#I kept in-crew ships out of this convo

[a-x-ce]

Keep rereading that romance in OP post 'cause honestly it has me thinking about the current options for endgame partnerships.

I put Kaya and Usopp as the most obvious 'cause it literally is. I mean hell we just saw Kaya and a panel of Usopp's 3 veggie friends with them literally pointing out how lucky he is to have a woman like her waiting for him to come home and heal any of his wounds...like please. I miss the days when it was shown how often he thought about her too, making snow statues of her, drawing her, stuff like that.

It's also been heavily implied there WILL be more between Sanji and Pudding. I don't know to what degree Oda will go with them but at some point she has to return his memory of her kissing him, and his reaction to that 'cause hello, that's the first woman to fully and completely return his affection. I know Viola seemed close but I just don't think they got enough in Dressrosa to go further and not much else to imply they'll have more chances to see each other. Pudding has so much set-up to stay a part of Sanji's story past everything that happened in WCI, I firmly believe he'll be the one to save her once the Straw Hat's finally face the Blackbeard pirates.

Less certain but there's also Hiyori and Zoro. I'm not sold on it just yet 'cause Zoro did not care when they parted. I know a lot of people see him and Tashigi and like...eh. All Zoro sees when he's forced to interact with her is Kuina, and Zoro wasn't in love with Kuina, she's his rival and his ''goal''. In order for Tashigi and Zoro to work even remotely that would have to be addressed in full. Semi-likely he ends the series with no partnership though.

I think Chopper's only option is Milky LOL (reindeer mink from Zou) 'cause like...yeah, he can't and doesn't find any appeal in human women, and he's been thoroughly and completely rejected by actual reindeer. He's not even physically or mentally compatible with full animal reindeer anymore thanks to his DF. He could talk with them sure, but would he find a life of a common animal fulfilling if he were try and return to it for partnership? Highly doubtful. Otherwise, Chopper endgame has no love interest, 'cause he's baby (I know he's canonically 16 but shut up I can't accept it).

Two characters in the SHs that are obviously not getting any endgame relationships are Brook and Jinbe, one's literally dead and the other is already well into his adult life having had no prior showcases of being in or pursuing a partnership. It'd be kinda weird to shove one in for Jinbe at this stage in the series or going forward when we're in the final saga with few arcs left.

Luffy remains our aroace king and I hope he stays that way but IF Oda were to pull a Dragon Ball on us then he's done enough work for Hancock to make her the most obvious choice. She loves him, and he at least respects her, which isn't love but who knows. Luffy is not incapable of deep love as clearly shown in this series, it's just not been of the romantic kind and he feels no sexual attraction toward anyone. But honesty if Luffy ends the series with no clear partner I'll cry tears of joy he avoided the shounen curse of getting a bad haircut before being married off with kids for the inevitable sequel.

Nami is a lesbian hasn't been presented with a clear partnership either. So many people ship her with 1 or more men of the crew but aside from that she hasn't interacted enough with any characters that make it clear if she has an endgame partnership. However, there is still time I think...'cause we still don't have all of Nami's backstory. We still know nothing about Oykot and Bellemere finding Nojiko and Nami in those ruins, the fact she was smiling/laughing through the despair (very D. coded) and so that leaves it open for more story for her, where a potential love interest could still be introduced. Otherwise, she may also end the series not paired up.

I'd also throw Robin and Franky in the group of 'no ending partnerships' but for different reasons. Franky because he, like Jinbe, has gone most of his life not being presented as pursuing or caring about that. Franky already has a family, the Franky family, consisting of all his brothers and sisters. He's content with his ragtag-found family back in Water 7, he's always been happy with that dynamic since he was raised that same way by Tom with Kokoro (who were not a couple, just business partners/friends) and Iceburg. If Franky having a love interest was something Oda cared about he'd have sprinkled in any kind of element of interest in his backstory, or showcased him having any type of reaction in the current story from his introduction. But there's nothing, the only reaction of excitement Franky ever showcases is toward cool-ass tech and Vegapunk LOL

Robin because she's only just now fully coming into her own thanks directly to the Straw Hats. Robin's been isolated and burned by people her whole life, it took the events of Enies Lobby for her to FINALLY accept that her crew loves her unconditionally. For her to go from only accepting and loving them thanks to a lot of work to falling for some other person she's met or yet to meet would be interesting to say the least. She'd have to have a good relationship with that person already to some degree to open up to them. Which is why there are people who are open to the idea of her being with Law (they also have several similarities akin to Pudding and Sanji, plus all the time he was with them through multiple arcs has made the crew comfortable with him, including scenes with them specifically). But otherwise, I don't see her in a relationship either in the end of the series.

I guess in conclusion I can only really see 3, maybe 4 out of the 10 current SHs being in a relationship by the time OP ends. I can also see an ending where none of them are ever officially paired off but instead it's left open on where everyone went after completing their dreams/goals and parting ways as the Straw Hats. I'll be interested in seeing what Oda does with them compared to how he left Roger's crew.

