#I did just find out i have more story to finish in God Eater 2 after all

[7larson]

tbiny devlog #2

this is a repost of a blog article originally made at near-midnight august 21st, 2023 as i am migrating my blog to a new host. there was only two already written, everything here on out should be new :)

i should have been at work today, but i woke up with a horrible migraine, so instead, i called out and slept in. when i woke up, the migraine was still pretty bad, not in a state to go to work, but i wanted to finish setting up this blog and revamping my website, so i did that. don’t look at my commit history, it’s a mess. don’t migraine & code, kiddies.

today i want to get into a little bit about what the story of this game will be, its inspirations, etc. since it’s an idea i’ve had floating around for awhile, so that’s what we’ll jump into!

many eons ago, i got really interested in the concept of a ghost or spirit that lives in the body of or is otherwise attached to another person. this isn’t a unique idea, of course, it’s been done in a lot of media. the thing that originally drew me to the idea in this case was the Chronicles of Darkness book, Geist: The Sin-Eaters, but a lot of other media i’ve loved over the years has explored similar ideas in different ways, particularly The Blackwell series by Wadjet Eye Games.

i made characters based on this concept, but really wanted to incorporate this idea of the host being the main character, and transgender, and the spirit not knowing how to grapple with that, or something along those lines. in the end i don’t think it works well that way, or at least, is as interesting. i think there’s a lot more room for trans allegory in the spirit being the main character, and being trapped within the body, and having to cope with it being a different body than the one they came from. i want to explore things like gender and mental health through that super cool urban fantasy lens i’ve always grown up being attracted to, and what better way to do it through this story!

so that’s where our story starts. This Body is Not Yours is the working title, i don’t know if that will be the finished title, but that’s what i’m going with for now. you play as a ghost who, in the afterlife, made a deal with a dying person to bring them back to life on the condition that you’re bound to them now. and when you wake up, you don’t immediately remember that, because memories are a little weird when you don’t have a body for a long time. don’t think about it too hard, it’s better for the narrative if you learn these things slowly, i think.

i’ll make it make sense. maybe.

so on to day two of development.

first, i learned some more basics of conditional statements and how to edit sentences partway through using them for quality of reading, basically. i think that will come in handy later.

next, that CSS thing from yesterday was really starting to bug me, and with some caffeine for my migraine and the powers of google, i was able to thankfully find the solution. it turns out i just need to only be exporting the story.js once i have the CSS styling the way i want. oops!

with that in mind, i went ahead and did some more serious CSS styling, so now the game is nice and moody and has an appropriate light and dark theme :) i usually use light theme for everything, because my eyes suck, but i know most people prefer dark theme and it fits the setting, so here’s what it looks like now.

also, i commented out something i want to use later, but left it there so i can use it… later.

i also found out i can use ink’s class defining to define lines that i stitched together through scenes using glue (this all sounds ridiculous if you’re not familiar with ink, but knots, stitches, and glue are all real terms) so i can change the color of what appears to be a single line in the game, even if it’s split into a couple segments in the file. very useful!

this is pretty much it for technical stuff today, i think, the rest is just writing! so… this has been a devlog. tune in next time for god knows what!

[sodasback]

Let Go

Reposting Let Go from my deleted accounts. Minor edits made.

JJ Maybank x Reader

Just SMUT. Real filthy smut.

Warnings: Very explicit sexual content. Cursing. All consensual. 18+

JJ got a gig cleaning pools on Figure 8 for the summer. And your family had a pool. Ergo, JJ was at your house every couple weeks cleaning your pool.

Of course, you knew JJ Maybank. He was the gorgeous bad boy Pogue every girl swooned over. And JJ Maybank knew you too. You were the Kook man-eater, currently on the arm of none other than Rafe Cameron. And sure you and Rafe had a good time together and you loved how possessive he was over you, but you both knew deep down your relationship was all about status. You were the ultimate young power couple of Figure 8.  

You and JJ, on the other hand, despised each other. …but like many have said, there’s a thin line between love and hate. And the truth was: you and JJ hated each other because you wanted what the other seemed to have.

You wanted to be free. Free of the obligation and the standards and the suffocating expectations. And JJ wanted to feel secure and cared for. Fuck, he just wanted to know where his next meal was coming from and what roof he was gonna sleep under without getting yelled at.

Right now, JJ was standing shirtless and sweaty with perfectly messy wet hair as he used the net to get crap out of the pool at your house while you were coming home from a day of waxing, tanning, manicures and pedicures.

You saw JJ and decided your day just hadn’t had enough excitement in it yet.

“Hey pool boy” You called to him with the perfect amount of flirtation and snobbery. JJ looked up at you. 

“You missed a spot.” You said, pointing to the leaves that were in the pool near you. He walked over to you with his usual cocky, Kook-hating attitude.

“Yeah, so did whoever sprayed that fake tan on you.” He retorted back, gesturing to a blotchy spot on your hip exposed by your cropped tank top.

You looked down at it, “Fuck!” you cursed, causing JJ to laugh as he scooped the leaves out of the pool.

“Shit, money can buy you everything, can’t it Y/L/N?” JJ asked casually, “Fake hair, fake tan, fake nails. Is anything about you real?” He asked looking down at your bare cleavage pushing up through your top.

“There’s only one way for you to find out.” Your was voice dripping in sex and JJ looked at you in shock, not expecting your answer as his lips parted slightly, exactly the reaction you wanted.

“...too bad I don’t date stoner surf bums though.” You shrugged.

And JJ regained the composure he lost for a second as he leaned the net against the wall and turned back to face you.

“Yeah, you prefer psychotic, spoiled coke addicts, right?” He narrowed his eyes down at you and you glared at him.

“He doesn’t do that shit anymore.” You stated definitively, referring to Rafe’s drug habit.

JJ snorted and nodded at you, “Yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night princess. …But I did literally just see him doing lines and drinking cocktails when I was cleaning the Cameron’s pool today.”

You felt disappointed, hurt and angry at this news. Because 1. Rafe canceled plans with you today to do “something important” for his dad and 2. You also knew Rafe wouldn’t usually drink and get high by himself, so you were pretty sure JJ was leaving part of the story out. 3. Rafe promised he wasn’t using coke anymore.

“You know he’s an asshole, right?” JJ asked, wanting you to admit you were a better person than your reputation made you out to be.

You were quiet as you internally acknowledged that JJ was right.

Without an answer from you, he sighed, “But I guess… superficial Kook princess like you will tolerate just about anything to make mommy and daddy happy with that Cameron last name.” He shrugged.

You smirked at this, “You almost sound a little jealous, Maybank.”

JJ scoffed, but you continued taking a step towards him as he held his ground. “I mean, I may not be some desperate tourist or some grungy surfer chick, but I know you think I’m hot.”

JJ broke eye contact with you and shook his head, opening his mouth to object but you took another step towards him and you could hear his breathing falter slightly as he looked back at you. So now you were ready to lie and say the thing you needed to say to get what you and JJ both desperately desired.

“And I know you wanna fuck me.” You said dangerously, taking another step so you and JJ’s bodies were almost touching, running a finger down JJ’s bare abs, making him shiver before you looked up at him, “But you’re scared. You’re scared that you wouldn’t live up to Rafe Cameron because you’re just a dirty, little Pogue from The Cut and-”

“Shut the fuck up.” JJ commanded through gritted teeth as he grabbed your hips and pushed you roughly against the wall of the pool house. You gasped and your eyes widened.

You and JJ both knew you said what you said to get to this point: You looking up at JJ with a little fear in your eyes as your heart raced and your core clenched. And JJ looking down at you like a wolf trapping his prey as he pressed your body firmly into the wall behind you with a harsh grip on your hips. He stepped in closer to you, pressing his body into your’s to keep you in place as he lifted one hand to grip your chin and smush your cheeks a little bit.

“You run that little mouth of your’s so much and no one ever puts you in your fucking place.”

You let the shock of JJ actually making this move leave as quickly as it came and you pushed back against JJ’s chest with your hands and tried to push his arm away from your face, not wanting to give in so easily. But JJ wrestled with your squirming body and grabbed both your wrists and pinned them on either side of your head. You huffed in frustration.

This caused you both to smile at each other, knowing this is what you wanted. But just in case, JJ loosened his grip on your wrists ever so slightly and looked in your eyes seriously for a second, “Hey, you want this right? Say ‘red’ if you actually wanna stop, yeah?” He asked. You looked in his eyes and nodded.

“Like how far do you want me to take this?” He checked one more time.

“Anything JJ” You told him. And he still looked unsure. “I’ll say ‘red’ if I want you to stop, promise.” And he searched your face for a second, then nodded at you sweetly before he smirked going right back “into character.”

His grip on your wrists tightened as he moved them further above your head so he could hold both of them with one hand and move his other hand to squeeze your chin and cheeks again.

“I know you’ve wanted this for a long time. I see the way you look at me. You think I don’t, but I know you open your window whenever I’m here cleaning the pool, so you can catch a glimpse of me. Or even when you’re with your douche boyfriend and see me on the street. You think I don’t see the double take you do?” He said and you tried to turn your head away from him, but he firmly turned your chin so you’d look at him again. JJ moved his grip to your jaw so you could talk.

“If you noticed all that, that means you were looking at me too. At the beach, you stare at me in my bikini. And I saw you at Boneyard parties watching me dance with my friends.” You told him.

JJ just narrowed his eyes at you, knowing he had gotten caught too. You slipped one of your wrists free and grabbed JJ’s wrist to move his hand from your jaw. But he overpowered you and pinned your arm to your side.

“So if you’ve wanted this for such a long time, why are you still fighting it? Are you this much of a fucking brat for Cameron?” JJ asked, still looking in your eyes before he moved next to your head to whisper in your ear.

You closed your eyes feeling his hot breath hit your ear as he continued, “I think it’s because, unlike me, we both know, he doesn’t give a fuck if he makes you feel good.”

JJ pressed a small kiss just below your ear and then nibbling and sucking on your earlobe causing you to let out the smallest whimper you couldn’t hold back.

“You know I’m gonna make you feel better than he ever has, but you can’t admit that, even to yourself, so you’re gonna resist me as much as you can so you can feel like you aren’t betraying him and being a shitty girlfriend for letting a pogue, none the less, be the one to make you so wet.”

JJ continued, sucking on your neck just a little and speaking again, “And you get to run the show wherever you go and even if you won’t say it, you crave for someone to take control from you and put you in your place. For once, in your god-damned spoiled princess life, you want someone to not let you be in charge.” He finished as he pressed his body against your’s before checking your expression.

You chest was heaving up and down as you breathed heavily being way more turned on having JJ Maybank pin you against a wall than you cared to admit. You glared at him with a furrow in your brow. Then you surged forward. JJ released your wrists and you grabbed a fistful of his hair with one hand and gripped his shoulder with the other as your lips crashed on his. JJ’s hand immediately went to the back of your upper thigh as he hitched one of your legs onto his hip. His other hand was squeezing your torso; his thumb sneaking underneath your bra and skimming the underside of your boob in the most aggravatingly teasing way possible.

Your mouths were already open, tongues wrestling each other, teeth hitting in the process. You jumped up and wrapped your other leg around JJ’s waist as he squeezed your legging-covered thighs.

After the initial surge of adrenaline, you both slowed down a little. You tugged at the roots of JJ’s hair and he groaned a little before biting your bottom lip and pulling away from you slightly, giving your thighs a hard squeeze at the same time.

When JJ released your lower lip, you pulled away from him, “Pool house.” Was all you said before your lips started moving against each other again and JJ walked through the door of the pool house, into the guest bedroom.

He kicked the door shut behind him as he nudged your head to the side to start leaving hot, wet open-mouth kisses along your jaw and down your neck causing you to moan as he let your legs slide down his waist so you were standing again.

His hands gripped your hips as he kept working on your neck while he walked you backwards towards the bed. He gave you no space as you fell back onto the bed and he continued to crawl over you, now taking his time to suck your neck as he propped himself up with arm near your shoulder. The other hand massaging your hip.

“Maybank, no hickeys. …Rafe.” You said. And really you said it for both your sakes, knowing if Rafe found out who you cheated on him with, it wouldn’t be good for either of you, but worse for JJ for sure.

“I really don’t give a fuck.” JJ said as he continued leaving more hickeys along your neck just to spite Rafe even more.

“Take your top off.” JJ commanded.

You rolled your eyes and took your tank top off before JJ’s hand flew to your throat holding it with only slight pressure. “Don’t roll your eyes at me.”  He said calmly and almost teasingly, which only made it that much more intimidating. He knew he was really pushing your limits of being told what to do.

So after the breath hitched in your throat, you just stared at him defiantly in a stand off. JJ raised his eyebrows expecting an answer from you, but you stayed silent, rubbing your lips together firmly, contemplating your next move so JJ snaked his fingers in your hair and slowly but firmly pulled, cranking your neck to the side and eliciting a sigh full of pleasure and pain to escape your now open mouth. “Fine.” You spat out.

JJ let out a dark chuckle. “You’re such a fucking brat. But you love this don’t you?” He asked before dipping a finger in your bra cup and pulling it down so your breasts were exposed to him.

He took a moment to admire them as he squeezed one before going down and swirling his tongue around your other nipple and biting at it lightly. He looked up at you, “You like to push back because you want me to show you how much stronger I am than you. You love being dominated, huh?”

You took a deep breath as JJ put his mouth on your boob and sucked a harsh hickey there, while his hand started playing with the waist line of your leggings teasing you. “You love feeling helpless underneath me?”

He snuck his fingers underneath your leggings and your lace thong but didn’t move further yet, “Answer me.”

And with the anticipation of JJ finally touching you where you need him, the answer easily fell from your lips “Yes” you breathed out.

“Good girl” JJ praised as he ran his fingers through your folds. You let out a pained breath at finally being touched but JJ also saw the way your mouth twitched like you were going to object and then stopped.

JJ chuckled. “You don’t usually like being called a good girl. But you wanna be my good girl, don’t you?” He asked gently stroking your clit, causing you to close your eyes and open your mouth.

Then, JJ abruptly plunged a finger into you, “Don’t you?” He asked more sternly this time.

“Fuck! Yes.” You answered.

“That’s what I thought. Let’s see how much of a good girl you can be. Take off your leggings and your bra and get on your knees.” JJ said as he quickly pulled his fingers from you. And stood up from the bed.

You sat up on the bed and gaped at him as he smiled at you evilly. He knew he was really pushing your limits, but he also knew it was only turning both of you on even more.

“Seriously JJ?!” You asked getting mad about all the teasing.

When you didn’t immediately get up and follow JJ’s orders, he came over and put his hand under your chin as he pulled your lower lip down with his thumb, “Don’t make me tell you twice, sweetheart.” You narrowed your eyes at him, but grabbed his wrist as his thumb released your lip, to pull yourself up from the bed.

JJ took a step back as you stripped down to just your thong. You smiled, catching him indulging himself drinking in your naked body.

“Knees” he reminded you. And before you could even do it, JJ said, “Don’t even think about rolling your eyes.” You gathered all your strength to not be bratty back with a deep breath as you got on your knees in front of JJ.

As much as you had a love-hate relationship with the way JJ was teasing you, being in this position, on your knees in front of him, only made your panties that much more drenched. Your hands wasted no time going to his swim trunks and pulling them down releasing his cock as it slapped up against his stomach. Your mouth was practically watering.

JJ ran a hand through your hair, “Is my good girl desperate to have me in her mouth?”

“Are you gonna keep making me answer questions this whole time or are you gonna let me suck your dick?” You asked bluntly.

JJ smiled, but harshly pulled your hair eliciting a whiny “ow” from you.

“For once, you need to work for everything you get and you need to be the one not in charge Y/N. And then I’ll make you feel better than any guy ever has. But you have to be good.”

“What if I’m not?” you asked innocently, tilting your head to the side.

JJ smiled, “Then there’s just gonna be more pain with your pleasure.” He said simply and then added, “But I’m learning you’d probably like that too. You’re dirtier than I thought. You like being a little slut, huh?”

You contemplated. Wondering if you should give in to JJ or keep resisting.

You looked up at him and nodded, “Mhmm”

He smiled down at you knowing he had won a little. He pumped his cock a few times. “You want my cock in your mouth?”

“Yes, JJ” you breathed out.

“Tell me how much you want it. Work for it.”

You gathered more strength and finally decided to fully submit to JJ’s whole power dynamic.

“JJ please, I want your cock down my throat.” You said, placing your hand below his, around his cock.

“Put your mouth on it baby.” He encouraged. And you licked your lips before running your tongue along the underside of it. JJ took a sharp inhale and gathered your hair in a ponytail as you wrapped your lips around him and swirled your tongue around the head. You took more of him in your mouth sucking as your hand pumped the rest.

“Fuck Y/N.” JJ groaned and threw his head back. Your head bobbed up and down on his length as saliva started to drip down your chin just a little. Each time you went down, you took a tiny bit more of him into your mouth. One hand now running your nails along his thigh.

Finally, you took all of JJ in your mouth and his cock hit the back of your throat causing you to gag. “Fuck” JJ cursed again. He let you be in control for a few moments longer before he couldn’t help but thrust into your mouth.

“Ahh you’re such a good little slut for me Y/N. You take my cock so well.” He told you as he hit the back of throat repeatedly. “Touch yourself baby. Is choking on my cock making you wet?”

You slid your fingers through your painfully throbbing cunt and opened your eyes to look up at JJ and nodded. JJ pulled out of your mouth completely letting you breathe. “You want more baby?” He asked and you nodded your head eagerly.

“I want you to cum down my throat, J” you said. JJ bit his lip and looked at you painfully, having so many places in mind where he wanted to cum. “Fuck” He cursed again as you took him back in your mouth.

“Put your hands behind your back, pretty girl.” He said and you immediately obeyed as he fucked your face. A few more thrusts and JJ was cumming down your throat and you continued bobbing your head up and down on his cock working him through it while you swallowed. JJ pulled his cock from your mouth with a string of saliva connecting the two as you caught your breath. JJ’s body was flooded with a rush of oxytocin motivating him to lift you from the ground and onto the bed.

“Fuck, so good for me baby.” He said, wiping the saliva and cum from the corner of your mouth his thumb and then peppering kisses along your jaw and neck.

You ran your hand through his hair and pulled him away from you for a second so you could kiss his mouth. JJ and you kissed sensually as he held some of his body weight off you and then he started kissing his way down to your stomach.

He left one more gentle kiss just above the waistline of your thong before he put his arms under each of your thighs and pulled you to the edge of the bed while he got on his knees on the ground. He sucked red marks that would surely be turning purple on your inner thighs as he ran his finger underneath the side of your thong multiple times.

“JJ stop teasing and do something already.” You whined.

JJ chuckled, “Someone’s desperate” he teased as he pulled your panties down your legs. 

“Spread your legs for me” He commanded as he wrapped an arm around each of your thighs again and took a long look at your dripping cunt like he was looking at a piece of cake. “Ahh your pretty little pussy is so wet, Y/N. Who are you this wet for?”

“You, JJ.” You sighed out feeling his warm breath hit your core and dying for some physical contact.

“That’s right baby” He praised smugly before giving your clit a gentle kiss and then kitten licks that quickly turned to sucking on your clit.

You immediately threw your head back and closed your eyes at the pleasure. JJ was truly an expert at eating pussy. After giving your clit attention he moved down and fucked your cunt with his tongue causing your legs to clench around him and your hips to move. JJ untangled his arm from under your thigh, and grabbed one of your hands as he laid his forearm across your lower stomach to keep you still. You moved your other hand into his hair, tugging at it and making him moan into you. He then sunk 2 fingers into you and pumped in and out; curling them in just the right way while sucking on your clit again.

You moaned loudly as your legs began to quiver. “Fuck JJ!”

“You’re close pretty girl. Let go. Cum for me.” He told you and you let the rubber band snap and the waves of your orgasm rush over you. You tried to close your legs but JJ kept them open working you through it and lapping up every drop of your cum he could before you pushed his head away gently. JJ stood up and pulled you up to a sitting position on the side of the bed after you caught your breath.

JJ held his fingers dripping in your cum in front of your mouth. You obediently opened your mouth and sucked on his fingers, tongue swirling around them. “Such a good little whore for me.” You leaned forward, loving the way JJ talked to you and he noticed.

He pulled his fingers from you mouth and held your chin tilted up at him. “God, you’re so much kinkier than I thought. You like being called names, huh?”

You nodded and then looked away and blushed. “I like when you call me names. I don’t know why- I-”

“No. Don’t be embarrassed. It’s fucking hot. I love that you wanna be called my little cockslut. That for once you don’t need to be this perfect Kook. You can be a dirty little slut for me.” He said pecking your cheek and rubbing his thumb across your chin. 

Then, he paused for a second like he was hesitant about something but then he said, “Open your mouth for me and stick out your tongue.” He commanded as he pulled down your chin with his thumb.

You did as you were told and stuck out your tongue. JJ bent down a little and spit in your mouth. “Fucking swallow.” He ordered lowly. And you swallowed it greedily, feeling your pussy throbbing again. JJ noticed your legs rubbing together and he grew hard again at the sight of you being turned on from him spitting in your mouth.

“Fuck” JJ cursed to himself for the umpteenth time. Then, he was caught off guard as you pulled him onto the bed and crawled on top of him.

“JJ, I need you inside me.” You told him as you straddled him and pinned his wrists to the bed.

JJ looked at you amused, “Oh you think you’re gonna be on top for this?” JJ asked incredulously. 

You smiled at him. “Yup” you said, as you released one of his wrists so you could line him up with your entrance. But before you could, JJ easily flipped the two of you over and pinned your arms down.

“JJ!” You protested in frustration and tried to sit up or flip over again, but JJ just kissed you hard into the mattress. Then he sunk into you, pulling away from the kiss at the same time to hear your moan as you felt him fill you up.

“Shit y/n/n.” JJ hissed, “You’re so tight, baby.” He laced his fingers through your’s, “Ready?” He asked. You nodded your head. And JJ started to rock his hips slowly into you.

“Faster, J” You told him and he just smirked at you causing you to furrow your brow in confusion.

“Beg for it.” He stated.

“JJ” You warned sternly and you wrapped your legs around his waist to try and get leverage to flip you both over so you could control the pace but it was no use.

“Nice try. ..Tell me I’m better than Rafe and I’ll give you what you want.” He said smugly. You immediately rolled your eyes and JJ stopped completely.

“Wrong move princess. Get on your elbows and knees, ass up.” he commanded darkly as he pulled out of you. You whined at the empty feeling. “I’m not telling you again.” JJ said.

“Relax” You grumbled as you got on your elbows and knees and JJ immediately landed a hard slap to your ass.

“Ow! Fuck J!” You yelled at him. JJ spotted a scarf hanging off the headboard and grabbed it.

“Sit up on your knees. Give me your hands” He said tying your hands together with the scarf.

“Really JJ?” You asked.

“You know, I wonder how hard I need to go to fuck that attitude out of you” JJ wondered out loud as he turned to grab something else.

“Maybe if you actually fucked me hard, you could find ou-” You couldn’t finish what you were saying because JJ had stuffed your drenched lace thong in your mouth making you even more turned on and frustrated at the same time. 

JJ pushed you down onto you elbows and then propped your ass up further in the air. “There” he said satisfied landing another slap to your other ass cheek causing a muffled squeak to come from you.

“You’ve been such a bratty little slut for me. I don’t think you deserve to get fucked. But I can’t resist your tight little cunt.” JJ said sinking into you from behind. “Fuck Y/N” he groaned stretching you out again and then slamming into you hard. He continued thrusting into you and then felt your walls clench a little. “Don’t you dare cum, pretty girl.”

“Please JJ” You whined around your thong. JJ reached around and pulled your panties from you mouth. “What was that sweetheart?”

“Please JJ.”

“Please what?”

“Please let me cum. I’ll do anything.” You begged as he continued thrusting into you.

“Tell me I’m better than Rafe.” He spat out.

“Yes, JJ you’re better than Rafe. Fuck!”

“Are you mine or his?” He asked.

“I’m your’s JJ. I’m a filthy little slut for you. Please!” You whimpered.

“Cum all over my cock, baby.” He told you. Your orgasm hit you hard and JJ fucked you through it and then he kept going and reached a hand around to play with your clit. You whimpered from the overstimulation.

“Fuck J, stop, too much.” You whined. And tried to move his hand away. He used his other hand to pull you up by your hair so your back was flush against his chest. “Fucking take it.” He said through gritted teeth as a second orgasm built. “Cum with me one more time. Be my filthy little cockslut baby.”

You moaned loudly as JJ bit into your shoulder and you both reached your climax again. JJ thrusted slowly as you came down from your highs. He slowly pulled out of you and gently laid you both down. He pulled the comforter over you both as you turned to face him and nuzzled into his neck. He wrapped his arms around you as you both laid together naked and completely blissed out.

“You okay? Was that okay? Did we go too far?” JJ asked with his chin on the top of your head. You leaned back a little so he could see your face.

“That was fucking hot Maybank.”  You said and pecked his lips before snuggling back into him. He let out a relieved chuckle and pecked the top of your head.

As you laid there in JJ’s arms, you felt …free. You reached a hand around to comb through JJ’s hair at the back of his head as you rubbed your thumb back and forth his skin where your hand was on his back. And JJ felt …secure and taken care of.

It turned out that you could give each other what the other one so desperately needed.

[kinda-just-chillin-here]

Greek Mythology and Julie & the Phantoms

My first watch through of Julie and the Phantoms (JATP), I noticed a few similarities and parallels to certain myths within Greek mythology. On my million rewatches, I paid more attention to see if there were others. This post is all my observations of the parallels, as well as a few possible theories for season 2 the writers could follow for certain storylines. This is a ridiculously long read, I apologize.

**Disclaimers: 

There are spoilers, so if you haven’t finished watching for the first time yet, don’t read this. 

The content in Greek myths can vary depending on the source. This is largely due to the fact they are just super old. So some of the myths might be slightly different. I did my best just to compare to the gist of the myth. 

I’m going to refer to Luke, Reggie, and Alex together as either Sunset Curve or the boys to save space. 

I apologize for any typos and mistakes; midterm season has left me with an empty head.

1. Orpheus

Obviously a major motif in the first season is the Orpheum. Orpheum literally means House of Orpheus. 

Background information of Orpheus:

His mother is Calliope (muse of epic poetry), and depending on the version of the story, his father is either Apollo (god of the sun, healing, music, medicine, archery, and poetry) or King Oeagrus of Thrace. 

Orpheus was considered to be one of the greatest musicians. He had a “divinely gifted voice that could charm anyone who heard it,” no god or mortal could resist his music. 

Let’s look at some of his myths.

Orpheus and Eurydice:

The basic summary of this myth is that Eurydice, Orpheus’ wife, died after being bitten by snakes while running away from a man, Aristaeus, or a satyr (depends on source) who wanted her for himself. Devastated, Orpheus began singing sad songs until he was advised by nymphs to go to the Underworld and bring her back. After singing to Hades and Persephone, they agreed to let Eurydice return to the main world. However, they warned him not to look back before they both entered the light of the surface. He happily began his trek back to the surface. When Orpheus reached the exit, Eurydice in toe, he turned around to see her, anxious to make sure it wasn’t a trick, that she was really there. Only, Eurydice was still in the Underworld, she hadn’t crossed over yet. Orpheus turning around when he did, caused Eurydice to remain in the underworld. 

So who’s who?

Julie = Orpheus (talented musician and desperate to save their love from the Underworld)

Sunset Curve = Eurydice (dead and trapped)

Caleb = Aristaeus and Hades (wants Eurydice/Sunset Curve for himself; controls the place the dead are) 

Hollywood Ghost Club (HGC) = The Underworld

How do they relate? Stand Tall (s1e09) is where it all goes down.

Like Aristaeus, Caleb is pursing Sunset Curve because he wants them for himself (and Caleb is also threaten by the power they have).

Caleb has the boys trapped in the HGC, just like Eurydice in the Underworld. 

Julie had to deal with the idea the boys died (again) when they didn’t show up before the performance. At first she couldn’t, she ran out until she had a sign from her mom, telling her to go on stage. You could argue this sort of parallels the nymphs telling Orpheus to plea to Hades, or that it parallels Orpheus on his journey back to the surface after Hades agreed.

This is where Julie and Orpheus differ. Julie goes onstage, fully believing in the sign from her mother; that even if the boys don’t come, she can do it. The lyrics of Stand Tall are pure genius. “Keep moving on, never look back.” That’s exactly what Julie does. Unlike Orpheus, Julie doesn’t look back. And the boys appear, no longer trapped by Caleb at the HGC. Julie breaks away from the Orpheus formula and wins. 

