forgot that those fics were still out there. Obviously I haven’t written any since then because that would be weird for...many, many reasons. Someone must have found an old one and commented on it. I’ll delete it. I’ll delete all of them. I swear. I’m so sorry, Bucky. I should have been more on top of this.”

Bucky stares at you, lips pursed and you grimace, afraid of the next words that are about to come out of his mouth.

This is so weird, Y/n. How could you do this?

No wonder you didn’t date anyone before me.

Obsessed much? (Okay, he probably wouldn’t say it like that but STILL).

No, what Bucky said next was much, much worse than what you could have imagined.

“Can I read one?”

Your mouth drops. Closes. Drops again. You blink rapidly.

“I’m sorry, I just hallucinated. What?”

Bucky points to your iPad, a sly grin forming on his face. “I want to read one of your stories.”

You take a step back from him, horror stricken as you pull the iPad closer to you as if you were protecting your collector’s edition of ‘Throne of Glass.’

“Absolutely not.”

Bucky steps forward and you step back. He chuckles. “Come onnn, doll. I want to know what your fantasies were about me before we got together.” He laughs harder as the look of horror on your face grows more manic.

“Bucky, I know you’re a super soldier and could probably punch me into the sun with your metal arm, but I promise I will fight to the death before I let you read one of these fics.”

You and Bucky continue this dance of him stepping forward and you stepping back until you feel your legs make contact with your couch and you fall back into a sitting position on its arm. Bucky uses this opportunity to tower over you, his arms resting on the couch so that you’re pinned between them.

Then, he pulls out the big guns.

His gaze softens, blue eyes shining into yours. His bottom lip puffs out and he gives you the most adorable, sexiest pout you’ve seen in your whole life.

“Please, love?” He says it with a slightly higher pitch, almost like a whine and it still sounds like honey to your ears. He even nudges your nose with his like a freaking sociopath.

Damn.

You close your eyes, let out a breath, then open them back up to him. “I hate you.”

His pout turns into a boyish grin and he gives you a quick kiss. “You love me.”

You groan. “Hopefully you still love me after this, Buck. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

You stand and open up your iPad, scrolling through your masterlist and finding what used to be one of your favorite fluff pieces. You begrudgingly hand it to Bucky and he sits on the couch.

Unable to sit still during this agonizing experience, you proceed to pace around your apartment like a crazy person and resort to cleaning the inside of your microwave which you haven’t done in a few months so it’s a good thing that Bucky is reading your fic so that you could get that out of the way. You probably won’t have a boyfriend in a few minutes but at least your microwave will be spotless.

You only steal a few glances at Bucky as he reads, mortified each time as you see his eyebrows move in every possible direction. Up, down, knit together, were they criss-crossed at one point?

Finally, after what feels like the longest ten minutes of your life, Bucky lets out a soft grunt, placing the iPad down on his lap. He looks up to you and you give him a weak smile.

“Alright, let me have it, Buck. Give me your worst. Be honest. Also, I love you.”

Bucky glances down at the iPad and then back at you.

“Well, I have a few questions.”

Your right eye twitches. “Hm?”

“Now that you’ve met me, do you still think my eyes are an all-consuming storm of blue?” You groan. He grins. “Or do you think my jawline was cut from marble created by the gods?”

This time, you breathe out a laugh and you walk over to sit on his lap. You take hold of his chin.

“Bucky, I don’t think I could ever come up with the right words to describe you. The real thing is quite literally a million times better than anything I’ve ever written.”

His eyebrows raise. “That is...probably the best compliment I’ve ever gotten in my whole damn life.” He leans forward and kisses you, and you sigh into the feeling of his mouth on yours, relief flooding through you.

You pull away, eyes skeptical. “So, you’re not thinking about how you can escape and never see my crazy ass again?”

“On the contrary, love, I’m thinking about how I can convince you to buy this gorgeous green dress you apparently wore as my wedding date. The one that showed off your cleavage in a way that made Bucky’s brain melt.”

The two of you burst out laughing and you lightly shove his chest. “Sure thing, Bucko. How about I work on the dress situation and you work on ordering us Thai food so that we don’t lose our taste buds from whatever the hell I just made.”

-----

Thank you for reading! Feel free to check out my other stuff here. :)

Taglist: @ceo-of-daichi @biiskuitx @forgetthisbull @eclipses-and-moondust @abcdefxkyou @jackiehollanderr @billionsofbeans @abitgryffindorky @lovelylostminds @mija-just-breathe @semlohkratz @bratty-longbottom-replies @carrotfantasimp @cremedelabrulee @ant1r3al1ty @th-e-mg@laura-moehrchen @emma-the-duck17 @sunnyjane4 @rosaline-black @parodsal000 @vicmc624 @abrunettefangirlnerd @officiallykuute @edityourwishingwell @mymindslabyrinth

***This was the original tag list for the To Be Wanted series. If you would like to be removed from the taglist for any other stories related to this series, feel free to DM me! And let me know if you would like to be *added* to the taglist for any other future stories featuring these two knuckleheads. :)

[hostess-of-horror]

The Elixir 🍸

A Phantom x Peach fanfic

@salamifuposey @strawbunniiee @kindpopstar @hotpinkboots @medys-space @darkmedolie @tiramegtoons @sleepy-heads-blog @lemonbaloni @theboarsbride (and all my mutuals)

I'm tagging a bunch of you guys because I wanted to write something and show it off, regardless of the content. Also, I hope you all like it!

CW: "Drug" Use, Suggestiveness (not explicit NSFW), Hallucinations, and Some Blood & Gore

---

His eyes were glued to the empty parchment in front of him. The blankness was overwhelming; a strange hypnotism taking over his mind. It seemed almost nothing could take him out of such a horrendous trance. He was stuck, drowning in a white void of Lovecraftian nothingness. A nothingness that is both nothing and everything at the same time. Although he nor anything within his chamber made a single shift of movement over the course of a few hours, or perhaps even longer, there was a conflict between him and the parchment. A battle of creation and imagination. But alas, it seemed like he, the creator, may lose yet another war to the agonies of an empty mind and an empty project.

How long had the candles been burning? He could not guess, for he already lost track of time. But by the amount of melted wax pouring over and onto the desk... He needed rest. It had been days since he last created something, anything. And yet, failure came as he finally gave up, glancing at the dwindling candles with exhausted eyes. He could just sleep where he sat, doze off and accept defeat. At least he wouldn't be drowning in that terrible void of nothingness anymore. That is, until the next day. He felt his whole mind and body sink into that blissful darkness, dreamless and peaceful. Now this was a void he would gladly surrender to without hesitation, without struggle.

Clink-! Clink-! Clank!

The sound swiftly robbed him of sleep, making him jump from the sudden, unfamiliar noise. Well, it was unfamiliar to him until he looked down from his seat to the right. Lying on the floor, completely intact with no apparent fracture, was an ornate glass bottle, not unlike one that holds perfume. The bottle was a work of pure craftsmanship - carved, or perhaps blown and then sculpted, into the shape of a heart. Encrusted on it were fine details of gold and gleaming jewels - emeralds and diamonds - which dazzled the beholder's eyes. Inside was a clear, green liquid substance, bubbling and fizzing from the abrupt motion of falling. He stood there for a moment.

Ah yes... He remembered now. The elixir.

Why exactly he bought this elixir was purely out of morbid curiosity and for desperation. Desperation for inspiration. Until now, he had forgotten about this foreign medicine. Its potential would surely depend on its potency, something of which he had no clue of, considering he hadn't had a single drop of it yet. Of course, he was saving it for when he truly needed it. Perhaps tonight was the night he finally takes a sip of the elixir.

The contents made him quite hesitant as he picked up the bottle. What would it taste like? What would it smell like? What exactly is in this green liquid? This wasn't like anything he had seen nor tasted before. If the elixir in his hand appeared similar to that of wine or champagne, then perhaps his hesitation would lessen. No, the elixir looked more like absinthe, if he were to guess. It had been so long since he last had absinthe. La Fée Verte. The Green Fairy. The spirit that was romanticized by artists and demonized by others as a hallucinogenic potion. He looked closer. The two drinks were similar in color, but that was the only similarity he could find. Only tasting it would he find more similarities. He gently uncorked the bottle with a soft, hollow thunk!

A sweet aroma escaped, impregnating the air with a cacophony of odors. He could feel his lungs, throat, and nose being filled to the brim with the scent of a warm and earthly paradise. He didn't have to bring the bottle up to his nose. The potency of the smell was enough to send him into an awakening sense of euphoria. It woke him from his exhaustion - this was, indeed, a sign! Perhaps tonight was the night that the battle would be won with the creator as the crowned victor! At last! Finally, at long last!

Tom Phan Triumphant!

He brought the bottle to his lips and slowly sipped the contents delicately. His tongue swished in his mouth, carefully testing the flavor. Figuring out the exact flavor of the elixir was seemingly impossible. Within just a few drops there is the taste of vanilla... No, licorice... Honeycomb! Maybe ambrosia? Irish cream? Dark cherry? A blend of butter and rum? The wonderful marriage of lavender and coffee? No matter. All that mattered was that this elixir was absolutely exquisite! A lovely rainbow of delicacies infused into a fine liquid! The alchemist behind this mixture was truly an artist, just like him. He swallows.

A moment passed until a warm, buzzing sensation began to take hold of his mind. He did not know of the effects the elixir would have, at least the physical ones. He knew that drinking it would, to quote the alchemist, "enhance one's ability to see beyond the realm of mortal perception and conscious reality." Although he could not remember the exact words at the moment, for the effects have increased tenfold. He could feel his entire head float aimlessly, his breathing slowing down. What on earth is that feeling? He feels... lighter. As if he is above ground without being above ground. He sinks into his chair, basking in the sensation, allowing whatever inspiration to come to him as easily as a reflection in a mirror.

"Phantom..."

Was that...? No, it couldn't be! She must be asleep by now... Phantom spun around, looking behind from where he sat. There standing before him was none other than Princess Peach - ah, that lovely Princess Peach! His muse, his angel! His one true love! Oh, how even looking upon her was enough to steal his breath!

"Phantom~"

Glancing down, Phantom began to blush. The princess, draped underneath a sheer veil, was clothed in a revealing ensemble, all in shades of green. Adorning her head was a beautiful headband, crafted with glistening jewels much similar to the ones on the bottle. Her promiscuous display made Phantom forget his manners, for he was staring a little bit longer than he should have. Nevertheless, Peach smiled. She lifts her arms over her head delicately, stretching out, lifting the veil as if it were a pair of wings. The veil falls behind her, revealing a much clearer look at her fashion. It was undeniable that she was beautiful - ah, but she is beautiful! But, at this very moment, with his mind blissfully intoxicated, Phantom had the pleasure of seeing her. A sight for sore eyes. He could stare at her all night without a single wink of tiredness.

The green-clad princess then peacocks her way towards him, enticing him, beckoning him. After hours of sitting, Phantom finally gets up from his chair, his eyes locked, gazing at her. Peach then gave him a soft, needy expression, lifting her arms up, inviting him into a warm embrace. Phantom gazed into her eyes. Her eyes, once lovely sapphires, we're now emeralds that glimmered so bright, he could swore they were glowing in the dark. He lowered himself slowly, gently, practically crawling towards this green fairy.

A Green Fairy... How fitting.

Bowing down to his emerald mistress, Phantom surrendered to her embrace. The intoxication of the elixir enhanced his senses immensely. A hug from his princess was great, but this... No words could describe the euphoric sensation of her hands caressing his cheek, hearing her heartbeat play its steady melody. Ah, her heartbeat! One of the greatest instruments to ever exist in this world! None can ever achieve such brilliance, such magnificence. Not even he could create piece of music as this, for he knew that nothing could be as perfect. Lost in the sound of her heart, Phantom sighed and closed his eyes. The effects of the elixir emptied his mind. No thoughts remained, other than to just fall asleep in the arms of his beloved. Or maybe, just maybe, steal one final kiss before he does? He lifted his head to press his lips against hers, and Peach happily complies.