[portraitofadyke]

what's been bugging me is how some people, especially steddyhands shippers, seem to ignore Stede's complete blind spot that is Ed. I've been rereading some post s1 fix-its, and it's amazing how almost every one of their reunions had Stede blaming Ed for marooning the crew and attempting to kill Lucius (same with ppl's expectation that there would be some sort of physical fight). And then he just. Doesn't.

Stede obviously cares for the crew. A lot. But the moment Ed's well being is in the picture, he becomes hyperfocused on Ed and Ed only. Obviously the crew told him about being marooned, but we don't see him mention that once in his letters. They reunite with Lucius, and yet all Stede talks about is Ed (and his poor portrayal on his wanted posters)- Lucius confesses about Ed throwing him overboard, and all Stede does is question 'why?', because he knows Ed wouldn't just randomly attempt to murder Lucius. The moment Lucius tells him Stede broke Ed, Stede is back to blaming himself, never Ed. He clearly cares about Lucius, because later in the ep, he tries to reconcile with him by giving him 'dating advice' and trying to save him from what happened to him and Ed, but Ed comes first.

We actually see it in s1 too, if only briefly, in s7 when Stede desperately tries to keep Ed abroad and becomes oblivious to the crew's concerns and problems and we get the iconic line "Eat and apple, for God's sake!" Stede cares, but Ed is at the front of his mind and it's hard for him to understand what could be more important.

In s02e03, he gets his ship and the rest of his crew back, but Ed is nowhere. Izzy is literally missing a leg and Stede just tells him to piss off.

And I've seen people questioning why Stede never questioned that, why he never bothered to ask about Izzy's missing toe or back scars or why he didn't care about the leg more. Izzy clearly lies again and tells Stede Ed shot it off because he told Ed he loves him, and yet stede just. Doesn't care.

And i mean, that question is valid. Because people see Stede as someone who's much more caring, more hero-coded. But Stede is far more a romantic hero to Ed than he is your general hero to the rest of the characters. Stede is selfish. Stede is blind-sided. Stede is willing to abandon his morals when it comes to Ed.

I think there are two reasons Stede doesn't question Izzy's Ed-inflicted-injuries, or any other, for that matter. First one is, Stede's blind spot for Ed. Yeah, Izzy got his leg shot off by Ed (not entirely true, but I digress), but there must have been a reason why. Yeah, Izzy got his toes cut off and hand-fed, but Ed had a reason. Stede knows Ed is not violent by default, so he knows something must have prompted him to do that. Is it completely justified? That's a differenr convo about people trying to portray Izzy as a victim rather than someone who kept pushing Ed over the edge until they were both too far.

The second is... Yeah, Stede just doesn't care. Especially about Izzy. Lie it's been pointed out, Stede just thinks izzy is a dick. He misnames him. He's rightuflly mad at him for selling them out to the english. He literally dreams about killing Izzy for that. Stede blames himself for abandoning Ed and everything that happened after (and yes, Ed's actions are Ed's actions, but that's how Stede sees it), but he clearly also blames Izzy for setting them up.

So, Stede sees Izzy's missing leg? Probably deserved that. Back scars, missing toe? Eh, probably deserved that, too, Ed would look absolutely lovely in a braid. Is that morally correct? No, but Stede isn't written to be a moral character. That's what makes him so real, and that's why so many other actors than Rhys would struggle making Stede sympathetic and likeable to the audiences.

That's not to say Stede doesn't see Ed's wrongs. He absolutely does. He just. Doesn't care that much in the end, because his love for all of Ed is that bright, to the point of being absolutely, utterly selfish. DJenkins said it from the beginning; this show is about Ed and Stede's relationship. Stede doesn't question Izzy's injuries bc in the end, it just doesn't matter to him when Ed is in the picture

[leynaeithnea]

Me ? Taking notes again to write this ask? You guessed it.

The ocean saga is 100% my favourite saga so I'm going to be insane about this actually.

12.Aeolus is literally perfect I'm obsessed with her and her little banter with Ody " let's play a game/ a game? / That's what I'm serving " YES MA'AM YOU ARE CERTAINLY SERVING. Again at this point we agree on everything because the part where Odysseus tries to stay awake has kept me awake for days , he is so pathetic he's hallucinating his family and he loves them so much and everything has changed BUT HE'S THE SAME YES HE'S THE SAAAME ( instant tears)

" They were within sight, his mom could have seen the ship" fatal blow , currently chocking on my blood and my tears.