@multifandomterrors wrote an essay on how it relates too! She has three theories of how it fits and I definitely recommend you check it out!

Bonus reasons Julie is Orpheus:

Orpheus joined Jason and the Argonauts. When the ship was approaching the Sirens, Orpheus saves the crew from death by playing his own music, drowning out the Sirens’ Song. Likewise, Julie is able to save the boys from Caleb. You can argue that her singing Stand Tall acted as a beacon, beckoning the boys away from Caleb and back to her, saving them in the process.

This one is more of a long shot but oh well. Orpheus is said to have a “divinely gifted voice that could charm anyone who heard it,” that no god or mortal could resist his music. The boys say that Julie has “the voice of an angel.” Throughout the season, as soon as Julie starts to sing, people are generally drawn in, even Carrie by the end. 

Onto the next parallel...

2. Lotus Eaters

As soon as the slightest idea of the boys missing the dance was hinted at I knew it was going to happen because ~formulas~, but once they got to the HGC, I had a strong feeling it was going to be a Lotus Eaters situation. 

Summary of the Lotus Eaters:

In The Odyssey, Odysseus and his crew encounter the Lotus Eaters. They do as their name suggests, they eat the peculiar Lotus flower. When the lotus flower is eaten, those who eat it are “overcome with a blissful forgetfulness,” and want to do nothing more than stay where they are. The crew mates had to be dragged back to the ship, otherwise they never would have returned to their duties. The most well known adaptation of this is probably the Lotus Casino in Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, where the characters spend days/years there, only thinking it was a few hours/days. It’s a time warp per se. 

So what’s what?

Hollywood Ghost Club =  Lair/island of the lotus eaters (everyone there appears to have no other worries in life)

The music & dancing = Lotus flower (sucks everyone in)

How do they relate?

Once Caleb starts performing, Sunset Curve are sucked in. Eventually, they are overcome with a “blissful forgetfulness” and forget about Julie and the dance. They only get sucked back out once Caleb mentions it’s the witching hour.

Alex literally says “This place is some sort of time warp.”

When the boys try to leave, the dancers and then Caleb try to reel them back in. 

The next is not directly Greek mythology, but distantly related:

3. Disney’s Hercules 

The story in Disney’s Hercules isn’t exactly what the myths of Heracles are. It’s Disney, so of course the stories are romanticized and changed significantly. First of all, in the original myths, Hercules is really named Heracles, and Megara is nothing more than Heracles’ wife that ends with a tragic story.

In the movie, Hades wants Hercules dead since he is the only one that can ruin his plan to take over the world. He enlists Megara (or Meg, whose soul he owns) to get to know him and find his weakness. As Meg gets to know Hercules, they fall in love. Hades uses this as Hercules’ weakness, and once he outs Meg for working for him, Hercules is emotionally defeated. However, he still gives up his power for 24 hours, as long as Meg remains untouched by harm. Of course that doesn’t happen, and Meg dies while saving Hercules. Her soul is returned to the Underworld, and Hercules journeys down there to save her, even though he might die doing so. Except he doesn’t; he saves Meg, and it’s happily ever after. 

So who’s who?

Alex = Hercules

Willie = Meg

Caleb = Hades

How does it relate?

Like Hades wants Hercules dead, Caleb wants Alex (and the boys) under his control because they are too powerful. He’s threatened by them.

Even though Willie didn’t mean to bring the boys into the mess with Caleb, he still did (no hate, I love my son). Willie acts as Meg in this situation because Caleb still uses him to get to the boys. Caleb gets to put his stamp on them.

Willie, just like Meg, decides to not help Caleb anymore, though he’s still stuck. He cares about Alex, he doesn’t want him to be stuck at the HGC like him forever; he doesn’t want Caleb to own Alex’s soul. So, Willie helps Alex and the boys with their plan to crossover. 

In Stand Tall, right before You’ve Got Nothing to Lose, Caleb appeals to each of the boys’ weakness. Caleb says “Everything you want, including Willie, is right here.” Just like Hades uses Meg against Hercules, Caleb uses Willie against Alex.

Potential Season 2 Willex Storyline

The parallel to Hercules and Meg isn’t finished. Alex hasn’t saved Willie from Caleb yet, and Caleb hasn’t been defeated yet. We don’t see Willie after the Willex hug in Stand Tall. I think it’s safe to assume that Willie is not safe from Caleb, especially since he helped Sunset Curve escape Caleb’s curse. There’s a lot of things that could happen. One of my assumptions is that Caleb is going to use Willie as bait to lure Alex back in. Another is that, like how Hercules goes to the Underworld to save Meg’s soul,  Alex is going to actively choose to return to the HGC to try to save Willie from Caleb. 

And the last parallel to Greek mythology in season 1...

4. Cheyenne Jackson

He plays Hades in Descendants 3, a Disney movie, meaning he’s the same Hades as in Hercules. 

Caleb Covington, you could argue is the “king of the dead” in JATP

That’s it, that’s the parallel.

Possible Season 2 Storylines

Cephalus and Procris (I’m not as familiar with this myth, but it basically goes like this)

Cephalus and Procris are happily married and very in love with each other. One day, the goddess of dawn, Eos, kidnaps Cephalus because she wants him to herself. Depending on the version you read, Cephalus either sleeps with Eos, or he doesn’t, but regardless, his only concern is how much he loves his wife, Procris. Eos finds that annoying, and plants the idea in his head that Procris is cheating on him when she releases him eight years later. Cephalus returns to Procris, disguised as another man, to see if she would remain faithful. A disguised Cephalus continuously brings Procris presents, and slowly, Procris is swayed by the mysterious man. When Cephalus reveals himself, Procris runs away, ashamed, and joins Artemis’ hunt. Eos wins essentially. She get’s Cephalus... until Procris returns, trying to make amends with her husband. He takes her back, but not long after Procris hears rumors that Cephalus has been unfaithful. She follows him on a hunt, hiding behind a bush. Cephalus hears a bush move, and thinking it’s an animal, he shoots, killing Procris. In the end, Eos still wins as Procris is no longer in the picture, and she could theoretically be with him. Expect Cephalus exiles himself and Eos is never seen again.

How could this apply to JATP season 2?

Julie = Procris

Luke = Cephalus

Caleb = Eos

Caleb-Possessed-Nick = Disguised man

Since Caleb possessed Nick at the end, I assume his plan is to get Julie to pick Nick, thus pushing Luke away from her. Caleb wants Luke and the boys to himself, and as long as Julie is in the picture, that won’t happen. As Caleb-Possessed-Nick tries to flirt and get closer to Julie, Luke will see this and get jealous. His jealousness could lead to tensions between Julie and Luke, making the band a bit awkward, maybe even a big fight that pushes Luke to think about joining Caleb, or at least isolating himself where Caleb would have easy access. I think it would be a very loosely applied parallel, but the idea of Caleb working to cause a rift between Luke and Julie to get Luke by himself is a major possibility. Regardless, Caleb-Possessed-Nick is going to get in the way of Luke and Julie’s slow burn pining for each other. 

A General Thought Not Related to Greek Mythology 

Regardless of what the writers end up doing, I think Caleb’s best plan would be to target the boys individually; like the continuance of the Hercules parallel with Willex and potential Cephalus & Procris parallel with Juke. I don’t know how he would isolate Reggie, maybe something with his family, but targeting the boys one-on-one would be the most strategic move for Caleb. He could even get super manipulative with it. He could say something like “Alex already agreed” or something along those lines to try to persuade the boy he is talking to. 

Additionally, I don’t have any theories on where Carrie and Julie’s relationship may go, but i’m looking forward to a Carrie redemption arc. As far as where Bobby fits in, I read someone’s theory that Caleb may approach him, offering to help keep his reputation as Trevor Wilson, if he helps deal with the boys somehow. I’m sure there’s a potential greek myth that fits a potential Bobby and the boys storyline, but out of the ones I can think of right now, there aren’t. Betrayal is a huge theme in greek mythology though.

Anyway...

While the original target audience was kids and the show probably wasn’t meant to be this deep, as a screenwriter myself, I find it super useful (and fun) to parallel classic stories and myths when I write. It can add a sense of nuance to the story, especially when done right. I hope the writers (assuming at least the Orpheus and Lotus Eaters parallels were intentional) continue to parallel the season with some form of myth or classic story, only to then completely flip the ending. 

If you actually took the time to read ALL of this, my god, I applaud you, you amazing human. Thank you so much for reading it. I’d love to hear what y’all think or what theories y’all have as well!

[lovesbitca8]

Asks that have sat too long...

Finally clearing out my inbox from like, November. 

@beau-pigzy said: Heyyy! I'm such a big fan of yours and loved your Dramione series! Thank you so much for the great and brilliant stories that you've provided for the audience (Well, Dramione fans though). Will be rooting for you! P.S. Your portray of Lucius Malfoy is such a bad ass and genius, and damn, that last chapter was a nice cherry on top. Love to reread again and again haha.

Lucius is my main squeeze.

@sri1997 said: Rereading 39 Part 1 in anticipation of Part 2 - "there's only one thing she wants from the Malfoys and he isn't here" - Isn't that the one thing we all want ? 😏😏

*raises hand*

@peachykeenqueen said: Came to your account for the Auction! Finished it right before chapter 39 was released and I’ve managed to go back a read both The Right Thing to Doo and All the Wrong Things!!I love the way you tell their stories! You’ve got me laughing, crying, and absolutley beaming and I’m so beyond excited for chapter 40!!!!

Apologies for the delay, but I’m so glad you loved it! (around chapter 40 lol)

An Anon said: AND OF COURSE YOU'RE GONNA END IT WITH THE TRIAL, JUST LIKE THIS WHOLE WONDERFUL UNIVERSE STARTED IN TRTTD. u tricky genius. I love it. I dont want it to end. I want it to end. wut have u done to me. Question: how is blaise such a good friend and where can i find me one of him. Also: where the hell did u learn to write. I want to send them a thank you note

An Anon said: one can only IMAGINE the trauma that will permeate the wizarding society, generations emotionally broken oh my goodness it hurts me 😭😭

Yep. Very similar to our Muggle histories. 

An Anon said: i’ve just plowed through the rights and wrongs series and am now nervously anticipating the ending of the auction and i just wanted to tell you i am FLOORED by your writing. i’m obsessed and in awe and so grateful for your existence ❤��

❤️❤️❤️

An Anon said: Should have titled this chapter “Draco Has Some Really Great Friends Who Love Him More Than He Knows.” Don’t mind me. I’ll just be in the corner crying over these Slytherin babies.

Yessss. I love those little snakes.

An Anon said: i have complete and total faith in you 100% but how how how are you going to wrap this up in one more chapter i’m dying! i’m so excited to finally know how this ends but also so sad i’ve been on this journey now for what like a year and a half now? sunday’s won’t be the same! this chapter had me everywhere! the scene with blaise pansy and draco and the viewing and pansy trying to save hermione (for draco) broke my heart for them all they are such ride or dies i’m glad hermione is going to bat for them too. i’m glad pansy’s free, now we just need blaise and draco and oliver. i was screaming at everyone this whole chapter like “oh my god you’re all like so silly you don’t even know! blaise didn’t even do most of the things you’re trying to punish him for! tell them that he wasn’t holding gulianna as a slave and the lengths they went to to protect her!!” lmao. but i know the info has to be saved for the right time, hopefully that’s what his american lawyer is for and that fact plus bellatrix will be enough to keep him safe. “bring him home, hermione” broke me, i am ruined, i simply can’t express. i know this is a story about draco and hermione but god did you ever do a fantastic job making me care about the supporting characters i am so soft for blaise caring about draco at his own expense 🥺. anyway fantastic 39 part two i applaud you. can’t wait for the final chapter which comes just after my birthday so i’m counting it as a personal gift for me hahaha

Okay 1 - Happy Belated Birthday; and 2 - thank you for emotionally transporting me back to Chapter 40 with this Ask.

An Anon said: Me, an ASOIAF stan watching everyone go crazy over Draco and Hermione being "siblings" is hilarious AF. It's fictional incest. Why exactly are you worrying about if the baby is going to look alright? You're all worrying about the wrong thing. Anyways it is just me or them being siblings just adds spiciness to their relationship LMAO

I have also been in fandoms with that sort of “spice” so I was UNPREPARED for the “sibling-backlash” lol

@teacher-with-bad-handwriting said: I’m literally crying while reading about Blaise wanting to help get Draco home, even if it means he might have to stay in Azkaban.They had such a pure friendship in TRTTD, I’m glad they’re still ride or die in The Auction

I love bromances. I love men who are comfortable enough with themselves to let their fondness show. 

An Anon said: Okay okay sorry for bothering you but when i tell you i just screamed when i saw that you uploaded the new podcast episode. Like I've been waiting for the 39 part 2 recap. And I dont know if you have an upload schedule cause i basically binged the whole auction and the podcast. Just amazing to hear how much work you put into each upload. Much love to all you three ❤❤❤

That was one of my fave episodes, so I’m glad you were looking forward to it!

An Anon said: I’m rereading ATWT in anticipation of TA ending and I just came across my favorite line in the history of fanfiction: “Fuck, we’re both such idiots. I hate us so much.” I FORGOT ABOUT THAT LINE AND IT IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST I NEEDED TO THANK YOU FOR IT.

I should change all my story synopses to just that. 

An Anon said: A very random thought came to mind several months ago and has been pestering me ever since. I don't expect it will be answered in The Auction so I'm finally going to ask. How's Professor Binns? Did he even notice anything? (Also, Hogwarts was still being used as a school right? But it was also Voldy's HQ? Have I remembered/interpreted that correctly? Were there children running around Voldy's HQ?) Anyways, can't wait for the final chapter! Thank you for every single thing you do!!!

L.O.L. Professor Binns is probably still teaching, Death Eater infiltration or no. The children and classes had been moved to upper floors while Voldemort was there, but Binns just floats in, teaches, and floats out. 

@rethinkthesituationnn said: I just have to say how beautifully done the Orpheus & Eurydice reference in The Auction was. That’s all. Now, I’m just going to furiously refresh until chapter 41 is posted. 🙃

Thank youuu. I probably had the most fun writing that chapter out of the last third of TA.

[drawlfoy]

Faux Diplomacy P.3

 masterlist (find parts 1 and 2 here!) request guidelines requests are open! but make sure to read my guidelines first :)

pairing: draco x reader

request: yes part 3 has been highly requested :)

summary: reader is a muggleborn ilvermorny exchange student taking a year in hogwarts. takes place in 6th year. but there’s a reason why all the students with her were placed into slytherin, and that very reason may completely backfire on them. 

warnings: angsty, stressful, language, mentions of a dead mother

a/n: ahahahahaa so. over a year late in typical drawlfoy fashion. so sorry! idk if i’m going to continue this, but let me know if you’d really like me to! i’ve been sitting on this story for a long, long time and if this is requested to continue i’d like to actually outline it so i can figure out where it’s going. i kinda hated the first part of this so....we’ll see if this keeps coming out

music recs: 

girls idk

word count: 2.2k

tags!! @accio-rogers @geeksareunique  @gruffle1 @missmulti @cleopatera @hahaboop @accio-rogers @geeksareunique @eltanin-malfoy @war-sword @cams-lynn @itsivyberry @ayo-cowbelly @nerd-domland @yesnerdsblog @shizarianathania @icintliviinyiniilsiji

“Malfoy?”

Y/N was stunned still, watching as the boy scowled in her direction. 

“It’d be in your best interest to leave now, you know.” 

She swallowed, stepping forward a few more steps. “You look like you could use some company, though.”

His lips tightened, but he discreetly waved his hand in the direction of his face, dispelling all of the tears and blotchiness but leaving the nasty expression on his face. “Leave.” Malfoy’s voice was stronger now, void of the shakiness that had been present before.

Now, Y/N was never the most confrontational person. She’d even go as far to say that she did everything she could to avoid confrontation, but there was just something about the way Malfoy looked at her, something that twisted her insides and made her feel like she would be failing him if she left. So, she did the last thing she would’ve expected.

“No.” 

His sour expression deepened as she strode over to him, plopping down about a foot away from him and tucking her legs up. His hair was ruffled--something that she had hardly ever seen before from him but found somewhat endearing. Malfoy didn’t look nearly as intimidating when his knees were to his chest.

“You said something to me,” she said softly, “at the beginning of the year. Something about how you knew why I was here. I know you probably don’t want to talk to me, but can you please tell me? I at least deserve to know.”

Malfoy slumped against the wall, turning his head up to the sky and sighing dramatically. “If I tell you, will you leave me alone?”

Y/N stayed silent. His eyes darted in her direction, raising an eyebrow expectantly. Instinctually, she scooted away a few inches. The way he was looking at her was so calculated that she almost felt violated. 

He huffed again. “Just say you will.”

“Fine.”

“Fine what?” 

“Fine, I will.”

Seemingly satisfied with her answer, he tilted his head back down and looked at her. “I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out yet, really. The entire lot of you are muggleborns, right?”

Y/N stiffened at the word, but as she thought about it, he was right. 

“And do you really believe that there’s no room in the castle except for in Slytherin?” 

“Well, I wouldn’t know,” she retorted. “It’s not like I know anything about Hogwarts. I didn’t even know that Hufflepuff was a thing until I got here.” 

Malfoy snorted at that. “Do you get it now? They wanted to ease blood tensions by introducing you into Slytherin. It’s almost entirely pureblood, you know.”

“Well, that’s just ridiculous. It hasn’t even begun to work.”

He chuckled, making Y/N deeply uncomfortable. “You and Zabini seem to be plenty close.”

“We’re just acquaintances,” she defended. “I hardly think Blaise would consider us close.”

“Close enough to be on a first name basis, eh?” 

“It’s different in America. Not as big of a deal.”

Instead of giving into her banter, Malfoy cast a disgusted look her way. “I told you. You’re done, you can go.” 

In no hurry, Y/N stood up and began to brush herself off as she processed the information. It all made too much sense...

“Do you think it’s safe for us here?” The words fell out of her mouth before she could stop them. Malfoy’s face adopted an expression that she couldn’t quite identify. Before she had a chance to think about it further, he ducked his head down to his hands. 

“I think,” he carefully stated, “that you should be...mindful. I don’t care, but if I were you, I’d think of this trip as a very unwise choice.”

Y/N gulped. “Really? Do you think I should...try and go home?” Her voice dropped to a hushed tone, embarrassed that he was rattling her so much. But at the same time...she could tell that he was being honest with her. 

Malfoy sighed again, rolling his wand around in his hands. “That would be a good decision.” 

“Thank you.” Y/N’s words hung heavy between the two of them, and Malfoy’s head snapped up in surprise, his silvery eyes wide. “And...Malfoy...” She took another deep breath, already regretting the words about to come out of her mouth. “Are you going to be alright?”

He smiled then, a stomach twisting, sickeningly fake smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I don’t need your pity. Go away now. I want to be alone.”

Y/N nodded briskly, turning her back and trotting down the stairs. As she reached the bottom of the staircase, she thought she could hear gasping sobs, muffled from the distance.

<>

“Bella, no, he wasn’t just trying to scare me!” Y/N protested, rubbing her temples. “I could see it in his eyes. And what he said made sense!”

“Okay, you’re crazy,” her best friend told her, raising an eyebrow. “This is Malfoy we’re talking about. He probably went back to his room and reveled in the fact that his precious house would be purified in due time.” 

Y/N huffed, flopping back onto her bed. “He was crying. I don’t think he’s that manipulative.”

“Oh, I certainly think so,” Bella retorted. “He totally planned the whole thing.”

“He couldn’t have known that I was coming!”

“You don’t know that. The dark magic or whatever he knows probably does more for him than we know.”

“You’re assuming so much about him!”

“And you’re defending him, Y/N! Have you ever thought about that?” 

Her mouth suddenly dry, Y/N brought her hands to her face. “You’re right. But you can’t deny that something isn’t right here. Katie Bell being cursed, Ron Weasley being poisoned...”

Bella nodded. “You’re not wrong. But I wouldn’t be so quick to believe Malfoy. He’s a nutter. However, I will say that I see the motive behind sending us now.”

“Thank you.” Y/N suddenly giggled. “A nutter? I dare you to call him that to his face.”

Bella burst out laughing. clutching her stomach. “Oh, god, then we’d definitely be dead.” 

Y/N savored the lightheartedness of the present. Something deep inside of her told her that as the year wore on, things were going to get worse. She might as well just enjoy it in the time being. 

“I want to go talk to Blaise,” Y/N suddenly said. “He’s friends with Pansy and Malfoy, and I’m sure he’d tell me if he was lying to me.”

Bella pondered this for a moment. “I mean, I guess. There’s no pain in doing that.”

“Can you promise me something?” Y/N turned on her side, looking Bella directly in the eyes. “Promise me that you’ll believe us if he says Malfoy didn’t lie.”

“Well of course, dumbass,” she giggled. “Blaise is calm. I like him.”

Y/N was about to poke fun at her statement when their door flung open to reveal a very concerned looking Laurel. 

“Hey Laurel, what’s up?” 

The brunette was struggling to catch her breath, clearly having just ran from somewhere. “I..I just got a letter from Anna,” she wheezed. Anna was a halfblood Thunderbird who was rejected from the exchange program.

“And?” Y/N could sense that she wasn’t going to like what she was going to hear.

“And she said that America is going to completely close its borders!”

“What does that mean?”

“It means...” Laurel suddenly looked very ill. “It means that no more owling back home. And...we can’t go home. Effective next Monday.”

Y/N turned to Bella, watching as she turned a sickly white. 

“Why on earth would they do that?” 

<>

The rest of the day was filled with chaotic letter writing addressed home and trips to Snape’s office. The grease ball simply recounted the following to Y/N and Bella: the threat of Death Eaters was far too strong to keep international travel open. Many other countries around the world had already done so, with their only mode of transport being muggle air travel. 

He assured her that they’d still be able to send them home and would do so as soon as possible,  but that at the present moment, they were unable to book any flights. After the various Death Eater attacks in London, even Muggles were feeling uneasy and trying to get out of the country for a bit. All of the upcoming flights to America were completely full, and there was nothing that they could do about it.

“However, may I remind you,” Snape had finished, “Hogwarts is the most secure place for muggleborns such as yourself. I don’t suggest any...plots... to escape.”

Y/N and Bella returned to the common room, each as concerned and freaked out as the other. 

“What if I never see my parents again?” wailed Laurel from the other side of the room as she gazed out into the lake. Peter was by her side, comforting her and brushing her hair away from her face.

“I didn’t know that that was a development,” Y/N commented absentmindedly, her own thoughts preoccupied with the recent news.

“That’s probably the least of our worries.” Y/N couldn’t tell for sure, but she thought she could see an extra layer of shine over Bella’s hazel eyes. 

“There’s nothing we can do,” Y/N said. “You heard what Snape said. This is the safest place for us right now until they figure out how to get us home. I’m sure that Dumbledore will make it happen as soon as he can. He seems to know what he’s doing.”

“Why isn’t our own administration doing something about this, though?” Bella responded, her eyes nervously flickering to the windows into the lake. “You’d think that they’d make sure that we’d be the first to know so we could make travel arrangements.”

“Haven’t you heard?”

A silky, male, unmistakably British drawl sounded from behind the two.

“Heard what now, Malfoy?” Bella scowl deepened once she saw Blaise step out of the shadows as well. 

“The Ilvermorny administration is in big trouble for ignoring the Council’s wisdom and sending exchange students abroad anyways.” He leaned up against the dungeon wall and cocked an eyebrow. “Their hands are tied. There’s nothing they can do to take immediate action until they get the funding needed.”

“He’s not being serious, Blaise, right?” Bella prompted. 

“No, he is,” he confirmed,  his head resting against the window behind him. “I wish he wasn’t.”

“Fuuuck, dude. This is a mess,” Y/N uttered. “Now what are we gonna do?” 

“Write our parents and tell them that we love them? For the last time?”

“Great idea, I’ll get right on that,” Y/N snorted. “But actually, though. We’re all being messy. We need to get everyone together and find out the best course of action.”

“You can feel free to do that on your own,” said Bella. “I’m going to go to my room and write heartfelt letters to my loved ones in case I never get to speak to them again. I’d suggest that you follow suit, but it’s totally your choice.”

Bella turned and made her way to their room, her brown hair swinging in the ponytail she had hastily put it up in. It was incredibly late already, late enough that the rest of the student body was tucked safely away in their dorms, but sleeping was out of question. Adrenaline was still running through Y/N’s veins, and out of everything, she just wanted to do something, something to make it better.

Blaise was watching her curiously at the side of Malfoy, who was also gazing at her with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s the plan, kid?” Blaise finally said. 

“Start swimming.” Y/N’s lame attempt at cracking a joke fell completely flat. “Do you guys really think this is the safest place for us right now? With Katie Bell and...”

The dim dungeon lighting combined with the mention of Katie Bell’s name suddenly hit her with the realization that she had been on the brink of for weeks. Katie Bell’s necklace--the one that had cursed her--had been in Malfoy’s room the night that she played Truth or Dare. She had seen it.

Nervously, her eyes met Malfoy’s, and a wave of realization passed over his face as well. His already pale face seemed to become even more pasty as his silver eyes, illuminated by the dungeon lanterns, hardened. 

“Y/N?” Blaise prompted, stepping forward to poke at her arm. “Is everything okay?”

“Uh...I gotta go find Snape, or Dumbledore, or someone,” Y/N managed, yanking her eyes away from Draco’s. 

“Oh no, why?” Blaise asked, his face seeming to actually exhibit concern. “Would you like me to take you? You shouldn’t walk around the dungeons this late at night.”

“No, Blaise,” Malfoy interrupted, his composure regained. “No need. I can take her. You must be tired from practice.”

“Oh, no, that’s really okay,” Y/N said. “I’ll go alone.”

“No, really, I insist,” he said.

“Please, that’s unnecessary of you,” Y/N countered. “I can manage myself alone.”

“It would be an insult to my conscience to let a lady go alone at this hour,” Malfoy mused. “It’s really no bother.”

With that, he pushed off the wall and held out his arm for her to take. 

“Lead the way,” he told her. 

final a/n: okkkkkkk so. idk how to feel about this but it is a nice little return to my roots after the crazy AU that is wonders of ohio. let me know what you think! do you like it? do you want me to continue it? 

[yodawgiherd]

Red flag pt.2

>>>Read on AO3<<<

Q and A sessions are surprisingly fun to write. Rating still M, I'm not thErE yEt. ^^

A week.

One week was how long Mikasa managed before the curiosity killed the proverbial cat and her fingers tapped the name of the newest addition to her contact list. Eren picked up on the fifth ring, sounding sleepy, which she thought was strange considering that it was about two in the afternoon.

“Yeager.”, came his muffled voice, followed by a yawn.

It took her a second before Mikasa realized that she didn’t give him her number, as per their agreement, so he had no idea who’s calling.

“Hey, it’s Mikasa.”, she re-introduced herself, “Remember me?”

There was a sound on the other end, a shuffle of bedding as he sat up straight.

“Of course I do, the pretty girl with the pretty name.”

“The one and only. Listen, is that lunch offer still on the table?”

“Totally, just tell me the place and time and I’ll be there.”

“Really? I can pick anything?”

He chuckled at how excited her voice became.

“I’m not a picky eater.”

“And it’s still on you, right?”

“Yep.”

“Well then…”

The sushi place was fancy, far above her poor-ass student budget. She was there twice so far, once Levi treated her when the news of Mikasa being accepted at the university arrived, and once when it was her birthday and Sasha decided to splurge for her best friend. And boy did Mikasa love both those experiences. She felt a bit guilty, abusing Eren’s blind trust like that, but hey, he offered it first, and judging from the state of his flat, he wasn’t doing half bad for himself. If it came to the worst, Mikasa was prepared to split the bill, she did have some money from her part-time job. The food was worth it.

Eren wasn’t there when she arrived, so Mikasa picked a table, getting herself comfortable. When the waitress came, she almost sent her away, to wait for Eren, but then reminded herself that she’s , most likely, not paying. Appetizer it was. When he finally arrived, she was already halfway done with the fried chicken pieces, which earned a raised eyebrow.

“Hungry?”, he asked, removing his coat and sitting down himself.

“Famished.”, she agreed, “Forgot to eat breakfast.”

She skipped breakfast willingly to save space for this feast, but that was something Eren didn’t need to know. Most likely satisfied with her little lie, he nodded before picking up the menu himself. The evening progressed with somewhat casual conversation and excellent food. Eren asked her how she’s doing lately, and Mikasa described the procrastinating bliss she’s been living in since her last exam. That paradise was coming to an end, however, as she needed to get out of the city soon and back to her hometown.