Their breaths mingled as the sweet aroma of the potion touched the tips of their tongue. After a moment, they locked lips again to capture the taste. It was just as remarkable as the elixir itself, only this time, the flavor revived itself with each inhale. Then the lovers release. Pouring out from their mouths was a stream of lime green smoke, almost snake-shaped, lingering between them. Peach blew into Phantom's face. He took in the scent as if his life depended on it, as if the aroma was the only life force he needed. He opened his eyes to gaze upon his green fairy once more. He paused. He felt a strange, numbing sensation all around his body. He tried to lift his arm. Nothing. His shoulder, nothing. His whole body, nothing. He could not figure out what was happening exactly, but when Peach brought him to her bosom, the angle in which he was brought in gave him the answer. On the floor from across the room was his body. A body without a head!

Ah, but the head was not missing, no! No, Phantom was the head! The head in which the richly adorned princess carried in her hands. Oozing from the stump between the shoulder was a liquid - the contents of the elixir itself! This ghastly image of his mortality, however, did not faze Phantom. He was much too high to even be scared to death. He glanced back at Peach. Her lips were soaked in this liquid, and so were his, spilling all over her neck and bosom. The bleeding continued as an psychedelic amalgamation began to take form. The veil, through some unseen force, lifted from the floor and enshrouded them into an otherworldly realm. Phantom did not know what this realm was - no one can ever know what it was. Whatever this strange place was, Peach was its exhilarating goddess. She ruled over this vast space and Phantom was her humbled worshipper.

A silver mist rolled across the ground, surrounding Phantom's head. Peach then gently kneeled down and placed him before her. She began to grow bigger, larger than he had ever seen before. Thus he became smaller, tinier than he had ever been. He didn't mind though, for the view was absolutely amazing. The green giantess raised her hands, as if in prayer, and looked up towards the emptiness. She breathed in the mist and exhaled the smoke they tasted from their kiss. Finally, she sang:

"Ah, ich habe deinen Mund geküßt, Jochanaan.

Ich hab' ihn geküßt, deinen Mund.

Es war ein bitterer Geschmack auf deinen Lippen.

Hat es nach Blut geschmeckt?· Nein.

Doch schmeckte es vielleicht nach Liebe.

Sie sagen, das die Liebe bitter schmecke.

Doch was, was tut's, was tut's?

Ich habe deinen Mund geküßt, Jochanaan,

Ich hab' ihn geküßt, deinen Mund."

Ah yes... Phantom knew this song well. A story so ghastly and shocking to the public. Audiences recoiled at such a scene. But not him. Not when it is his princess. He relished the performance.

---

Phantom awoke. He was right where he was, at his desk, candlelit in his chamber. Before him was the parchment, no longer that empty white void he dreaded so much. Sketched on it was her. Princess Peach in all of her elixir-induced glory, in a seductive pose. Had he made this? Did he make this? He noticed in his hand was a pen, completely stained with ink. Dropping the pen, Phantom removed the piece from the desk, folded it, and hid it in his nightstand. He face burned bright red - how utterly self-indulgent he was! He took a deep breath, keeping his composure, and looked over at the bottle.

He smiled sheepishly. Better save the rest for next time.

[obeiii-mee]

I am not sure if the request is open- fanfic or headcanon an angst of mc sacrificing her life to return Lilith to them and lilth come back so she told she's only here becuz the mc bought her back how would the demon brother cope with it- it is okay if you don’t want to write it :)

I haven’t written any angst yet on this blog so I don’t really know how this is going to turn out. I don’t know how MC would be able to bring Lilith back so I’ll just figure something out as I write along. It’s hard for me to write the brothers suffering help me-

I want to make it clear that I don’t know if it’s possible for a human to do something like this but for the sake of this request let’s roll with it. Lilith is back and MC sacrificed their life for that to happen. I really don’t think any of the brothers would react well because Lilith and MC aren’t the same person. They love both of them very much but they wouldn’t be able to make one suffer just to bring the other back. All the HCs are related, happening on the same day, in the same way. Lilith reuniting with her brothers one by one starting with Lucifer. Hopefully this makes sense but I don’t really have my way around words so——

This is obviously too long so I won’t be able to write for all the brothers in one post. Instead I’ll write about Lucifer, Mammon and Levi in this one and then continue this on another post. So this is part one. Thanks for the request!

Pt. 2

————————————-

The Brothers Reacting to MC sacrificing themselves to bring Lilith back, Part 1:

Lucifer:

-OK, realistically speaking, it should have been impossible for Lilith to be brought back. She lived as a human and died, that’s it, you can’t reverse something like that. But you really didn’t want to give up, seeing the way the brothers acted whenever the topic of their sister was brought up was too much for you to handle. So you kept looking and searching for spells, magical objects, anything you could get your hands on that could help. You even spoke to Solomon about it in secret, away from Lucifer’s prying ears. You were too determined to be swayed away from the task.

-Of course, after a long time of searching, you found exactly what you were looking for. And of course in order for Lilith to be brought back to life once again, you would have to give something in return; your life. It was a hard pillow to swallow but after hours of arguing back and forth with yourself, you decided to do it. For the sake of all the brothers and their happiness. It wasn’t the quickest of deaths but it definitely didn’t hurt nearly as much as it should have. And once your soul had officially been diminished, Lilith was given a tangible body and teleported to DevilDom. That also meant that she was completely aware as to why or how and she wasn’t exactly happy. It was an indescribable moment full of misery and despair for her. She was back and her descendant payed the price for it.

-Lucifer didn’t really believe his eyes when he first saw his long dead sister on their couch, supposedly staring at nothing. He first assumed that he was daydreaming which seemed like the most rational option at that point. Due to all the paperwork he had to finish by the end of the week, he had been rather sleep deprived and it made sense that he started hallucinating. After all, Lilith was on his mind quite a lot. But then she noticed him and she sprung into his arms before he could even get a word out. It always used to be like this. Her running straight into him just to show her affection back when they were both angels and happy.

-She was real, not a dream or a fiction of his mind and he didn’t know how to feel about it. He was torn, as if all of his emotions were threatening to come out at once and he didn’t know how to handle that. Lucifer uses logic for every situation he finds himself in, but this time, it was thrown out the window. It didn’t matter why or how or when. All that mattered was that she was here and he got to see her again after all these millenniums of dealing with the slow torture of having to carry the burden of her death by himself. He was ready to go get his brothers, the rest of his dysfunctional family and obviously MC had to come along too, them being just as important to him as everyone else. But Lilith grabbed his sleeve.

-His sister told him everything. Ranging from MC’s sacrifice to her waking up in DevilDom and to her wandering around until she found the House of Lamentation. His brain stopped working the moment the words registered with him as Lilith rambled on with her story. He almost wanted to ask her if she was joking but he knew her better than that; his little sister was never one to joke about something so grave.

-Lucifer always knew that their exchange student was a bit of a nutcase and definitely special in their own way. Considering how often they went to the extremes and overdid every little thing that had to be done. But this...this was something entirely different. They gave up their own life for them, for Lilith to come back and they did this because of him and his siblings. The second time MC had been ripped away from him, without even the satisfaction of saying goodbye because they were way too good for his family and for DevilDom in general. He wanted to scream and cry and curse his father even more so than usual for this cruel turn of events. Any more of this emotional suffering, and his heart may as well stop pulsating. MC died and he couldn’t help them in any way, he couldn’t stop them from making this mistake because he had just gotten over Lilith’s death and had begun to heal from the trauma. And now you left him as well.

-Lilith forced him to sit down and let him deal with his internal breakdown while she thought this out. At this rate her brother was either going to wind up in a blind rage and pop out another Satan or drown himself in depression and anguish. But Lucifer, despite the range of emotions conflicting him on the inside, tried remaining as calm on the outside as possible. Lilith was right there. He shouldn’t cry in front of his sister, he never did. He was always supposed to be the role model, be the strong protector that she could lean on if she needed help. With a single tear running down his cheek, which he quickly wiped away, he got up, abruptly much to the protest of Lilith and began walking toward the door.

-He had to tell his brothers. The news would break every single one of them and he couldn’t do anything about it. He had the responsibility of going to every single one of them and privately discuss this because god knows what chaos would ensue if they were all in a room together with Lilith. He would have to talk to Lord Diavolo, get another exchange student down there but...not yet. Not yet. He had to tell his siblings first. His younger brothers that he swore he would protect with all of his being since he couldn’t do so with Lilith. And now he had to go and break their hearts while his own lay shattered on the floor.

-But first, he was going to go and cry by himself, locked away in his room, so he can regain the power of speaking with everyone properly. And he would just have to accept the fact that MC will forever be stuck in his heart, with no means of getting them out.

-Who would have thought a human like you would stir up these feelings within me?

Mammon:

-It was his fault. It was always his fucking fault. Whenever something bad happened to you, the first person Mammon blamed was himself. How could he not? He was in charge of you after all, he was supposed to be your protector and guardian during your stay in DevilDom. Honestly, at first, he didn’t really care about you. Your whole existence and the fact he had to babysit you was irritating more than anything. But it didn’t take long for him to get attached to you, he fell and he fell fast. Soon enough, he was about ready to just dedicate his entire being to you (and money, we don’t forget about money). You were his human. So how did he fuck it all up?

-That day, he was supposed to be with you. At least one of the brothers had to be with you at all times, per Lucifer’s orders, to make sure you could circulate DevilDom without getting killed. He had one job to do. Follow you around until you got bored and wanted to go home. Then, since you were left with the rest of his brothers, he could go do his thing. But a modelling gig had come up rather abruptly and he had to go get ready for a few shots. Mammon, being a simp great companion and actually a lot smarter than people give him credit for, was really hesitant at first. He didn’t really want to leave you alone and offered to turn the job down. He would never admit it, but his human was way more important.

-However, you insisted it was fine, encouraging him to go and implying you would be alright for an hour by yourself. Besides, you had something to check and would probably be home in no time. He couldn’t really argue back so he reluctantly agreed and left you to your own devices.

-And that was the last time he saw you.

-After his shoot, he couldn’t find you anywhere. Not at home, not in Majolish, not at any of your favourite places. He wasn’t worried at first because he thought you were with one of his siblings. But half an hour later, he was getting panicky and pushing himself over the edge. Sitting alone in his room, pondering on where the fuck you could have been while also debating as to where he should look for you first. He really didn’t want to bring the subject up with Lucifer because he feared his reaction and the possibility he would forbid Mammon from helping him search for you.

-And just as he had conjured up a master plan, Lucifer walked in. With Lilith behind him like it was regular Tuesday night. Her presence wasn’t acknowledged for a few moments, he was too concentrated on Lucifer’s face, scared out of his wits that he found out you were missing and now he was about to face punishment. His older brother didn’t look angry though. Grave and sad, but mostly solemn, like he was holding back. Then it clicked that his loving sister, the one that was supposed to be dead, was standing next to him. Mammon jumped. Physically jumped backwards and fell off the bed in surprise. If there was one thing he disliked more than giving his money away, it would be thinking about Lilith. His memories with her brought him nothing but tears.

-Lilith smiled, in an honest and slightly upset way, seeing her brother’s antics after such a long time made her feel a sort of nolstagia she didn’t think she would miss. Mammon was still staring at her like he’s just been told he had to give all of his money to the witches. He kept switching his gaze between her and Lucifer, as if confirming with him that she wasn’t a ghost while he kept his eyes wide in horror.