Also yes , Poseidon's voice is majestic, after ruthlessness came out I was singing it so much my brother and sister had memorized it ( they don't even know English lol )

13.The chorus of po-sei-don is glorious and I sing it every single time very drammatically 'cause HOW COULD I NOT??? Again, agree with everything you said, this whole entire song makes me feral, Poseidon is so bitchy and mean and pissed and sarcastic I ADORE IT and whenever I sing it I make Ody's little "No" so defeated and terrified and "we're so fucked " because they so areeeee

You are the worst kind of good- moment lives in my mind rent free I also did some lettering for it because I HAD to get it out of my head somehow ( I failed , it's stuck on repeat in my brain )

" But noOoOo" is so iconic I can't put it into words I love Poseidon jansnsnns

First time I listened to ruthlessness the callback to just a man brought me to my knees Jorge is a criminal how does he get away with causing such pain to me specifically ??? We'll never know

Aaaand the callback to the convo with Polyphemus " I am your darkest moment " FLOORS ME EVERY TIME SIR WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES THAT HAUNT YOU IN THE FORM OF THE GOD OF THE SEA , WHAT DO YOU MEAN MERCY HAS A PRICE ( this whole thing about "you could have avoided all this had you just killed my son" brings me back to hours spent studying the Iliad for school and learning that in those books the idea was that you had to die a glorious death if you wanted to be remembered and live forever with honor in the stories that will be told about you. Being spared in combat and living after that is not living at all, becase you're now a disgrace and everyone will know you failed to be a hero ) ( but I don't know if this whole "moral code" applies to monsters like Polyphemus) ( living with the shame that some random puny Greeks overtook you must generally suck either way though)

also the part where Ody's desperately bargaining "Poseidon we meant to harm we only hurt him to disarm him PLEASE PLEASE UNDERSTAND please we took no pleasure in his pain we are at your mercy right now we can't do anything this is all up to you I can't do anything else for my crew other than try to make you understand we only wanted to escape PLEASE we are in your domain now we can't escape the literal sea PLEASE SHOW US THE MERCY WE SHOWED YOUR SON" and this whole part is quieter and gentler than the rest of the song,it's a plea, a small little desperate string of hope that maybe he'll understand, then a beat of silence and then DIE YOU'RE NAIVE AND HOPELESS DIE AKKSKDJSNNS

I may have gone a little insane with this one lol

As always no pressure but I eagerly await your take on the other sagas :))

( love for you and your friend that you acted out the whole musical , it seems neat and I think it would fix me hahah )

HEYO man theres one artwork of "im the same yes im the same" that im obssessed with, its sooo good

the idea was that you had to die a glorious death if you wanted to be remembered

All the men who died drowning + elpenor ------- :) :) :) yw

Despite it being an unpopular opinion Circe might actually be my least favorite saga so far,....probably because they werent as angsty as any of the other so far......i think theres a pattern here....anyway, its still GREAT so lets start 14. Puppeteer ODY REFUSING TO LISTEN TO EURY, I WONDER??? maybe he guesses???? MAYBE HE KNOWS? that it was Eury who opened the bag but he isn't ready to hear it yet???? the instrumentals in that is soo good tho, ALSO "a woman" "....what"

circes voice do be beautiful

and the storytelling of eury recalling the story while circes part is kind of a flashback like, is reallyyy nice

Also Ody being straight up ready to save his men help, that's only 8 songs or so before Syclla :")

15. Wouldn't you like

I knowwww why people are so hype about it, but admittedly it doesn't hit that hard for me. it's a good song! just not my favorites

but "someone who's not afraid to...send a message" is a sneaky way to make it obv who it is, very "high on shrooms" feels, and Odysseus singing the "OooooOoooOOOooOooH"s towards the end are reallyyy goodddd and the "dont thank me you very well may die"....perfect characterization of hermes, loved 16. Done For

Ody trying to sneak his way in like "did you do smth to them?" (knows 100% that she did) "you turned them into pigs" ODY YOURE SUCH A SLEEK---- SO OKAY WE ACTED THIS OUT RIGHT? WITH MY FRIEND? HAVING MY FRIEND BE CIRCE PLS??? OMG ....attractive mayhaps ody trying to lie about being a god "hermes gave it do you, didnt he?" ".....fine, yes, but- " ODY SIEGSE ~love lying characters, like, Neil, Ody, yeah...yeah Also circe going right into lust and Ody being like "??? wdym" (think sabout penelope) 17. There are other ways "BUuT itS been 12 LonG yeEArs" JORGE JORGE__--SLEGOSEJG lmaoosegseigjseg jk beautiful falcetto (high voice) of Jorge very seductive song, beautiful the reprise of just a man again.....but he refuses! good on you ody, bc otherwise you wouldve been dead, also THE DROP when Circe talks about the Underworld, esp with the distorted choir so cool, theres some animatics that portrayed those really neat too, might ramble about the animatics some other time also Circes last note(s) in the song are SO GOOODDDDD such vocal control

[icharchivist]

Important GBF AU where Lucifer manages to come back to life, (doesn't matter how), joins crew, he and Sandy confess, all is well, and then he meets Yuni. They talk about Cosmos, he very clearly feels bad that he couldn't be there for his friend, despite his promise and then he decides to adopt Yuni. Sandy isn't too thrilled, because he was looking forward to the honeymoon phase with his boyfriend, but he warms up to his new daughter. Also Zooey is like that adult stepchild who drops by sometimes

Oh oof this one goes for the jugular 😭😭

I can totally imagine Lucifer doing so though, no way he would see the remaining of Cosmos and not think he has a duty to be there for her. The same way he's aware Cosmos influenced him into eventually living for himself and eventually accept that he only wanted to be with Sandalphon, this will be the ultimate proof also of how he influenced Cosmos as well.