“To visit your parents?”, he asked, understandably not knowing the bitter truth that Mikasa wasn’t ready to share yet.

Instead, she shook her head.

“No, I have a part-time work at my brother’s gym.”, she pointed towards herself, “One personal trainer, right here.”

Luckily, Eren didn’t press the issue. The way he knew when to stop asking was an amazing thing, and Mikasa secretly wished that more people would be born with that gift. To break the silence that followed, and to change the course of the conversation, Mikasa decided to strike back.

“So, Eren, how about we stop beating around the bush.”

His grin was cheeky.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Please, as if you don’t know why I came here in the first place.”

He picked up one sushi roll that he was eating, with a fork like a damn savage, turning it against the light.

“The free food?”

She scowled at his amused expression.

“Because of my amazing company?”, he guessed again, getting a sigh in return.

“As if.”

“Wow, you hurt me.”

The smile present in the answer was infectious, and Mikasa had a hard time resisting it.

“You are quite the egoist, aren’t you?”

“So I’m told.”, Eren shrugged, unbothered by that accusation.

Unsure how to continue, Mikasa massaged her forehead. This guy was something else.

“Since it’s so important to you, “ Eren offered, “Why don’t you just ask?”

“Fine.”, looking back up, she met his emeralds with her own eyes, “What do you do for a living?”

“Care to guess first?”

More games? Fine, you’re on.

“Okay, sure.”, putting her chopsticks down, as she was a civilized person, Mikasa rested her chin on her intertwined hands, “Let’s go over what I know then. First, there is this strange… rope fixation you have, and you said that was caused by your job, right?”

“It’s not only ropes,”, he corrected her, “But it is related to my job, yes.”

“Second, when I called you yesterday you were still in bed, and it was around two, which means that you work late at night, right?“

“I could have been gaming all night, didn’t think about that?”

“Maybe, but maybe not. I’ll take my chances.”

“All right, then put the two together. What do you think I am?”

“A smug bastard.”

Of course he grinned at that.

“That’s true. But professionally?”

Putting on her best thinking hat, Mikasa rolled the facts around in her head.

“A policeman?”, she tried.

“Not a bad guess, handcuffs and night shifts.”, Eren took the time to have a dramatic sip before finally revealing the truth, “But you’re wrong. Try again.”

“Some sort of artist then?”

His eyes narrowed.

“I guess you could say that. But what kind do you have in mind?”

“Singer?”

“Nope.”

“Painter?”

“No.”

Mikasa tried a few more art-related jobs that would fit Eren’s profile, but he shot down all of them. At the end of her rope, she pulled out a trump card. Even looking objectively, outside of that “he was totally her type” thing, Eren was very attractive. Combine that with strange working times and….

“Are you a model?”

“Yea…..Nope.”

Damn it. Out of ideas, Mikasa put up her palms in the international gesture of surrender.

“Ok, I give up.”

“Guess we will never know then.”, Eren leaned back in his chair, smugger than ever before, “What a disappointment.”

Out of words and completely against her usually serious character, Mikasa kicked him under the table. Hard.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“Spill the beans, Eren.”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll kick you again.”

Rubbing his shin and not sure that his bones would survive another kick like that, Eren decided that the teasing stage was over.

“Very well then.”, leaning closer, he put both his elbows on the wood, looking right into Mikasa’s eyes when he spoke.

“I’m a dom.”

The clueless look on her face was priceless.

“H-Huh?”

“Dom, master, and a hundred other ways you can call it.”

In slow motion, Eren watched as that clueless expression changed. With words falling and clicking into place, the not-understanding look was replaced by a blush that began creeping up to her cheeks. In short, it was adorable.

“Y-You mean like… like….”

“Yes.”

“Err… I…”

And Eren waited patiently, finishing his drink, while Mikasa kept trying to say a word and completely failing at it. It took her about five minutes before she finally closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and steadied herself.

“So you’re like a s-sex worker? P-Prostitute?

“No and yes.”

“Huh?!”

“Technically, you’re right. But since I don’t have sex with my clients, I don’t usually call myself sex worker.”

“Ok, I’m lost.”

“Well, it's actually quite easy. I fulfill the fantasies of the client, I take care of their needs, I make them…. Err..”, he looked around to see if no one was around – they were in public after all, “…finish, but I don’t do it myself.”

“So what you’re saying is…”

“I’m saying that I can satisfy my clients needs without doing it the old-fashioned way. God bless technology.”

Mikasa was rubbing her forehead now, taking the information in.

“And your clients… what are they?”

“I deal with women exclusively if that’s what you are asking. But if you have a male friend in need of similar services, I know a great dominatrix, mistress A, that can take them, she’s a real top of the class. She was my…”, his gaze slid over Mikasa’s face, lingering over the shape of her eyes for a second, “ senpai back when I was beginning.”

She groaned. He had to use that word to tease her, abusing the weakened mental state she was in right now – she couldn’t think of a comeback. And, to salt the wound, he was grinning again.

“You can’t dump something like this at me without any explanation.”, Mikasa demanded, “How did you even end up working like this?”

“It’s…”, kind of personal, he was about to say, but then he met Mikasa’s eyes and that defense he usually held up around his secrets melted.

It was crazy, he didn’t even know the girl that well, he had no idea what she was truly like. But she was here, sitting across the table, and her grey eyes saw right through him. And he… he simply told her.

“When I was a kid, I was a bit fucked up. My dad…. He was not exactly a great role model. My mom was his second wife, he left the first after having a kid with her.”, he answered her follow-up question before she even asked, “Yes, I have a half-brother but we are not in contact. After leaving her, he married my mom and had me. I can’t say that he was a bad guy, from what little I remember, but he was hardly ever home. And one day, he completely disappeared. I don’t know if he’s alive or dead, neither does mom, and the police couldn’t find him. He’s gone.”

Mikasa, who had her own tragic parents-related story, remained silent, knowing that even years later it is hard to talk about stuff like this. Eren took a small break, a sip of water, and went on.

“I had a lot of issues from that, anger mostly. I lashed out on anyone or anything that I didn’t like, punching before asking. Bloodying people and getting bloodied myself was the only way to get the anger out, I did not know any better. You can imagine that didn’t go well in school. Mom did her best to keep me in line, but it was hard for her, too hard at times. Through sheer luck and endless patience of my teachers, I managed to graduate, but the anger inside me didn’t die. Even as an adult, I was a colossal dickhead. But all that changed shortly after I turned eighteen and moved to college.”

“Why?”

“Because I met her.”

Who? and How? were on the edge of Mikasa’s tongue, but she held those questions in. Eren would tell her.

“It was one of the college parties, you know how those go. I was there mostly to get drunk and get into a fight with someone because that was about everything I cared about back then. I succeeded in that too, I punched some blonde dude in the face and he didn’t take that lightly.”

“Did you beat him up?”

To her surprise, Eren tipped his head back and laughed.

“No. The dude completely wrecked me. He was a titan, both taller and heavier than me, and I later learned that he was a boxer as well. When I woke up from the beating he so generously gave me, I saw that a blonde girl had dragged me out on the lawn and was standing there still, waiting. Naturally, as I was a real gentleman back then, I spat out the blood in my mouth, told her to fuck off and tried getting up. Do you know what she did?”

“No idea.”

“She slapped me. Hard. I called her a stupid bitch, and she slapped me again. The third time, I got about two syllables out before her palm made another imprint on my face. And after all that, she kissed me, and I realized I was never so turned on in my life.”

Mikasa honestly didn’t know what to say.

“That’s….random?”

“I was a raging asshole back then Mikasa. I know that saying it now, it looks like she was acting out of her mind, but you weren’t there.”, Eren shook his head, “Anyway, that’s how I met the future mistress A. Annie.”

“How did she even know that you won't just flip out after she slaps you?”

“She didn’t. Later she told me that it was a hunch on her part, that watching me get into a fight with that giant for no good reason tipped her off, showed her that I might have some anger issues.”

“So, after that, she showed you the ropes?”

He didn’t miss the reference, it earned a respectful nod from him.

“Yes. She was already working as a domme, on her own back then, and mostly for fun and the experience. Annie was older than me by a year, and she spent that year mostly half-assing school and perfecting her skill for her future job.”

“What happened after that party? Did you two became a couple?”

“Not really. We didn’t date, like at all, but we became good friends, and Annie would train her techniques on me.”

“So what, she like tied you up from time to time?”

He nodded.

“That and other things. We practiced on each other, but we never made it sexual. I know it sounds crazy, but you didn’t meet Annie, she’s can drip hot wax on your nipples without batting an eye. I’d say that’s part of her charm, she’s completely stoic while working.”

“And you?”

“Honestly, in the beginning, it was weird as hell. But when we kept doing it, I realized that my anger was subdued by it, that this helped me overcome it for the first time in my life. With all the discipline and focus this required I managed to be in control of my life for what felt like the first time.  It was still difficult for me from time to time, I admit, but Annie was always there to put me back to my place.”

“How did she know that this was what you needed?”

“Annie also had… issues when she was younger. And this thing helped her through it, so she thought I might be the same. For the record, she was right.” Eren was having a pleasant memory trip, and Mikasa kept silent, not wanting to interrupt, “Anyway, after I realized that I prefer being the top, Annie found me a girl who liked being the bottom.”

“Finally a girlfriend?”, Mikasa tried again, but he chuckled.

“Nope, this one had a catch too. She was mostly a lesbian.”

“Mostly a lesbian?”

“Yea, she’s bi, but prefers women.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Why would I? She was tiny and amazingly flexible because she does gymnastics. Incredible performance partner, I still work with her from time to time.”

“But why didn’t she find a female partner then? If she prefers women that is.”

“She did, sort of, Annie worked on her too sometimes, I think that was why she even agreed to do it in the first place. But with a blindfold around her eyes and tied up so she couldn’t touch us, she kind of stopped caring who’s holding the vibrator.”

Mikasa felt like this was all a big joke, but Eren was completely serious.

“You had this little triangle of fun for how long?”

“Till we graduated. After that, Annie and I found the agency and got employed there, and Krista went on to become a doctor.”

“I’ll presume that Krista was that flexible one?”

“You’d presume correctly.”

“She’s a doctor, but she still does… things? With you?”

“She performs with us sometimes if that’s what you’re talking about. Nothing else.”

“You want to tell me that you’ve been doing BDSM…. stuff to each other for years and never fucked?”, Mikasa shook her head, “I don’t buy it.”

“You don’t have to, but it’s the truth. My relationship with both Annie and Krista was strictly professional, however crazy that sounds.”

“Then how did you develop your “can’t have sex until the girl is tied up” thing.”

“I dated in college normally, not much mind you, but a few flings found their way to me. Then it was pretty simple. When I had normal sex, I didn’t find myself half as aroused as I was when Annie slapped me for the first time. So I tried getting my hobby into play.”

Hobby, that’s one way to call it.

“And how did it go?”

“Not great. The first two girls said that I’m a creep and left. But the third one agreed and…”, Eren leaned back again, folding his hands behinds his head, “best sex of my life.”

“Fine, but if you enjoy it, why don’t you do it at work then? I’m sure some of your clients would appreciate it.”

“I’m sure they would, but I have this strange need to differentiate between work and pleasure - I think I caught it from Annie. I can’t get into it when I know that the person I’m tying up paid for it.”

“Strange.”

Eren didn’t argue.

“Strange indeed.”

All right, cool info dump and all, but Mikasa was more confused than anything. He was a sex worker BUT he didn’t have sex with his clients BUT he preferred to have the toys in bed while doing it. What the hell?

“Can you like, describe what you do then? I still can’t wrap my head around it.”

Eren shrugged.

“Sure. After making the initial contact, through the agency of course…”

“You’re still at the same one?”

“Yup, much easier that way. Don’t have to deal with things.”, Eren scrunched his nose, “Like taxes.”

“Okay, so some bored lady picks you at your company’s website, and then what?”

“Then we do the first meeting, through phone, email, or in person, that’s up to the client. There, we discuss important things, like what my hard limits are.”

“Which means?”

“Things that I won’t do, for various reasons.”

Mikasa didn’t ask what those were, so Eren continued.

“With that out of the way, we talk about what my client wants, what sort of fantasy I would be fulfilling. Once I have a picture in my head, I recommend the place to meet – one of the places owned by the agency, dungeons if you want, or even the clients own place.”

“You go to people’s homes with that?”

“If they want it, yes. It fits the best for certain scenarios, and people usually feel much more comfortable there.”

“And they trust you? I mean, you could tie them up and rob the place.”

“Would you believe me if I told you that I never thought of that?”, Eren scratched the back of his head, “That’s a valid thing what you said, but I have the agency to vouch for me.”

“Okay. And then?”

“Then we meet at the place we picked, have a quick recap to make sure I’ll do everything she wants, pick a safeword and we are good to go.”

“And you do what?”

“Mikasa, my range of services is very wide.”, putting one hand on the table, Eren began counting, finger by finger, “Bondage, suspension, pain stuff like caning, whipping and more. Waxplay, petplay, some electro, and…”

“Ok, ok! I heard enough!”

“I’d imagine so. From how you reacted when I put the rope around your hands, let me guess that you are very vanilla, right?”

“Huh?”

“It means like basic – that you don’t do anything strange in the bedroom.”

“No, I…”, Mikasa ran her hand over her somewhat heated forehead, “I’m very vanilla.”

“Weird.”

She fixed him with a look.

“Why is that weird?”

“It’s just…” he gestured towards her, “People with your style are usually into it.”

“My style? You mean black?”

“Dark, goth, however, you want to call it.”, he reached up, tapping his ear, at the same place where Mikasa’s cartilage was pierced, “And those things are also not completely usual.”

“I guess I am a bit strange, but nothing compared to you, sir. I never even imagined….”

“Well, the big mystery is over, the cat is out of the bag.”, he looked at her with a strange emotion in his eyes now, one that Mikasa couldn’t quite decipher. It looked like… worry?

“We can still be friends, right?”, he asked.

It was not like Eren did anything bad to her, and while his job was a bit shocking, he was still nothing but the perfect gentleman.

“Right, of course. I… I’ll need some time to digest this, I think.”

Eren watched her, tapping his fingers against the table, teeth chewing his full bottom lip. He was thinking about something, Mikasa could tell, but before she could ask, he dropped the bomb at her.

“Come to one of my shows.”

“Huh?”

“My shows. I don’t do individual clients only, I perform at clubs too. BDSM clubs that is. I’ll write the address down.”

She was shaking her head before he even finished the sentence.

“N-No, I.. .No... I’d never.”

“I’m not asking you to take part, there will be plenty of people as spectators. And don’t worry about being recognized or something, the club is members only and you can grab a mask at the entrance if you want, your identity will be safe.”

His words burned with intensity now, but his eyes did even more, and Mikasa was drowning in it.

“W-Why is it so important to you?”

“Because I can see how you look at me now. You think that I’m some sort of pervert, that I what do is unnatural, not normal. I want to show you that it can be beautiful too, that there is nothing wrong if two consenting adults have a go at something like this.”

“I.. Uhm…”

The address written on a napkin, Eren slid it over to her.

��Listen, I obviously won’t force you into anything, this is your choice. The show is next week and then again in two weeks. You said that you are leaving the city soon, right?”

She nodded, wordless.

“Is it far? Or could you theoretically come back for the evening?”

“It’s not that far.”, Mikasa replied, finding her voice again, “Like an hour and a half drive.”

“All right. Let’s put it like this, if you want, come to the second show, the one that is two weeks from now, the club will be less packed, and I will tell the bouncer to let you in. Just let him know that Eren sent you. If you don’t want to, that’s fine too, I will understand.”

She nodded, once again retreating to no-words strategy. Eren took it as a cue, standing up.

“I’ll go settle the bill.”

When he came back, he grabbed his coat, putting it on while Mikasa sat there, gears in her head turning.

“If you won’t show, I’ll know that you are not interested in that part of my life, but that doesn’t mean we can’t meet again. Right?”, he smiled at her, “If you ever want a free lunch, give me a call, okay?”

That said, Eren half-turned towards the exit, ready to go when Mikasa’s voice interrupted him.

“Eren?”

“Yea?”

“Give me your phone.”

He did so automatically, even unlocking it for her. It wasn’t like there were any more dirty secrets he had to hide from her, not after today. Mikasa worked for a while, tapping the screen before she set it back on the wood and slid it over to him. Picking the device up, Eren saw that he had a new contact added – certain Mikasa Ackerman.

“This will be easier if we have a way to get in touch with each other right?”

Now he was the one dumbly nodding.

“Right…”

“I don’t know if I will turn up for your show, but I want to meet again. I don’t want to cut and run because of what you told me today. You’re a nice guy.”

“You’re saying that because I bought you lunch.”, Eren accused her with a smile, getting some bravado back.

She winked at him.

“Perhaps.”

Still smiling, Eren pocketed his phone, feeling like he got more out of this meeting than he even dared to hope for.

“Well, I’ll see you around then, Mikasa.”

“Take care Eren.”

She watched him leave the restaurant, her own lips curved upwards. When he disappeared from view, she ran her hands through her hair, a half-amused/half-nervous giggle falling from her lips. She had never asked this many questions in her life, not even in her classes. And the answers she got were…. something else.

This guy? This guy was getting more interesting by the second.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #10-12

February, 1985

DEATH TO THE BEYONDER!

Wow, Doom has been beaten to hell in this story, huh?

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer etc etc.

Anyway, lets get to it.

Last times in Secret Wars: Some amazingly powerful being from Beyond the universe called the Beyonder kidnaps a bunch of heroes, villains, shades thereof, and chunks of random planets to put on a big toy commercial where action figures can bonk off each other.

The X-Men ditched the other heroes to team up with Magneto to do their own thing, as they’re wont to do. But still largely helped the other heroes fight the villains. And didn’t even do villain shit even though Magneto advocated for it.

There have been a bunch of fights back and forth between the groups but most recently, Captain America’s group of heroes stormed Doombase and took down the villain group then had to rush to back up the X-Men in dealing with Galactus who wants to eat the planet, as he is wont to do.

Doom busted out of the cell the heroes stuck him in to pull off his master plan with the help of solid sound man Klaw while Reed Richards had a crisis of weird conscience as he became convinced that maybe Galactus should eat the planet. But he eventually helped the other heroes drive Galactus off-planet where the hat horned purple planet eater started to eat his own spaceship, with Doom planning to steal that tasty snack.

And that brings us to now.

Where things are getting super freaky.

Reed Richards’ skeleton viscerally upsets me.

But as Galactus’ ship turns from Mobius ship to energy cloud, the cloud gets ripped away from Galactus and streams towards Doombase.

Captain America sends Captain Marvel to Doombase to check if Doom is behind this Total Doom Move and she zips over to determine, yup, Doom is pulling a total Doom right now.

He’s got himself strapped to a thing under a bunch of Klaw lenses injecting PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER right into his itty bitty body.

Captain Marvel is going to zip back over to let Captain America and Mr. Fantastic know whats going on but Professor X chimes in her brain that he’ll save them some time by setting up a psychic conference call between her and Reed.

Meanwhile, Doctor Doom finishes consuming the aggregate energy of a spaceship the size of a solar system and trips out a little on omnipotence.

Doom: “By the dark gods! My least whim alters the world around me! Such is the power coursing within me that stone and steel are wisps of nothing which bend and transform in slavish obedience to my merest stray thought!”

Just say no to phenomenal cosmic power.

Also, some omniscience, which lets him see his own brains and into the souls of the people in Doombase.

Annnd. He spots Captain Marvel. Womp womp.

When the psychic connection between her and Xavier is suddenly cut off, the heroes pile into the X-Men’s wrecked ship to fly to Doombase and save Captain Marvel.

Hm. They’ve really been back and forth. They were all just at Doombase and then they came here and now they’re going back to Doombase.

Since the ship is wrecked, Magneto just propels it with MASTERY OF MAGNET and Cap(tain America) praises him for living up to his hype.

Which sets Magneto off on a rant.

Magneto: “I gather, Captain America, that you would have preferred that I fail! Or... was that remark, perhaps, intended to be a ‘well done’ for which I should humble thank you.”

Captain America: “At ease, mister!”

Magneto: “Allies should be ‘at ease’ with one another! What troubles you? Is it my awesome power? Are you jealous? Afraid? Or is it merely because I am a mutant that you are not ‘at ease’?”

Captain America: “Now that you mention it, the fact that you tried to kill all of us here several times as part of various evil schemes for world conquest is pretty hard to forget entirely!”

This sort of feels like Magneto is antsy because he hasn’t been villaining as much as he likes. Or like him going ‘today I shall cause problems on purpose.’

But, whoops, Cap says that he doesn’t have a problem with the X-Men which sets off Wolverine on a rant about how Captain America doesn’t do enough for mutants.

Geez, its like the time he unmasked a governmental conspiracy by Richard Nixon to use a mutant powered UFO to take over America doesn’t even count.

Wolverine accuses Cap of not laying off Magneto even though he’s been helpful. I’ll note that all Cap did was tell Magneto good job which Magneto decided was a slight.

Meanwhile, over at Doombase where Doom likes to Doom, Doom is pondering what to do now.

He is now powerful enough to wipe out everyone on Battleworld with a wave of his hand and easily win this Secret Wars. But he’s already so powerful, what could he possible ask the Beyonder for?

Doom: “Are those dust-mote heroes truly my enemies? Or... is there now but one foe in all existence worthy of Doom? The Beyonder himself!”

Mostly because he exists and is more powerful than Doom and that simply cannot do.

Like, Doom notes that he already has all the power he could ever want but there’s someone over outside the universe who has more power so Doom wants it. Even though the power he do have is messing him up.

Truly Doom in a nutshell.

Hm. Is it odd that everyone just decides that the Beyonder is male based on nothing? He does decide to be male when he manifests on Earth in Secret Wars 2 but there’s no basis for the assumption here.

But we have toys to sell so Doom upgrades his armor.

This was another request from Mattel, for Doom (and Iron Man, hence the upgrade he gets from Mr. Fantastic) to be given high-tech costumes.

I personally think they just didn’t want to make capes. Notably, there was never a Thor toy.

In-universe, the new armor is a secret weapon to use against the Beyonder, based on Galactus’ machine and the data Doom got scanning the Beyonder in issue 1.

The heroes but into Doombase to find no one to fight. All the villains are still locked up and Doom is nowhere to be seen. They find Captain Marvel, frozen in light form like a hologram.

Then a massive KRAKABOOOM! shakes the fortress as DOOM goes to confront the Beyonder.

The Beyonder: “Stop! You cannot approach me!”

Doom: “Then approach me, coward -- on your knees, if you have knees! Come! Cringe before your master! Grovel before Doom!”

The conflict starts to shake Doombase apart and a big ol rock falls on Reed’s lower torso and knocks the wind out of him.

The monitors in Doombase also shows that the destruction is worldwide, causing devastation to Zsaji’s village, and doing her an injury.

I assume Denver is also affected. I really want that miniseries focusing on Denverians during Secret Wars.

Colossus tries to tell Johnny that Zsaji has been hurt but Johnny’s attentions are elsewhere.

Human Torch: “I -- I’ve got no time for a chippie now! Reed’s hurt! I’ll send her a card later!”

Geez, Johnny.

Anyway, the fight between DOOM and the Beyonder is so so devastating that its threatening to snuff out the sun.

Which, if nothing else, is impressively bonkers.

But wherever Doom falters, the Beyonder doubles his assault.

Turns out that absorbing the energy of a spaceship the size of a solar system doesn’t make you a match for a guy that can casually wipe out a galaxy.

Doom: “Th-thus -- ? Thus falls Doom? No! No! What is pain to one such as I? I -- I will shut it out. Other men fall prey to the very spectre of death... when her cold embrace seems imminent... they simply swoon into her arms! But I... I am Doom! I -- I deny you, death! Victor von Doom must not die!”

He says this after his leg falls off. For the sake of context.

The world-shaking pauses and an image of Doom appears before the assembled heroes. Trying to come off as confident but blatantly holding his hat.

Doom: “Greetings! I am Doctor Doom! ... Though I am far more than the being you once knew! Indeed, I have transcended mortality -- and yet, I am your champion -- fighting for your sakes! I am about to crush the Beyonder!”

“The Beyonder, in his cosmic arrogance abducted us all and brought us here to do battle for his amusement! ‘Slay your enemies...!’ He said -- but in truth, he is the real enemy!”

“While he can reach us, our universe is not safe from his manipulations! He must be utterly defeated and sealed away beyond the portal before -- or destroyed! In the name of all who exist in our universe, I, Doom, have dared to attack the Beyonder!”

“The battle has gone well. Even now, the Beyonder cringes in terror, marshalling his failing strength against my final assault! Hence, this lull in the strife -- which has allowed me to appear to you and offer you the chance to share in my glorious conquest. Lend me your power! Hasten his certain defeat! Come! Who will join me against our common foe? You have but to touch my hand! Who shall be first?”

“To him, after our victory, I shall grant power beyond measure -- with which to further his noble purposes, of course! You know I speak the truth! You feel it, do you not?”

I mean, Doom has a point. The Beyonder IS the real enemy. If the heroes refuse to kill anyone, the Beyonder is never going to let them go home. Unless this is a secret test of character but nothing I’ve seen would lead me in that direction.

It’s just. Its Doom. Who would trust him with EVEN MORE PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER?

Magneto immediately steps forward to offer his power to Doom’s service (womp womp) but he meets Xavier’s gaze and hesitates.

Long enough for several Avengers to tackle him away from Doom.

Proving his claim that the fight is definitely in the bag, Doom can’t maintain his GoFundMe hologram and fades away.

Hawkeye, one of the Avengers that tackled Magneto, starts yelling at the X-Men about the company they keep and what it will take for them to realize Magneto is a dick.

But Captain America interrupts Clint. He says that everyone was tempted by what Doom was offering and goes so far as to speculate that Doom was applying some sort of mind control to them and that Magneto just got the biggest dose.

This is all pretty unsubstantiated but he also does point out that Magneto hesitated to grab Doom’s hand and dammit that counts for something.

Meanwhile, Doom is having a bad time.

Trying to crowdfund a Beyonder defeat having not met its goal by the deadline, Doom is at the mercy of the Beyonder.

But the Beyonder is a curious cuss.

I mean, obviously. Why put on a Secret War unless you’re bored and curious.

The Beyonder starts prying into Doom’s brain and forces Doom to remember his ENTIRE BACKSTORY so he can watch.

You probably know it. Roma youth. His mom killed for witchcraft and her soul trapped by Mephisto. Doom studies magic and science to try to contact her. Makes a hellevator device that blows up in his face.

The Beyonder pries into Doom’s desires for: power over the destinies of other men, for freedom for his mom’s spirit, and for his putting on the piping hot mask face to be restored.

All these desires fascinate the Beyonder and he takes his dissection of the Beyonder to an unfortunately literal level and starts flaying Doom to peep his organs.

Meanwhile, the biggest shock yet hits Battleworld and Doombase starts shaking apart.

Captain America goes to free the villains trapped in their cells and finds Wolverine there who agrees that they shouldn’t leave the villains to die in cages, no matter what they’ve done. Magneto is also helping evacuate the captured villains from the medical wing.

Wolverine: “Don’t take this wrong... But you’re a better man than I gave you credit for! I’m an attacker an’ you’re a defender -- but we’re both soldiers! I’m beginnin’ to think you got room in your high-falutin’ ideals for all people... don’tcha -- ? Even if they’re mutants!”

Captain America: “Some of my best friends are people!”

Hah!

Anyway, RIP Doombase. You had a name and that’s more than I can say of the initial hero base or Magneto’s U-fort.

The shaking stops and a glowing orb of light floats down from space in front of the collected heroes.

Oh my god! The rest of the characters are 4-inch figures but Doom is rocking 24 inches and full articulation!

The heroes prepare to fight the Giant-Sized Doctor Doom but Doom bwoop bwoop bwoops back down to their scale and explains that absorbing the Beyonder caused him to be big because of reasons but he’s got a better handle on it now.

Its not shown on panel but remember Doom had his secret anti-Beyonder weapon hidden inside his armor and the Beyonder got real close when he was dissecting Doom. Which Doom regained consciousness during. So that’s how he did it.

Doom: “First, know you these things... The Beyonder no longer exists... and Doom has been reborn! Thus, have two evils come to an end! There is no enemy left to fight! THE WAR IS OVER!”

Caption: “Nonetheless, we strongly suggest that you read the next issue of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars on sale in thirty days!!”