-“Stop that Mammon. Your gawking is giving me a headache.” Lucifer snapped, more ferociously than usual which was odd. Mammon thought he looked more tense, rigid but he didn’t push the subject. He wanted to get up, walk up to Lilith and touch her, see if she was real. And then he wanted to hug the living daylights out of her. But he froze on the spot until Lucifer finally managed to spit out that Lilith was, indeed, back. And then Mammon sprinted straight into her arms like a fired bullet, not planning on letting go for a long time. His sister just smiled again, happy to see her needier brother again and to know that despite being a demon now, he hadn’t changed all that much. That moment was sort of euphoric and he grasped onto it for as long as he could.

-Then came the devastating news that would hit Mammon in the gut harder than a moving truck.

-MC was gone. Forever. Forever, forever. Never to be seen again. Gave her entire being up for Lilith to come back to life. Lucifer told him but his eyes and voice seemed to be elsewhere, as if he struggled to show emotion in his voice during his monologue because he was directing those emotions somewhere else. Lilith tightened her grip on him, preparing for a meltdown, or even an angry fit, anything could be expected from this brother of hers in particular.

-Oh there was a meltdown alright. His reaction was immediate. He started shaking, uncontrollable trembling that he couldn’t stop no matter how hard he tried to and his vision blurred and swayed as if he was drunk and his nails were digging into his palms hard enough to draw blood. Everything felt unstable and he couldn’t take MC’s face out of his mind, like their face was printed onto his brain for keeping purposes. His throat dried up and besides the stream of tears rolling down his face, Mammon started sweating. In the span of a minute, he’s gotten too immeasurably hot and now he was sweating even though he lives in hell and should already be used to this kind of warmth.

-He became unresponsive after that. Not even Lucifer could get through to him. He just sat there, like a broken shell. His brother was speaking to him about things, replacements and a bunch of shit he wasn’t interested in. He didn’t want to hear any of it. He just wanted his human back, even if it meant he had to serve the witches for the rest of eternity. After a while, both of them left. Lucifer giving his shoulder a squeeze, something he hasn’t done in forever but the gesture was somehow comforting. It showed that his older brother was suffering too and he could tell from his voice alone. Lilith hugged him one more time and pecked his cheek and he wanted to grab her hand and keep her there because even though she literally just came back, he needed his sister to stay with him as he went through this. Mammon let them leave.

-He’s more closed off than before. He still steals shit all the time but it’s out of pity for himself more than anything else. He also took a bunch of your belongings too, something to remind him that you existed once. That you had a presence and changed his life and his brothers for the better. Mammon breaks down at the most random of times whenever he’s reminded of you and these sometimes take hours before he finally calms down. Somehow Lilith is the only one who happens to have an effect on him. Her presence at least helps. But not by a lot.

-Stupid human, letting him be an idiot and allowing him to leave you all by yourself. Stupid Mammon for being such a moron and letting the one person that understood him beyond the surface of the Avatar of Greed and actually associated him with being more than just scum, die. Stupid MC, leaving him all alone...

-He just hopes you’ve made it to the Celestial Realm...but seeing as you died in DevilDom, he doubts it.

Levi:

-Levi was sort of used to you showing up late to his gaming sessions. He didn’t blame you really, his brothers were sure to try and grab as much of your attention as possible so it makes sense you forgot about little old him. Except you never did. Sure you came by later than planned, but you always came no matter what so maybe he wasn’t giving you enough credit.

-Maybe he should have tried calling you, or even just texting you to see what you were up to. That’s why he had a D.D.D to begin with after all. But he didn’t. He assumed you were with Mammon or reading with Satan somewhere. Maybe sleeping with the twins. Levi reasoned with himself that you were probably fine and just got caught up on something on the way home. Yet the pit in his stomach kept growing with every minute that passed and before he knew it, he was pacing around the room.

-He heard Mammon having a breakdown from somewhere, and at first, he really had an overwhelming urge to check in with him and see what the problem was. Maybe something happened to MC. Maybe something happened to his older brother. Levi has a dislike for him sure, but he still wouldn’t want Mammon to suffer, no matter how much money he owes him. He didn’t leave his room. He assumed he was crying because the witches were at it again or maybe because he lost all of his money at the casino or even because Lucifer was punishing him for something.

-Then, a knock came on his door and he jumped to his feet faster than he had ever done so before. Password and all long forgotten, he opened the door to his room expecting to see you. Instead, he came face to face with his oldest brother, which disappointed him beyond measure. He was about to mumble something about MC and whether he had seen them at all that day but something stopped him. Behind Lucifer, just barely visible since she is slightly shorter than him, was Lilith. His reaction was definitely interesting.

-“Oh-I....holy crap, this is just like that anime where the protagonist’s dead sister comes back as ghost and starts talking to him. Oh shit, am I going insane or are ghosts are actually real? And not Lilith, Lilith doesn’t deserve to live the rest of eternity as a ghost-“

-“Shut up Levi.”

-“Sorry.”

-Lilith slowly walked out him and hugged him, which debunked Levi’s theory. She wasn’t a ghost! She was real and she was hugging him! He missed her so much, he was actually still doubting the fact that she was back. Levi tried pushing her out of his mind so many times because it hurt too much to think of her and now she was right here in front of him.

-The moment didn’t last though. Lucifer had to interrupt. He himself was shaky, still processing a bunch of things and on top of all that, he had to break his brothers’ spirits. The words came out eventually and Levi’s reaction was a lot slower than Mammon’s. He couldn’t process it as well and it felt like his life was put on pause, like in one of his video games. Lilith was holding him, as a sort of support system but Levi just kind of drifted in another world.

-Sure, he missed his sister dearly. But that didn’t mean he wanted MC’s life to be exchanged with hers. It was such an unfair choice really, making him choose between two people he absolutely adores. Except he didn’t make that choice. You did. And it changed everything.

-Ever since you left, he hasn’t had as much energy in playing games or even watching anime. He can’t find himself sitting for too long, he always has be to pacing and chewing on his fingernails. Everything seemed pointless without you here. Nothing was right. Watching anime by himself wasn’t as enjoyable even though he used to do it for a long time before you even came to DevilDom. He doesn’t have the energy to participate in Ruri chan contests either, though sometimes he makes an effort to. In a way to satisfy himself knowing that you didn’t die for him to mope around all depressed.

-He just sort of lays in his room all day, speaking with Henry 2.0 occasionally or just trying to relax in his bathtub. But it never works. Your voice keeps ringing in his ears. He misses you terribly and his sleeping schedule probably worsened since he can’t sleep now at all, thanks to all the nightmares he gets every night, featuring you of course.

-Out of all the things the world could have taken away from him, it just had to be his Henry didn’t it? Maybe he was just cursed from ever finding a true friend like you....

Hey, yeah I’m not dead. Just been working on this for a while now. This is obviously too long already so I can’t write for all the brothers at once. I’ll do a second post continuing this ask soon but for now I’ve written and edited this for the eldest three. Sorry it took so long and that I only managed three of the brothers. I’m still working on the following four. Thanks for reading! Part 2 should done soon!

[alyblacklist]

Hey!!

I am new to your tumblr but I read your fics all the time (and reread them more often than I should admit lol)

I think you’re really amazing!

I’m so relieved that you answer asks and discuss speculation because I really need someone to talk this through.

So, I have watched a couple of other thriller series along the same lines where the makers don’t have any issues killing off major characters off the show.

There are a couple of things that are happening in this show which I think (and I honest to god hope I’m wrong) are building up to them killing off Ressler.

They get together, they partially admit their feelings (which we’ve been waiting for too Damn long) - so they get closure. Ressler is in the hospital, they show him deteriorating, he goes into v-fib.

And all of this is not that much of a game changer but hear me out. The task force is being dismantled and they need to give the viewers sth that they won’t expect. And bring some new spice in s9. With Liz going full time into crime, it seems a lot easier for them to kill off Ressler.

My only counter debate to my point is that they would have killed him off the moment he got shot (like they did with Meera) rather than show him being treated.

I really need to know what you think. Please tell me he’s not gonna die cause honestly who on earth will watch the show then?

Hi there! I have to say a special thank you to you, @alrightygirl, and to my anon (above) who I have lumped in, for the shoutouts on my stories. I came to Tumblr in the first place during the hiatus between S2/S3 in part because I realized some of my fav fanfic authors (@aussieokie !) were here so I am especially happy to read this.

I'm not sure people realize how much we fanfic writers thrive on feedback, and especially on the multi chapter works we invested so much time into. So thank you, and I have to say I really am looking forward to the end of the season so I can step away from the BTS hunt and my inbox and get back to just creating. Hopefully the writers will leave things in a good place in 8.22 so there's plenty to work with. Ok, on to the substance of your ask and I'll put in a jump because I can already tell this is getting long.

I really do NOT think Ressler will die. I didn't think so before 8x19 and I still don't think so after the "medical drama" of 8x20. Because that's what I think they're doing - they're creating drama because it's the end of the season and they want people freaking out and guessing over who will survive. Call it the curse of cable, or thrillers or whatever, but we as audiences have been conditioned to believe that major characters have to die every year, even if it's pointless.

The thing is, The Blacklist has never been that show. They have killed three "main characters" in the life of the show. Meera in S1 (and I later read Parminder only had a one-year deal), Tom in S5 (with huge fanfare and foreshadowing and an entire "hero" arc following a failed spinoff with a new series eagerly awaiting him at NBC), and Samar in S6 after the actress specifically requested to be released from her contract after S5 and gave them time to write her character an appropriate conclusion arc which also had huge foreshadowing.

Could they go a different route this year? Sure. We're late in the life of the show and twists and cliffhangers and budgets all come into play but the thing is - I just still really don't see it when it comes to Ressler.

For me, the characters' perspective is always paramount. What purpose would Ressler's death serve? It would make Liz more upset (because, you know, Sam, Tom, Katarina, her sister, her whole team weren't enough?). And other than that......?

The audience already knows the gravity of the stakes. So does Liz. So does every other character. The only purpose Ressler's death would serve that I see (and to be clear, I am focusing only on the characters in the show not the irrational fandom hate for his character) is to "punish" Liz more, to make her feel worse about what she's done, to deal another body blow on top of all that she's suffered already.

I don't think Liz needs that. (I'm positive nearly all of Reddit disagrees).

She turned herself in to Cooper because she recognized the bloodshed needed to end after she FEARED losing him. She stayed by Ressler's side and spoke her entire speech in the hearse and by his unconscious side because she can't handle losing him too. This is exactly the scenario the writers teased when Eisendrath teased all those months ago that maybe he would use her feelings for him to get her to come back.

Source (X)

He didn't overtly "use" her feelings in the end because that is not Ressler. He is not that guy. But in the end, her feelings for him were EXACTLY why she turned herself in.

I don't think Liz doesn't need to be punished further or suffer more in anyone's eyes except those who still can't come to terms with her war against Red. I don't think the writers feel that way about her character. To the contrary, they introduced a hallucinated Kaplan to try to give her a pass and also had her give lengthy explanations to both Ressler and Aram defending her behavior. I think from all I have read and seen that the writers view Liz as a victim of circumstances caused by Red - something Cooper has also articulated to Panabaker along the way in defending why Liz has done what she's done under extraordinary circumstances. We can all agree or disagree on the why and the method and the extremes but the bottom line is that I think the writers still view Liz as more "victim" or "forced criminal" than diabolical villain so killing Ressler, on top of everyone else Liz has lost, is just another deep blow on top of all the blows that have turned her into who she is. I think we're past the point that that is necessary and we'll be even further past that point after 8.21/8.22 when Liz learns some truths.