Tragically, while Lucifer realized he could live for himself, Cosmos felt like she couldn't live at all. So i think even more so Lucifer would do anything for the people she has left behind: Yuni and Zooey in particular.

+ i mean after he saw how Sandalphon lost his mind as being Lucifer's copy without any purpose, the fact Yuni and Zooey are left without Cosmos would probably have him extra protective in the sense of, he can't let them feel neglected the way Sandalphon was. Sandy is slightly frustrated at first but Lucifer is constantly trying to include him in the process to not neglect him in that same process so Sandalphon recluently but also happily joins in.

Lucifer would be extremely protective of Yuni and would regularly take care of her at random, having conversation with her and stuff. I could totally picture him having some convos in a garden with her, though he'd insist that even if Yuni doesn't work by human law, a child's body probably shouldn't be taking caffeine. Sandalphon has to help out and mentions he already found alternative for the youngster on the ship, so they share moments together like this.

with Zooey, it depends on when Zooey drops by, and especially since she seems to stick more with Danchou because she has made peace with what happened to Cosmos and now want to live for herself a bit, which Lucifer is very proud of and would encourage completely.

The elephant in the room though is that originally Yuni and Zooey won't mention him. They won't say anything at first because it's a family issue.

..... But Lucifer will have to learn about Geo eventually.

And all of the things he feared about leaving Cosmos's folks to themselves would be confirmed for him: not for the reason he expected, but he sees Geo's rampage and how he manifests the darker side of Cosmos, and he would try to do anything to fix it.

because he couldn't be there for Sandalphon when Sandalphon went through it, and he couldn't be here for Cosmos when her dilema tore her apart. So now at least he has to try to be here for Geo when he's a mix of those two things Lucifer would feel so guilty about.

Esp if you add up how Geo and Belial's mentality regarding the primals kind of align: with the difference that Belial is resigned and cynical, and Geo wants to do something about it no matter how drastically he has to do it. Both are frustrated with how primals were created as tools limited by their purpose, constantly shunned by their powers, and if they are lucky enough to make friends, their immortality will force them to lose them eventually.

Lucifer spent his time with Cosmos trying to help primals in this situation, unaware of how it broke Belial then right. If we assume someone kept him in the known about what Belial shared about it though, he would definitely connect the dots.

And therefore he would want to find Geo and help him, no matter what. For Cosmos's dilema he knows he's the one who provoked it. For Sandalphon's sake, whom he had failed before and can see the same rage into. For Belial's sake, whom he didn't see the suffering of and now can have someone to help on the same suffering.

Basically a full arc of Geo trying to mind his own business rallying primals to rebel against humanity while Lucifer is constantly crashing by with a begrudgingly tagging along Sandalphon, an enthusiastic Zooey, and a blunt Yuni, constantly trying to bait him into getting a redemption arc by forcefully adopting him into this family born out of #RespectCosmos

Geo has known no rest. Save him. Or not.

Please i'd love it so much 😭😭😭

[doppelneer]

FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE NOTICED THIS.

But also, I have another head canon involving that... The gems are not just for "show" but also there in case of an emergency. Since they are probably darkstone and darkstone seemingly powers quite a bit of things, it is basically like them carrying an extra set of batteries inconspicuously if they have equipment that needs it (probably hand held lanterns or cannoneer's harpoon/s). That would also be another reason why boatswain has a lot of them since they are the one who make most repairs on the ship (also including some equipment).

It's just another reason why boatswain's cape sooooo much. I like my gems :D

Also, a little rant. I remember a conversation I had with someone when the season was live. They kept crapping on the cape colors not matching thus claiming that the capes didn't have a cohesive theme until I pointed out the gems (they didn't notice that.) And I also explained that it actually made sense for them to have different cape colors since (a) The spirits working in the crew are probably are from different areas and walks of life (b) would be able to tell who is who from a distance which could be useful in certain situations. Anyway, the convo opened the person's eyes to the capes and, yes, matching cape colors isn't everything people!!!! Other design themes and elements EXIST.

Hi!! Abyss crew love time. I just spotted something GREAT, and now own a new hc. Anyways.

Look! At! This!!!! They all have a Gem (yeah I know it's probably darkstone but still. I'm calling them gems)!!! Of course, this can be interpreted in a few ways, but as the person I am I can only see it in one way: acknowledgement that you're part of the crew- part of the family. They deserve that!!!

Anyways. Since Boatswain has the most gems, I think that they're the ones who make them. That headcannon kinda fell down to "they are longtime friends with Commodore, who trusts their judgement with distribution of the gems and safekeeping of loot" because why not!! And! They could also be the first mate of the crew! Among other things!!!