Hah.

March, 1985

... AND DUST TO DUST!

I’ll give Marvel Super Heroes TM Secret Wars TM #11 this. It promises and teases THE FACE OF DOOM right on the cover and dammit, it delivers.

Gaze upon his generic attractiveness. He looks like Peter Parker having a wild eyebrow day.

I suppose the real surprise is that he fixed up his scarred face, which puts him two checkmarks into his three greatest desires.

He’s the supreme being in the universe and he’s got a face to match.

In a very reassuring manner, Doom tells the assembled heroes that he could destroy them all with a thought and then doesn’t bother destroying them.

Over in the distance, the freed villains see Doom talking with the heroes and Absorbing Man decides that Doom is selling out to the heroes. The other villains get their dander up at this and debate going over and kicking Doom’s ass.

Volcana: “I don’t know what to think, Owie! Doom is the one who made me into Volcana which is wonderful -- but, gee, he does seem to be double-crossing us!”

Molecule Man: “And I had such faith in him! I believe in him! I -- I’m furious!”

Volcana: “Now, Owie, remember your analyst said it wasn’t good to get overwrought!”

Molecule Man: “I don’t care what she said! I’m going to kill that lying, two-faced, rotten fink! Do you hear me, Doom? The Molecule Man is going to kill you!”

Then Molecule Man flips up several billion tons of the planet’s crust so he can have a conversation with Doom.

Doom just shows Molecule Man the foundations of eternity, the secrets of the universe, how all things work so that Molecule Man can realize that he is the second mightiest in the universe, after Doom.

Doom: “Think! Every molecule, every iota of matter in the cosmos answers to our whim! And all the forces which govern substance bend to your will -- for matter and energy are one and the same! The only limits on your power are those which you have imposed upon yourself, subconsciously because of self-doubt... self-hate... fear! Open your mind to the majesty of your power, Owen Reece! Accept your destiny... and fear no more!”

Molecule Man: “I -- I can control organic molecules! I can do... anything!”

Well.

This bodes something.

Doom then takes off and an amazed Molecule Man declares that he’s now the leader of the villain group. And considering he can peel the planet’s crust in a fit of pique, nobody really wants to say nay.

Molecule Man apparently didn’t want to hurt anyone so when he peeled up the crust, it somehow didn’t hurt any of the heroes. Just relocated them very insistently. Although if they stayed put they’d suffocate from the thin atmosphere.

They return to Doombase, which is somehow still standing. But aside from recapping the series, they really don’t know what to do until Doom makes himself known again.

The villains retreat to the suburb of Denver, Colorado and to the apartment belonging to Marsha Rosenberg (Volcana).

They decide that they don’t actually care about the Secret Wars anymore and just want to go home. And Molecule Man, being a good leader, decides to make this happen for everyone.

Man. I hope none of Denver’s population went wandering outside suburb limits before Molecule Man domed the suburb and chucked it into space.

The heroes spot it happening on their instruments (and because a chunk of planet being ejected into space causes a rumble) but there’s nothing they can really do about it. So Cap suggests everyone sleep on it.

Colossus can’t sleep because he keeps thinking about how deeply he is in love with Zsaji. So he ditches to zip to her village on an air jetski.

Missing a blob of light enter the Doombase and possess the Hulk.

Possessed Hulk lumbers around the base like a sleepwalker, being found by Spider-Woman who can’t sleep for worrying about her hometown of Denver.

She tries to stop Hulk with her psychic webs but he busts through and shoves her to the ground. The weird light blob goes from Hulk to Spider-Woman.

Hulk goes back to sleep and possessed Spider-Woman creeps into Doom’s lab and the discarded head of Klaw.

But there’s a flash of light and soon a confused Spider-Woman is telling the other heroes that Doom showed up, reassembled Klaw, unfroze Captain Marvel, oh and engraved an invitation to the heroes to meet him tomorrow at his sweet new tower.

Klaw: “I told you once -- ! I am my wildest dream! Dream! Eem, eem, eem...”

Doom: “I shall miss dreaming...”

He tells Klaw that he does not need sleep anymore and doesn’t dare sleep anymore because of the power contained in him.

Meanwhile, Colossus arrives at Zsaji’s hut while she’s sleeping and invites himself inside. Its creepy or romantic, shrug. She wakes up, he gives her flowers, and confesses he loves her.

Not really understanding the words but getting the gist, Zsaji seems into it.

I guess she gave up on Johnny. Or her people are polygamous.

Later, Wolverine and Nightcrawler gossip about Colossus’ love life. Neither very sympathetic about Colossus cheating on Kitty Pryde.

You’d think they’d also be unsympathetic about the age gap but eh.

Wolverine is also convinced that Colossus isn’t even REALLY in love with Zsaji, that its just a side-effect of her healing power. PLUS, she’s an alien so who knows what love means to her.

Hm. This really does look like a job for Cipher.

The non-Colossus heroes all go to meet Doom at THE TOWER OF DOOM, where Doom is quick to reiterate that they have nothing to worry about with Doom now possessing phenomenal cosmic power.

Doom: “Much has changed, Captain America! Much indeed! For, when I usurped the Beyonder’s power, slaying him -- in a way, Doom died as well! Now, I am all-powerful! I have nothing to prove to lesser creatures -- and none are my equal! I am complete... serene in my omnipotence! The dark, seething desires which once drove and shaped Doom are no more! Nothing in this universe -- nothing of which you can conceive, no matter how cosmic in scope -- could possible merit my attention! For as Eternity is to you... I am to Eternity! I have transcended all concerns of this plane of existence -- and, yet... we have unfinished business! Loose ends, if you will, left over from my mortal life! I cannot undo all of the evil works of my life without unraveling a great deal of the fabric of reality, causing enormous upheavals in the time/space continuum -- ! I can, though, easily set right some of the crimes of these few days past...”

Its good to see that Doom didn’t let becoming the unchallenged supreme being of the universe change him, at least in regards to words words words.

Anyway, he reintegrates Kang and sends the very confused future man home to the future.

He tells the heroes that Galactus has already been found and aided by his herald, Nova.

Which just leaves the wrong that Doom has done the heroes. He offers them a boon to atone for the suffering they’ve endured at his hands.

The heroes debate what to ask for. Spider-Man suggests that Doom can send them home only for Reed, perhaps peevishly, to remark that he can get them home. Nightcrawler suggests that Doom could find Lockheed, who was part of the intro cast but went missing near the beginning. But Captain America tells Doom that they want nothing from him.

Doom: “Very well! Our dealings are ended! Forever! Leave, now as you entered! Soon I shall ascend to higher planes! Until then -- and mark this -- I will not suffer any disturbance! Go... and do not seek to enter my presence again, for I will utterly destroy any who dare!”

Wow.

His magnanimity sure is short-lived.

The heroes do leave but outside Cap(tain America. Captain Marvel hasn’t had a line since she was unfrozen, I think) does a headcount and Spider-Woman is missing.

Despite the risk of Doom making good on his word to kill anyone that disturbs him, Cap won’t leave a comrade behind and reenters THE TOWER OF DOOM.

Cap stumbles onto Doom chilling with his shirt, mask, and boots off and luckily Doom is either in a good mood or hasn’t counted Captain America as leaving yet.

Captain America tells Doom that Spider-Woman is missing so Doom sends Klaw to go find her.

Klaw goes looking for Spider-Woman but runs into one of her webs. The missing, possessed hero grabs Klaw and transfers the blob of light to him.

Back at Doom having dressed up, maybe feeling awkward about being casual in front of anyone who isn’t Klaw, Doom reveals to Captain America that his mom’s spirit is being held captive by Mephisto and that Doom plans to free her.

Doom: “Is that little enough to ask? Little enough self-solicitude -- ? To free my mother’s soul from endless torment at the hands of an extra-dimensional demon! After that... it is as I said -- no affair of men -- or demons -- could possibly gain my notice!”

Cap comments that Doom is looking pretty human but Doom says its for everyone else’s protection that he keeps the power contained, lest he accidentally wipe out solar systems and galaxies.

Doom: “While I linger on this plane, I am like a giant on a world of ants! Every slight movement I make can seal the destinies of millions! I... do not wish to destroy anyone!”

Klaw returns and tells Cap where to find Spider-Woman so Cap goes off to retrieve her.

The heroes all take off back to Doombase and Cap asks Professor X to summon Colossus because there’s a decision to be made that everyone has to be present for.

Which leads to this delightful scene of Professor X interrupting Colossus as he’s making out with Zsaji.

Despite Colossus telling Xavier to buzz off, Xavier insists that Colossus return and alas duty before booty. Or something.

When Colossus arrives, the heroes all assemble in a conference room that Cap managed to find in Doombase.

Wasp doesn’t see the problem with Doom wanting to rescue his mother and Cap agrees that its a very humane and human thing to want and that in other circumstances Cap would have volunteered to help him.

But its the human that bothers Cap.

It gets back to Jim Shooter’s themes from his non-consecutive Avengers runs. Graviton, Nefaria, Korvac, Molecule Man, and Moondragon.

Godlike power in the hands of the all too human.

Captain America: “Doom claims he’s transcended all human desire! What if he hasn’t? We’ve seen the power of the Beyonder -- Doom’s power -- in action before! It is such power that even now, nothing in the universe can take place without his consent! That kind of authority rightfully belongs to... no man! No matter how enlightened or benevolent he’s become, freedom to do what Doom allows is not freedom!”

Cap is edging very close to ‘attack and dethrone god’ and I don’t know if he means to.

But as Cap points out, the first thing Doom did with his new power was to repair his face. Awfully human-like vanity.

Mr. Reed Fantastic concedes what Cap is getting at and agrees they need to force Doom to give up his power. And where Reed goes, so goes the rest of the Fantastic Three.

Which doesn’t tell you whether its a good idea or not considering they were both behind ‘let Galactus eat us all’ when Reed suggested it.

But the Avengers, the spiders, the Hulk, and the X-Men all agree as well.

Colossus is the last person to speak up and he suggests that if they attack Doom unprompted, maybe they’re the dicks. Doom may never harm them, may do what he’s said he’ll do and ascend to a higher plane of existence and contemplate gluons or whatever.

Captain America: “You may be right, son! I’m not dead certain about any of this! That’s why it must be a unanimous vote... or we do nothing! Don’t think you must agree! The choice is yours... Keep in mind, by the way, that if we do decide to confront Doom, it’s possible that we might be annihilated on the spot by a bolt from the blue!”

Wow, Cap isn’t just telling Colossus he can vote how he likes and not feel he must go with the majority. He’s also giving good reasons NOT to vote with the majority.

That Cap. He loves democracy so much.

Colossus struggles because he’s just found love and happiness and he never got to finish making out. And he’s being asked to possibly throw that all away unnecessarily!

Cap still won’t press Colossus one way or another so Colossus has to speak from the heart.

Colossus: “Forgive me, Zsaji... I say yes... We fight!”

He chose........... poorly?

Wonder what the last issue will be about now that half the cast is dead. Ignoring that we see several of these people alive in an issue set after this but published before.

Ignoring that. I wonder what the last issue will be about.

Good thing we don’t have to wait.

April, 1985

“...NOTHING TO FEAR...”

Okay, see, this is just making me wonder harder.

Hm. I also wonder if this is the first big moment where Captain America’s America Shield gets broken for dramatic effect. I know it happens again in Infinity Gauntlet but that’s some years away.

Anyway, yeah. The twenty-one hero characters and Magneto (twenty-one feels like A LOT, geez) have been totally killed forever and they will certainly stay dead.

To Zsaji’s alarm, since in a bit of establishing relative positions, she can see Doombase from the mountain near her village that Galactus set up his planet-eating equipment on.

Over at THE TOWER OF DOOM, Doom contains the power again.

Klaw: “Seal up the power -- god’s might in a can! Thus, Doom is just another man! But why?”

Doom: “Lest in a careless moment, a casual flick of my little figner might blacken a star system, or wipe out an intergalactic civilization. Lest, like Vishnu. ‘I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.’ This universe is too fragile!”

Klaw: “Such power! Such weight upon your shoulders! Poor Doom!”

Klaw questions whether the heroes are REALLY dead but Doom insists on it.

Meanwhile, Denver floating through space towards Earth.

I wanted to question... like... how much oxygen or food a Denver chunk could contain but Molecule Man laughs at logistics. He can just turn space dust into whatever he needs.

Man, Molecule Man would be great to have on a generation ship.

The villains are still chilling out in Volcana’s apartment, instead of taking over the largest building or whatever. Nice thing about Molecule Man being boss is that he doesn’t really approve of all of that.

Enchantress locks herself in the bathroom because dammit, sometimes you just need alone time to consult with a water elemental for some juicy exposition.

Because its issue 12 and we don’t know anything about the Beyonder really and Doom has already eaten him up so its now or never.

Honestly, time should have been budgeted for it earlier but what can you do.

The water elemental knows some things by gossiping with other spirits asks as price for her exposition that Enchantress “grant me power to walk through fields of flowers as mortals do” but Enchantress just threatens her into it.

She’s not a great boss.

Water Elemental: “In his realm, the Beyonder was everything and everything was him... and he was content! But by chance, an event in our universe opened a pinhole into his beyond-realm -- and through the pinhole he glimpsed the Earth! For the first time in his existence he became curious! So, he began to observe! For years, he watched the Earth! One thing confounded him above all else -- this incompleteness beings of our universe seemed to have -- this thing called... desire!”

So the Beyonder chose subjects of power, presence and palpable desire. The three P’s. And then he either raptured or lured into his game. The Beyonder sorted them according to the nature of their desires, which is why Magneto ended up with the heroes. Because his desire for mutantkind is like the altruistic desires of the heroes. Vs the personal desires of the villain group.

The Water Elemental recaps the war, including an image of Enchantress getting punched by She-Hulk, probably to piss her off. Yadda yadda, Doom played the larger game while everyone was doing punches and managed to usurp the Beyonder.

Water Elemental: “May I go down the drain now, please?”

Except no. Enchantress is still a bad boss and demands that the elemental use her rapport with the water on Battleworld to tell Enchantress whats going on now.

The elemental says she doesn’t have the power to do that so Enchantress dunks the elemental and boils some power into her.

Enchantress sees images of the heroes being effortlessly slaughtered, Klaw waiting on Doom as he relaxes, and Doom planning to invade Mephisto’s realm.

The last question Enchantress asks the rather haggard looking elemental is whether the Beyonder is truly dead.

Water Elemental: “N-no... he is close by Doom. But too weak to act... He is hiding where Doom would never suspect, awaiting an opportunity... a moment of vulnerability.”

Humorously, during this scene, the Absorbing Man starts banging on the bathroom door and asking Enchantress if she fell in.

In the living room, the Lizard is getting antsy about being cooped up.

Lizard: “RRAWRR! Out! Lizard wantss out of thiss humanss’ nesst! Musst be in sswamp! Lizard hates humanss!”

The Wrecking Crew just want to kill Lizard to spare the hassle but Volcana sticks up for him because its in her nature to take care of things. And in the same way he demonstrated with Wasp, Lizard folds into surly obedience as soon as someone is firm but nice with him.

Lizard isn’t the only one that’s antsy, as Dock Ock starts complaining and smashing the walls about how unlikely it is that they’ll ever reach home.

Doctorpus Octopus: “Don’t you fools realize the odds against us ever reaching Earth? An ant dropped in the middle of the Sahara would stand a better chance of getting to Hawaii!”

Molecule Man wanders in and tries to calm down the doctorpus while Enchantress lures Volcana away from the crowd.

Enchantress has decided that its time for Volcana to repay her debt for portaling her over to Molecule Man’s side after he was Wolverine’d. And the blank check cost she’s decided on is for Volcana to help Enchantress return to Asgard immediately to warn her people about the danger that Beyonder Doom poses.

And Volcana can help by ‘donating’ her life-force to power the teleport. And by donate, of course, she means, mystically contractually obligated.

Elsewhere, Molecule Man shows Doc Ock that he’s restored the stars in the galaxy that the Beyonder wiped out and that he’s been learning to do spacewarps too. And that’s how they’ll get home.

Doc Ock has some doubts so Molecule Man wraps him up in a nice, weighted blanket of asphalt and plans to turn him over to the authorities when they get back because he’s beginning to suspect that this supervillain may in fact may not be emotionally healthy.

Molecule Man realizes that Volcana isn’t around and Lizard who saw Enchantress pied piper her away leads MM to interrupt the Enchantress before she can finish draining Volcana or making fat jokes.

She makes a lot of fat jokes. Ffs Amora.

Enchantress teleport flees back to Battleworld but Lizard jumps after her and gets caught up in it.

He scratches her face so she throws him off a cliff.

And since mystically speaking, the Lizard counts as a “lower creature” Enchantress can just rip away his life-force and use it to fix her face and power an uncertain teleport to Asgard.

RIP the Lizard. Although I’m pretty sure you bounce back from this.

Meanwhile, in THE TOWER OF DOOM, Doom is napping while Klaw creeps on him creepily but Doom wakes up and yells at Klaw for letting him sleep.

Why, who knows what his subconscious would do with the Beyonder’s power in his dreams!

Klaw suggests hey maybe Doom would accidentally revive the heroes. Or maybe he already did? Hm?? In fact, Klaw has a theory and he’s going to use his sound hologram powers to put on a little demonstration for Doom.

He posits that Zsaji saw the destruction Doom wrought on Doombase (which we do know that she did do). She finds the... uh chunks that remain of the heroes and uses her healing powers to put them in stasis where cellular life still lingers. But she finds Colossus less damaged than the rest because he instinctively shifted to his armored form at the last instant. Surely his armored skin is better armor than, say, the Thing’s rock skin or Iron Man’s armor.

The story Klaw is telling works better this way so surely it is so.

Zsaji manages to bring Colossus wholly back to life, at the cost of her own.

A grief-stricken Colossus shoves Reed Richards into a healing tank (his elastic body also less damaged than the rest because sure, Reed Richards is more durable than the Hulk, we can just say anything).

So Reed is restored and he uses the technology of Doombase to invent a mass healing device and restores the rest of the heroes.

Klaw: “And they’re on their way here right now! The end... maybe!”

Doom: “Absurd! That couldn’t happen! The odds are impossible!”

Klaw: “Perhaps... but maybe you sort of... helped things along... Maybe you secretly subconsciously wanted them to survive... to rise from the ashes and live again!”

Doom: “You speak madness, Klaw!”

Klaw doubts though because Doom didn’t completely atomize the heroes and suggests turning on his god-mode and verifying that the heroes are really dead.

But now Doom is worried that having heard Klaw spell out a possible way for the heroes to be alive, his slightest doubt might make it so.

(I mean, I’m pretty sure that the light blob that’s possessing Klaw is the Beyonder who is gaslighting Doom for Reasons.)

Doom: “This is madness! I must drive these thoughts, these doubts, from my mind! They are dead! Dead! Dead! And yet... How many times in the past have I thought that Reed Richards was dead? And, if there were one man who might overcome the odds... is it not Captain America? No... no! THEY ARE DEAD!”

Klaw: “Then, again...”

Doom lets the Beyonder power well up but he can’t control it and it starts blasting Battleworld to shit and nearly destroyed all of reality. Doom can’t get his mind ordered and calm.

Klaw offers to destroy the heroes for Doom so Doom grants him “an infinitesimal micro-fraction” of his power, “enough to blacken ten thousand suns.”

GEEZ. I know that the Beyonder was established as being the strongest being in the universe, having come from a universe where all was the Beyonder. But that’s still very alarming.

The heroes rush in because after being murdered in an instant once already, subtlety is out the window.

Klaw intercepts them with a summoned army of monsters and also Ultron. Yes, Ultron is back, back again. Tell a friend. Tell them OH MY GOD RUN.

Then there’s a big two-page spread of everyone attacking everyone because that’s the kind of story this is.

Rad.

The Thing reverts back to meat man Ben Grimm but manages to will power the rocks back on and decides now he can control the changes and starts crying because this is everything he’s ever wanted.

Hulk goes punchies on Ultron but the robot does a plot injury to Hulk’s leg and for an encore makes Iron Man, Wolverine, and Spider-Woman look stupid before just falling apart.

Thanks to Wasp shrinking down, flying in one of the Hulk punch dents and just yanking wires. Yay, Wasp did a thing!

Also, she beat Ultron. She deserves to. Shame that not more can be made of it as a beat, what with everything going on.

Captain America manages to slip past all the monsters and jump kick his way past Klaw, although Klaw threw that little encounter.

Cap reaches where Doom is once again chilling, although this time with his clothes on.

Doom brags that there’s nothing that the heroes can do to harm him in any way, after all, what is a man to one who is omnipotent?

Captain America: “I wouldn’t be too sure about that! After all... you conquered the Beyonder! And why would you have gone through the trouble of killing us in the first place, unless... you were afraid!”

Doom doesn’t like having holes poked in his arguments so he kamehamehas Cap into ashes.

But Cap respawns out of sheer ‘I can do this all day’ness and charges at Doom to be blasted and respawned again.

Okay, so its Klaw who keeps respawning Cap, while letting Doom think its his own stolen power running out of control that keeps doing it.

And having Cap keep popping back into existence and trying to hit him in the face with a metal disc makes Doom lose his every last shit.

The power starts to overtake him and threaten the universe so Cap offers his hand, to serve as an anchor to reality for Doom.

Oh, hey. Just like Cap offered Doom his hand in the first issue but Doom turned it down because he hates pity.

But now, with omnipotence raging out of control, Doom reaches to accept Cap’s hand.

Thems some nice bookends.

Except the feeble remnant of the Beyonder that’s been body hopping bursts out of Klaw and reclaims his power from Doom.

Unpossessed Klaw: “Doom! Doom! Forgive me, Doom! The Beyonder, he took over my body -- ! He used my guile, my wits, my cunning to engineer this! I set you up for this! Doom -- ! I’m so sorry!”

The Beyonder reverts Doom’s armor (and face) back to how it was and then ejects him from the plot. Klaw jumping in to be with his master.

Actually, the Beyonder nopes out of the plot as well. Just kinda abandons this grand experiment into the concept of desire.

And to be fair, half the competitors fucked off. The other half refused to actually kill. And one of the competitors jumped off the board game to steal the Beyonder’s wallet.

At that point, escaping before you have to answer any questions is the right move.

With the fight over, there’s just a whole bunch of wrap-up.

Colossus has a funeral for Zsaji and buries her on the hill overlooking Doombase because fuck those villagers, she probably didn’t have any friends or loved ones who should have a say in this.

While RICHARDSS goes to work on a way home, Spider-Man swings around Doombase for a snack of alien eggplant. Then finds everyone else in the costume making machine room where Professor X has.

Uh.

Made some fashion choices.

Won’t anybody stop him?

Anyway, he intends to keep undermining Storm when they get back to Earth. What a guy.

Spider-Man also learns that none of their costumes respond to thought like his new black costume does and wonders what’s different about his.

Hulk’s leg was busted up by being Ultron’d and his gamma levels have risen so much that they’d short out the healing pods. So Reed makes Hulk a techno crutch and leg brace to help him get around until his natural healing factor takes care of things.

He’s not very pleased at the situation though and snaps at Hawkeye, leading Hawkeye to a thought that hits a lot different post Civil War II.

Hawkeye: “Whoa! Has he ever changed in the last few days! I think he’s losing it -- becoming totally savage and out of control again! Man, I hope I’m wrong! Maybe I’d better make myself a few more arrows -- some real heavy-duty ones -- just in case!”

Curt Connors wanders in and tells a story about waking up in a crater a few miles from the fortress. He says that he’s sure this time the lizard-persona is totally gone forever for reals.

Nightcrawler says its good that Connors found them before they departed so he wouldn’t get left behind, then mentions that Lockheed the dragon would return.

And boom! Lockheed the dragon returns with a lady dragon!

He’s been getting laid this whole time, the little scamp! I assume! Either way, he has contributed absolutely nothing to anything that happened.

Reed decides that Lockheed and Connors showing up isn’t just a coincidence, that the Beyonder left some trace energy behind when he quit the plot. And that the energy is causing a wish fulfillment phenomenon (which sorta makes sense if you think of it like the promise Beyonder promised to fulfill the winners’ desires?)

Mr. Fantastic: “I believe that this... ‘wish fulfillment’ phenomenon we’ve been experiencing is an after-effect of the battle against Doom! The planet itself seems to have been charged with residual energy whichs seems to respond to strong desire, or force of will!”

Cap(tain America) immediately takes off to where he’s keeping all the fragments of his broken shield that he’s been able to find and wishes REALLY hard for it to be fixed.

“It was the product of a freak metallurgical accident -- a metallic disk of unknown composition, and unique properties -- utterly impervious to any force or instrument which humans comprehend. But now it lies before him like a wounded friend... How many times has it saved his life? And now... it’s usefl life is at an end, for no fire could melt it, no furnace could reforge it. It is forever broken... unless by force of will... or sheer desire... He can accomplish the impossible!”

Hey, how about that!

I mean, you could have wished Bucky back to life but on the other hand, it’s a real sweet shield. I get it.

Although, in terms of the pre-post Secret Wars issue teasing what could happen in it (Hulk with a leg brace, She-Hulk with the FF, Spider-Man’s new costume), I really think that Steve should have returned from Battleworld with the broken shield.

Almost everything that’s gonna be brought back from Secret Wars is going to have to be abandoned or turn out to be evil.

It’s going to turn out (years later, mind) that Steve fixed his shield bad with his FORCE OF WILL and that for some reason, imperfections in the shield threaten to destroy ALL VIBRANIUM.

And that’s a decent story, probably.

Just saying, you could have Cap return with a broken shield and get that ‘how did that happen’ hype. Its a really intriguing idea. Although, I’d bet that breaking Cap’s shield was only thought up after the pre-post Secret Wars issues had already been done so it had to be introduced and rectified in Secret Wars itself.

Some other things that didn’t last long from Secret Wars: we already know the black goo costume didn’t even last through Secret Wars. The modifications Reed made to the Iron Man armor stop working when Rhodey returns to Earth, then they evolve into the evil Carnivor and fights Quasar in Quasar. Hulk ditches his leg brace two issues after his return to Earth. Connors turns himself back into the Lizard to save his family a couple years after Secret Wars. And so on.

So the time comes to return everyone back to Earth with the device Reed made. It teleports them in small groups up to the ring-shaped construct that got them to Battleworld where it will teleport them to Earth.

Reed beams up the unaffiliated group first of Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Curt Connors, Hulk, and Magneto who decided he’s too cool to hang with the X-Men on the ride home.

Next, the X-Men. Although they have to talk Colossus into coming home instead of being sad on a hill forever by convincing him that he’d be wasting the life Zsaji gave him if he didn’t come home.

Colossus letting Xavier talk him into sticking with the X-Men over greater and greater personal losses eventually becomes a sore point.

Lockheed’s girlfriend flies into the teleport as Reed initializes it, causing a dramatic energy fluctuation that Reed hopes won’t cause any problems on Earth.

It does.

Puff the tiny dragon becomes Puff the enormous dragon, and menaced Japan in her quest to mate with Lockeed. The X-Men had to fight her and Lockheed eventually rejected the now much bigger dragon causing her to explode.

Although she came back to life at some point and she and Lockheed did get back together.

X-Men is a weird book.

The Avengers are up next but She-Hulk tells them that she’s joining the Fantastic Four. Now this happened because Byrne made grabby hands at her and Stern didn’t say no but its not really satisfactorily built-up in this story.

Ben and She-Hulk don’t share many moments to establish that they have a good friendship that he could ask her to take his place on the team. In fact, the last time I know of them teaming up, she was a huge sex pest to him. So it makes it even more baffling.

But it happened in the pre-post issue so its gotta happen.

And Ben asks Jen (maybe the similar names is why he asks her? They can get away with only changing a single letter on his locker) because he’s going to stay behind on Battleworld because he can control his powers here.

He’s not planning on being here forever and Reed can leave the gizmo so Ben can return whenever he wants.

What makes this stupid is that like almost everything involving Ben, Reed knows a lot more about what’s going on and just doesn’t say anything. He starts to but doesn’t insist when Ben tells him not to try to change his mind.

The thing about the Thing is that Ben should always have been able to Rock On or Rock Off as he pleased but there’s a psychological block preventing it.

Ben would lose this control before leaving Battleworld and he quits the FF when he learns that Reed knew that it was a psychological issue.

Mr. Fantastic: “If only I could tell him what I suspect about his transformations -- but it’s the kind of thing that might shatter a man... even a strong man like Ben! No, better to say nothing... and hope he slowly discovers the truth for himself... Or hides from it forever!”“

Geez.