This has gotten crazy long so I'll just add these final thoughts which I have also articulated in prior posts:

- I think if the writers were going to write out Ressler - an original character from the Pilot - they would do so with more hype and fanfare and story than what he's gotten this season. Sure he was present in 8x19 a lot but it was really Liz's story. She was the heroine saving him and moving them from place to place while he suffered. I think the writers have enough respect for Diego to give him at least as much substantial story as Tom and Samar got in their sendoffs if this was really the end. He's a good guy and a good character and he deserves more than for his final moments to be a quiet fade to black in Vfib in a hospital with only Park present (or even Liz present for a final, vague, goodbye). A show that can't do that isn't a show I'm interested in watching, you know?

- his agents congratulated him on the S9 renewal back when it was announced. Hardly an indicator that a major character is getting jettisoned.

-You'd also think, if he was leaving this season, that he'd be doing more to elevate his profile on social media like he did at the end of Homeland to gear up for a new gig. He's done NOTHING.

-Finally, there has been literally nothing in JB's recent interview with The Blacklist Exposed, any of the BTS, the press, the episode descriptions, the crew photos, or anything else to date to indicate that a major actor/character is leaving. I know people can hide the ball but usually in this show, something slips through. So far - nothing. (No, I don't take Megan's thank you's or wrap party photos that way).

Anyway, hopefully we'll all be here at this time next year (or a few weeks earlier if things are back to normal), analyzing S9 and all that has happened. Thanks for the ask!

[editorofeverything]

Day 6? of going through my drafts I never finished or posted because ✧Low Self-Esteem✧

Except I started going through my fanfic folder... and getting really into the plotlines I had going on there... and I may have started completing them all of a sudden?? I won’t question it because I’m afraid the will to write will suddenly go away so here is my now complete first part of my Daminette fic I wrote like a year ago?

So, without further ado, here is four times the Ladybug magic teleported Marinette to where she would be safest, and the one time she was already there—Part One.

~

When Tim Drake started his nightly shift in the Batcave with a pot of coffee in hand and a research project in the works, he didn’t expect a magical portal to spit out a ladybug themed superhero at the Batmobile with a cut off scream.

He froze as the swirling red portal disappeared and the hero that made a dent in the Batmobile stopped moving. He reached over and pushed the SOS button that would alert the others that something was wrong before grabbing his coffee mug as a weapon and heading over towards the girl.

She was small, was his first discovery. Probably shorter and younger than Damian, and yet she was wearing a bright red suit over her curled body and a mask over her closed eyes. She was hurt, and Tim didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t slept in over a week and the brain cells that were left were combusting at the sight of a child crumbled on the floor after playing the hero game.

He sucked in a breath and froze at the puddle of blood starting to pool under her head. The crashing of glass broke him out of his stupor and he barely noticed his favorite mug broken on the floor beside him before he threw himself at the girl’s side and eased her onto her back so he could look her over. All he could do was breathe a sigh of relief when he could feel her pulse beating weakly. He tried her mask first, and, after discovering that it wouldn’t budge from her skin, he realized that whatever magic she possessed would prevent him from checking her for injuries.

He brushed her hair out of her face and saw the bruises and scrapes all over before he checked her head. Her lips parted in a small cry when he touched a tender spot and he cursed at his red coated fingers when he pulled away.

“What the hell is it now, Drake? Do you even know what time it is?” Jason walked over with Alfred on his tail and rested his hand on Tim’s shoulder, startling him. “What’s up-? Who the fuck is that?”

“She teleported here. She’s… Jay, she’s hurt really bad and she’s some type of magic so I don’t even know how hurt she is and-” A beep interrupted his rant and they both looked for the source on her.

“Alfred, get the first aid kit and get the others in here.”

“Of course, Master Jason.”

~

“All I’m saying, Father, is that maybe if we put him through a rehab system, these ridiculous late night emergencies would decrease.”

“They’re not all hallucinations, Damian. We haven’t had an incident since last month.”

“Until now,” Damian huffed as he and his father ran into Alfred who was carrying a first aid kit, some blankets, and some towels.

“Was Tim injured, Alfred?”

“No, Master Bruce. There seems to be an intruder in the Batcave. I believe Master Tim and Master Jason are currently trying to assess her for injuries, but it seems she is of the magical variety and her suit is giving them some trouble.”

Damian was already sprinting to the cave while Bruce grabbed some of the items from Alfred and walked with him to the group of his kids kneeling around a small figure on the ground.

Damian saw the dent in the Batmobile before he saw the girl and actually stopped in surprise. “She did that?”

Bruce followed behind him and made a surprised noise as well before moving towards Tim and Jason’s side. “What happened?”

“A portal opened up and she was thrown into the Batmobile. She’s been unconscious the whole time. Her head is bleeding and I wouldn’t be surprised if she has a concussion. I can tell she’s hurt more, but we can’t take off her suit to check.”

Jason placed a towel under her head and she moaned at the movement, her eyes fluttering.

“She has these earrings that have been beeping for the past three minutes. I think they might be where she gets her powers from. They seem to be timing out.”

A final beeping noise echoed throughout the cave before a bright pink shine encased her body, revealing a small girl. She had blackish-blue hair tied in falling pigtails, pale skin that was speckled with bruises and lacerations. Her clothes looked impeccable, though the blood from her wounds was starting to soak into her red sundress.

“What the actual fuck is that?” Jason spotted a round, red figure moving on the girls collarbone.

The bat family took in the little red bug as it sat up and shook its head before seeming to notice the girl she was on.

“Marinette!” the thing spoke and Tim clutched Damian’s arm with an urgency that startled him.

“Please tell me you heard that thing talk.” Damian patted Tim’s hand lightly.

“You are not alone in hearing the kwami talk, Master Tim.” Alfred straightened up at the sight of the mystical being fretting over her charge’s unresponsive body.

“Kwami?” Bruce muttered under his breath, looking to Alfred for answers.

“Tikki, Goddess of Creation,” Alfred pressed his fist into his hand and bowed towards her, “how may we assist you?”

Tikki turned her wide eyes to Alfred and floated up to him. “Please help her! She’s more hurt than I can heal, and the fight is still waging on! Without Ladybug, the entire team will fail!”

Bruce straightened up at that and turned to his sons. “Jason, Tim, keep pressure on her head wound and wrap up any minor lacerations. She’s lost too much blood. Damian, come with me so we can get some more supplies for Miss Marinette.”

“Father, a word, please?” Bruce paused as soon as they exited the cave and were heading for the kitchen with a list of things Alfred told them to grab like water, cookies, and something light for Marinette when she would wake up. Damian had gotten better with being open and calm with his family for a while, but it still took time to unlearn years of life being taught one way for so long.

“What is it, Damian?”

“I… I know everyone’s concerned about the girl—I am too—but has anyone thought of what will happen if she wakes up? Will she recognize the Batcave? Will we reveal our identities to her, especially since she’s been forcefully revealed to us? What if she doesn’t wake up? How will we explain how a foreign girl ended up in Gotham?”

“These are all good questions, Damian, and I’m glad you’re able to share your concerns with me. In this matter, though… I believe we’ll just take Alfred’s que for right now. If at any point you feel uncomfortable with your identity being discovered when Miss Marinette wakes up, then you can leave and we’ll fill you in later.”

Damien’s silence carried into the kitchen as Bruce started handing things to him to take back.

“I’ll go back,” Damien finally said as Bruce pulled the cookie jar off the cabinet, planning on taking the whole thing. Who knew how much those kwamis could eat? Bruce certaintly didn’t, and the fact they were magic too didn’t help him any. “I think… Alfred usually knows best, and I trust his judgement… As well as the rest of the family’s. I want to make sure the girl is okay firsthand, and we can go from there.”

Bruce felt a wave of affection and pride towards his son, and wished Damian would look him in the eyes, but he would settle with placing a hand on his shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Then, let’s go give them a hand, son.”

~

Bruce and Damian joined the group quickly enough to arrive just as Tikki and Alfred were starting their own conversation while Jason and Tim assisted the girl. Damian stood with his father, both with their guard up in case someone could possibly track Marinette and Tikki down. Magic, they agreed before they entered the room, is a fickle thing, and they didn’t want to take any chances of their family, or their sudden patient, to be caught off guard.

“You were a previous Miraculous holder, weren’t you? I can sense your bright soul. Who was your chosen?” Tikki asked, hovering just over Marinette’s collarbone. Alfred didn’t know if it was because she was protective of the girl or injured herself, but he felt it too rude to ask directly of the tiny god.

“Duusu, the Peafowl Miraculous of Emotion. We were separated after a year of us working together, and I never knew what happened to him or Nooroo, who was taken as well.” Alfred could tell Master Bruce and the boysr were listening intently on their conversation, but wouldn’t interrupt. Detectives they might be, but Alfred raised Master Bruce, and they, in turn, raised the boys to have manners. He could sense their questions piling up, but was confident they would save them for after they delt with Marinette’s most pressing wounds.

“Unfortunately, they ended up in the wrong hands. It’s why Ladybug and Chat Noir were called together in the first place. Marinette has made excellent work in finding and defeating Hawkmoth, but there has been too many obstacles in her way lately. She’s been through a lot…” Tikki turned on to face Marinette and Alfred was overcome at the overwhelming sense of sadness emanating from Tikki.

“We will do all we can for her,” he choked out, and shook his head at Jason and Tim, who paused at the catch in Alfred’s voice. “For such a young child to be a holder though…” Tikki sat on Alfred’s shoulder as Tim and Jason started wrapping Marinette’s head gently and patched up some larger cuts she had on her side. Her ribs were likely broken if the mottled bruised running down her side were anything to go by, and her ankle seemed to be sprained, if not broken as well.

“The previous Guardian made a rushed decision on who to choose for the Miraculous. It just so happens that Marinette is the one soul in this lifetime that resonates with mine. Despite her age, she has become one of the best Ladybugs I’ve had the honor of assisting, and she is now the Guardian of the Miraculous Box as well.”

“Guardian? She’s a Guardian as well? How could that be?”

“The previous Guardian’s identity was compromised by Hawkmoth, the villain with the butterfly miraculous. He’s been terrorizing Paris for almost three years now. Marinette had to step in as Guardian or the Miraculous Box would be lost.”

“Tikki…” The girl winced away from Jason and Tim’s hands and she whimpered.

“Tikki…” Bruce began in a steely tone, “how old is Miss Marinette?”

“She’s turning eighteen in a few months. I know she’s young, and I hate to put so much on her shoulders, but she’s the only one who can be Ladybug, and competent enough to be Guardian. She’s intelligent, strong emotionally and physically, and her heart is pure. She is the embodiment of what Ladybug is supposed to be.” After that speech, Damian took a breath and knelt down between Todd and Drake to assist. They still didn’t know everything, which could be dangerous for them, but Damian felt that if he were to take a chance on anyone, it would be this girl that was worthy of so much power and responsibility.

As soon as Damian brushed his fingers against her wrist to check for a break, however, the girl suddenly seized up and Damian jolted his hand away. Tikki gave him a strange look before floating over to her chosen.

“Tikki!” Marinette shot up, instantly collapsing with her head pressed into her knees with a groan. Tikki nudged Marinette cheek with her head reassuringly.

“It’s ok, Marinette. We’re safe for now. Please lie down or you’ll hurt yourself more.”

“Safe…? But where are we? School?”

“I believe that a Ladybug power was activated when Mayura cornered you. It teleported you to where you would be safest in the world.”

“Safest?” Marinette looked around and seemed to panic at the group of men surrounding her. “Oh my god, who are these people?! Did they see me transform? Tikki, you’re supposed to stay hidden!”