And of fucking course this means I'm finding a nice spot for my own skykid to wear a gem lmao. (I say, as I modify how her wristband looks like)

[zephyr-thedragon]

guys-

guys I did it

I wrote the TLC pirate au (and by wrote I mean the first chapter shjfjggh) AH I'm really excited, okok here we go

for people who are confused this was the original post I made that blew up just a little bit:

and I REALLY committed to that so ANYWAYSSSS, I don't have a name for this series yet, I was thinking like "Chasing Kings and Crowns" or smthn but if you have any ideas please let me knowwww

Here's the wattpad link, I'm still trying to get ao3 sorted out but I'll add it once it's done :))

This is also my first real fic so I'm not gonna have a set schedule cause that just seems anxiety inducing and I don't want to put much pressure on myself.

Andddd I think that's it for authors notes so.....enjoy!

(First Chapter: 2.3k words, we get a lot of backstory about Cinder and her and Thorne have a friendly convo when neither of them are able to sleep, Thorne has a treasure map that might change the course of their story)

__________________________________________

Cinder couldn’t sleep, the waves were rocking the boat too much and her bunk seemed more uncomfortable than usual. It had been almost a year since she joined the Rampion Crew and she still wasn’t used to the way the ship rocked so violently at night it would make her sick.

But by crew she meant just her and Thorne, on this vast ship in this vast sea, stealing things for a living. It was an interesting life, sometimes it was fun, other times it was lonely, but either way it was always extremely suffocating. Physically and mentally- seriously why were her quarters so cramped?

She had these thoughts often, wondering what would have happened if she didn’t join Thorne and imagining how everything would have played out if she didn’t board his ship that day, but she always came back to the same conclusion- she would’ve been arrested, trialed for her crimes against the Eastern Kingdom and most likely sentenced to death. Living on a pirate ship hopping around the coast and performing weekly heists was definitely better than being beheaded.

Plus, she was helping people. People like her, who lost their limbs in a battle or ship raid or in the ongoing war, some people were born without certain limbs, and they all deserved to be treated and cared for the same way any human would.

That’s how this all started.

She’d lost her hand and her leg in a ship raid when she was just a toddler. She doesn’t remember it, or any of her childhood from before. She was told that her parents had died in the raid and the doctor on board had saved her and escaped to shore. All she remembers is waking up from a coma, and being sent to live with her adoptive family in the Eastern Kingdom.

They were a kind and loving family, until her sister had died.

Peony, dear sweet Peony. She didn’t deserve to go so soon. She had caught the plague, and it eventually spread to her stepfather, who’d gotten sick and died not two weeks after her sister.

Her stepmother spiraled into madness. She became broken, a shell of woman who was once filled with joy, She became cruel and abusive. She made Cinder her own personal servant, ordering her around like a pet. Her other sister Pearl was no help, she became just as cruel as her mother.

So Cinder ran away, and that’s when she began stealing things.

At first she only took what she needed, but then she found other people like her who also needed help. So she started stealing for them too.

It had gone on like that for years, until the authorities found out about her little operation and she was forced to run.

She became a fugitive, the most wanted in her entire city. But she kept stealing things, to help the people she cared about. But then one day, she came home to find that her base had been raided. The police had found her. So she kept running, and running and running until there was no more land left to run on. That was the day she joined Thorne.

That was the day her whole life changed.

She was about to lay back down and try to go back to bed when she heard footsteps start above her, in the captain’s cabin. There wasn’t much luck in falling back asleep anyway, so she let curiosity take the lead and headed down the hall and up the stairs.

* * *

As much as she despised the rocking waves for making her sick, you had to admit they were beautiful. Especially at night, when the moonlight reflected on them creating a string of light that seemed to travel across the entire ocean. On a calm night, it was almost magical. You could imagine a siren singing, calling you to the shore from hundreds of miles away, and almost believe it was real.

Tonight was not one of those nights.

A wave crashed against the boat and splattered on her cheek as she emerged from the trapdoor. She struggled to get her bearings but managed to steady herself enough so she could use her hook to grab onto the mainmast and stand up straight.

A light was on in the captain’s cabin and she could hear Thorne pacing around the table. She quickly shuffled over to the door and let herself in before another wave crashed onto the deck.

She closed the door behind her and turned around to see Thorne hunched over the table inspecting a large piece of paper.

The captain’s quarters were very regal, with a long desk in the middle of the room with large windows spanning the entire back wall. There was a golden candelabra lit on the corner of the table, with a few other lanterns spread out across the room.

“What did we say about knocking?” Thorne asked, without looking up.

“That during a storm it was unnecessary?”

This time, he did look up. “It’s not storming.”

She rounded the table to see what he was looking at. “With how high the waves are it very well could be.” She inspected the paper that was sprawled across the table. It was a treasure map. “What’s this?��

“Eh. It’s nothing.” He started folding up the map, but she slammed her hook down on the table to stop him. Something in the corner of the map had caught her eye. A name, or a title perhaps.

“Darwin Grim? Isn’t that that old children’s tale you’re obsessed with?”