You’re so bad at people.

Anyway. Yeah. Needed some more build-up. Maybe centered around the transformation. Jen could sympathize. She used to have trouble controlling her hulk outs before she just decided to be She-Hulk all the time.

Anyway, this big ridiculous thing (the last issue was 43 PAGES LONG) ends with Ben being thoughtful on a rock.

And that brings us back to Avengers #243.

I guess he’s not alone because Zsaji’s village is still here, maybe? Is nobody going to send them home??

Follow @essential-avengers​ because FINALLY I can get back to just focusing on the Avengers. Phew. Please like and reblog. This took so much effort.

[capsgirl19]

wait I wanna hear about the gay subtext and wasted potential of teen beach 2

Okay, strap in because I don’t do elevator pitches. Major spoilers for Teen Beach Movies 1&2. And a readmore because this is LONG!

SO. Idk if this is a common observation, but it seemed fairly obvious to me that Lela fell hard in love with Mack over the course of the first movie. She felt trapped by gender roles, obligated to pursue a relationship with a boy over and over again, never even considering that there might be something more until this girl unlike anyone she’s ever met crashes into her life saying that she can do anything men can do, that she doesn’t have to fit into a little box. I legit thought the scene in her bedroom might be her confessing to being gay, though I knew it wouldn’t be. And like... the necklace exchange? The extended hug at the end? Not to mention in the second one, she’s desperate to escape her own universe so she can be with Mack again, desperate to live in a world where she’s allowed to be her true self. The fact that Brady turns into a garbage fire in that one doesn’t help my opinions on the canon pairings, either. By all rights, Lela’s story in the second movie ought to be a tragedy. She escapes a world defined by rigid expectations that she be in a relationship with a man to get back to the girl who changed her life. And she makes it! And she’s happy! And then it turns out everyone she loves will die if she doesn’t go back to her own life. She makes this tremendous sacrifice to save her entire universe, and honestly a sad gay story is cliche, but imo better than doing what they actually did with that ending.

As a little aside, can we talk about the unbelievable amount of lip service in these movies that the second one undermines with its entire plot? In the first movie Brady was kinda dumb, but a seemingly good boyfriend. Mack was so about Girl Power that she was trying to bring third wave feminism to the early sixties. In the second one Brady is sulky, jealous for no reason, dumps his girlfriend because HIS TRASH ASS fucking forgot they had plans, and never even has to apologize for it. On the contrary, Mack apologizes to HIM! When she never did anything to so much as suggest she’d find his interests stupid! I digress, sorry, it pissed me off to no end.

That finished, let’s get into the meta. While I don’t think the writers realized it, they wrote a super interesting multiverse. We’ve got the prime universe, the one Mack and Brady are from, which is the one all the others spawn from. My theory is that literally anyone can create a universe by writing about one. The intricacy of the created universe is based on how much worldbuilding goes into it, and the better thought-out the universe, the stronger the fabric of reality surrounding it will be, and the harder it’ll be to change from its intended path. This isn’t a new concept, but there’s an interesting level of equity in the fact that secondary universes can rewrite the entire timeline of the primary one if they change enough. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Wet Side Story is a sleepy little universe, not much thought put into how it runs at all. The characters sing and dance their way through the same summer over and over again in a contented daze, like the lotus eaters of the Odyssey. And then along come Mack and Brady, to stretch at the delicate chiffon of this simple place. The characters closest to them begin to stir from their trances, and there’s no way to go back. No way to unknow. Only an endless summer, a stretching eternity of pretending, and Lela can’t stand it. With barely a few months between, she’s pulling that fabric in the opposite direction trying to get back to the girl who captured her mind and her heart, currently in a failing relationship. And then she has to go back. She doesn’t want to. Mack seems to wish she could stay, if only for Lela’s own sake. She and Tanner return to their own universe, but not before Mack tells her that she can control her own destiny and shape her universe to her whims. Lela takes this to heart, becoming the solo star of the film. It’s too much. The thin fabric separating her universe from the primary one tears as she severely alters its timeline, allowing her to throw Mack a leather jacket matching her own through a movie screen, and shoot her a sly wink as she dances along to the movie. This is the end of Teen Beach 2, and oh boy, do I have sequel ideas.

Here’s the setup: so. Lela goes home. Whoever wrote the movie she’s in has long since abandoned caring for the universe they never bothered to build a world for, and their grip is weak. It’s easy to wrest the pen from that loose hand, to bend her world around her until it suits her desires, and she writes a great story. But it still feels empty. Lela is the queen of the beach, but her friends still seem their happiest playing their new roles, over and over again. She ascends to godhood, taking the reins of her own universe, but it’s lonely at the top and she’s as high as a person can go. She is peerless. She has nothing but time to ponder the nature of everything, and to yearn for the only equal she ever had.

The final film doesn’t open with her, though, and this one’s a fuckin’ doozy. Think Infinity War (the comic, not the movie, and maybe a little bit of Marvel’s Illuminati plotline too) meets a lesbian pulp novel. It opens with Mack, a few years later, now in college studying oceanography. Things keep sort of... glitching out. The camera pans past a character or scene from Lela, Queen of the Beach, or maybe even Wet Side Story, but when Mack looks back at it it’s always normal again. She decides she’s being silly, and it’s just been awhile since she watched her favorite movie, so that night she makes some time and puts it on. Lela herself steps out of the screen after one of her numbers and restores Mack’s memories of the timeline that got dead-ended by Lela’s alteration of her own universe. Mack is thrilled to see her after so long, and they hug, Mack explaining what she’s been doing in the time they’ve been apart. For Lela, it’s only been a year, and she never aged to begin with. Lela tells Mack how she took her advice, she changed her movie, but things were still so unbearably lonely. She tells her that whoever created their multiverse is cruel, that they had no regard for the people within, but that it’s alright. Lela knows how to handle indifferent creators, after all. She’s going to merge it all into one universe, no hierarchies, that she personally will oversee. She’s come to ask Mack to rule at her side.

Mack is afraid of her power and afraid of her ideas. She tries to talk Lela out of it, but to no avail. Lela is deeply sad that Mack doesn’t see things her way, but out of love for the other girl and a genuine belief that she’s too powerful to be stopped, once again forging her own destiny, she folds the necklace into Mack’s palm and returns to her own universe to continue her work.

Mack and Brady went their separate ways after high school, not on bad terms, but because a long-distance relationship didn’t seem realistic. This is the first time they’ve spoken since she left for college, but Brady is her only hope for someone who might understand. She manages to jog his memory, and they have to work together to try and prevent Lela from remaking all of creation. There are posters throughout which serve as markers of how close she is to achieving her goals, shifting gradually closer to their final form: Lela in iconic pink jacket leaning against the side of a motorcycle on a black-sand beach, a galactic sky behind her. The title reads, “LELA: QUEEN OF THE MULTIVERSE.” This is also the working title of the third movie.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand that’s all I got! How does it end? I don’t know! Probably Lela doesn’t merge the multiverse into one place, because that’s never a great plan. Maybe she just gets to live in Mack’s universe and go to college and find a girlfriend and have a good life? And her movie’s about Tanner and Bucky now (bc holy god there’s not as much of a story there but Tanner is fucking gay as hell), but it has the same story as the original? That might be good. Could also be called “Mack and Brady Save the Multiverse” idk.

[englishgiraffe]

My Love For The Eighth Doctor Books

Disclaimer: This essay is awfully long, the structure is terrible, and it probably shouldn’t have been over 4000 words, but hopefully, you’ll enjoy my insight of the Eighth Doctor Books.

Introduction

Trying to create a character around a brand new Doctor is tricky and Paul McGann’s incarnation is perhaps the biggest example for this. After 1996, he never had a TV appearance to fully flesh out the Eighth Doctor and remember: Big Finish didn’t use the Eighth Doctor until 2001. So writers in 1997 had a difficult task, especially when the Virgin Books lost the rights to the DW IP and were back in the BBC’s rights. Some Virgin New Adventure writers like Kate Orman, Justin Richards, Paul Leonard had come to write for the EDA’s, but new talent had to come in as well. They all had to intricately look at like, what, 40 minutes of McGann’s screentime in the TV Movie, half of which was the Doctor trying to figure himself out from amnesia and the other half is him being thrust into the plot without any way to truly develop his character. So… yeah, I actually can’t blame the writers finding their feet, at least with the VNA’s developing the 7th Doctor, he had 12 stories. Also, trying to pick up from the massive popularity of the VNA’s, and oh my God, I feel so bad for the writers. But, there could be a slither of a chance, maybe the magic they could have brought from the VNA’s can be replicated again. So, did it work? Hell yeah, it did!... just not under the guise of Uncle Terry Dicks. Just…screw everything about The Eight Doctors, it’s the worst possible starting point. But after that blip, yeah, it’s my favourite era of the Doctor Who IP, bar none.

Exciting Ideas

I’ll start off listing the sci-fi elements first before getting into character work. Much like the VNA’s, perhaps even more so, the EDA’s are not afraid to bring bold, extravagant ideas that TV Who could never do, perhaps not even what Big Finish could do, because of the novel format that allows descriptions and characters to fully grow. The Books are able to describe how a planet looks, feels, sounds, even down to taste so effortlessly, and a part of it is how unique, so bizarre, so beautiful these planets are, so… intimate. Could Doctor Who ever do planets like Albert (a planet entirely made out of Grimm’s fairy tales), Hitchemus (a colony world thriving on music and inhabited by intelligent tigers), The Crooked World (much like the Land of Fiction, except all the inhabitants and settings are cartoon-based). Not even Big Finish pulls off such weird and surreal settings and that’s because of the prose style allowing time and dedication to flesh out the multiple planets, without feeling clunky in its description and dialogue, which could plague early BF stories at times. But it’s not just the variety in the settings that make it great, there are also fascinating new ways to tell these stories with different formats. Narratives can be told in a Pulp Fiction-esque, out of order style (The Last Resort), told backwards (Festival of Death), books where the Doctor is barely in it but his presence is booming (Sleep of Reason), books told from the first person POV (The Turing Test, Frontier Worlds, Banquo Legacy), a narrative told from a non-fiction documentary perspective (Adventuress of Henrietta Street), a narrative told in a essay format (History 101), and that’s only a handful of the formats. There’s multiple pastiches and parodies; Trading Futures does Doctor Who crossed with James Bond harder than the Pertwee era, The Tomorrow Windows replicates Douglas Adams’ style down to a T, The Crooked World is basically Doctor Who crossed with Hanna Barbara Cartoons and many more. God, everything is so unique and wacky in this book range.

The Tone and Theming

As for the Books’ tone, it’s certainly interesting. In the VNA’s, because a lot of new talent, and a lack of the BBC reigning things in as well as major inspiration from 90s cyberpunk media such as Judge Dredd, a lot of the books, especially in its first half, were extremely grimdark and gratuitous in order to show shock value for its audience (Timewryn Genesys had Ace sexually assaulted and The Doctor told her to just shrug it off and claim that it was part of the times they’re in and Warlock had unconsented bestiality and detailed animal murder). It was too far in my eyes, despite me saying that DW can be more than a franchise that is just whirling around in a magic police box. However, in the EDA’s, yes there is more sexual content, swearing like bastard, bitch and shit is still a thing, and there can be gory violence. But here’s where the EDA’s success at compared to VNA’s; it attempts to earn it’s adult elements. With the VNA’s, the grimdark nature was so constant to the point of normalisation, with hardly any degree of wonder or wit, especially from its regulars (thank God for Bernice Summerfield bringing some happiness at least). It does address and deconstruct the grimdark nature near the end, but God, even as a depressing cynical man, the likes of Blood Heat, Parasite, Warlock were just too dour for me to truly enjoy. But here, there is moderation and it feels contextual to the overall story. It enhances the story, not pollute it. The Spanish Civil War of 1936 (History 101) is written maturely and handles its mature themes in a thoughtful manner, Suicide and Depression is handled with sensitivity and intimacy (The Sleep of Reason), and when gratituous violence is used, it is detailed certainly but never glamorised and often times extremely terrifying instead of gore for the sake of gore (Eater of Wasps). Hell, even the most comical story, The Crooked World, has introspective themes of free will, the concept of death, existentialism and the value of a soul. But, it’s not all bleak, as said, The Crooked World is perhaps the most comical story since The Romans, anything involved with Iris Wildthyme as well as being weird abstract, is just laugh-out-loud hilarious, Jonathan Morris’ The Tomorrow Windows is pure Douglas Adams wacky humour, and Lance Parkin’s Trading Futures is majorly inspired by Roger Moore James Bond movies. The way the Books tackle true adult themes like Morality, Honour, Sexuality, Gender, Trauma, Redemption, the Philosophy of Nature and Identity, whilst being imaginative, humorous and endearing is… just poignant and beautiful.

 The Regulars-Sam Jones

So… the regulars. Well, I’ll save the main two (The Eighth Doctor and Fitz) for last, because they will be the longest. So starting with Sam Jones (and yes, they do the ‘Smith and Jones’ shtick about a decade prior to Series 3), and off the bat, she’s easily the weakest EDA Companion and a bit of a inconsistency. She often suffered from writers who wanted to write her as the worst extremes of ‘Vegetarian Political Activist’, who constantly bitches and moans towards everything without any proper tact. And I don’t mind characters who don’t believe in tact, Cordelia from Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel is one of my favourite characters, but when Sam gives her opinions on everything in a pessimistic attitude without a degree of optimism… yeah my enthusiasm starts to drain really quickly. Doesn’t help that she’ll flip-flop between being a lovesick puppydog for 8, cynical activist or just… woman. But I will say that when she’s written under the likes of Kate Orman/Jonathan Blum, Paul Leonard and Paul Magrs, I absolutely love her character. She’s perceptive yet bright, naïve but willing to grow, cynical but willing to bring in entertainment. And I will say that her backstory is a fascinating deconstruction of the ‘Perfect Companion’ trope that Moffat loved to overemphasise. She had been manipulated, used as a pawn and twisted by the Doctor (although this is accidental) from the events of the TV Movie, and the real/correct one is just a junkie that couldn’t wait to stick a Heroin needle if it was given in front of her. It’s tragic, especially considering that when The Doctor fixes all his companions’ timeline much later down the line, Correct Sam becomes the correct version and it’s revealed that this version never travelled with the Doctor and died of an overdose, despite Fitz knowing her experiences they had together. I also love her exit story in Interference, she had become more enjoyable near the end and the story is able to show her resources. Unfortunately, the inconsistency up until Fitz joins just left me too much having a cold taste in my mouth for me to love her.

The Regulars-Compassion

Next up, the human-TARDIS hybrid and Ice Cold Queen, Compassion. This is a character that I definitely appreciated way more after a first reading. The first time, I thought Compassion was too cold and aloof but on a reread, while she’s never going to be high on my list for favourite companions and I find her the hardest to analyse, I find that she works great as a hard-edged character, her dynamic with The Doctor and Fitz remind me a lot of 2/Jamie/Zoe, only if Zoe was way more upfront about her intelligence and rudeness. Her dynamic with Fitz as well is interesting as at first, they clearly despise each other for their clashing personalities and find each other untrustworthy but overtime, Compassion learns to enjoy Fitz’s goofiness and even learns to apologise. She can be destructive and violent with no emotion put behind it. That said, she becomes a more interesting character once she becomes the first Human-TARDIS hybrid, with the Doctor and Fitz forced to rely on her, but because of her cold hubris and after The Doctor forces a Randomiser thus violating her body, Compassion can become terrifying to The Doctor and Fitz. She does get brilliant material in The Banquo Legacy as well, with her possessing one person and her personality conflicting with the possessed person’s. And she has a decent farewell as well. Overall, I enjoy Compassion, it’s just really hard to analyse her considering that she only has 12 stories with the combination of perhaps a too subtle character arc.

 The Regulars- Anji Kapoor

Now onto Anji Kapoor. If it isn’t for another companion that I’ll mention later, then Anji is certainly a close second in my rankings of 8th Doctor companions. And I also say with high praise that the 8th Doctor, Fitz Kreiner and Anji Kapoor team is my definitive TARDIS team… ever. You wouldn’t get that impression with her first story, as she has the trappings of an RTD Companion that you can pretty much guess a mile off. Stale relationship, life is going nowhere, working class, dead end job, jeez, I heard it all with Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy, Clara, Bill. The fact that she works in the stock market, an occupation I swear 98% of the population can barely figure out, and I felt like I was never going to like Anji. But Dang… Dang!!! The biggest glow-up happens in her very next story, and it practically sticks until her exit. I always felt that companions inbetween that period of Leela (arguably Tegan) and Anji never really basked in the pure absurdity of what world they were travelling in and never really gave any thought. The combination of new experiences around the universe and her haunting memories of her dead boyfriend was a lot to take in for her, to the point that she never really moved on (in Earthworld, she keeps writing emails to Dave, despite him being dead, and in Hope, she gives the secrets of the TARDIS over to the inhabitants on the exchange that they clone her boyfriend). She fell from grace multiple times, but with the Doctor and Fitz’s help, she was able to pick herself back up before spiralling down. What I love about Anji is despite her caring for The Doctor, she’s very distrustful to him because of his calculating and alien nature and both conflict with each other, their arguments almost feel too real. Anji often considers the options and is usually independent with her financial skills and intelligence. Over the 25 Books she’s in, she has become consistently enjoyable and a delight to read. Witty, clever, full of instinct, and humane, I did feel a proper sense of loss when she left.

The Regulars- Trix Macmillan

On the last companion, Trix Macmillan. She’s probably have the least amount of books in comparison to other EDA Companions (Sam had 25, Fitz had 51, Compassion has 12 and Anji had 25), with her only having 9 Books. Certainly not a lot of time to flesh out her character in comparison, but somehow the writers did it. What I love about Trix and what makes her a stark contrast to the first EDA Companion, Sam, is that Trix doesn’t want to be popular or well-liked. She’s logical, calculating, often devious, and often pretty tactless. She’s the kind of person who would steal a dead person’s identity and money. She treats The Doctor and Fitz not as friends, only acquaintances. But not just that, she can be (intentionally) a walking contradiction. Much like a showbiz actress, depending on what environment, time and crowd she’s working with, she’ll immediately change her personality. To the point that Trix doesn’t even know her true personality, and she is scared that she wants to know what she used to be. She likes being anyone but herself, wanting to become inconspicuous around the Doctor. Her relationship with the Doctor is interesting as well, he is judgemental towards her hobby as a conwoman, believing that she’s only with him and Fitz because she’ll steal whatever she can get. But as time goes on, he learns about her contradictory personality (most likely relates because of his own contradictory personality), and sees her, the real her. And despite her trying to detach herself from The Doctor, she slowly, but surely, opens herself more to The Doctor and Fitz, to the point that she feels hurt when The Doctor accuses her. Even with the short runtime, I found her relationship with Fitz to be really touching, and shows that Fitz’s open loyalty works in tandem with Trix’s cold secrecy. We don’t get much information about her past, but in a way I enjoy the lack of answers, whether she’s just a conartist or perhaps a chameleonic alien, what her relationship was like with her father. And maybe that’s the point, with her shape-shifting and unpredictable personality, she’s meant to be an enigma. At the very least, with 9 books, she had become a fascinating character that was wonderful to read and analyse.

The Regulars-Fitzgerald Kreiner

Now, my favourite companion in all of Doctor Who media, Fitz Kreiner. Better than the likes of Jamie, Donna, Sarah Jane, Ace and Evelyn. Before with Sam and The Doctor, the books were of varying quality, but as soon as he was introduced, even with a bit of a terrible debut story, he brought such humour that made the story just about bearable. He’s a bit of a goofball with some addiction for cigarettes and alcohol, but he starts becoming one of the most complex and special characters in the franchise. He begins as a bit of a James Bond-esque ‘Lady’s Man’, often trying to flirt and womanise, but by his third Book, Revolution Man, the development truly begins. He gets kidnapped, tortured and brainwashed under the influence of alien drugs and forced into shooting a man, with the Doctor forced to finish the job off for Fitz. He’s obviously going to have lasting effects that will damage him in the long run. But Damn, it doesn’t stop there, Interference leaves him in the absolute gutter with him being trapped in a membrane for 600 years, and resents the Doctor for failing to rescue him, and joins up to 8’s longlives enemy, Faction Paradox, and is converted to be a monster, becoming Father Kreiner. And it’s tragic, given his PTSD shown from Revolution Man. But that Fitz is gone, and what stays with the Doctor until the end is a clone of him, with full memories and everything. So thankfully, the loveable oaf never truly went away and only gets better from here. Much like how the 2nd Doctor was perfect for Jamie, or how Ian and Barbara are integral for the 1st Doctor, Fitz is ideal for 8. During the period with Compassion, he wants to prove that he’s the real Fitz, but can’t, because he isn’t. He may have the OG Fitz’s memories, but he can’t dream and thinks that some memories are missing. Even some aspects of his personality are different, like his skills of hiding and blending in easier. He may be a doofus, and hard to catch on certain things, but much like Jamie, he’s street-smart, and is able to spot simple situations that The Doctor wouldn’t give a second notice because of his desire for over-complicated situations. Even with him not being as bright, he’s able to hold off on his own from the Doctor, as in Trading Futures, he’s able to defeat Time Lord-wannabe Space Rhinos (no, not those kind of Space Rhinos) on his own without any of the Doctor’s help or knowledge by impersonating the Doctor, even willing to sacrifice himself. He’s the flame behind the EDA’s for me, the one who is willing to sacrifice everything he has to save whoever he considers family, and the bond that the Doctor and Fitz have together is inspired. He is fiercely loyal to the Doctor, even when he is kept in the dark. They both have a connection towards each other, like a mix between 2/Jamie and early 8/Charley, with Fitz even willing to hold the heavy memories of what 8 did to Gallifrey, even when The Doctor threatens to break every bone in Fitz’s body.  He was the best friend that 8 could ever have, I loved their kindred relationship and it was totally worth it having Fitz for 51 Books to become such a developed character. My favourite companion, bar none.

The Regulars-The Eighth Doctor

And now, finally the Eighth Doctor. Before, I used to cite the Eighth Doctor from Big Finish as the definitive incarnation. And don’t get me wrong, I still love him in the Charley, Lucie and even the Doom Coalition era. He has brilliant gravitas in showing intelligence (arguably the most intelligence since the 4th Doctor), dry morbid humour, the right amount of patronising, and enthusiasm, often excelled by McGann’s excellent performance and Shakespearean voice. But, as time goes on, the era becomes more… how do I say… schizophrenic and uneven. Big Finish sort of starts off creating arcs for 8, but then… sort of wander off and never pick up on arcs they’ve created, like the 800 year maroon in Orbis, the angst in Dark Eyes, then finally culminating with Moffat’s Night of the Doctor, not picking up on his hatred for the Daleks after Lucie Miller’s death, and making him too naïve to the Time War, making it as if his journey from BF didn’t even matter.

Then came my experiences with the books. And discarding the first novel, The Eight Doctors, and jumping straight to Vampire Science, Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman immediately gave 8 more nuance than 75% of 8th Doctor material in BF. I should preface by saying this as well: despite my grievances from the Virgin New Adventures, I still think that the character of 7, Time’s Champion and its character work are still crucial to the EDA’s and how it conflicts/supplements 8’s character. 8 is no longer Death’s pet, stuck to the chains of fate, but much like 7, in the eyes of others, he is simultaneously whimsical, dangerous and manipulative, albeit more flawed than 7. When 7 manipulates, it’s more out of logic, thinking about the bigger scope, while with 8, it’s out of passion and love. He often uses his good looks and often childlike grin as a front to scheme, as evidenced in Genocide. But unlike the 7th Doctor, it’s never constant to the point of predictability, and sometimes, even his manipulation messes up due to his conflict with his passion and childlike personality. I’d argue that 8 is the most anti-hero incarnation of all the Doctors, even more than the 7th Doctor, often obliviously selfish, privileged and at times very toxic and callous. He often doesn’t let other people in on his schemes (him faking his own death to his companions in The Banquo Legacy), often clings onto people out of fear of losing them (Sam in Interference), pulls strings for his selfish needs (uses Alan Turing��s sexuality as blackmail to make Turing help him help aliens but on the basis that the Doctor just escapes Earth in The Turing Test), puts others on the brink of death (orders a possessed wasp-human hybrid to kill one of his closest patients to test if his true personality is still there in Eater of Wasps), often be cold-blooded and violent (throws a medic against the wall head-first and then stuffs him in a cupboard in Vanishing Point). In the second half of the Book range, he had lost his memory from his battle and destruction/erasure of Gallifrey, but here’s why this memory erasure works as opposed to other ones, like in Big Finish. For Big Finish 90% of the time it’s used, it’s often to create false tension. At times, it’s fine, but when it’s used constantly to pad out the runtime, my enthusiasm starts to wane out quickly. But Justin Richards as Book Script Editor brings something interesting. For the first time, the Doctor isn’t bitching about where his memory is, but rather, he’s a mirrored version of the 1st Doctor (my second favourite incarnation): full of rage, irritative, deceptive, arrogant and willing to fill his hands full of blood. The difference is there is no Ian or Barbara to hold him back, to make him grow, 8 must be the one to grow and develop himself, he has to make the work into becoming The Doctor. That’s another reason why I adore the 8/Fitz/Anji team so much; they are all broken, damaged people with flaws, and call each other out. But they are also a trio of friendship, love, can bring unity towards each other and most importantly, feel like a family, in fact probably the most family-like team since arguably 2/Jamie/Victoria or even since 1/Ian/Barbara/Vicki. 8/Fitz/Anji have truly descended into tough times (Fitz especially), but this team shows that you can pull yourself back from the depths of hell when you have the right support going for you.

Writers like Lance Parkin, Paul Leonard, Lloyd Rose, Kate Orman, Steve Lyons, Mags L Halliday, Martin Day, Lawrence Miles live and breathe the 8th Doctor, a true Bryon Romantic, poetic and literal with words. He’s a diplomat, rather than a conqueror. He may be brutal, manipulative, and cold-blooded, but it’s equally mirrored with empathy, mischievous humour akin to the 2nd Doctor, and a lust for the unpredictability of humanity. Yet unlike how Modern Big Finish and Moffat’s Night of the Doctor made 8 into an ineffectual pacifist buffoon, Book 8 is certainly an optimist, but he’s also a realist. In Reckless Engineering, he was given the choice between saving the correct timeline in the universe but at the cost of his friends or let the universe collapse… he actually chooses the universe. It’s a shocking moment (especially for Fitz, considering how long he’s been with the Doctor), but even he knows that, but has a responsibility to save the right reality. And with some introspection, nearing the end, he realises that, because there’s a gorgeous insight in The Sleep of Reason, about focusing too much on the bigger picture and the few things is equally as important. To see 8’s goals come to fruition, he brings it to himself that his mission of helping even just one individual can be seen as the greatest thing in the universe. He doesn’t want to remember the events of Gallifrey near the end because at the end of the day, he’s a man who strives for the present and future, not the past. He may not be a good person, he may not be right sometimes, and he may not have a happily ever after with destroying Evil for good, but he’ll still keep going on just to make a difference. That’s why I adore the ambiguous ending to The Gallifrey Chronicles, we never get a confirmation as to whether the Doctor survives his plan against the Vore, we never get what his plan is supposed to be and whatever happens after the battle (besides a song from Fitz closing off the book). I prefer Doctor Who to have an ambiguous non-conclusive ending than what Marc Platt did for Lungbarrow or Colin Meek for Death Comes to Time. This version of Eight has now become the definitive incarnation of The Doctor for me, I adore this character so much.

Conclusion

To me, The Eighth Doctor Books, especially in the second half, truly encapsulates everything that I love about the franchise: superb prose, introspective themes, emotional moments, pushing the boundaries of what Doctor Who could truly do but never accomplish. The writers made something special, and made the range one of the most suspenseful, sombre, intimate, and beautiful pieces of fiction I’ve ever experienced. I love them, and to me, they are my Doctor Who.

[fangirl-1523]

My Sworn Brothers [Luffy x Crossover!Sister!Reader x Ace x Sabo]

A/N: Hey, so I want to write a High School AU of the many, many anime I have watched/ read. Bleach, Blue Exorcist, Devil is a Part-Timer, Durarara, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, High School of the Dead, InuYasha, Kill La Kill, Magi, My Hero Academia, Noragami, One Piece, Ouran High School Host Club, Pokemon, Saiki K, Sailor Moon, Seven Deadly Sins, Soul Eater, Sword Art Online, Vampire Knight, Your Lie in April, and Yu Gi-Oh. And I was wondering who would you like to be apart of your friend? And would you like to have a relation to any of the characters of the world. 