“Excuse me, Miss Marinette, but you can rest assured that you and Tikki are safe here.” Alfred rested a gentle hand on her arm, and she immediately relaxed. “I know first-hand the challenges of being a Miraculous holder, and we will do everything in our power to assist you if need be.”

For a moment, Marinette seemed paralyzed. She was looking at Alfred unfocusedly, as if she was seeing right through him. Suddenly, she met his eyes and started speaking a language only the three could understand.

“You have the soul of emotion and light. Touched by one who has been stolen and corrupted. You have my trust and thanks for your assistance, young Peafowl.” Marinette stated in an ancient, unfamiliar language before blinking out of her haze and nearly falling to one side if Damian hadn’t grabbed her and kept her propped up.

“Sorry,” she blinked slowly and focused on Alfred again, “I’m still getting used to that.”

“Your trust in me is an honor, my lady Guardian, but I doubt I can be considered very young anymore,” Alfred said with some humor in his voice. Marinette smiled warmly at him and, with the help of Damian, Jason, and Tim, eased back onto a few blankets and some towels to cushion her beating head.

“Damian, pass some water over,” Tim asked, still checking over Marinette’s head. Damian did so, being uncharacteristically silent during the entire conversation.

“My head is fine,” Marinette said in a thick accent. “I believe I hit it after I have been teleported, not during the battle.”

“You speak English very well, Miss,” Bruce praised, leading to Jason cooing at her blush.

“Ah, well, it’s important to be able to communicate with tourist during akuma attacks. I’m afraid I haven’t had much practice, though. And it’s definitely not as good as your French.” Marinette gave a shy, kind smile to Alfred.

“What did I hit my head on, anyways? I’ve been thrown before, but I’ve never hit anything so hard that I’ve passed out and detransformed.”

The resounding silence echoed throughout the room and Marinette took a breath before sitting up properly and keeping her gaze steady at the ground.

“Whatever it is, I don’t want to know. Don’t even tell me your names.”

“Miss?”

“I’m a superhero fighting an evil villain with magic jewelry, I know the awkward ‘I have a secret I can’t tell you’ silence. I haven’t exactly been on this side of the conversation much though. I understand. Just let me catch my breath and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“’Catch your breath?’ You have a concussion! And broken ribs! You can’t fight like this!” Jason was getting too worked up, but this was a child.

“Yes, I can. Just give me a minute. I’ve fought in worse conditions, and I’ll be better once I can reverse the damage.”

“Reverse the damage?” Damian said, and was almost disappointed when Marinette didn’t look at him directly. She wasn’t looking at any of them, except for Alfred, in the face. Deniability, most likely, but definitely not what he was initially expecting when he decided to stay with his family despite the chances of being recognized.

“Tikki?” Marinette said, and rested her head against the Batmobile while she started poking at her wounds.

“I give Marinette many powers. One of which is the power of the Miraculous Ladybug. It reverts ay damage done by a kwami instantaneously. In fact, the dent in your motorized vehicle should be back to normal as well once the battle is won.”

“Tikki, I need to know how the fight is going. Be stealthy and take a look, and grab Khalki. I’ll need him to teleport back to Paris. I don’t want to risk using whatever power got me here in the first place.”

“I’ll be right back!” Tikki turned towards Alfred and patted him gently on the cheek. “I leave my chosen in your hands, Alfred. Look after her, please.”

“Of course, Tikki.”

“Thank you, young Peafowl.” Alfred returned her smile instantly before Tikki disappeared through the floor.

~

“So, let’s play ‘Do I Have a Concussion 20 Questions!’” Jason announced after he and Tim propped her up between them, leaning against the dent in the Batmobile.

Damian sat in front of them while Bruce and Alfred had moved over to the Batcomputer to try and do some research into the Miraculous themselves.

Marinette giggled and focused herself from closing her eyes by chipping at her black nail polish.

“So question number one: what is your name?” Tim was holding the broken handle of his coffee mug in his fist and was talking into it like it was a microphone.

“Marinette, but you already knew that,” Marinette said in a teasing tone.

“True, but this is if you know your name, not for us, little lady,” Jason bumped her shoulder with his gently and she giggled again.

They went through a few questions that were vague enough not to uncover her identity completely, but still show that she had her wits about her. Where are you from? Paris, of course. Do you go to public, private, or home school? Public! I hate homeschooling. Do you live with your parents? Yeah… oh I left my phone with my stuff at school. They’re probably worried sick. Do you have a job?

“Oh!” Marinette suddenly exclaimed, jolting where she sat. “Maman and Papa are going to be so disappointed if I can’t get home in time to watch the bakery! They’re going on a date tonight, and we have three orders to fill… I wonder if I can get Chloe to push their reservation…”

Jason shared an apologetic look with Tim when they realized how much she just let out. Damian was alarmed. She didn’t even seem to notice how much she just gave away about herself during her rambling.

“Why are you telling us all of this?” Damian finally asked after a moment of silence. He didn’t understand this girl. She was in a strange place, surrounded by strangers, and willing to avoid looking at them or around to keep them comfortable with their secrets, and the she goes and basically tells them where she lives.

“I know it might not makes sense, but as Ladybug and Guardian, I can sense things most people can’t, and I’ve learned to trust myself above all. My powers brought me here because I’m safe, and I can sense that you all have pure souls. You two even have souls saturated in Destruction energy… The Black Cat’s energy. It balances my own soul out well… How did you come across a Lazurus pit?”

Jason and Damian jolt and look at each other. Bruce was at Damian’s side in the next moment. “How do you know about the Lazurus pits?” He asked in a cautious tone, though Marinette didn’t seem to notice. She was still picking at her nail polish and Damian had a moment of irritation at the flaky mess until he realized she was probably doing it to keep her focus off of them.

“I am Guardian, and Tikki’s chosen. I know everything there is to know about the Miraculous, though I only recall the information when I needs to be used. When the Ladybug and Cat’s miraculous are combined, the holder may make a wish. One of those wishes was to be immortal. The Lazurus pits were created out of that wish, but the price was heavy. To manipulate a soul into bearing life after one should die… it leaves a mark—mentally, physically, emotionally… Most of the Lazurus pits were destroyed to restore balance, but some still remain in this world to keep the balance of what was already taken as its price. If they were all to be destroyed, something else in the world would have to be as well to keep balance.”

The resounding silence in the room felt suffocating, but Marinette just smiled reassuringly and brushed her dress down. Damian suddenly noticed that he felt… calmer in her presence than he usually would with someone he met barely twenty minutes ago.

Marinette’s voice brought him out of his thoughts once more. “Tikki is coming back.”

The kwami suddenly appeared a moment later with another one right behind her. Marinette smile and held out her hand.

“Hello, Khalki.”

“My Lady,” Khalki purred, floating around her hand.

“The fight is still going, Marinette. Chat Noir and Queen Bee are playing decoy and distraction. I informed them that you had been transported away for your safety and that we would be present for the fight soon. Hawkmoth and Mayura can’t end the fight and get what they want without Ladybug present, and Chat Noir and Queen Bee are smart enough not to let them leave or capture them while you’re gone. Both sides are playing it safe and waiting for your return.” During Tikki’s rundown, Marinette slowly but surely began to stand on her own, leaning against the Batmobile.

“Well, let’s give them an entrance they won’t forget. Are they all still at the Tower?”

“Yes. Chat Noir has followed your direction to keep them centered there well.”

“Good. Tikki, spots on. Khalki, Tikki, merge.” The family all stood and watched in amazement and shock as Marinette glowed that same pink hue before the red and black spotted heroine stood before them.

“Your injuries are still there.” Damian broke the silence to his family’s surprise. “You should be careful and finish your battle quickly to minimize your injuries until you can heal.”

Marinette seemed surprised, focusing on his shirt, the closest she’s gotten to looking his in the eyes the entire time she had been there. He almost… wanted her to. He wanted to look directly into her bright blue eyes and let her see him as he saw her… He shook himself out of that embarrassing train of thought just as Ladybug said something that caused a portal to appear.

“Thank you for your help…” Marinette nodded to them and looked one last time at Alfred. “I hope we meet again, young Peafowl.”

“As do I, my lady Guardian,” he bowed.

Ladybug turned and was suddenly gone. The only evidence of her being there was the broken remains of Tim’s broken mug and the huge dent in the Batmobile.

“Well, I’m going to sleep,” Tim announced to the room. “Someone else can take night shift tonight and someone can also tell me this wasn’t all some fever dream in the morning.”

Half an hour later, Damian, who had volunteered to stay up and finish the nightly watch in order to gather more information of the Miraculous and Marinette, noticed Tim’s mug appear sitting perfectly on the floor half full of the sludge he must’ve been drinking before it had broken and the dent in the Batmobile disappear in a wave of ladybugs.

Damian smirked at the knowledge that she and her team had won their battle, and that, if these items were fixed, then so were Marinette’s injuries. He ignored the part of him that felt… proud at the knowledge of her win, and happy knowing she was healed.

Damian grabbed the mug off the floor and took it with him to drop off in the kitchen while he searched for a snack. All his searching through all the bakeries in Paris was starting to make him hungry, especially the one he left on the Batcomputer. He would have to see if the Dupain-Cheng Bakery catered internationally, or if the woman posing with her husband in the owner’s bio passed down her black-blue hair to any daughters his age.

~

UPDATE: Here’s the link to the next part and the AO3 link for anyone who wants to continue!

Next - AO3 Link

[bamf-jaskier]

I really don't think there's a correlation between the Coën's actor and how little he appears in fanfiction. Aiden shows up a bunch probably bc he's basically a blank slate and there were a lot of plot holes around his whole story. And the idea of asshole clown Lambert having a friend/more than a friend is intriguing to explore for a lot of people. Coën doesn't get a whole lot of screen time anywhere (which is disappointing tbh, I fricking love him just based off of his interactions w Ciri in BoE) so there's not a lot of... the kind of emotional situations to explore with his character that you'd get elsewhere (aka Lambert and Aiden). He's books only (RIP), so someone who's only played the games/seen the Netflix show very easily could have never even heard of him. The Aiden stuff is much more visible and you don't have to slog thru Sapowski's obsession w breasts to get to it 🤷‍♀️ idk just my thots

For reference, anon is referencing this ask. 

I think there is a bit of correlation. Now, Coën was never the most popular character. He is mentioned in the the first Witcher Game during the memory of a blade quest in Chapter 2. He is also in Blood of Elves and appears in one of Ciri’s hallucinations in Lady of the Lake. 

He is very upbeat and plays with Ciri a lot while she stays at Kaer Morhen and even is one of the Witcher training her in swords. He’s actually very sweet towards Ciri and it’s really nice to see someone treat her like a real kid. 

So yeah, Coën isn’t mentioned a whole lot I think he’s in three scene total in the books and one quest in the games and all we really know about him is that he is funny, same age as Lambert, has yellow-green bloodshot eyes and a beard he uses to hide scars from childhood, and is a Witcher from Poviss. Coën is a member of the Kaer Morhen Witchers at least while Ciri is there. He is a pretty blank slate and there’s a lot to explore with his story but there is a solid base to work with as well!

With Aiden, he is not in the books at all and only mentioned in TW3 during the Following the Thread quest where we are told he was a friend of Lambert’s who was killed and Geralt and him go on a merry chase to avenge his death. There’s some great lines here about Lambert and Aiden being friends and working together but we never actually meet Aiden. 

Here’s where is gets interesting. There are 172 works on AO3 that have Coën as a character and only about 5 of those were posted before his casting was announce in Feb 2020. Compared to Aiden who has 497 works on AO3 and around 450 of those being posted after Feb 2020. And most of those Coën fanfics? Have him as a very minor character at best while many of the Aiden fics pair him with Lambert or have him play a larger role. 