He yanked the map out from under her hook. “It is not a children’s tale and no I’m not obsessed with it.” He folded it back up and went to stash it in the top drawer of his desk in the corner of the room . “It’s a legend my parents used to tell me about, the treasure of Darwin Grim. He used to be the leader of a pirate fleet up North and supposedly he stole some of the crown jewels and stashed them on some remote island near the coast.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “But you have a map?”

He stopped and stared at her for a good four seconds before answering. “I do.”

“So where is this mystery island?” She turned around and pushed herself up onto the table so she was sitting on the edge.

“Blackburn Island.” His eyes bored into her from where he was standing over by his desk. “The treasure is on Blackburn Island.”

Now both her eyebrows had risen. “Oh.” He turned around and started shuffling through papers on his desk. “I guess we won’t be chasing this mysterious, legendary treasure anytime soon then.”

“Says who?” He said, still occupied with organizing his papers.

She gawked at him. “You don’t seriously expect us to go to Blackburn Island just to search for some treasure that might not even be real.”

“Who knows.” He finished sorting out the papers on his desk and walked back over to table and leaned against it next to her. “We might get bored.”

She chuckled. “Hopefully not bored enough.” She couldn’t imagine going to Blackburn Island, that place was like hell on earth. Their queen- Queen Levana, was a complete psychopath.

She was rumored to have killed both her sister, the late Queen Channary, and her niece. It was said that she ordered a group of raiders to attack their ship while they were on a voyage to the Eastern Kingdom. Though some people had speculated that her niece, Princess Selene Blackburn, had survived the raid and was brought back to the Eastern Kingdom. To be raised to take back her throne and overthrow her tyrant of an aunt.

She didn’t put much stock into the rumors, but she supposed the people of Blackburn Island would take anyone to be their ruler over Levana. If you lived there or were even born there, there was no way of getting out. You were trapped.

“Where did you get the map anyway?” She asked.

“During the heist today, it’s why I chose the location but I didn’t think telling you would make a difference.”

“Ah. So that’s why you were more persistent than usual. I was starting to get suspicious.”

He glanced at her “Suspicious about what?”

“That you were actually starting to take your job seriously.”

He snapped his head away and made a clicking sound with his tongue, feigning offense. “You have no faith in me.”

She chuckled again. “Can you blame me?”

“A little bit, yeah.” He tried his best to sound serious but you could tell by the way his voice wobbled that he was on the brink of laughter.

The room went quiet for a moment as the lighthearted mood died out. She liked laughing with Thorne, she liked their bickering and their teasing and their friendship that she knew would never fade despite all of their differences. She complains a lot about being stuck on a pirate ship in the middle of the sea. But she knew she wasn’t really stuck. Just like she also knew that she was glad it was Thorne who she ended up meeting. That it was his ship she ended up boarding all those months ago. Her smile softened.

“We still have a mission you know, we can’t go off course.”

“I know.” He answered with a sigh.

“But I promise you, one day, we’ll be able to go and search for all the treasure we want. And go on dangerous expeditions and travel across the entire world.”

He laughed, genuinely. But didn’t say anything.

They both stared at the window at the back of the room, mesmerized by the way the water danced with the ship. The way the glass was swathed in the dark blue waves for a moment until the water slid back down the side of the boat and into the deep. Sparing a moment where you could see for miles across the vast ocean, and glimpses of the moon as the ship swayed back and forth in and out of its view.

A moment of silence between comrades. Of mutual content between two people who, against all odds, found each other at the most unpredictable of times. Two friends who don’t have the peace of mind to cherish a moment such as this, but do anyway because it’s moments like these that make all the long days at sea worthwhile.

Thorne sighed, and turned to face her. He wasn’t at the brink of laughter anymore but a small smile still lingered on his features. “You need to sleep. We have to visit the professor tomorrow.”

“I know…sleep always seems to evade me when I really need it.” She hopped off of the table and turned to face him. “But I shall try.” She said, with the determination of someone about to set off on an important quest.

His smile widened. “Hear, hear milady. See to it that you do not trip and fall on the stairs on your way out, and that you knock next time you feel like coming up here to bother me.”

They were both still grinning as she walked around the table back over to the door. “Goodnight Thorne.”

“Goodnight Cinder.” He called after her as she slipped out onto the deck. Salty air swarming her senses. And ducked down through the trapdoor, back into the damp and musty crew quarters.

She wasn’t sure if chatting with Thorne would make sleeping any easier. But she hoped the promise of a new day would, new opportunities. Tomorrow they were going to see Professor Erland, to find out the value of their latest treasures. But that wasn’t the only reason she liked going to meet the professor.

It was because he lived in this fabulous library. With shelves upon shelves of the finest literature the Eastern Kingdom had to offer. And it was also right next to the palace, which was a stunning sight of its own. Despite the cruel king who inhabited it.

Cinder loved to read, ever since her stepfather had taught her as a child. He always made sure to provide her a decent education even though they couldn’t afford to send her to school like her sisters. Once her stepfather, Linh Garan died, her stepmother, had completely neglected Cinder and her education. So Cinder had to start teaching herself.