Summary: [Y/N] is the oldest sworn sister to Luffy, Ace, and Sabo. And after finding Ace and Sabo aboard Luffy’s ship, the Thousand Sunny, she explains to them who she is, her other sworn brothers and sisters, embarrasses the three of them (a regular Tuesday for her), and threatens them with a chalkboard for interrupting her. Multiple times. In this story, most of the anime I am into is in the same world (Bleach, Blue Exorcist, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, InuYasha, Magi, My Hero Academia, Naruto, Noragami, Seven Deadly Sins, and Sword Art Online.  I might do a part 2. 

Warnings: spoilers for the above mangas and animes, also, even though this is along the timeline of after the time skip (at some point), I took the creative liberty to have Ace alive during this meeting for a quad family reunion, might be language

Word Count: 1, 668

“How the hell am I suppose to believe that my three idiotic brothers would be in the same place at the exact same time I’m trying to find them?” the girl with [H/C] hair, old enough to be Luffy’s age, maybe a year younger or a year older than him. 

“[Y/N]!!” the rubber boy flung himself at her in a hug.

She fell down on her butt from the impact of the hug. She groaned before pushing the boy off of her and standing up, dusting herself off. “Geez, Lu. I was on a job, just finished, and I heard something about a Straw Hat, a Fire Fist, and a blonde with a top hat that put the mad hatter to shame. I just came to see if the rumors are true.” 

“What job did you have, sis?” Sabo said as he sipped a smoothie created from Vinsmoke Sanji. 

“Well, you see. In the ten years I’ve been gone, I’ve been busy. Both with being lazy and being diligent.” the girl explained. “I am a member of Fairy Tail. Dragon Slayer Magic, particularly fire, water, earth, air, and plant. Requip the Knight. Some space jumping there and vortex opening here.” 

“You got the two mixed up, kid.” Ace said from his spot next to Sabo. 

The girl grinned an evil grin. “Oh, did I, Ace of Clubs?” 

The raven haired pirate groaned at the nickname while Luffy’s crew members wondered after the nickname. Ace kept giving her the don’t-tell-them-anything look with a cut-it-out motion. She, like most people she knew, did not listen to reason. 

“Well, when we were younger, I attempted to teach the pour unfortunate souls that you call Luffy, Sabo, and Ace golf. And we played mini-gold. First hole we went to, the club flew out of Ace’s hand and crashed into the window where the pour lady working the club stand was clonked on the head and fell unconscious. Another fun fact: I’m overly competitive and therefore master of mini gold. Luffy on the other hand... beat my bowling high score of just a little over four hundred points.” [Y/N] explained. 

“THAT’S NOT HOW YOU PLAY GOLF, YOU IDIOT!” Usopp shouted at his captain. 

“Ace was a lot worse. However, on the eighteenth hole, got a hole in one. Although with team sports, I always sided with Luffy ‘cuz he was the baby of the family.” she explained. 

“Never play Volleyball with her unless you’re Luffy.” Sabo warned the Straw Hat Pirates. 

“Could you... possibly.... explain who you are?” asked Nami. 

“That’s an easy and excellent question, m’lady. I am [Y/N] [L/N], the daughter of the Demon King from the Demon Clan, Niece of Solomon, adoptive daughter of the great dragon, The Curse of Depravity, a mage of S-Class ranking, the best older sister anyone can have, a Shinigami, and the Pirate Fairy.” [Y/N] said with her hands on her hips like wonder woman. 

“You’re not wonder woman, dumbass.” Ace muttered. 

She scowled at the boy (who was now physically older than her). “I know that, asshole.” Ace shrugged his shoulders at that. “Anyways, I should get going. I’m here with my teammates. And Salamander will have a cow if he finds out I’m on a Pirate Ship. Which may or may not include Natsu asking you all to fight him at once for his sister.” [Y/N] shrugged. 

“SISTER?!” Luffy screeched. 

“YOU ALREADY REPLACED US?!” Ace and Sabo said in unison. 

“This is why I never took you to Amusement parks or sat next to you on a ride.” she clenched at her swollen ears.  “No, I was merely saying that I have something called [Y/N]’s Council of Brothers. They’re basically a band of boys I feel need my protection, wisdom, and power to embarrass them until they’re six feet under and rotting.” 

“She’s dark.” Nami said. “But can you explain this whole Council of Brothers thing. Because I’m not sure they,” the ginger pointed to the three brothers, “understand.” 

“Alright! I will go over a lesson here!” and suddenly a white board appeared by her side with writing already on it. 

“Where did you get the white board?” asked Luffy. 

“That’s not important right now.” she scowled. “Yes, Sabo.” 

“Was that Whiteboard always there and we just never noticed it?” the blonde asked. 

“No. Ace if this is a question about the white board, I will smack you with the same gold club that flew through that window. All questions about the stupid whiteboard will be answered after I explained everything. Got it?” 

The three brothers grumbled out a, “Yes.”  

“Good. Anyways, to start it off I have two half-brothers. Meliodas and Zeldris.” she slapped a pointer stick against the whiteboard. 

“Did she always have that?” Ace asked, whispering it to his two brothers. 

“I don’t know. I’m just glad someone noticed it besides me.” Sabo murmured back. 

“SILENCE, YOU INSOLENCE FOOLS!” and she threw a frying pan which hit Ace in the head. 

Why does she have a frying pan in her requips? Sabo wondered in his head, not wanting to get hit in the head with anything else she might have to throw at them. 

“Anyways, Meliodas and Zeldris are my half-brothers. Zeldris is the captain of the Demon Clan’s ten Commandments while Meliodas is the captain of Liones’s Seven Deadly Sins of which I am co-captain and the Phoenix Sin of Darkness. To be fair, I look more like my mother and I think the only thing me, Meliodas, and Zeldris share is our dumbassery we inherited from our father. Second off, my cousin is Magi Aladdin since my mother is his father, Solomon,’s sister. Now, that’s enough of my actual biological family. Now, I won’t go into detail about those three. Because you already seem well-acquainted with one another. Anyways, onto the next one. The next one on my list of brothers is a half-demon named Rin who is the son of Satan along with his younger brother, Yukio, but he doesn’t really need protection. next is Kazuto Kirigaya also known as Kirito. I prefer to call him that. He got stuck in a game where if you die there, you die in real life, but he defeated them. next, we have Satan himself, a king of demons, Sadou Maou. He works as a part-timer for a fast food chain which is sad to be honest. Next, we have Alibaba Saluja, a prince and a king’s candidate, also my cousin’s best friend. He wields the fire djinn, Amon. Also, he’s trying to be a gladiator while figuring out his feelings for Fanalis and former slave Morgiana. Next, we have actual God Yato who is a former god of calamity and a current god of war. I think. I’m not quite sure. But he and his two regalia, Yukine and a Nora named Kazuma, but also Kazune under Yato, must be protected by me at all cost. Then, we have Edward Elric, a alchemist missing both a leg and an arm because he wanted to see his mom’s smile again which kicks me in the heartstrings whenever I hear it. His brother, Alphonse, is an honorary member of the Council of Brothers. And he used to be entirely a soul attached to a suit of armor. No joke.” 

“Does no one else notice that they are mostly raven haired or blonde?” Nico Robin commented. 

The Straw Hat Pirates turned to the three sworn brothers who just shrugged their shoulders at that. “I admit I am guilty for that. But my actual brothers are raven headed and blonde, so that may be the reason. Anyways, off to the next people. Now, this person could make Luffy look like a genius. Sometimes. Natsu Dragneel, a salmon haired fire dragon slayer, is the brother of Zeref Dragneel, the black wizard, and also simultaneously END, the most powerful demon of the book of zeref which makes him one of the top fifteen most powerful demons. Next, we have strawberry boi, Ichigo Kurosaki, a shinigami who I’ve been helping train. He could see the dead and then he discovered his spiritual power, stole the shinigami powers of Rukia Kuchiki, and started to exorcist hollows and send souls to the soul society. Then, we have my favorite band of brothers since they could literally be in a band. Broccoli Boi, Izuku Midoriya, kinda has a power augmentation quirk, best way to describe it without giving too much away, Porcupine Katsuki Bakugo who can blow things up with help from his sweat. Zuko Wannabe Shoto Todoroki who can wield fire and ice. Also, his brother Touya may or may not be Dabi. Then, Pikachu Kaminari Denki who can utilize elctricity, but too much and he makes Luffy look like a genius. No joke. Well… maybe… I don’t really know. Anyways, then we have speedster Tenya Iida. Oh, there’s sharkboy Eijiro Kirishima. He can make himself go as hard as rock, but he has limitations. Then, we have spidertape Hanta Sero that can shoot tape out of his elbows. Then, half-demon InuYAsha who is the son of a dog demon and a mortal woman. There’s also Shippo who is an adorable little kitsune. And I think I got everyone.” the girl looked at her board before smacking it again as she noticed Luffy had begun to doze off while Ace had totally fallen asleep. 

The action alerted the two boys to wake up at once and glare at their older sister. And then, a silver haired undead man with a flying blue cat landed on the floor of the ship. “Thank goodness we found you. C’mon. We got a mission and you and your ‘Team Natsu’ have a job request from the old man and a princess.” 

“So Hisui and Bartra both agree to have us do something, but what is this so-called mission?” asked [Y/N]. 

Ban smirked. “We’re fighting slave-trading pirates.” 

“I want in!” Luffy cheered.

[originofjaehyun]

Prelude: After Story | Part 2 | Nonstop

Prelude: After Story Masterlist

Word count: 4,027

Warnings: None

Part 2 | Nonstop

“You’re in danger, and I get shaken.”

Prev | Next

Read Interlude: No More Drama

Tag list: @justineasian​ @elauniesdream

Ever since Yuta moved to Seoul, he would always wait for Doyoung before they go to the office together. Simply because one, Yuta is an early riser and two, they lived in the same building.

Doyoung helped Yuta a lot with his move, which includes finding the best place for Yuta to stay for at least the next three years. Surprisingly, among all of the options that Doyoung has offered, Yuta fell in love with the apartment that was none other than Doyoung’s building.

“Are you sure about this?”

Yuta nods. “I like to keep my place with greeneries. This one faces the east, so I’ll get plenty of sunlight.”

Doyoung rested his hand on his hip, hummed in agreement. “If you say so. The view from here is really pretty, that for sure.”

Yuta and Doyoung friendship are odd. They’re not exactly the closest friends –since they started as colleagues. While Yuta worked with other people aside from Doyoung in the company, he felt most comfortable around him. It’s just the charming point of Doyoung, since he always took care of people around him. Furthermore, Yuta did have a thing with his best friend, resulting in them sharing a fairly good amount of time outside of work, thus making them closer naturally. Though, it’s not like they suddenly could claim as to each other’s partner in crime.

Today was like any other days. Yuta would wait in the smoking area near the parking lot. Yuta usually doesn't smoke in the morning –he said he likes to keep his lungs fresh when he starts his day– but everything changed a year ago. He doesn't really mind though, ever since he converted to IQOS.

“Morning, I hope you’re– whoa!”

Doyoung, who was still half-awake, is now on full alert when he sees Yuta.

“Dude, what a haircut!” He exclaims. “I thought your long hair would fit you best. Pretty jealous with a guy who’s able to tie their hair and still managed to look good, but dang those undercut looks good on you.”

Yuta smiled. “Thanks, bro.” He draws a smoke. “Thought it was a nice change. A new beginning, I guess? Like how someone told me.”

“A new beginning huh?” Doyoung shoved his hand to his pants pockets. “Well, speaking of…”

Yuta hummed at Doyoung, tilting his head because Doyoung is hesitating.

“Nevermind, I’ll talk to you over coffee.”

“Wow, such a joy killer.” Yuta quickly removes the white stick from its cartridge. “Well, let’s go then. I can’t handle cliffhangers.”

–

“Here,” Doyoung passes Yuta’s usual americano while holding his own matcha latte.

“Sankyuu,” Yuta thanked him, purposefully using his Japanese accent. “So, care to continue where you left?”

Yuta could sense that Doyoung stopped sipping his straw. But Doyoung realized that he’s dealing with Yuta here and his best trait is his directness. Though he’s a bit taken aback, Doyoung already expected Yuta to go back straight to the topic.

“Well, the thing is,” He pulled the chair, sitting across Yuta. “[Y/N] asked me if she could meet you.”

“[Y/N]?” Yuta’s eyes widen. Amongst all of the people, her name was the least that he would expect to want to meet him. “Meeting me? Is there anything wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong, but…” Doyoung pursing his lips, noticeably nervous. “Damn it, [Y/N], why do you have to do this to me?” He mumbles.

“Bro seriously, just go straight to the point.” Yuta gives his cup a few twirls before sipping it. “I won’t be offended if that is what you’re worried about.”

Yuta can see how Doyoung’s adam’s apple moves up and down. “She asked me whether she and Jaehyun could meet you to give you their wedding invitation.”

Immediately Yuta halted all of his movements. He has sworn to himself that he tries to move on. At this point he is even convinced that he already does. He never thought Doyoung’s last statement would cause that much pain.

Yuta remains silent, exactly how Doyoung expects him to be. “She did it out of good intentions, Yuta. I mean, I was around when you guys were together and I know it sucks to come to your ex’s wedding, but–”

“We never dated.” Yuta cuts him off.

“Well, whatever you called your relationship back then. At least from my eyes, you guys were happy and regardless of the ending, you did help her out of her slump. And she’s very grateful for that. If it weren’t for you, she probably wouldn't be able to be her complete self again, let alone to be together with Jaehyun.”

“Nonsense.”

Doyoung sighs. “You are special to her, Yuta. That wouldn’t change, no matter how bitter you take this news. If you’re uncomfortable I can come with you or I can ask [Y/N] to come by herself. Or would you rather to have her pass the invitation to me so–”

“Fine,” Yuta finally looks Doyoung in the eyes. “But I’m not comfortable meeting her… fiancé yet, so it would probably be best if I could meet her alone.”

A gum smile appeared on Doyoung’s face. “Sure, I’ll make sure to tell [Y/N].”

He finally rested his back on his chair. “Thank you for not making this difficult, bro.”

Yuta raised one of his brows, “Who said so? You’re paying for my coffee, right?”

Doyoung’s eyes grow bigger in disagreement.

–

Thank God Yuta managed to swallow his last piece of canelé —else he would choke after seeing her presence.

She came alone, just as Doyoung had promised. Yuta noticed she kept her hair length just the same. Nothing has really changed about her, except that she looks visibly more radiant.

She quickly spotted Yuta, and immediately pulled the chair in front of him.

“Hi,” She said as she took her seat. “Have you been waiting long?”

“No, not really.”

“Yet you just finished a canelé?”

“You know I’m a fast eater.”

She giggles. “Yes, I remember.”

Ah, her giggles.

Yuta could listen to this the whole day. It’s a strange feeling for him. As much as he loves her laughter, he hated the fact that he’s such a simple man –because he wishes he could listen to her laugh nonstop. That he could be the one that makes her laugh.

“Uhm, so…” Her relaxed demeanor changed into a slightly more skittish posture. “I guess if you agree to be here, it means you know the reason why I want to meet you.”

Yuta parted his lips from his cup. “You could’ve just text or call me by yourself, you know? Our Doyoung looked like a poor rabbit that got trapped.”

He glad he mentioned Doyoung, as it manages to put a smile on her face. “Right, you are a scorpio, to begin with.”

Yuta rested his chin on his hand, unconsciously smiling. He never believes in astrologies, but it’s funny how whenever she mentioned his sign, he would reactively feel giddy as it is the first thing that she knew about him —other than his name and his nationality, of course.

“Well,” She went through her purse. “I was hoping you could come to our wedding.”

Then when the smile gradually fades.

You expected this.

Yuta said that repeatedly in his mind. Yet the pain that he feels on his chest doesn’t seem to subdue.

She’s marrying a Jeong. One of the most desirable bachelors in Seoul. Not only women are fawning over his look, but Jeong Jaehyun is a brilliant, wealthy man. At a young age and to be able to manage Seoul’s biggest corporate, it’s a no brainer that women fly around Jaehyun like he’s a flame to a moth.

Yuta expected the invitation to be grander, but instead, it was stunningly simple. The rose-embossed envelope was dominated with cream tones, and the only noticeable color was the muted rose gold wax seal on the envelope with their initials. Another simple detail that makes the invitation look even more beautiful was the addition of dried flowers in between the stamp and the envelope.

“It’s beautiful,” He flips the envelope to reveal a calligraphy text that reads Nakamoto Yuta. “You’re a creative director indeed, huh.”

She pinches his hand at his jokes, to which Yuta quickly replies with repeated ouches.

“Can I open this?”

She nods, and Yuta carefully opens the envelope to reveal a tea-dyed paper that has floral-details embossed on the corner.

Love isn’t something you find. Love is something that finds you.

And the two shall become one.

[Y/N] and Jaehyun invite you to celebrate their love and wedding.

Yuta remains silent as he continues to read the date and the venue, before finally speaking up.

“Dinner, dance, and drinks to follow, huh?”

She held her breath, clearly unable to predict Yuta’s reaction. “Specifically champagnes. Though, I’m pretty sure Johnny’s going to smuggle some whiskey —don’t ask me how.”

The memory of her, sitting next to him while going on a date seems as clear as a day for Yuta. He remembered how the tip of her ears turned red when he held her hands, receiving her smile at the end.

But she never shines as bright as she is right now. The way the stardust on her eyes sparkled when she talked about her wedding.

As painful as it is for Yuta to let her go, it would be even hurtful if he were to steal that happiness away from her.

“I’ll come.” He puts the invitation back to its envelope.

“You will?!” She shrieked, unable to contain her excitement.

“Whoa, calm down soon-to-be bride.”

“Well, I didn’t expect you would… give me an answer this fast.”

“What? Do you expect me to be an asshole? You know I’m a pretty decisive person.”

“I’m aware on how… awkward this situation is. So I expected a lot worse.”

Yuta scoffed at her remarks, cuts her off before she could continue, “Congratulations, [Y/N]. I’m happy for you.”

Yuta saw how his statement caught her off guard, but her eyes slowly softened gradually. “Thank you Yuta. Really, I’m grateful that it was you.”

Yuta did not ask her to further explain her sentence.

“I’m glad it works out in the end.”

–

“Ah, thank you.”

Yuta exited from the back seat of his Uber when the valet opened the car door for him. Although Yuta already owns a car in Seoul, he had a hunch that he’s going to drink a lot today and as a responsible adult, he decided to skip driving.

The wedding venue stretches out to the lobby –and Yuta can already tell that the scale of the wedding is quite grand. The hallway was filled with the wedding decorations, in which the couple tries to keep the ethereal theme intact. A large acrylic box filled with green leaves fillers and giant white orchid greets the guest. On that box Yuta could spot gold letterings that spelled Welcome to the Wedding of [Y/N] and Jaehyun on its full glory.

The more steps Yuta takes to walk to the main venue, the more magnificent the decoration is. Toffee-colored roses bloomed beautifully on the hallway, looking marvelous with the giant pampas in between. Yuta gave small nods in approval after looking at the decor –impressed with the florist who worked on this.

Of course, he could see the pictorial pre-wedding photos of the couple. It seems like there are multiple themes for their pre-wedding shoots –from an editorial-like studio photoshoot to something that goes above and beyond like a shoot in the middle of the desert. Who knows how they were able to pull these off, but knowing the person she’s marrying, the answer doesn’t seem so far off.

However, the very photoshoot that made Yuta stop his step was the simplest theme; both of them laughing in the kitchen. Obviously Yuta is aware that there were probably crews behind the scene, asking them to pretend that they’re cooking –or in this case, playing with their food. But for someone who spent a good amount of time loving this very person, he knows best that the smile on her face is genuine. And the way they hug each other was so full of love.

He bitterly smiled, steps getting heavier as he knows the more he entered, the more pain it is going to be for him.

Why did I say yes?

He didn’t rethink much about his own question when he finally arrived at the main venue. The weather was clear as if nature is giving their blessing to the happy couple. The outdoor wedding was breathtaking, especially on the main wedding arch. The venue itself is already spectacular on its own –beautifully nestled on the bank of the river. Another charming point is the fact that the traditional Korean architecture married very well with the skyscrapers across the river. Additionally, it was even more impressive because the guests are able to soak in the spellbinding view of the sunset.

“Good afternoon, sir.” The wedding organizer greets him. “Are you a part of the bride’s or the groom’s guest?”

“The bride.”

She gave him a warm smile as she received the invitation, confirming his reservation. “OK, please take a seat on the left side. It shouldn’t take long before the ceremony started.”

It was an intimate wedding. Though they were a pair of lovebirds before, it was not enough for Yuta to know every single person on her circle. At least, he was unable to find any familiar face. So Yuta assumed people like Doyoung, Hanbyul, and Mingyu are taking the role of bridesmaid and groomsmen.

He took a glance at the groom’s side, where he spotted Donghyuck who’s glued to his phone. Yuta also notices the people from the last party, was it Sicheng and Taeil? He then saw how Taeyong quickly found his seat, and before long the ceremony was starting.

The officiant leads Jaehyun to wait at the altar from the side. Afterwards, Mark made his entrance, as Jaehyun’s only relative. The groomsmen quickly follow after, including Johnny who’s his best man, escorted the bridesmaids down the aisle.

When the flower girl disperses the roses petals and the ring bearer enters, Yuta is unable to focus on anything but the person who is walking right behind them.

She was breathtakingly beautiful.

Her choice of the wedding gown was the classic white off-shoulder silhouette dress. But the Óscar De La Renta gown is anything but mediocre. The floor-length tulle gown was embroidered with organza threaded flowers, and the veil that she wore that was made out of delicate chantilly lace. When he thought the dress couldn’t impress him further, the custom made veil was dazzled with meticulously embroidered rhinestone embellishments.

As the bride makes her entrance, Jaehyun starts to hold his hand together tighter. It is almost too visible for the audience to see how red his hands are. Jaehyun is a man who rarely wears his emotions on his sleeve, but seeing the love of his life walking down the aisle is enough for him to take off his mask. The thought of making her officially his wife causes him to well up.

All eyes were on her, but Yuta was especially unable to stray his eyes away. The way she walks gently to meet her groom at the other end of the aisle, but at the same time holding her bouquet that is dominated with muted blush orchids that are complimented with white roses nervously.

Yuta is able to catch all of that. However the thing that keeps Yuta’s eyes fixed on her is how even with the sheer veil that covers her face, he could still see how incredibly happy she is.

And the one that is able to put on that radiant smile is no other than Jaehyun.

She finally reached where her future husband is. She faces Jaehyun, and he takes a step forward to lift up her veil. Almost instantly, a single stream falls from Jaehyun’s eyes. She was beyond beautiful in his eyes. And although he was crying, he couldn’t help but to grin widely, exposing both of his dimples.

The sweet scene gained collective awes from the audiences. But Yuta took a deep breath instead so that he won’t stop collecting himself. Preventing him to do something that he would regret in future.

“Dear our lovely guests,” The officiant opens the event. “We are gathered here to celebrate love, the unison of our happy couple, [Y/N] and Jaehyun who are about to become Mr. and Mrs. Jeong.”

He proceeds by addressing the couple, and then comes the time where they exchange their vows.

“[Y/N],” Jaehyun opens up his cue card. “You are, without a doubt, my unconditional love.”

Contradicting the smile that she put on her face, her eyes started to tear up. Jaehyun took another deep breath before he continued.

“Today, I love you completely, as I did yesterday and yes, definitely for another seventy years, and even more. I promise I will provide a safe haven for our family, like what you provided to me. I promise to build a home that is filled with joy, learning, and compassion. There’s no need for you to look for me because I will be there for you, always. I will share your dreams, your joys, and I will be the place of comfort in your sorrows. I promise that you are my once in a lifetime love, because I will always find you in every love song, even in deafening weather, on the smallest things, and my dream is still, and will always be you.”

She wished she could hug the person in front of him after he reached the end of his vow, but she was busy tapping the tissue gently so that the tears won’t ruin her hours-long makeup. The officiant gave her a nod, allowing her to proceed with her vow.

“Jaehyun,”

There’s a crack in her voice, telling the audience that she’s mustering all of her strength to keep herself calm and collected.

“My everything, I give myself today to you to be your wife. I vow to share the rest of my life with you. To speak nothing but the truth to you in love. I promise that I will never give up on you, to respect you as to how you respected me. Building a home together with you seems like a dream, but my dream, too, is always you. Whether it’s through health, or illness, or when all of our hair turns grey and we get all wrinkly –at the end of my life, even when it has passed seventy years, I hope the person staying next to me is you.”

At her vow, Jaehyun repeatedly uses his thumb and index finger to wipe his own tears. He pressed his lips together, and even from far away it is visible that he was doing his best to hold his tears. Crying not out of sadness, but under immeasurable happiness.

After they exchange their rings, the couple look at each other once more. Completely on their own space. Speaking in a language that no other person in the audience could understand, before the officiant pulls them back.

“You may now have your first kiss!”

At the sign, Jaeyun pulls her to his embrace and gently kisses his now-wife. As if they’ve dreamed of this moment to live, they closed their eyes to soak in all the raw emotions they’ve felt for each other. They only realize that the time didn’t stop when the audiences are cheering for the happy couple.

And that is all Yuta needs to confirm his feelings.

Like everything that he’s been holding on, burst open like a bubble. There were no longer lingering feelings. No longer sign of remorse. Everything just made sense. So while people who sat nearby clapped and cheered, Yuta quietly wiped his own tears.

–

The scenery of the brilliant sunset is quickly replaced by the dim lights from the string lights that drape above the venue. While they provided tables for the guest to eat, all of them are currently holding drinks while enjoying the dance floor. 

Yuta, on the other hand, decided to step away from the crowd. Distancing himself so that he can have a moment of peace for a second, but just enough for him to see how the happy couple shares their happiness with their friends and family.

“Enjoying the night breeze, sir?”

Yuta was not expecting someone to come see him. After all, the crowd that is acquainted with him is quite minimal in this party.

“Ah, you are–”

“Oh, how rude of me,” She uses her free hand to cover her mouth, before offering it to Yuta. “Hi, I’m __.”

“Yes, the florist. Are you the groom’s guest?” Yuta assumed since Mark is working for her.

She quickly shook her head. “Actually I’m here because I’m in charge of the floral decoration.”

Yuta’s eyes widened. “You did all of these? They’re amazing!”

She smiles shyly. “I’m glad all of the efforts didn’t go in vain. At least, I’m glad to know that you like it.”

“The couple is impressed, too, I bet.”

She nods her head. Yuta took another sip of his champagne before prolonging the pregnant pause.

“Are you OK?”

Yuta cocked his head, asking her to elaborate her question.

“I didn’t mean to pry, but I saw the way you look at them during the ceremony and… you cried.”

Oh?

He didn’t think that anybody would notice. Yuta does not have that much significance as part of the guest. He is not Johnny, being the groom’s best friend, nor Doyoung. He is simply the bride’s ex-lover, and they invited him probably out of guilt and a way of saying their gratitude.

He also didn’t expect a woman would be as equally direct as him while keeping her eloquent speech.

“Well,” He twirls his glass of champagne. “Are you free? Or do you have any other responsibilities after this?”

“Oh, usually I leave after I finish. Usually the W.O. would have their own cleaning team, and I leave the couple to decide what they would do with the flowers. Mark insisted me to enjoy the party, but it’s quite difficult to enjoy the party if I don’t know anyone. You’re a regular in our shop, so out of hope that I have sheer luck, you don’t mind that I approached you first.”

A coy smile appears on Yuta’s face. “Actually,”

He then took a glance at where the main event was. Looking directly on how Johnny forces Jaehyun to drink directly from the bottle, and the way his legs sways left and right before he falls to his wife’s arm. A happy, but drunk chap.

“I happen to know one of the groomsmen. They clearly oversupply their alcohol, let me steal a bottle or two. Would you care to accompany me for a drink?”

Yuta saw how bewildered she is, and unconsciously laughed at her expression. “I guess the tie is not for me, it suffocating. Also, you don’t need to worry about me being drunk-driving, I can also ask an Uber from the groomsmen.”

Yuta could see she nervously looking sideways, probably not sure how to react to Yuta’s invitation.

“There’s no hidden agenda, really. Odd, isn’t it? You are a stranger, yet I feel the most comfortable talking to you. Probably because you are a stranger, I got nothing to lose by telling you anything. You don’t have any prior judgment about me anyway.”

She remained silent, eyes still fixed on Yuta. Silence consumed them, and the only sound that could be heard was the distant laughters from the dance floor.