Aiden really isn’t that visible a character unless you really dive into the fandom and you want to slog through CDPR’s obsession with Triss’ breasts. However, Coën’s name has been floating around for a while now since his casting in the show meaning he has been getting publicity as a character while Aiden’s character has gotten nothing of the sort but he still remains the much more popular choice. And just to clarify, both can be awesome characters and you don’t have to decide between one or the other. Use both! Write both! They aren’t polar opposites and they aren’t ultimatums of each other. 

There isn’t really any obvious direct connection between Coën’s character being cast as a poc and the lack of content. No one has said “I didn’t write Coën in Kaer Morhen raising Ciri with the others because he is a poc now”.

But I do think we have to look at the fact that despite many articles talking for almost a year now about Coën, Eskel and Lambert being the Witchers we will meet in season 2, the fandom has largely chosen to write Coën, a canon character of color, out of the Kaer Morhen and raising Ciri fandom narrative. It comes down again the how the subconscious choices we make as a fandom seemingly reflect this sense of bias. 

I don’t even know if most people have noticed this before these asks have brought it up. Maybe you haven’t kept up to date with any of the casting news and had no idea they cast someone as this Witcher named Coën you have never heard of. That’s all fine!

It is just interesting how Coën is so excluded while another minor character with a similar backstory and given fandom personality (many people write Aiden as the mischievous, fun loving type similar to Coën) is given so more attention. You can use these two side characters to see a parallel of how fandom treats a canon character of color like Coën.

[rkorlov]

Harmonies (JATP fanfic) Part 2

{1st chapter.} {Wattpad link.}

Summary: Julie and the Phantoms get a proposal that’s huge. In the meantime, Julie has to deal with Carlos knowing about the boys.

Word count: 1936

                                        Chapter 2, Brand New

Flynn approached Julie in the hallway, the girl had a huge smile and was letting no one forget Julie and the Phantoms had played the Orpheum. It had been a couple nights, people still congratulated her when they saw her and whispered big things were coming their way. Julie wasn’t sure of anything, she was far more concerned about the boys now, she didn’t know if Caleb was coming back, the boys had no idea what their unfinished business could be and deep down, she was sure she didn’t want to say goodbye to them. Not now, not after she started playing again, after she enjoyed herself on stage and had a great time. Not now that she felt genuinely happy.

“Let me guess, you were lost into smiley land and that’s why you weren’t picking up your phone last night.”

“Luke and I were writing a song and after that I had dinner and went straight to bed. I saw your message first thing.”

“Uuuh, so we’re gonna have new music.” Flynn said, excited. Julie hated to disappoint her in that moment.

“I don’t think we will be singing this one… it’s quite personal for both of us.”

Flynn shook her head, and leaning on the lockers, looked at Julie. “Oh boy, no way of saving you from this one, is there? Writing love songs pretty much seals your fate.” She got close for an inch and made sure no one else heard. “What about Nick and the flowers?”

“He knows I like someone else, the flowers were just because he enjoyed the show. As long as he can’t tell is Luke who I like, then it’s alright.”

“Oh girl, we’re past from that, everyone can tell it’s him. Actually, you’re so lucky people can only see him when you’re singing because otherwise you’d be selling yourselves over.” She shrugged. “I’m still so surprised you’ve got no problem sharing those looks while your dad’s on the audience.”

Julie fell in complete silence and felt how her heart was in panic. She forgot about the rest of the world when that happened, no question why her father wanted to meet the boys. No wonder why he spent the weekend asking for the boy with the guitar. She was thankful none of the boys were around while that conversation happened. It’s safe to say it was uncomfortable, but Julie hadn’t thought of the fact that maybe everyone could see the same she saw.

“Maybe we do have to tone it down a little, huh?” Out the corner of her eye, Julie thought she was hallucinating.

Carrie walked towards them, for the first time she was all alone, displaying a smile on her face. A smile directed at them? Maybe that was the day of reckoning and everyone needed to get their apocalypse gear out, right? There was no other explanation.

“Julie! Right the person I was looking for.” She looked at Carrie with furrowed eyebrows and pointed at herself with a twitch of her lip. Since when that was a thing that happened? “Yes you, my father is putting up a show, we saw you the other night at the Orpheum, and he wanted to invite you and your Phantoms to perform. Dirty Candy is gonna be there, too.”

“Oh, that’s…” she was at a loss for words. “That’s very kind of your dad. I…”

“You’re gonna think about it?”

“Sure thing, I’ll let you know.” Carrie walked away and Flynn turned towards Julie with enough of a surprised expression to last for a day. “What just happened?”

“You tell me! Since when is Carrie… nice?”

But that was not what Julie had in mind. What she thought about was Carrie’s dad being in the audience of the Orpheum. Trevor, Trevor Wilson, the guy she thought introduced her to rock. The guy who used Sunset Curve’s songs, Luke’s lyrics, was at the audience of the Orpheum. He saw them perform and what if… what if he recognized the boys? There was no way he didn’t recognize his old bandmates.

“We may have a bigger problem than Carrie being nice!”

A quiet sound of guitar riffs came from the studio. Julie opened the door to see Alex at the drums, Reggie standing beside him tuning in his bass and Luke, playing chords on his guitar while he lay on the couch.  She thought during the entire day how to break the news to them, coming to the conclusion there wasn’t really a good way of doing so. The boys would freak out the moment she opened her mouth.

“Hey, guys… so, I kinda have good and not so good news.”

“Let me guess, let me guess!” Reggie said. “You were bringing us pizza but then you remembered we can’t eat.”

Julie chuckled and shook her head. “Not exactly. The good news is we have a gig opportunity…”

Luke didn’t let her finish. He jumped on his feet and walked to her. “That’s amazing news, we’re so ready for it. When is it?” A happiness she hated to let down.

“Let me give you the complete information first…” she held up a finger towards Luke. He stared down at her signalling for her to continue. “Carrie’s dad was at the show at Orpheum, seems like he liked our music so he’s inviting us to a show he’s throwing.”

“You mean BOBBY?” Luke blurted out, as if Julie had managed to insult him deep.  She nodded. Luke turned towards the boys and shook his head. “No way, we’re not going.”

“I don’t know, it could be a great opportunity…” Alex threw, shrugging.

“He stole our songs and never gave us any credit. Why would we perform at a show with him?” Luke gestured with his hands, letting down his guitar. Julie had learnt to recognize pretty fast when he was upset, physically he was impossible not to read.

“That’s not the bad news, though.” She said, calling for Luke’s attention. Maybe making him pay attention would help. “He’s the only person from your past that saw you and what if he recognized you, guys? What if he has something to say and this is a great moment to say something.”

“We can totally try and talk to him.” Reggie suggested.

“Exactly how, genius? The only person who can see us is Julie.” Luke let out, dropping his weight on the couch. “It’s not like we can call him out while we’re performing.”

“No but if the moment presents itself, I can totally vouch for you,” she said. “Carrie and I used to be friends, her dad knows me, he’ll… he’ll listen.”

Alex put down his drumsticks. “I say we go, we need some answers.”

“I’m with Alex, we can’t really hold onto anger forever.” Reggie said with a side smile and a shrug. “What do you say, Luke?”

He didn’t say a thing. A frown took over his whole expression. It only softened when Julie shifted his way; she tried to convince him with a gesture, a silent talk between them begging him please to consider it. The boys were angry at Bobby, they had enough reasons to be, but they still had to let go so they could keep moving forward, it was the best they could do. Luke finally gave in and nodded to Julie. She smiled and was about to approach him when she heard Carlos’ voice from behind.

“So… how are the guys doing?”

“Huh?” She turned around. Her brother was leaning against the door, looking past Julie. “What guys?”

“The ones you were talking with.”

“I… I wasn’t talking with anyone,” she played dumb. “There’s no one else in here.”

“I figured you were gonna say that but,” the boy said, taking out from his pocket a picture taken straight out of Sunset Curve’s demo album. Julie looked at it and let out a deep breath. Busted, totally busted. “Don’t they look familiar?”

“You gotta give it to him, he’s thorough in his research,” Reggie let out, the boys giving him a look. “What? He is.”

Luke stood up and walked next to Julie. “He’s not gonna tell anyone, is he?”

Julie looked up at him and shrugged. Her brother wasn’t nosey and he always tried to help her so she trusted him to keep it all in. “We can keep this a secret, right? No telling dad.”

Carlos took a hand to his chin and made a thoughtful grin. “We can but you’re gonna have to answer some ghostly doubts first.”

After giving Carlos the 101 guide on how to deal with ghosts, exchange that ended on him disappointed of not actually being able to interact with the boys, Julie went out searching for Luke; who had vanished from the studio and hadn’t come back for more than an hour. She wanted to make sure he wasn’t changing his mind, or freaking out about it. It was enough of a sensitive topic for him, Bobby stole his lyrics after all and music for Luke was the biggest expression of his soul. Knowing someone else, a friend, had taken his lyrics and sang them as their own and never even remembered his name while doing so was hurtful.

Bouncing a basketball and throwing it to the ring for it to bounce back and start again, she found him. Focused on his movements as if he were playing guitar, he bounced the ball once again before seeing her and stopping it mid-air.

“Hey!” He said, eyes glued on her, something Julie wasn’t sure how to take in. his eyes were always so full of the world. “Everything’s alright with your brother?”

“Yeah, he’s… he’s only bummed he can’t actually talk and hang out with ghosts but he won’t tell.” She played with her hands in her pockets and finally decided to speak. “How are you, though? I know the idea of doing this is big, playing in a show for Bobby after all that happened…”

“It’s…” he shrugged. “Ever since I found out he stole our songs I’ve been really angry and I know, I know we gotta let go of the past but there are some things that just linger. I mean, I like our music now more than ever, singing with you is the best… it’s just that…”

“He stole a part of you.”

Luke nodded. “But I’m on board with the boys; the best for us is to move on. Focus on here, what we have is pretty great…” he said, closing in the space between them. His bright eyes changed it all for her, every time, and now they were so sincere. Julie couldn’t emphasize enough how she loved playing with the boys, how much happier she felt since they showed up, how grateful she was with her mom for sending them her way. She needed them as much as they needed her. And now knowing how all Luke made her feel was too good, with its own stones to stumble in but good. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Neither would she.

Luke offered his hand, intertwining her fingers with his she took him, closing in the rest of the space between them. Forehead to forehead, she closed her eyes as she let the feeling spread through her body. The gleefulness of being able to connect with him that way was homely, like landing on a safe place and being held by the right arms. Not even a thought of the impossibilities of their relationship could break how she managed to feel in that moment. Infinite, full of peace. Brand new.

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

Hello! Once again, I’m putting in the tags the people who have interected with the previous post and who want to be tagged. Thank you so much for reading and remember you can drop prompts for the fic, whatever you’d like to see I’d be really happy to play out. My ask box is always open, either for this fic or one shots.

Tags: @cordeliapeters @leahthewonder @a-chaotic-ananas @just-henny @helookedupgrinninglikeadevil @oliveswiftly @sammy-stan @sweetlikecherry-wine @lmaohuh @fantomgirlonsonthin @laughswaytoomuch @loveyatopluto @sammi36 @artemiscrock913

Thanks again for reading, it means the world!

[ollieofthebeholder]

leaves to high to touch (roots too strong to fall): a TMA fanfic

Read from the beginning on Tumblr || Also on AO3

Chapter 51: Statement of Walter Sims, regarding a list. Recorded direct from subject, twenty-sixth of January, 1990.

[CLICK]

GERTRUDE

You’re certain you don’t mind?

WALTER

Not at all. Honestly, when you said you would come to me rather than have me come to you, I assumed this wasn’t going to be…official.