Professor Erland was always extremely kind to her when they went. He always let her borrow a couple books of her choice, and she was always immensely grateful for his generosity.

He had known her even before she became a fugitive. Her stepfather and the professor used to be good friends. She was never allowed to actually go to the library but Garan always brought back a couple of books for her. She recalled one time when he came to their house, Garan and the professor had to talk about something business related. But he was kind to her then too, telling her that she was always welcome in his library.

When she ran away, he was one of the first people she went to. He had since been her strongest ally.

She heard the creak of floorboards above her as Thorne climbed into his bunk and decided that it was finally time to settle down into hers for the night. She wrapped herself up in the itchy blanket and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before closing her eyes.

Tomorrow would be a good day.

She let herself be excited.

In this moment, she was okay.

In this moment, she was content.

She let the feeling engulf her as her consciousness, slipped silently into the land of dreams.

_______________________________

OMGGGG if you reached the end of that HI, HELLO, TYSM FOR COMING, AND READING, AND I HOPE YOU COME BACK.

k anyways here's the taglist (I'm tagging all of my mutuals):

@gingerale2017 @winterrhayle @starry-tea-party @butterfly-danna @f-r-o-p @im-just-your-problem @a-salting-the-world @cerenoya @novannna @miss-casually-cruel @cindersassasin @cinderswrench @cindersnightmare @sexy-dumpster-fire @razzmooncake

[spn-season-16-chronicles]

End of the week special edition

SPNews

Tl/Dr: This week was certainly supernatural

And here is a recap of everything that I'm aware of

7th - 13th of November

Quick recap of the week has to be started by mentioning what happened last weekend as events of the first half of the week were direct result of those actions. On 5th of November (maybe date was coincidental, or may be that theh predicted bigger interest on that particular day) Misha posted announcement that main cast will make fundraising event via Internet, to gather money for Stacey Abrams' organisation (fighting against voter suppression). Around the same time tumblr's 2020 year in review was published, with destiel in its own category.

This week has started with people thinking what will happen, with supernatural briefly trending on tublr, because of people, and which submitted questions have any chance of being answered. Many speculated - are they gonna say something interesting, is destiel gonna be canon or uncanon? And at sunday/monday twitter showdown took place, that resulted in publication of Misha's nude picture - and that only fueled the anticipation.

On Monday Misha told that there will be spn trivia, bloopers and outtakes from season 15. The post was not something special, but was commented by Jensen Ackles, breaking his social media silence. Because of the lack of content fandom started interpreting the post on manny ways - while saying "There will be an open bar, right" - is he talking about the finale, or he can't even talk about finale without drinking, or will he be drunk and unfiltered? From that point on anticipation only rose, and two separate tags were trending on tumblr, as well as on twitter.

Tension rose higher and higher as the hour of the event was approaching. Misha commented on Sun-Maid raisin tweet, then Sun-Maid social media person started to answer some Hellers (and people thought that Sun-Maid were also a Heller). Then things got even wilder, as Misha posted on instagram about asking Jensen about his weird acting choices, and about answering on fans prying questions. People were posting relantlessly on tumblr and pushing spn way up high on trending list. That kind of traffic caused temporary local insenity, as someone posted "correct me if I'm wrong, but Misha said something about having secret tumblr account" and manny people ran with it, asking random accounts if they are Misha Collins - kind of smaller, reversed Mishapocalypse.

Then livestrema started - people were rather disappointed as event was rather uneventful and anticlimactic. There was many more people from the cast as expected Kripke, Collins, Ackles and Padalecki. Half of the time was spent on talking about politics with Stacey Abrams, which still was unexpected for few people. After that there were 3 spn trivia questions to the cast and to the fans. They talked about Herpexia, and how Jared gave Seb Roché very weird massage on the airport. Misha said as a joke that the fandom does not care about voters supressio, only about their answers, which is indeed true Activity of the fandom proves that they want answers. Cast did not discuss finale, did not answer any questions. 5 minutes of bloopers were played.

After that people were almost ready to move on, there rumours that someone who won one-on-one zoom convo with Jensen asked him if Dean is bi, and man allegedly said that yes, and bottom to boot. Didn't find source of that rumour. People were stating that in bloopers Jensen was making joke about bottoming. Many that still steyed shipping were inching closer to casually shipping Jenmish. Consensus was made that The Episode That Must Not Be Named simply did not happen. Heller Obama became Ex-Heller Obama by unfollowing twitter destiel stan

Thursday was uneventful, from perspective it was kind of calm before the storm. In evening hours Misha tweeted about Castiel Project on give.trevorproject.org praising fans for selflessness. There was 1000 dollars anonymous donations, and people were very sure that it was Misha who donated. In the morning of next day it turned out that it was very selfless (and probably wonderful person) moved by this act of good will. Stacey Abrams watched finale and praised it

On Friday stuff just... Kept happening. It started with Taylor Swift dropping surprise album "Evermore" that many fans interpreted as describing Dean's and Cas' relationship - Destiel posts were climbing to top positions in T Swift tag. Parallels were seen everywhere. Things got even more unhinged as the day passed. Scripts of confession scene of 15x18 were leaked. It was hard to determine authenticity of script. They were proven to be authentic and stolen by Adam Williams, spn's VFX coordinator.