“Well, I’m not forcing you or anything.” Yuta decided to break the silence away. “But I thought of drinking my woe away, and it would be a pretty sad scene, don’t you think? To drink alone on such a happy day?”

She finally lets down her guard, smiling at him. “My car is not fancy, but I can definitely drive well.”

A/N: They’re finally a married couple :’) One more chapter to go before the series come to an end!

[millennial-star-gazer]

When A Celestial  Prey Dreams: Chapter: 2 (Nalu Week 2020)

When A Celestial Prey Dreams

Nalu week 2020 Prompts: Voice, Flirt, Charm & Smile (All implied)

Genres: Romance, Drama & New Adult Fanfiction

Pairing: Nalu/Endlu (Natsu x Lucy & E.n.d. Natsu x Lucy)

Rating: M for language, steamy and mature/adult sexual content (all consensual) in these and future chapters. Reader Discretion  is advised.(You've been warned!)

Summary: Such a carnal thrill of the hunt is too electrifying for words; especially when a fire demon sets his sights on a celestial maiden who's more-than-willing to be his prey. What seems to start off as a random dream for Lucy quickly escalates into far-more sizzling territory. New ficet which will eventually combined into upcoming chapters for TDDW along with other fics. First two chapters are entries for @nalu-week  2020. (Nalu/Endlu-centric and semi-au/canon divergent). 

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Chapter 2: A Major Reunion and The Most Lethal of Vows

A/N: Hey guys, here's chapter 2 aka my second entry for @nalu-week  2020. Special thanks again to @mannyegb for helping me edit and further develop this chapter!  Now on to the actual chapter-enjoy!

Note: Scroll past the Read More Button/Cut for designated links and actual story content.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairytail which instead belongs to the one and only Hiro-sensei instead!

________________________________________

Read  More  of This Fic and  on other  Platforms 

Note: Copy and paste links into another browser tap if reading on desktop site

1. When A Celestial  Prey Dreams

A.  Tumblr

Previous (Chapter) (Click Here:) (or here: https://millennial-star-gazer.tumblr.com/post/621681896131379200/when-a-celestial-prey-dreams-chapter-1-nalu    

Chapter: 2 (Click Here:)   Next (Chapter) (Click Here:) (or here: https://millennial-star-gazer.tumblr.com/post/627371278930755584/when-a-celestial-prey-dreams-chapter3)

B. Fanfiction

I. Main Fanfiction (Click Here:) (or here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13623687/1/When-A-Celestial-Prey-Dreams-Nalu-Week-2020)

II. Secondary (Click Here:) ( or here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13143482/1/Millennial-Drabbles)

II. Other (Click Here:) ( or here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13246734/1/Millennial-OTP-Drabbles)

C. A03

I. Main A03 (Click Here:) (or here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24802720/chapters/59984170)

II. Secondary (Click Here:) (or here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18244343/chapters/43167767)

3. Master Post  Of All My Writing And  Profiles (Click Here:) (or here: https://millennial-star-gazer.tumblr.com/post/179665258923/master-fic-rec-post)

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Legend

Italics: Lucy's dream or song/literary quotes

Bold: First Person Thoughts Within The Dream

Bolded Italics: Telepathic dialogue or empathized words

Bolded Italics: (outside of main story): A/N

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"When you need me, I'll step out of the shadows and protect what's mine"

(Source: Unknown)

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Sometime later

__________________________________________

How long have I been running?

Lucy couldn't pinpoint just how much time passed when she reached a steady-moving creek just beyond the edge of the forest clearing. 20 minutes, 30, 40? Difficult to tell really. But hey, the brook was very much a welcome sight for her sore eyes either way.

Hmm…..I wonder...

A quick cursory scan across the surroundings confirmed that navigating through the shallow waters would be a Highly efficient trek across to get to the other side for Lucy.

And it'd shave a bunch more time off my trip than it would go all the way around. Not to mention, the opportunity for her to hopefully scope out the perfect spot for laying low. Like, say a cave or a grove beneath the cover of trees to set up camp with the much-welcomed cozy heat of a crackling fire.

It'd be nice to take a breather and regroup with my spirits. Figure out my next move. Maybe even get a quick bite and some shut-eye. Even better if it's in Natsu's arms and I can convince him to let us spend a few days together in the woods instead of being cooped up in that goddamn horrible fortress. Just us, plus Happy and my spirits when they pop by. Either way, all in all, it should be a nice retreat from all the chaos. God, I miss them all already. Okay, gonna cross.

All decided then, a proverbial hop, and skip to the stream it was.

A few minutes later

__________________________________________

A bit chilly and soggy but not the worst experience overall.   

Kind of impossible for the blonde not to notice the river water soaking into her boots though.

Definitely unfortunate though no biggie ... I'll just hang the boots by a fire to dry and wear shoes from one of my star dresses.

"Lucy-hey !"

Natsu's audible shout pierced through her thoughts.

Sounds like he found me ...

"Up here, Luce!" The voice hollered down a second time with an undeniable note of urgency. "Yeah, look up!"

Definitely Natsu then ...

Lucy's eyes flickered above to see the aloft fire demon in the air with unfurled wings.

"There ya' go. Wait. Why are you—" he began to question, brows knitting together in confusion. " Never mind. That's not important right now. How about you finish crossing and meet me on the other side?"

"Sure," Lucy complied, finding no actual reason to object. God knows she couldn't help but desperately need— no crave-to be inside her soulmate 's robust arms as if deprived of precious oxygen for too long. So much so that i had to be some kind of astounding miracle that her already fragile self- resolve didn't shatter sooner ."Meet you on the other side."

"Yep."

The celestial wizard watched Natsu sail over her head with relieved eyes before; making her way over to a grassy bank. Not long after, the demon lord's feet landed on solid ground just as she reached the river's edge.

Finally…

"Land ho, huh?". Natsy let loose a breath of tremendous relief. "Thank god you're all right. Honestly had me pretty worried there when I caught whiffs of your blood. Here- let me help you." An open hand to his mate who gladly accepted.

"Thanks," she breathed, a faint smile pulling at the corner of her lips. So warm ...   Mavis knows that it was impossible for the celestial wizard not to relish in the blissful warmth of the fire eater's touch. "and I accidentally ended up slicing my hand open when running earlier. Probably the reason why you could smell a bit of my blood too .

"Aw Shit... yeah," Natsu echoed, brow creasing in moderate concern." That does make a lot of sense actually. Can I take a look?"

"S-Sure..." Lucy willingly let her palm be turned over by Natsu's hand with the still-bleeding gash in plain sight.

"Oh crap— this is pretty bad". He sighed, dismaying the corner of his lips into a frown ."Not life-threatening but you're still gonna need stitches for sure". A thumb brushed over Lucy's wound; with such delicate care, that warmth flooded her veins.

"So sorry about your hand Luce. We'll get you fixed up in no time though."

"Okay... I don't doubt that ."

"Good to hear."

Still, there's something bothering me about Jackal and the others...

"Hey, Natsu?" Lucy spoke up, trying her most damnest to sound nonchalant—untroubled even. No need to panic prematurely after all. "I was wondering about Jackal, Rayan, and Tempest."

"Yeah, what about them?" Natsu's attentive hum along with the open light of his gaze in response to her question was an encouraging sign . "Now, where did I put that cloth? Be pretty useful for your hand right now. I'm still listening by the way. Please continue."

"Okay. So.. those three aren't searching for me too, are they?" Lucy couldn't mask the tremor in those words; not with the surge of terror shooting through her heart. "Really don't want either one of them coming after me..."

It'd be terrible...

"Those slimy bastards won't be getting anywhere near you, Lucy," E.n.d. declared, voice coming in eerily calm with a distinct edge that bordered on lethal. "Trust me. I'll make damn sure of that. His tone dropped to a thinly-veiled threat of menacing proportions that sent a chill down Lucy's spine." By smashing all their teeth by breaking and crushing every worthless bone in their bodies if they so much as lay a finger on ya' or even try. "

Jeez... Natsu really would go that far to keep me and everyone he loves safe, wouldn't he?

"Hell, why not broil their flesh to a blackened crisp too? Pretty sure I told em' as much and more before setting out to find you earlier."

"Okay…"

" Aw Damn.."

Just for Natsu's eyes to instantly soften at the unfettered panic that was written all over Lucy's face.

"Whoa easy there" The dragon slayer soothed, running the back of his hand down her cheek in a gentle caress. " It's gonna be alright, sweetheart. I'll protect you if it comes down to a fight. Just like I always have— promise. Plus, we got your spirits to back us up or get you out of here or create a distraction if we bump into those guys again. It'll be fine, okay ?"

"Okay," Lucy let out a breath, speeding heart rate now slowing down. Her fears were eased by Natsu's attentive care after all. "Okay. I feel a lot better. Thanks, Natsu."

"Yay— that's the spirit, Luce!" Natsu approved, flashing his mate a sunny grin that set her heart aflutter. "And anytime.  Now lemme' get your hand bandaged up for ya'."

"Alrighty."

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A/N: And that's Chapter 2 folks! Hope you enjoyed and stay tuned for more! Anyway, I don't really have to much to say other than my usual A/N spiel. You know by basically being sure to let me know what you think by leaving a comment/review, liking and reblogging! Please feel free to check my other entry and the rest of my writing. (Corresponding Links are above, in the navigation bar and bio if reading this on tumblr. Please also see my FF and A03 profiles!) All right, that's all for now folks! Thanks to everyone for the incredible show of support so far again ! Until next time-take care!

[catthecoder]

tag game - get to know me

tagged by the awesome @orangenfrottee - thank you, i haven’t done one of these in ages and these questions sound like so much fun! 💕

1. what is the color of your hairbrush? it’s grey on the back with black handle

2. name a food you never eat - hmm, i used to be such a picky eater but i recently slowly started eating a lot of food i used to despise... if you asked me a few months ago, i could write up a rather long list, but right now? the only thing that comes to mind are picked cucumbers 😬

3. are you typically too warm or too cold? too cold, 100%. somehow, my body stays cold even when it is like 30 degrees, which is hella weird.

4. what were you doing 45 minutes ago? eating lunch! i made bagels with ricotta, ham, cheese, egg and avocado and i had a couple of baby cucumbers along with it (mind you, not pickled ones) and it was super delicious.

5. what’s your favorite candy bar? i think twix is my favourite? or perhaps this slovak bar called ‘horalky’, which is basically wafers with peanut filling and sides dipped in chocolate... god, now i want one so desperately.

6. have you ever been to a professional sports game? i used to watch hockey a lot and i’ve been to a couple of games.

7. what is the last thing you said out loud?  huh, i think it was my order when i went for coffee a couple of hours ago? (i got a latte and a piece of apple crumble cake, in case anybody’s wondering)

8. what is your favorite ice cream? i could eat ben&jerry every day, so it’s probably their ‘half baked’ or ‘phish food’. also, i’d die for a good mango sorbet.

9. what was the last thing you had to drink? plain old water

10. do you like your wallet? i like how small and practical it is..... i’m trying to recall the last time i actually took it out of my backpack and i’m coming very short.

11. what is the last thing you ate? the bagels from question 4!

12. did you buy any new clothes last weekend? i bought a pair of new masks last thursday and they arrived on monday - does that count?

13. what’s the last sporting event you watched? haha, does the bake off count as a sporting event? if not, i think it would be some skiing competitions (slalom) last winter - my parents follow them rather closely and it kind of rubs off on me when i’m home with them.

14. what is your favorite flavor of popcorn? salty mixed with sweet!

15. who is the last person you sent a text message to? my boyfriend.

16. ever been camping? does setting up a tent in friend’s backyard and sleeping there count? if so, then yes.

17. do you take vitamins? not really... i sometimes take c during autumn for immunity, but i haven’t bought any this year so far... oh, i am taking probiotics right now, though i’m not sure whether that counts as vitamins.

18. do you regularly attend a place of worship? no.

19. do you have a tan? no, if i try to tan, i just turn pink (or red). though i’m pretty sure my skin is marginally lighter underneath where i wear my watch.

20. do you prefer Chinese or pizza?  if going out, pizza; if i’m cooking, chinese.

21. do you drink your soda through a straw? if there’s ice in it, then yes; otherwise, i tend to skip the straw. 

22. what color socks do you usually wear? black or white.

23. do you ever drive above the speed limit? gonna be honest and say yes. not by crazy amounts or anything like that, but if i know the road and i can see quite far around and ahead, i will go 10ish% above the limit easily. not gonna lie, it’s especially easy on highways (though i nearly got fined last time i drove, so who knows how i’ll feel about it the next i’ll sit behind the wheel) 

24. what terrifies you? haha, like i’m going to share that.

25. look to your left, what do you see?  a shelf with alcohol bottles, glasses that don’t fit into our kitchen cabinet, an assortment of cameras and other photography equipment and a scanner. oh, and a window.

26. what chore do you hate most? taking out our organic waste bin - it starts smelling very bad very quickly plus the bin for it downstairs hadn’t been taken out in a very long time and it’s always covered by fruit flies and smells veeeery bad and i’m feeling yucky just thinking about it.

27. what do you think of when you hear an Australian accent? i think - hah, that person is australian, how cool.

28. what’s your favorite soda? i love san pellegrino. limonata is my go to, but i recently had lemon & mint and my god, that one is amazing.

29. do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? i go in, even if i drove there - i don’t like eating in my car.

30. what’s your favorite number? i’ve always had a special connection to number three, so let’s go with that.

31. who’s the last person you talked to? depends on what you mean by talked to - actually spoke to, with my voice? the bartender at my favourite coffee shop. had a meaningful conversation? probably with a customer service employee who’s helping me resolve an issue. just chatted to, without much of a point? my boyfriend.

32. favorite meat? hmm, probably ham?

33. last song you listened to? i’m currently listening to ‘cigarette daydreams’ by ‘cage the elephant’, though that’s going to change in a minute and half.

34. last book you read? ‘renegades’ by marissa meyer! it was so. good! i started the second book, ‘archnemesis’ yesterday and i’m even more in love. 100% recommend if you’re into superhero stories with secret identities and enemies-to-friends(-to-lovers). such an amazing series.

35. favorite day of the week? what even are days?

36. can you say the alphabet backwards? only crazy people can.

37. how do you like your coffee? oat latte with a bit of honey.

38. favorite pair of shoes? i own way too many shoes to be able to pick a single favourite pair.

39. time you normally get up? between 8:30 and 9:00.

40. what do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets? sunsets.

41. how many blankets are on your bed? none. there is one on the couch though.

42. describe your kitchen plates? we found this kitchen set in tesco after eating from paper plates for at least a week after moving in - there are four bowls, four small plates and four big plates (a year layer, we found two extra big bowls matching our set) - the bowls are grey from outside and white on the inside; the small plates are grey on the top and white on the bottom and the big plates are white on top and grey on bottom.

43. describe your kitchen at the moment: very small - a third of it is a stove (with two heating pads? circles? whatever), another third is a sink and the last third is workspace with a small shelf for spices, cutlery etc, and a cutting board and knives stand. most of the workspace is taken up by a cutting board i used to cut avocado and cucumbers for lunch and there is a tiny pan (and i mean really tiny, like one egg sized) leftover on the stove. i’m probably going to do the dishes after i finish answering these.

44. do you have a favorite alcoholic drink? i’m not that picky, i’ll drink almost anything. i think i prefer fruity drinks though - i really like french martini or sex on the beach.

45. do you play cards? we used to play cards a lot with my parents and sister (and grandparents as well) - i love playing canasta, but you need four people for that, so i haven’t actually played in months... we also played a lot of joker and i taught my boyfriend to play this summer (not that he didn’t know how to play, he just wasn’t particularly good)... and we also play poker with a couple of our friends here from time to time

46. what color is your car? this is going to sound so bad, but i am actual not sure? we ended up finding quite a good deal on a car we wanted to get after uni, so we bought it - however, it is back in slovakia and both me and my boyfriend are stuck in uk right now. it’s either black or very dark blue, but for the love of my life, i can’t remember and the photos i found weren’t helpful at. all. (if it weren’t for covid, i’d be able to answer this question a lot better). oh, and the car i had before (my mom’s old car) is red.

47. can you change a tire? i like to think i’d be able to (after enough googling and youtube videos), but if there was somebody else with me, i’d gladly let them do it.

48. your favorite state or province? like in usa or what? i guess new york.

49. favorite job you’ve had? i don’t think i’ve particularly enjoyed any of the jobs i had so far - if i had to pick, i’d say working in an ice-cream shop, because if there is one thing that could make work during a very hot summer even slightly bearable, it’s the fact that every so often, you can nibble on a bit of an ice-cream.

i’m tagging @stonerbughead @strangenightsofdaydreams and @i-know-you-can - i know there is like 50 questions and that’s a lot, but they were actually a lot of fun? 

[ashes-and-ashes]

Dreams

Angsty Drarry. Some pretty descriptive injuries here!

~

He’s dreaming again.

Harry always hated his dreams, the ones full of Voldemort and the War, of Sirius falling and Remus dying and blood and bone and screams. Even after everything happened - when the dust had settled and the bodies buried - the dreams remained.

He never was able to sleep fully through the night, but he was at least able to manage fitful dozes. 4-5 hours of light sleep was barely enough for him to function, but Harry was used to exhaustion, the agonizing work of repairs and rebuilding, trying to patch together all the shattered pieces. He almost enjoyed it, the tediousness of exhaustion, because at least it made him forget about everything that had happened.

He’s almost used to it now, the nightmares. When they first happened he would wake up screaming, the dead bodies imprinted against his eyelids like they had been etched there. Eyes flying open, chest heaving, throat hoarse from screaming, covered in sweat and tears and shaking from guilt.

At first there were always hands to hold him, wrapped around his heaving chest, legs entangling with his. Draco always knew what to do whenever Harry was having one of his panic attacks, whether it was hugs or tea or fucking him until he couldn’t think any more. Harry used to be able to fall asleep watching him, the grey eyes and blond hair, used to imagine that the two of them would be together always.

After he had left, the dreams still came, ripping through his mind and racking his body with sobs. There were no arms to hold him now; Draco and him were long over, and this time there was no one to wake with his screams. The dreams always stayed the same though; walking into a room, finding Ron dead, Hermione dead, Luna and Neville and Sirius and Lupin and Fred and Ginny and Draco…

And he’s never been alone like this, not truly, never been so heartbreakingly, agonizingly alone. It was like a Draco had carved a piece of his heart when he left, spun a web of silk and silver and blown it all to mist. He felt it, like a hollowness in his body, something so fundamentally wrong that he often wondered how he was able to wake up in the morning.

They had both agreed to leave. Both agreed that they were too damaged, too broken. Both agreed that Harry was the Angel and Draco was the Demon and maybe it was better if Heaven and Hell didn’t mix.

But God, what Harry wouldn’t give to have Draco with him, those sharp edges and shattered lines cutting through the absolute numbness in his life.

He’s not sure if he’s awake or dreaming when a light floods from the corner of his room. It’s bright, illuminating the rumpled sheets and the cracking walls, coming from the small chest in the corner.

Blearily, Harry rolled out of bed, swearing as he stubbed his toe against the stool that lay on the thick carpet. He clumsily flung the chest open, rummaging around inside for the source of the light.

It was coming from a mirror, he realized, face down at the bottom of the trunk. Gently, Harry lifted it up, the silver handle fitting in his hand like an old friend.

He remembers the night Draco gave this to him, 5th year, standing on the shore of the lake. The familiar dread that accompanied him whenever he thought about leaving Draco, of abandoning him with his parents and Death Eaters and Voldemort.

“Here,” Draco said, handing him the mirror. “It’s 2 way. So we can...we can - “

“It’s like a telephone!” Harry exclaimed. “See, the light shines when we are talking, and we can hear each other…”

Draco wrinkled his nose adorably. “I don’t know what that is. But sure.”

The mirror was glowing now, light pouring from its surface like the moon in a frozen lake. Harry started at it, heart pounding, before touching his lips to the cool surface. “Et erit in perpetuum,” he whispered, and his reflection rippled.

He almost dropped the mirror at the scene unfolding undid the of him. He recognized the park, the trees and the small river that cut across the rocks. It was only a 5 minute walk away from his flat.

Standing in the middle was Draco. It was dark, the moonlight angled away so that Harry couldn’t make out his face, but he could recognize those eyes anywhere.

Draco was bleeding, cuts on his face and his cheekbones, blood on his lips and under his eyes. He looked wrecked, covered in dirt and leaves, eyes a little bit wild as he stared into the mirror.

“Harry. Harry, please, please can I come over, they’re coming - “

Harry interrupted him. “Same place. Do you need me to - “

Draco shook his head. The light switched off abruptly, leaving Harry blinking in the dim light. He swore as he rubbed at his eyes, yanking on a moth-eaten sweater and heading down the hallway.

It had barely been 5 minutes before there was a frantic banging at the door. Harry pulled at it frantically; it swung open, Draco stumbling inside before Harry slammed it shut.

Harry swore, whirling around. “What the fuck…”

He trailed off. Draco had collapsed on the couch, his head in his hands. There was blood everywhere; his face, his neck, down his wrists and smeared all over his jacket. His knuckles were raw and dead - clearly he had split them open by punching something. Or someone, thought Harry, studying Draco’s face, the way his eyes were closed and how his teeth were digging into his bottom lip.

“Are you - “ started Harry, then swore as Draco started coughing. “God. What happened?”

Draco shook his head wildly. He was cradling himself, hands wrapped around his ribs, trembling against the sofa. He coughed again, swearing; Harry saw blood well between his teeth before he slammed a bowl down. “Spit in that,” he said - Draco nodded.

“Jesus fuck, Draco. What happened?”

Draco just laughed, through clenched teeth. “Did you forget? It’s the anniversary of the Second Battle.”

“And?” demanded Harry. God, he forgot how infuriating Draco was, the arrogance dripping from every syllable.

Draco let his head fall back against the sofa, exposing his neck. There were cuts there too, deep slashes against the pale skin, and Harry winced. “Draco. What. Happened?”

“Anniversary of the Second Battle,” Draco repeated. He closed his eyes. “People are pissed. They lost family, friends, loved ones. Of course they would take it out on me.”

Harry fell silent. “Did they - “

“No,” Draco said. He didn’t need to wait for Harry to finish - they knew each other too well. “They didn’t use Unforgivable Curses. Though I wouldn't have stopped them if they did.”

“How many,” breathed Harry.

Draco smirked, then winced. “I don’t know. Maybe 20?”

Harry frowned. Draco had fought in the War - he knew how to fight. There was only one way he could have gotten this injured and that was…

“You didn’t fight back?”

“God,” Draco scoffed. He slowly rolled his head around, until he was sitting up, one hand still pressed firmly against his ribs. “No. I didn’t. You know why? Because I deserve it. I helped tear their families apart. Why should I cause any more pain?”

“You’re 19, Goddamn it! They shouldn’t - “

“I’d do the same,” Draco said quietly. “If I saw someone who killed my family. Killed my parents. I’d try to tear them apart.”

“It’s a wonder we lasted for so long then,” Harry said coldly. “You with Voldemort and all.”

Draco gave him a half smirk, the sort he knew infuriated Harry. “Thank goodness you didn’t kill me then. Otherwise you’d be dead. Mother’s love and all. Even if you don’t really have one, I suppose.”

Harry shut his mouth, shaking his head angrily. They used to fight like this all the time, huge, explosive screaming matches, the kind you only had when someone you were losing someone you loved. Him and Draco were always like a time bomb, slowly winding down towards an explosion, euphoric and devastating all at once. For a moment he was tempted to kick Draco out.

Draco’s face crumpled, that half smile fading away. His face was tight, the skin around his lips bloodied from where he had bitten it. “Please,” Draco whispered. He didn’t need to say anything more; Harry could read it all over his face. Let me stay.

With a sigh, Harry pulled out his wand, kneeling down in front of Draco. Everything was covered in blood and dirt, mixed together to form some kind of sludge coating Draco’s clothes. He picked at it hopelessly until he threw his hands in the air. “Take your pants off.”

Draco was too tired to argue. He unzipped then, kicking them off with a series of stifled groans, leaving them collected in a crumpled heap on the floor.

His legs didn’t look too bad. There were a few deep cuts, and a rather nasty one behind the knees, but nothing that Harry couldn’t fix. He ran his wand over the worst of the cuts, putting Dittany on the few minor scrapes, letting the wounds slowly knit together.

“Better?” he asked, and Draco nodded, his jaw tight.

“My ribs are...worse.”

Harry took a deep breath. “We’ll handle it.”

Draco shrugged out of his jacket without another word, tossing it to join his pants on the floor. His shirt was a different story - it was so soaked in dried blood that Harry had to slice it off using a spell. He vanished it with a wave of his wand - it was stained beyond repair anyways.

He took a deep breath, turning to face Draco, before swearing low and viciously under his breath.

It’s familiar, Draco’s body, his chest and his arms, the way his collar bones stood out and how the bones created deep shadows by his hips. He recognizes the scars; tiny, silvery slashes, little cuts worn down over and over again to the bone. His father was very careful never to let anything show; a few nicks here and there that could easily be explained as an accident.

It’s covered in a film of blood though; there are a couple of deep slashes by his stomach, countless numbers of bruises along his ribs. The cuts arch all the way up to Draco’s neck as well, along the familiar paths that Harry used to trace late at night.

But the wound that caught Harry’s attention was the bleeding, bloodied mass of flesh on Draco’s arm. It looked as if someone had hacked away at the Dark Mark with a knife - ribbons of skin hung down from the wound, bits of jagged edges and paper-thin strings.

“They thought it was just a skin thing,” said Draco, his voice brittle. “They didn’t know that Voldemort burnt it down to the bone.”

“God,” murmured Harry, as he gently took Draco’s hand in his. Draco stiffened; he took a deep breath in, holding it as Harry gently ran the tip of his wand over the wound. “How long did this last for?”

Draco let out a breathless laugh. “30 minutes?”

“Shit,” Harry murmured, as he ran his wand over the cuts on Draco’s torso. Dimly he realized that this was the closest he’s been to Draco for ages, since before the War. He absentmindedly brushed a hand over Draco’s skin, smoothing away the blood.

Draco’s breath hitched. Startled, Harry pulled his hand away, heart pounding. “Sorry,” he said.

Draco was trembling, from pain or exhaustion Harry didn’t know. “Fuck,” he whispered. “Just...fuck.”

Harry laughed. “Yeah.” He sniffed, turning away, trying to keep his voice steady. “Why did we even stop anyways.”

“Your idea,” Draco said, his voice bitter. “You needed someone else. Someone that reminded you of the future, instead of dragging you into the past. Someone who fought for you, instead of against you. How did you describe it again? Someone more?”

Harry winced. That fight had been massive, raging and raging until Draco had simply walked out.

He’d never come back.

“Yeah. Jeez. I don’t know.” Harry raked his hands through his hair. “God. It’s 2 in the morning. I should get some sleep.”

“Please,” Draco whispered. “I can’t go back out there.”

Harry gestured at the couch. “Stay.”

A look of relief passed over Draco’s face, relief as slowly Harry watches the muscles in his body relax. He winced at the pain from his wounds, letting his eyes drift shut.

“Is there anything you need?” Harry asked.

Draco hesitated. He played at his bottom lip with his teeth, ripping a piece of skin off. It started to bleed, crimson droplets gathering at the tip of his lip. “It’s just...Nightmares.”

Nightmares. Harry remembered Draco’s. If Harry was a screamer then Draco was a whisperer - he always went completely rigid, his heart slowing down until it was almost non existent. He remembers Draco jolting awake, completely numb, remembers holding him and rocking him until the tears finally began to flow.

Harry paused, at the doorway to his bedroom. “Do you want me to stay?”

Draco paused, then nodded, a sharp, quick motion. “Do you...do you mind?”

Harry took a deep breath. “Okay.”

He paced over, Draco scouting aside to let him share the couch. Harry took a deep breath, remembering this feeling, the comforting weight of Draco at his side. He stretched out, his body automatically pressing up next to Draco, legs slipping to intertwine with Draco’s.

He let Draco freeze, stiffen up for a moment, and Harry was about to pull back when Draco smiled. He closed his eyes, letting his head rest on Harry’s shoulder, stretching out on the sofa.

And when Harry finally fell asleep, for the first time since the war ended, he didn’t dream.

[vividreminisce]

I Want - Chapter 2

Here’s the second chapter to my series, “I Want”. Thank you so, so much for all of the reception that I received from the first chapter! It makes me very happy to see that people enjoyed it and that there’s still some activity here in Tumblr, haha. I’ll keep posting chapters here, so please stick around!