GERTRUDE

Yes, well.

People don’t often send messages ahead of time. They simply…come to give their statements. I admit I was intrigued.

WALTER

I’m here most of the hours the Institute is open. Simple as that.

GERTRUDE

Still. I have a…feeling, shall we say, that your statement doesn’t need to be available for research.

WALTER

I don’t think you’re wrong about that.

Are you ready?

GERTRUDE

One moment.

Statement of Walter Sims, regarding—how would you term it?

WALTER

Let’s just say “a list.”

GERTRUDE

Recorded direct from subject, twenty-sixth of January, 1990.

Whenever you’re ready.

WALTER (Statement)

I’ve worked here for almost three years now—ever since we found out we were going to be parents. My mother made it clear that she was not going to make herself responsible for what she termed “my careless mistakes,” and Sarah’s only family is a sister over in America with a family of her own. My choices were to drop out of school and get a job or let us both starve. Put like that, it’s no choice at all, really.

I’d thought to go to sea. My best mate and I always talked about it, and he had a job on a commercial deep-sea fishing vessel, so I asked him about getting a job. He talked me out of it, though. The captain’s a bit…odd, he says. He knew his father-in-law was looking for a handyman and suggested I apply. The old man and I suited each other well enough, and he hired me on the spot.

The work isn’t hard. I’m a general man about the place. I do repairs, painting, gardening, a bit of housework. He buys the groceries, but I put them away. Sometimes I do a bit of cooking for him. He’s not infirm or an invalid—well, obviously—but he can’t climb ladders or do a lot of bending over, so anything regarding hard labor, I handle for him. (heh) My biggest job these days is keeping next door’s grandson from getting at the entire cherry crop in the summer. They hang pretty near the property line, and the lad’s learned to climb pretty well these last couple years.

It’s nice for a lot of reasons, probably the biggest of which is that I can bring my boy with me sometimes. Sarah’s trying to finish her degree, at least part time, so on days she has classes, I bring him to work. He adores the old man—it’s the closest he’s got to a grandfather—and my best mate’s boy is only a bit older than him, so they play together. Can’t separate them with a pry bar. They’re good lads, both of them.

Neither one was here the first day I saw it.

It was just after the first of the year. The couple next door must have had some sort of party; there were paper streamers and fragments of fireworks all over this side of the fence. I was picking up all the bits when I saw a figure standing by the house.

He wore a suit, a three-piece suit. All of it was black as night, except for his tie, which was pure white—or so I thought at the time. His hands and face were white as snow, too. No, more than that. He was colorless. Completely devoid of any color. He was staring up at the house. When I got a little closer, I realized he was staring up at the old man’s bedroom window. He had a clipboard in one hand—black, like his suit—and a pen in the other. It was the only splash of real color about him, and it was gold, very pale gold. Like a shaft of light.

I saw him write something down on the clipboard. I called out to him, just like I did when you came up—told him this was private property. There’s a place down the road with an orchard open to the public, and the numbers are reversed, so sometimes we get people coming here by mistake. It’s not usually a big deal.

But this one…he looked at me. He didn’t have any eyebrows, or, well, they were so pale they didn’t show up, but I thought he looked…surprised. Like he hadn’t expected anyone to be there. I asked him again if I could help him, but he just—he vanished. It was like he’d never been there at all.

It gave me a bit of a turn, I won’t deny it, but for the most part, I shrugged it off. Either I was having a hallucination, or he’d just moved very quickly. I wouldn’t ever have thought of it again, except that a couple of days later, I saw him again.

He was in the same place, just underneath one of the cherry trees. Matter of fact, I’d seen the branches rattling and thought it was next door’s grandson again, climbing up. (soft laugh) Obviously there aren’t any cherries this time of year; the trees are bare as bones. But we’d had something of a freeze the night before, and the branches were slick with ice. I was worried he might slip and hurt himself, so I went over to get him down. But when I got closer, I saw the same man again.

This time, he was looking away from the house, towards the Stokers’ place. He was peering very intently over there, not moving except to make a note on his clipboard. I called out to him again, a little louder and a little less friendly this time, wanting to know what he was doing and where he came from.

He vanished again, but this time, just after he disappeared, the old man came out onto the porch here and wanted to know what was going on. I told him about the strange visitor, and the fact that he just kept…leaving so quickly.

To my surprise, the old man got pretty agitated. He wasn’t mad at me—wasn’t even mad, really. Just…agitated. He told me not to have anything to do with the man if he turned up again. I asked if he knew him, and he said no, not exactly, but that he’d been around enough to know something related to one of the Fourteen when he heard it.

We’ve talked, of course. I knew what he meant. He obviously couldn’t say which one it was, not without seeing it for himself, but he told me to keep away from him, not make eye contact, and hope he didn’t turn his attention to me. I asked if I should come talk to someone from your Institute, and he said no again. Said it was such a small thing, not worth bothering about. Nothing for you all to really sink your teeth into. And he said he didn’t want you lot touching me, either.

So I left it alone. Kept my head down and got back to work. Until yesterday.

Both the boys were here. I let them “help” me a bit, but, well, they’re two. Eventually I told them to go play on the porch while I cleaned out the gutters. I don’t want them running about under the ladders when I’m up high. It’s a good way for someone to get hurt.

I was just coming down when I saw him again. Standing behind the skeletal remains of the privet hedge, facing the house again. Facing the porch. He was watching the boys, just as intently as he’d looked at all the others, but this time he was watching the boys.

I didn’t call out to him this time. I jumped off the ladder and went for him. When I got close enough, I shouted, “Hey!” Just to get his attention, you know, before I grabbed him.

Well…it worked, insofar as it got his attention. He looked even more surprised than the first two times. This time, I was close enough to see the barely-there shape of his eyebrows, the thin lines of his mouth, the way light just slid off his suit, still solid black except for the tie. This time, though, I was close enough to see it wasn’t pure white. There were faint lines and whorls in it—like a feather from a gigantic wing. But when I grabbed at him, he vanished again.

This time, though…he dropped his clipboard.

I picked it up and studied it. I half expected it to be some oddity as well, like black paper written on in gold ink, but…no, it was perfectly ordinary stock, good quality paper, and it was neatly written in a deep black ink. The handwriting was clear as daylight, as were the contents of the note.

It was a list of names. Seven of them. With yours truly right at the top.

GERTRUDE

Do you still have the list?

WALTER

No. I was almost done reading it when it…disintegrated in my hand, I guess.

But I have it memorized. It burned itself into my mind. Not just the names, but each one had a pair of dates after it, separated by a single dash. Like a range.

GERTRUDE

Seven names, you say? And what were the dates?

WALTER

If you mean “what do they mean”…I’m not sure, but I have a guess. I know what the first date means, anyway, and I have my suspicions about the second. But the list itself…

GERTRUDE

Let’s record it. For posterity.

WALTER

(deep breath) Walter Sims, fourth July 1976 to seventh April 1990.

Alastair Koskiewicz, twenty-sixth January 1935 to eighteenth March 1997.

Daniel Stoker, first May 1990 to fourteenth August 2013.

Gertrude Robinson, seventeenth December 1934 to fifteenth May 2015.

[GERTRUDE INHALES SHARPLY]

WALTER

Timothy Stoker, thirteenth January 1985 to—and that’s when it started to dissolve.

It was like a drop of black ink on the page, obscuring the second half of the date, and then it just…spread. It absorbed the bottom three names and dates first. Then it burned all the way through the paper, and the clipboard, and just kept spreading until…until it was just dust in the wind.

I talked to Kier—my best mate—when he turned up to get his son, while the old man was helping them (slight laugh) conspire to let them spend the night. Gave him the whole rundown. I think it would have stopped there, except that while I was telling him, I suddenly remembered that, right before the paper started dissolving, when it was still just the ink blot—for just a moment, where the dates at the bottom would have been, it coalesced into a drawing of an eye.

And I swear it blinked.

That’s when we sent the note round. I’m sorry to make you come all the way out here. I’d have been perfectly willing to come to you if you’d been willing to work with me.

GERTRUDE

I don’t know that this would keep.

Did you see any of the dates on the last two?

WALTER

No. Didn’t need to, really. Saw the names, which means I know the first dates, and—oh, hang on.

[FAINT SINGING CAN BE HEARD IN THE BACKGROUND, INDISTINCT AT FIRST BUT GRADUALLY LOUDER UNTIL THE WORDS TO “FISH OF THE SEA” CAN BE MADE OUT]

[A SUDDEN PATTER OF RUNNING FOOTSTEPS]

YOUNG JON

Papa!

WALTER

Hey, there’s my boy.

[RUSTLE OF FABRIC]

All right there, Kier?

KEEPER

All right there, Walt.

Ma’am.

WALTER

This is Gertrude Robinson. The Archivist at the Magnus Institute. Ms. Robinson, this is Kieran Blackwood, my best mate, and this is my boy.

Go on, say hello.

YOUNG JON

Hello! I’m Jonny. I’m two and one-quarter.

GERTRUDE

A pleasure to meet you both. And who is this?

KEEPER

(gently) It’s all right, Wickie. Tell her your name.

YOUNG MARTIN

(mumbled) Martin.

YOUNG JON

He’s my very best friend in the whole wide world. And that’s a very wide place. Uncle Kier told me that, and he’s almost the smartest man there is, so he should know.

[WALTER AND THE KEEPER BOTH LAUGH]

GERTRUDE

Yes, well…that’s wonderful.

WALTER

Tell you what. Ms. Robinson’s never seen how fast you can run. Why don’t you two race to see who can be the first one to run all the way around the house and get back?

YOUNG JON

We can do that! Come on, Martin!

YOUNG MARTIN

Ready, steady, go!

[POUNDING FOOTSTEPS AND CHILDISH GIGGLING RECEDE INTO THE BACKGROUND]

GERTRUDE

Hmm. How long do you estimate this will take?

KEEPER

As long as we need. They’ll probably race around to the far side of the house, slow down, and sing a few rousing choruses of the song I taught them a couple months ago.

It’s the one that goes, “La la la, la la la la la, the grown-ups are talking.”

WALTER

They’re two, not stupid.

GERTRUDE

…Right.

KEEPER

You’ve told her, then?

WALTER

Aye. We just finished up.

KEEPER

Terminus?

GERTRUDE

…How do you know about the Fourteen?

WALTER

…Ma’am, you do know I work for Alastair Koskiewicz, right?

GERTRUDE

Yes, I…oh.

Oh, I see.

He told you?

WALTER

In bits and bobs. Enough to avoid them, anyway. Or at least I think that was his intention. Doesn’t always work.

KEEPER

Obviously.

GERTRUDE

Of course.

…

(sigh) Yes. I believe you’re correct. The person you saw was likely an agent of Terminus.

WALTER

Thought as much.

Well. Suppose I’d best let the old man know. Seventh of April, that’s…what, three weeks before you leave on your next run?

KEEPER

More or less. Depends on the tides, really.

WALTER

Well, I should be able to get supplies ordered in, at least, but that’s a bit early to have the garden laid out. He’ll need to get someone else for that.

GERTRUDE

I must say, you’re taking this remarkably well.

WALTER

What do you expect me to do? Start crying? Curl up in a ball in a dark room and mourn?

At least I know. And I’m not ill or anything—not that I know of, anyway—so it’s going to be an accident. It’ll be sudden. Which means that, if I hadn’t seen this list, it would catch us all off-guard. Now I’ve got time to put things in order. I can make arrangements to make sure Sarah and Jonny will be taken care of. I can get whatever work around here needs to be done finished, or at least started.

There’s always more work to do, I suppose. Always one more job. But at least I won’t have to worry that I didn’t do all I could.