Also, I have this series finished in ao3, so if you’d like to read all of them in one go, hop on over there and give it a read! I also gave shoutouts to authors, works, and artists that really inspired me for this series after each chapter. I feel like there’s not enough attention/shoutouts to content creators, and when I finished this series, I vowed to do that from so many of them inspiring me and giving all of us gifts for free. Still not sure if I’ll do the same on this platform, but that’s another thought for another time.

Before we continue, this chapter was written and posted before the Shadowbringers artbook, so some of the content on here will be incorrect, if you can find it, haha. Don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll keep it vague and if you can’t find it but are curious, reply to this post or send me a message and I’d love to speak about it :)

Here’s Chapter 1 if you missed it!

If you’d like to see some screenshots of A’viloh, here they are! Excuse the crappiness, I’m not the best with gpose, haha.

Okie dokie, let’s get this show on the road! Below are the tags, chapter summary, and story! Please enjoy :)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Chapter Summary: Finally arriving at the Crystarium, the Warrior of Darkness prepares to heal his friend, some companions helping him start the process.

Fandom: Final Fantasy XIV

Ship: G’raha Tia/Crystal Exarch x OC

Rating: Mature, SFW

Writing Tags: Some depictions of medical procedures (not medically trained, some factors will be medically incorrect, but it’s all for the story), Slow burn, Angst, Hurt, Healing, Comfort, Acceptance, Fluff.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

“A’viloh… are you absolutely certain…?”

“I will be fine, Alphinaud. My wounds are starting to mend, and I have the energy to keep going.”

Everything that the Warrior of Darkness had instructed had thankfully gone according to plan. Lyna did have soldiers posted at each entrance to the crystal city and the ones at the Amaro launch were overjoyed at seeing the twins descend. Y’shtola and Urianger were quickly taken by Chessamile and the other healers, while Alisaie preferred to take her time walking there. Her brother could only shake his head at how stubborn she was to the very end, but she was quickly carried to an empty bed once the eldest healer saw her limping into the Spagyrics. By the time A’viloh and G’raha had arrived, Lyna was waiting for them, along with the Overseers of the city. The Warrior of Darkness shared a few words with them, telling them that he would bring the Exarch to the Tower and care for him there, and let them know of his progress as time went on. The ride to the Crystarium gave him ample time to check his wounds via healing magic (bless having his soul stones on hand rather than his bag), the damage not being as severe as he originally thought. He was grateful for the hood that obscured his friend’s face, though from their expressions, they knew of their leader’s condition. Still, they would not question the hero’s reasoning, that being on the perks that A’viloh was grateful for.

He followed the Captain up the stairs of the Dossal Gate and she opened the door without another word. They swiftly ascended the stairs to the Ocular and used the key that the Exarch bestowed to Lyna to open the room where A’viloh had the vision of the Exarch’s plans. Surveying the room, he was surprised at seeing a bed in the corner, somehow missing it when he first went in. When Lyna saw the Warrior’s surprised expression, she explained in not so many words that she found it when moving some of the Exarch’s books. Not one to question, he nodded and went to lay his friend on it. The Exarch’s breathing was still rasped, but it was much deeper, relieving the Warrior. Having felt his quick breathing against his back as they flew more than unnerved him, that being enough to realize how close the Exarch was to losing his life. Sharing a look with Lyna, he explained how the Exarch did not want to reveal his face to his people, at least not yet. He further explained that he had asked the Exarch permission to heal him, which was granted to him. A’viloh would have continued were it not for Lyna lifting a hand up to stop him. Her pink eyes never left the Exarch’s hooded face, his breathing almost deafening, despite the sound barely reaching the door.

“You have more than proven yourself to the people of Norvrandt, Warrior. If I may speak on behalf of the people of the Crystarium… do all that you can to make him as hale as he was when he left these walls. Any materials that you need, they will be yours. He is our first priority and always will be.” Despite how clear her words were, her expression said otherwise. She wanted to be strong for the Exarch… for her paternal family member. She needed to be strong. But it was so hard when she saw him in that state. What happened to have left him so weak? What little skin she could see, there was blood, dirty, sand, and wounds. His sandals had come undone, the leather straps on his left arm were slipping off, and whatever God was out there would know if his tunic could be mended. She forced her gaze back to the Warrior, stepping closer to speak for his ears only.

“He trusts you more than anyone else I know. As do I. So please… please see to him. Call me whenever you wish, and I will come running. Ask anything of me, and I will do it. It is the least I…  could do for the one that I see as family. If I can see the smile that he gave your way the first time that he laid eyes on you once more… That will be all that I will ever need in my lifetime.” The Captain finished.

A’viloh didn’t know whether to give Lyna a handkerchief from the tears that spilled at that revelation, or embrace her in reassurance. That look in her eyes told him that she needed none of those and only wanted to say her piece; she wanted to say that to him before he left to rescue the Exarch, and now she could. Schooling back his expression, he nodded and promised what was in his heart and mind. Using the back of a parchment that he found on the floor (which he hoped was to be tossed), he wrote down everything that he needed for the time being, along with what could be brought early in the morning. Lyna assured him that he would have the latter in no more than 2 bells and that she would personally bring the former in less than 1. It was in the middle of the first one that A’viloh had the brilliant idea of trying out the Linkpearl to speak with the male Leveilleur. It thankfully worked and they spoke in length of what had transpired when him and Alisaie arrived.

“I understand that the Exarch trusts you, as do we, my friend, but you shouldn’t heal him on your own… Is there naught that the chirugeons here can do…?”

“From what I can see, we should not worry as much about what can be seen. There are some cuts that I can disinfect and bandage up myself. What I am more worried about is…” A’viloh trailed off. His hand was on G’raha’s ankle, having taken off his sandals as soon as Lyna had left the room. The bed was nothing grand, only fitting one body and having a single sheet and pillow. It had some dust, most likely from the books that Lyna lifted off, but it sufficed for the time being. A’viloh sat at the very edge of the bed, not wanting to take up any more space than necessary. He knew that the leader needed to be in the Tower from how linked they were to one another, but he wasn’t entirely sure how; and he didn’t want to disrupt that flow.

Alphinaud noticed his friend’s silence, understanding his hesitation. That scene was one that everyone wished they could forget. How the Exarch was more than willing to give up his life for the Warrior to be relieved of the Light. How Emet-Selch appeared, and stopped those actions, but at the cost of a bullet to the back. Alphinaud knew of the man’s crystal condition, and he suspected it was the crystal that saved his life. As far as he knew, that bullet was still embedded there…

A’viloh blinked when the Elezen’s quiet question came through the linkpearl. “Do you perchance know how deep the wound is…?” Slowly getting off the bed, his hand came up behind the sleeping miqo’te, pressing down on the cushion as he leaned over to try to get a better look at the wound. A sharp exhale came out, not being able to see much of the wound from the fabric sticking close to the found. Running a hand through his brown hair, he carefully sat back down, hand coming back to rest on his friend’s cold ankle.

“I unfortunately cannot. I am waiting on Lyna to come back with the immediate medical supplies before I undress him. She will be coming any moment, and I do not want to keep you from resting. Before I forget… Alphinaud, please, do not tell anyone of the Exarch’s appearance, nor his name. I am sure that he would like to tell everyone in person, or at least… confront those that have already seen him.”

“Be at ease, my friend. Not a single word will come out of my lips in regards to the Exarch. I will relay our conversation with the rest of the Scions in private. Do tell Chessamile if you are in need of her assistance in getting that bullet out of him, or if not. That knowledge is not just for our relief but for theirs. Some of the healers are already talking amongst themselves and I would not be surprised if they request access into the Tower to tend to their leader.”

The Warrior of Darkness couldn’t help but smile sadly. They truly did love him. How could they not? The Crystal Exarch gave them the home that they needed when the Sin Eaters came to be. The Tower was their refuge, the actual light that they needed. It was the beacon of hope that G’raha Tia had hoped the Tower could become. And become it did.

“I will tell her immediately. Please, rest for now. You have done admirably, and I… I am grateful to all of the Twelve that you are all alive. Talk can happen another day. Please, get comfortable and let the healers do their work.” A’viloh’s eyes softened. Here he was saying that talk should happen another day, getting deja vu. Just as he did with his friend, he let out his gratitude. One last bit should be enough, along with some endearment.

“And… Thank you, Alphy. For all that you have done and for all that I know you will do. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Have pleasant dreams..” The Leveilleur twin did his best to stifle his gasp but it could still be heard via the linkpearl. The Warrior’s relationship with the twins was a strong one and he knew that they looked up to him immensely, which is why he would always praise the twins, not only because he truly meant it, but also from them deserving to hear it. They did more for him and the Scions than they let on and would only say half of their accomplishments; when he found that out, he made damn sure to take them under his wing. He treated them with the same respect that he gave the other “adults” but also coddled them every now and then. He hoped that his words hit the male twin’s heart just as much as if his sister had told them to him, his smile going soft.

“...A… A good night to you as well, my friend. Do not stay up too late and please… may you also rest. Twelve knows that you need it.” Came Alphinaud’s reply, voice cracking halfway before the connection was broken.

Quick footsteps were heard towards the direction of the Ocular, Lyna pushing the door open with her shoulder. A heavy looking box along with a large bag was obscuring her vision, but she set everything down as if it was only parchment paper. She was breathing heavily through her nose, that being the only indication of the box’s true weight and placed the bag in front of A’viloh. Using a heavy knife, she quickly opened the box and pointed to each item, fumbling with the ones that could not be seen immediately.

“We are in luck, Warrior. The chirurgeons had in hand everything that you listed. In that bag are the ingredients that you requested and here are the tools used for minor surgery. In that box are sterile bandages and rags, while that box contains antiseptics. The smaller bags contain the empty bottles and the like. The more… flammable contents are at the bottom, protected by minor magick. Is there anything else that you require?”

Caramel ears perked up at all of the different goodies that he was brought, his scholar self already formulating the different ways that he could use all of the materials. The Bunsen burner must be at the bottom… Oh, there was the pestle and mortar. It wasn’t until his tail accidentally bumped into the person sleeping next to him that he realized how much he was gawking at everything. Lyna did not interrupt his thoughts, gaze expectant from awaiting more orders. Shaking his head quickly, the Warrior rose and set to sheepishly taking out the contents of the box.

“This should be more than enough for the moment. Thank you, Lyna. I will keep you posted on all of the developments with him. So far, he has been sleeping as well as one could with the wounds that he has. I checked some of them, and the external ones seem to be minor. What he truly needs is rest.” Lyna once again kept her eyes on her sleeping guardian when A’viloh gave his report. Her eyes were clear, but still largely unreadable. After a breath, she nodded.

“I will come back a few bells after the sun rises. You know what line I am on should you need me, correct?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Good. Before I forget.” Lyna stepped forward, bringing her right hand out and into A’viloh’s view. He blinked a few times when he saw the fist and lifted his head from the box. Slowly, he brought up his palm. A small weight landed on it and when he brought the item into view, he saw that it was a small crystal key. It was the same color as the Ocular’s walls and he made the connection instantly: it was the same key that G’raha had bestowed to Lyna before he left. Small as it was, it was still warm and held more than it showed.

Trust. She was fully trusting him with the contents of the Tower.

“Are you… are you sure in giving this to me…?” A’viloh asked quietly. He knew that he was stepping way over his boundaries. First he was keeping the Exarch away from his people. Next, he was being given the key to answering many of his questions. How much more would he be given…?

“Full sure, Warrior. This key… I believe that he wanted you to have it. I just happen to be the first to reach him,” came Lyna’s stern reply. 

“Remember, I will come late in the morning. Do not hesitate to call me should you need anything else.” And with that, she turned on her heel, quietly closing the door behind her.

Now alone in the room, A’viloh waited until he could no longer hear the Captain’s footsteps. Turning his head to look at the sleeping leader, he lifted his hand from his ankle and inspected his wounds once more. Several cuts were on his legs and arms, still dirty with blood and salt despite the long dip they had in the sea.

‘You can be yourself now.’ A’viloh paused, hand hovering over his pocket. Icy relief flooded into his veins, shuddering from the voice. They were getting stronger, something that he welcomed with open arms. However, their words made them slightly weary. Yes, they were alone, but--

‘She will not come back until morning. Be at ease.’

He trusted him. If Esteem told him it was alright, then it was. His tired shoulders relaxed, swiveling ears slowing down. Yes, yes, it will be alright.

“Let’s get you out of those clothes, shall we…” Standing a bit aways, he dipped his hand into his inner coat pocket and pulled out the soul stone belonging to that of the former Scholars, tucking his dark knight soul stone away. He thanked Fray for giving him strength in transporting the Exarch, as well as for the reassurance. With his magic now heightened, he laid his hands just ilms away from the sleeping Miqo’te, and let his aether do a more thorough inspection. Hands slowly moved to the Exarch’s backside and they stiffened when he felt the corrupted aether. It was undeniable that the bullet belonged to that of the Ascian, the foreign object feeling wrong. He brought his hands back down, sleeves lightly brushing against the Exarch’s red tattered tunic.

‘This bed is not enough. Surely… surely there must be other rooms in the Tower…’

He shoved his hand back into his coat pocket, picking out his summoner soul stone. He would not leave his friend alone, and he knew just the partner that would keep his friend company.

“Come on out, Lizette.” Writing out the necessary spell, his partner in crime appeared from a rainbow of colors. The red carbuncle shook her coat once, getting accustomed to the room around her before finally sitting obediently on her owner’s feet. A’viloh smiled brightly at the first friend that joined him on his long journey all of those years ago. Despite him using Esteem more often these days, it seemed that his other friend did not mind and was still willing to follow him to the ends of the earth. Bending down, he lovingly scratched her ears and then under her chin. She chirruped in glee, tail curling up around her feet.

“Lizette, I need to find a more suitable room for him. Stay at his side and keep him warm, will you? If anything happens, you come straight to me.” He scratched behind her ears again, her chirruping once more in understanding. “Come around his feet, he has a nasty wound on his back.” He picked up his furry friend and placed her close to them as she did as she was told. The Warrior nodded at her and swiftly left the room, making sure to keep the door wide open for Lizette to get out should anything happen. He hoped that nothing would.

Running across the Ocular, he inserted the key into the other door as gently as he could, hearing a faint click. As he pressed against the wooden door, he was quickly met with an immovable wall. He shoved a few more times, finding nothing to pull. Bracing himself against the door, he attempted to transfer some of his aether into the golden opening--nothing. Was he only allowed into that tiny room…?

“You… you said that you wouldn’t deny my request… So… so why…? Why won’t you let me in…?” The Tower was connected to him. He said back on the shores of Kholusia that he would let A’viloh treat him. Why was he being denied? Were those words just for that moment…? A’viloh could no longer see the door in front of him, vision clouded by tears. He wanted to help his friend and give him just as much as what he was given here in the First. He deserved that and more. He needed that and more. Trembling hands fisted against the door and A’viloh put some of his weight on the contraption, forehead thumping lightly on the crystal.

“G’raha Tia… I beseech you… Let me in… That room… It’s too small. Let me find something more suitable for your recovery. I swear to only touch that what is needed and nothing more. Please. Please, please, please… Just let me in--” By some grace of the Twelve did the doors finally open. Or maybe it was because of much A’viloh pleaded. Whatever the case, A’viloh caught himself before he cut open his chin and ran straight inside, only coming back to pull out the key if he needed it.

A room similar to the Ocular laid on the other side, but much larger and with more doors. With pinned back ears, A’viloh looked around, seeing how much larger everything was. The crystal walls were dimmer but did naught to make the room feel smaller. Natural light, or so he thought it could be deemed that, filtered in from a small opening on the ceiling. On his right, a grand pillar tried to hide the humongous golden elevator that led who knows where. On his left, four identical doors called to him. And in front of him was an incredible staircase, the top obscured by shadows. He decided to go clockwise with his investigation, the first door leading into what could only be described as some type of lounging area. The area was mostly barren with the exception of a couch, a few potted plants, and a table with two chairs. The second door led to a bathroom. His eyes flew open at the ginormous pool that took up a third of the room. Closest to the door was a wash basin, toilet, and shower head that any normal person could use. There was barely any personality in that room as well.

The third door took him to what he needed. A room befitting a historian laid inside, a still too large bed some ways in front of him that seemed largely untouched, but the room was filled to the brim with life. Books were stacked as far as a Miqo’te could still reach the top, all various sizes and colors. On the right of the large desk closest to the door were more books, some opened while others carefully stacked. All types of parchment were on the left, some having fallen and laying unceremoniously on the floor. Even the small chair was stacked with books. A’viloh only took note of what was closest to him and sprinted to the last room. He had left his two friends alone for too much time, and counted his blessings at Lizette not scampering in. He only had to peek in to see that it was the kitchen area and promptly closed it, full on running back to the red-haired Miqo’te.

He sighed deeply in relief that finding Lizette right where he left her. Judging from her relaxed position, G’raha’s condition did not change for the worse, but it was not for the better either. With a flick of his wrist, Lizette’s form changed to that of the Titan-egi, the two of them working together to place the Exarch on A’viloh’s back. They took their time with the process, quick pants being their only indication of the Exarch’s pain. He still didn’t wake, no matter how much they jostled him. A’viloh didn’t want to imagine the leader’s pained cries or tears either; he had seen enough of pain for one day. Ordering Titan to stack the bag of ingredients on the large box, it took even longer for A’viloh and Titan to get back to the bedroom A’viloh found from how difficult it was to control Titan’s movements and his own. They had to be gentle with everything they carried, the summoner needing to look down at his feet and state out loud which foot to place over the other. By the time they arrived, the Warrior of Darkness was exhausted mentally.

Placing the Exarch on his side, the Warrior began the painstaking task in removing the ornaments on the tunic along with the clothing itself. He refused to leave his friend with any remnants of the battle that they just won; a Miqo’te’s nose was more potent than a normal nose and he couldn’t count the number of times he wished that someone would remove his battered armor from him when being healed. He didn’t need that reminder of the battles that he could have lost or how much he went through to win them. He always held his tongue, knowing that he should be grateful in receiving any healing at all, but that didn’t mean that anyone else should have to suffer through his same fate.

He found a pair of clean cotton trousers in his bag and slipped them on the Exarch. Changing once more to his scholar form, he summoned Eos for the extra light and helping hand that he knew that he needed. But even then, that wasn’t enough. Looking around the room, he found lamps but no light source to them.

‘He must be able to control the light in here, and only him.’ Rubbing a finger under his chin in thought, he pondered at what else he could use as a light source.

‘Parchment paper is out of the question, I’ll just create an uncontrollable fire… The Bunsen burner would be too dangerous…’

Eos saw how deep in thought her master was in and bobbed around the room here and there to get accustomed to the space, just like how Lizette did. A’viloh’s tired eyes followed his fairy, more furniture coming into view but he did not keep tabs on all that was illuminated.

‘Illuminated…’

Snapping his fingers, Eos quickly came back to him from thinking that he needed her. Muttering an apology, A’viloh placed a hand on his chest as he began to conjure up the image of a warm friend. One that would always create a fiery glow on his tomes when he needed it, and its counterpart cast a gentle hue to help him sleep at night when the day’s events were too distracting in his mind. Within seconds, his Wind-up-Sun appeared, nearly blinding him until he moved it farther up. If he could not turn on a light, then he would just have to create it.

In a matter of minutes, he washed his hands as thoroughly as he could, changed into the cleanest clothes that he could find, and set about extracting the bullet from G’raha’s back. It was at this time that he really inspected his friend’s back, more so how far the crystallization spread to his body. As he thought, his right side was mostly covered, such as his hand, arm, shoulder, and part of his neck. The crystal took over the entire top portion of his back, that being what saved him, and then decided to slow down it’s path on his left side. His left shoulder was starting to get enveloped, judging from how thin the crystal appeared, and stopped on the left side of his neck. Nape and Adam’s apple remain largely untouched, surprising A’viloh with the relief he felt from that. Going back down, the crystal took over his right hip entirely but no more than that. His entire front, at least what he could see in the darkness, remained that of flesh and blood.

He made a point to only pay attention to what was needed. His friend’s body was not a specimen. He was a man that still had a heart beat, still had a conscience, and was his own person. If G’raha wished to show him what he had become, he would accept the decision with open arms. If he did not, A’viloh would accept that too. All that he was, all that he became… it was for him. It was for the Warrior of Darkness that he tried so desperately to bring to the First. It was for that hero that was written in those books and talked about while the Eighth Umbral Calamity was happening around them. It was all for that person. And he would be that person for G’raha. It is the least that he deserved after all of the sacrifices that he made.

Shaking his head, A’viloh knew that precious time was ticking as he let those frivolous thoughts overtake his mind. He knew that it was also from the nerves overtaking him. The large wound on G’raha’s back was horrendous,, cracked crystal surrounding the wound as different hues of red seemed to pulsate underneath. It was G’raha’s aether trying to mend itself and A’viloh imagined that it was the will of the Tower making it so too. Taking a deep breath, he began to make the anesthetic potion to hopefully numb whatever flesh was under the crystal, formulating a plan in his mind on how to extract that bullet.

[cyberramblings]

Kingdom Hearts BBS, DDD Blind Thoughts

Spoilers for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and earlier titles in the series. Also warning that I have insomnia and these are utter ramblings on the last 24 hours of blindly binging the Kingdom Hearts series as a total newcomer to the series. Haven’t played three yet and just started Dream Drop Distance. With that warning.....

Birth by Sleep was a ton of fun. We ended up needing to grind a little to make Aqua playable, but that ended up forcing me to learn the game mechanics much deeper, and even my friends leveled up their playing of the game! It was really cool to unlock some of the high tier spells like Triple Firaga and Thundaga Shot, although I do wish we had gotten to chance to unlock even more. I should remember how much more fun the game was after some internet research.

It was very satisfying to unlock the true ending so easily. We had only missed 2 of the 12 required Xehanort Reports. The 2 we needed involved grinding the arena for maybe an hour total and then 5 minutes of finding a treasure chest. We were then able to roll smoothly from Aqua’s finish into the final episode.

Aqua’s fight against Braig was laughable easy, but the final fight against Vanitas/Ventus was slightly tougher. The real challenge was fighting Terra/Xehanort but then the REAL challenge was phase 2 of that fight. I got them all on the first try! It was a really enjoyable flex of my gaming skills in front of the friends.

From a story standpoint, Birth By Sleep had my favorite story of any KH game so far, by a huge margin. I liked certain elements of the KH2 ending (Riku and Sora teaming up, Kairi’s keyblade) but BBS has been the only game where I had any sense of purpose or desire to see how it ends. They did a great job of having each of the 3 routes reveal new information even if played out of order (Xehanort taking over Terra, Vanitas having Sora’s face, Aqua taking care of comatose Ventus).

Obviously it helps to have Leonard Nimoy and Mark Hamill join the cast, plus Aqua’s VA absolutely dominates every scene she’s in. Terra’s VA reminds me a lot of Leon’s monotone edgy boy voice acting (David Boreanaz or otherwise). Of course Ventus shares a VA with Roxas, but the twist of Vanitas being Haley Joel Osmont is really great because he sounds so much older. I think it would have been easier to predict that twist if I had recently heard more of HJO’s Sora voice in Dream Drop Distance or KH3.

Aqua is, of course, the great standout character from BBS. From the start, we got attached to her because of her known prevalence in KH3 on top of her cool design, Arrow voice actress, and the fact that we could finally play a girl (plus one with more human proportions than Kairi). It worked out really well how we saved her for last and had to kind of unlock the secrets of her play style by finally mastering the various gameplay systems.

I much prefer the command deck system compared to the gameplay of KH2. To be fair, these are the only two KH games I’ve beaten. I’ve only barely touched KH1 and Chain of Memories. I felt like BBS did a good job of fusing the action gameplay of KH2 with the (potentially) satisfying deck building of CoM.

Re: Coded is a fucking mess. I might actually go back and play it on a DS emulator just to see the gameplay, but god damn the story is a flimsy excuse for a retread. I almost wish we had skipped it entirely, but just watching the opening and ending worked out pretty well. In the end, it’s literally just “Mickey is gonna give Sora the memories of all the other protagonists” which is badass but probably going to be mentioned again before being relevant. I will say that the ending with Riku and Sora being summoned by Yen Sid for the mark of mastery test is fucking badass and elicited quite the reaction from all three of us. The series is finally starting to have that feeling of “the stakes are high and I want to see what happens with these characters”.

This was expressed most fully in the intro to Dream Drop Distance. Step 1: invoke Disney Magic with a silhouette of magician Mickey. Step 2: Orchestral Simple and Clean. Step 3: use entirely new cinematic footage instead of splicing together an AMB. Step 4: show every keyblade wielder standing side by side. Apparently that’s enough to make me actually cry. We all got very excited by this intro, so it was a bit of a let down to start the game and be seemingly replaying KH1 again.

Of course that’s not the whole game, but I’m still not sure what the whole game is. Riku and Sora have to...wake the seven sleeping worlds to earn their mark of mastery? Are they dreaming all of this, or what? Seeing The World Ends With You was cute for like a second before realizing that I know almost nothing about it. Flowmotion is similarly kinda neat at first but quickly becomes annoying, but maybe it will grow on me with time.

Speaking of fun at first but quickly annoying: Dream Eaters. The Pokémon-esque system seems like a time waster that’s perfect for 3DS but maybe not so much for our tourist play through. The Dream Eater designs are cute when they’re on your team, but strike me as a bit annoying when fighting the same ones over and over. Heartless and Nobodies felt more generic, but that made them feel a little less repetitive to fight over and over. I see the same god damn rainbow colored Panda every god damn fight. To be fair, I think each world randomly contains certain types of Dream Eaters every time you visit it.

Speaking of Worlds, I’m not really looking forward to Hunchback of Notre Dame or Pinocchio world, but at least they’re new worlds instead of retreading Halloween Town, Agrabah, Olympus, Neverland for the millionth time. What I am looking forward to is The Grid from Tron Legacy! I don’t think we’ve seen any Disney world that specifically spotlight a sequel to a Disney world we’ve already seen. We revisit Halloween Town, Agrabah, Beast’s Castle, Olympus, Atlantica but only for some minor follow-up fluff. The Tron world in KH2 meant a lot to me having just seen the film. The Lightcycle combat could’ve been a little more true to the original, but the visuals were so faithful plus having Tron’s actual actor was so fucking cool. Sora and gang getting Tron outfits was so cool too. Also would’ve liked to have a disc fight, but the Sark/MCP fight was spot on. Hopefully we can get both of more in DDD!

It’s a perfect excuse to revisit The Grid since Legacy looks so different from the original. Now, The Grid is not a true world in KH2 but instead part of Hollow Bastion’s computer system. I’m curious if The Grid in DDD is a sleeping world or something that exists within another world, or if it is somehow connected to the KH2 Tron world (which would get real weird real quick if that version of the Grid is a copy of the original, but Legacy is supposed to be set in The Grid 30 years later).

Oh, I like that DDD has the command deck system but I don’t like the pets, I don’t like the link system, I don’t like reality shift, and I don’t like flowmotion. It just seems like BBS with all the RPG features crammed into the pet system with a bunch of gimmick infused into the combat system. Admittedly, gimmick is one of the biggest strengths of the KH franchise, but flowmotion just seems silly. Perhaps I’ll like it more when I get used to it and potentially get to customize the moves.

I’m not sure yet how I feel about the drop system, but I do like getting to play as Riku. I think multiple protagonists is a smart way to stretch the assets and tell 2 stories per world. I rather enjoyed the way Aqua, Terra, and Ventus interacted with some of the Disney worlds. Hopefully we get something similar in some of these worlds.

The dive mini game is definitely gimmicky nonsense clearly designed for the 3DS. In general though, all the games in these collections look great and feel great. I suppose that is why Days, Coded, and Back Cover are cutscenes: to keep the average quality of gameplay roughly somewhere in between KH1 and 2 between all the titles. In fact, I think KH1 is easily the worst feeling out of all the ones thus far. I’ve always complained about KH hopping between systems, but now I can’t really complain about that anymore. My complaint still stands about the games being overly complicated. Plus, the games are clearly taking themselves way too seriously, but that’s very clearly part of the charm.

Really, I suppose the games aren’t that complicated if you heavily condense Chain of Memories, cut out Coded, and try not to think too hard about the phone games. Then it just becomes: Sora defeats the heartless, Sora defeats the nobodies, Roxas backstory, Aqua/Terra/Ventus, training/prep montage, then KH3. Oh, and try to forget that somehow the upcoming rhythm game is canon.