KEEPER

He says, as though he had ever, in his life, put forth less than one hundred percent effort into anything he did.

[WALTER LAUGHS]

WALTER

That’s as may be. But still.

I’m sorry I won’t get to see my boy grow up. I can’t imagine what he and Martin will be like when they’re our age, or when they’re thirty, or when they’re old men.

You, I can easily imagine as an old man. Some grizzled old lighthouse keeper with a weatherbeaten face and snow-white hair, staring out over the storm-tossed ocean and longing…

KEEPER

Blackwoods don’t go white. We go silver.

You know I’ll look out for them for you, right?

WALTER

I thought that went without saying. But…thank you.

[SOUNDS OF CAR TIRES ON GRAVEL DRIVE]

KEEPER

Incoming.

WALTER

(sigh) Damn. Hoped we could get you out of here before he got back.

[CAR DOOR SHUTS]

[FOOTSTEPS, PUNCTUATED BY THE REGULAR THUNK OF A CANE]

ALASTAIR

Trudy.

GERTRUDE

Alastair.

ALASTAIR

And what brings you out to the haunts of coot and hearn?

WALTER

She came to get my statement about the man I saw.

ALASTAIR

(gruffly) Told you to have nothing to do with him. Or the Institute. You want them to mark you?

WALTER

I think it’s a bit late for that. He showed up yesterday and was watching the boys, and—well, he dropped his clipboard. List of names and dates.

ALASTAIR

…

(more gently) How long have you got?

WALTER

Ten weeks, give or take. Enough time to finish the painting. Patch the roof over the dormer. I might even be able to get that shed built for you. I can definitely get the ground prepped, but I think you’ll need to get someone else to do the planting this year.

ALASTAIR

How can you think of that at a time like this, what?

WALTER

Like I told Ms. Robinson here, what else am I supposed to do? Spend the rest of my life mourning that I won’t have more time? That just wastes the time I do have.

ALASTAIR

You’re facing down the End—

WALTER

I’m facing death.

GERTRUDE

It is the same thing.

WALTER

I can see how they’d get lumped together, but they’re really not. Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you.

[A BRIEF SILENCE]

[RUNNING FOOTSTEPS]

WALTER

(audibly grinning) Look out, here comes trouble.

YOUNG MARTIN

Granddad! Granddad!

ALASTAIR

All right, come here, you rips. What have you been up to?

YOUNG JON

We were just racing around the house and then we saw a skylark, honest we did, and Martin told me the poem about it, and—

YOUNG MARTIN

And then it flew away and, and we heard your car and came to see you, and here you are!

YOUNG JON

(whispering loudly) Papa, is Mr. K’s surprise ready?

WALTER

(matching his volume) Just about.

ALASTAIR

(also whispering loudly) I’m not deaf, laddie buck.

WALTER

Why don’t you two go wash your hands and set the table for tea? I trust you to be careful.

YOUNG MARTIN/YOUNG JON

Yes, sir!

[RUNNING FEET, A SCREEN DOOR BANGING SHUT]

GERTRUDE

Well. I won’t take up any more of your time. I suppose I’d best be getting back to the Institute.

ALASTAIR

Oh, hang the Institute, Trudy. Surely your assistants can spare you for the afternoon. I’m sure Mendelson won’t mind, what?

GERTRUDE

Mendelson retired more than fifteen years ago. James Wright is the current head of the Institute.

ALASTAIR

Wright? That little dog’s todger?

GERTRUDE

He does well. It surprised me, too.

I—I shouldn’t.

KEEPER

You’re not even a little curious to see what those two little nippers have conjured up as a surprise for Alastair’s birthday?

GERTRUDE

Speaking of those two, I am curious why Jonny calls you “Mr. K”.

ALASTAIR

“Koskiewicz” is a bit of a mouthful for a two-year-old.

WALTER/KEEPER

(simultaneously and accurately mimicking Jon’s tones) Two and a quarter.

GERTRUDE

So why don’t they both call you “Granddad?”

WALTER

We used to refer to him that way for both, but once Jonny started talking, he decided that if Martin can’t call my mother “Grandmother,” he wasn’t going to steal Martin’s grandfather. He wanted Martin to have someone of his very own.

ALASTAIR

Gertrude, he’s Lily’s boy.

GERTRUDE

(softly) My God.

WALTER

I did tell you Kier got me a job with his father-in-law. Did you just not make the connection?

GERTRUDE

No, I—I didn’t.

How is Lily these days?

[ALASTAIR MAKES A NOISE BETWEEN A SPUTTER AND A GROWL]

KEEPER

Lily’s…fine, ma’am.

ALASTAIR

Should’ve stayed at the Institute and left her to be raised by wolves. Would’ve solved a lot of problems.

KEEPER

Aye, but then we wouldn’t have our Wickie. And I wouldn’t trade him for a king’s ransom.

ALASTAIR

Hmm, yes, yes. Thank God he takes after his father, what?

GERTRUDE

…I take it she hasn’t improved with maturity, then.

ALASTAIR

Let’s just say there’s a reason Martin spends most of his days here when Kieran’s away for work.

[DOOR CREAKS OPEN]

YOUNG MARTIN

U-um, ‘scuse me. Are—are you going to stay for tea, Ms. Robinson?

GERTRUDE

I really shouldn’t.

ALASTAIR

Come on, Trudy. Just an hour or two.

I have missed you, what?

Say you’ll join us.

YOUNG MARTIN

Please?

[A SHORT PAUSE]

GERTRUDE

Since you ask so politely…I’d be delighted.

[CLICK]

———

[CLICK]

GERTRUDE

Final notes.

I…I really don’t quite know what to say here. The statement itself is…fairly straightforward. Obviously those dates bear watching, but I suppose I can’t be certain of them. Of all the abilities I seem to have developed in the last twenty-five years, the ability to Know the future is not one of them.

Still, I suppose finding a way to warn the Stokers would not go amiss. Mr. Sims did give me a bit more to go on there.

I am not made of stone. I do feel very keenly for that young father and his…situation. He did finally get the chance to give me the last two names on the list, and I suppose it’s no surprise that they belonged to his son and his godson. (heh) They’re quite a pair, those two. I admit that I’m somewhat relieved the dates on their names were obscured before he could see them. No parent should have to know when their child is going to die.

And he has given me much to think about. I have a date. If his statement is accurate, I have a little over twenty-five years to accomplish all I need to accomplish. Of course, it’s entirely possible that those dates are the absolute limit, not the concrete end—that I will live no longer than that—but…well. That should give me time, if I work hard at it.

He’s right. There will always be more to do. (heh) Unless I fail, and it all ends. Perhaps that’s why the last three dates are—no. No, I have to believe that these rituals can be stopped, will be stopped. And now I have even more of a reason to work at them than before.

Honestly, I’m not sure what about this whole experience has shaken me more. Finding out the date of my own death…(voice hitches) or meeting my grandson.

I don’t think I’ll make a file in the Archives for this one.

[CLICK]

———

[CLICK]

[LONG, HEAVILY CHARGED SILENCE]

MELANIE

What. The. Fuck.

PAST ARCHIVIST

(softly) Oh, God.

SASHA

Gertrude Robinson was your grandmother?

PAST MARTIN

I—I didn’t know…

MARTIN

Neither did I. I don’t—

It kind of explains a lot.

ARCHIVIST

Like what?

MARTIN

Like why she avoided me? Like why errands to the Archives were the only ones Diana never sent me on?

PAST MARTIN

A-and it’s—when, when Elias—when Jonah made me experience her death. I-it was—you said it wasn’t usually that intense.

Was that why? I could f-feel her thoughts and emotions because we’re not just connected by the Eye, we’re—related.

ARCHIVIST

I—

[STATIC BEGINS, SOFTLY AT FIRST BUT GRADUALLY BUILDING]

Yes.

No one ever knew. No one apart from Alastair Koskiewicz, and Liliana herself, ever knew that Gertrude gave birth shortly before being appointed Archivist. The baby was placed with Alastair’s parents, for a while anyway, but they were quite elderly and died within a few months of each other four years later, at which time Alastair resigned his position in Research to raise her. Gertrude always made absolutely sure that nobody knew about Liliana. The one and only time she ever tried to reach out to her, Liliana made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with the woman who had given her life and nothing else, as far as she was concerned.

Gertrude didn’t know about you until that day, but afterward, you became the single driving force behind her war against the Fears. She worried that the appearance of the eye on the list might mean that the Ceaseless Watcher had taken an interest in you, and she became ruthless in her zeal to keep it away from you. She spoke with you only twice after that day, taking care to be in disguise and using a false name, just in case.

When she found out you had joined the Institute, she was devastated and terrified in equal measures. It was only when Elias Bouchard did not come down to the Archives to casually mention that he had hired Alastair Koskiewicz’s grandson that she realized her steps to protect you had been, in some small way, successful, and Jonah Magnus had no idea of the connection between her and you. Still, she redoubled her efforts, becoming ever more ruthless in her determination to stop the rituals, to make the world—

MARTIN

J-Jon. Jon!

[STATIC ABRUPTLY STOPS]

ARCHIVIST

Wh—(realizes) Oh, God. Martin, I’m sorry, I—

MARTIN

It’s okay. It’s okay. Just—settle down, okay?

ARCHIVIST

Okay.

Okay, I—

(sighs) Are you three all right?

MELANIE

Do you all need a minute?

PAST MARTIN

Yeah. Thanks, Melanie.

MELANIE

Sure.

[CHAIRS CREAKING AND SCRAPING]

SASHA

We’ll probably be down in the tunnels. Whenever you’re ready.

[FOOTSTEPS, DOOR CLOSING]

[SILENCE, EXCEPT FOR SLIGHTLY RAGGED BREATHING]

TIM

(softly) They moved.

Grandmother and Grandfather, they—just before Danny was born. They’d always lived on this little farm, but they abruptly decided they wanted something smaller and moved to a flat not far from where we were living at the time. We moved a few months later. I never knew why, but…

PAST ARCHIVIST

Y-you think it was because Gertrude…found them. Tried to, to warn them. About Danny, about you.

PAST MARTIN

Oh, Tim.

[FABRIC RUSTLES, SOME MINOR SCRAPING SOUNDS; IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS THERE’S A GROUP HUG GOING ON]

TIM

It’s okay. It’s okay.

It’s going to be okay.

PAST MARTIN

Sure.

PAST ARCHIVIST

We can get through this.

Together.

PAST MARTIN

I like the sound of that.

Jon, I—I’m sorry your dad didn’t get to see the man you’ve become. I think he’d be proud of you.

TIM

Sounds like your grandfather would have been proud of you both.

PAST MARTIN

He’d have been proud of you, too. I-if he’d had the chance to—I think you would have liked him.

I know he would have liked you.

TIM

…Thanks, Martin.

[A COUPLE OF HEAVY SIGHS]

PAST MARTIN

So—so now what? We go…up to Hainault, find the storage unit, figure out what it is—what’s up there?

PAST ARCHIVIST

…

No.

No, not—not now. I-I need the weekend. I’ve…it’s been one thing after another for so long. I’ve been going non-stop. It’s not time-sensitive, not really, and…I’m tired.

Let’s just…not think about it for a couple of days. Let’s close down the Archives early and, I don’t know, go meet Charlie when he gets home from school and take him out for ice cream. Something like that. Let me have a couple of days to enjoy being home and with you again and—a-and we can worry about it on Monday.

We won’t talk about it. We won’t think about it. We’ll just…take a break. I think we all deserve it.

PAST MARTIN

…Okay. Okay, that—that sounds good.

Tim?

TIM

(deep sigh) Sure. Sounds great.

PAST ARCHIVIST

All right then. Let’s go.

[CLICK]