Script didn't reveal any new revolutionary information. But it included cas' POV - "Still beautiful, still Dean Winchester" which hinted on Cas finding Dean also physically attractive. It included "pulls Dean close" as well, which again trigeret speculations if something was taken out, and general anger at big three: queercoding, queerbaiting and "kill your gays trope. Destiel was proclaimed canon for the 3rd time. Spn was trending yet again stopping at 4th place.

Adam Williams went on a twitter spree for more than 10 hours, making very gay-homophobic statements. He claimed among others that Dean is not bi, but Destiel is canon, but not in sexual way, but if Dean woul be bi, he would be a top BECAUSE he is an alpha, and that labels are unnecessary but Dean is streight. Whole cast and cw stayed silent about scripts and Williams' statements (it is worth remembering that he had no influence on a plot, so his statements regarding plot, no matter if stating that destiel is canon or saying that Dean is streight - are as valid as any other headcanon presented on tumblr)

In the meantime Jared published posts praising the finale

As soon as excitement and rage died down and supernatural stopped trending new informations came up. On Saturday evening a Facebook panel with LatAm voice actors took place. (As I do not speak Spanish I'm going to include 3rd and 4th hand information here). It is stated that LatAm dub director thought that Cas and Dean are clearly in love, thought that included in translated script (basically) "I too" was too vague for that relationship and hanged it. There is no consensus on if tape that they got had any other English audio (at least I did not find anything that I can trust 100% yet) so it is best to assume that they've got the version that we've seen. Whole crew just went on with it, thinking that it all makes sense. As they (especial the director) were on board with that version destiel was again proclaimed canon. As I was finishing writing that there were attempts to contact the director, and spn was still trending. People are hating on Misha "for lying" which they should not do, given that only him was ready to listen to them

The End has no End

Fandom, as well as the show just won't die, which is in of itself very supernatural of us

They probably never will be done, and there will never be peace

If there'll be new updates I'm gonna keep the tabs

Good night

[julies-butterflies]

I've been wondering this since the whole tiktok thing this morning. I'm not trying to offend here- I'm genuinely curious. Why is Charlie interacting with those fans a bad thing? How is it different from any other artist talking with people who have viewed/read their work? Idk if that convo was real, but I don’t think Charlie would ask a fan what smut was and then, once he found out, continue to talk about it (not that we know whether that happened, because we do not). (1/4)

But, Isn't it normal for somebody to reach out with people who've enjoyed their work, to connect with them about it? Is it only because they were minors? I’ve also seen something about how Charlie supposedly “confirmed” lalex but from what I’ve seen he said “lalex is a yes” which could also just mean that he’d be cool with it if it /was/ confirmed, not that he was confirming it himself. But regardless, Charlie had some involvement in the creation of the character of Luke. (2/4)

It was written for him to portray how he saw fit, and the creators of the show liked his interpretation enough to cast him. So, if Charlie wants to make Lalex an aspect of his character (obviously past Lalex, because Alex is involved with Willie now, and Luke with Julie) why is that so bad? (3/4)

If he takes that into account when he’s acting, that’s his choice as an actor, you know? If I’m incorrect about any of this please let me know. I’m just trying to understand why this is all such a big issue. Thank you so much for explaining this because I honestly just want to understand !! :) (4/4)

Okay, first of all, thank you so much for formulating your thoughts like this and sharing, because it’s totally a discussion that needs to be had!!  You definitely make great points.  An actor’s portrayal is up the the actor  ---  so if Charlie and Owen want to play their characters as exes, that’s up to them, and totally cool.  People can also ships whatever fictional couples they want, and rock it  ---  that’s the beauty of fandom!

Part of the fun of fandom also comes with interacting with the cast and crew. I get that, believe me. But all actors need to set boundaries with their fans; fans cannot be friends, and it’s important to remember that. 

To put it in context... okay, I come from a lot of Broadway fandoms, and Broadway fans are very familiar with interacting with actors. On Broadway, there’s something called a stage door  ---  after shows, fans can line up, and the actors will come out to sign autographs, take pictures, and chat with fans for a few minutes. Hugs are given out, gifts are exchanged...  it’s an amazing, interactive experience for the fans, and hopefully fun for the actors too.

But some actors don’t like to stage door. Some actors aren’t comfortable giving out hugs to strangers, or receiving gifts from people they don’t know. Sometimes, actors just have really rough days, and don’t feel like stagedooring. These are their boundaries. Most of the time, Broadway fans are really good at respecting them.

But you don’t give fanfiction to the actors at stage door. You don’t ask them inappropriate questions about ships and headcanons. You definitely don’t ask them about their relationships with their fellow actors. Interactions between fans and actors should be kept mutually respectful, always always always; they can be friendly, it’s fine to chat with them, but there are some things you just don’t do. It can make the actors uncomfortable, and puts everyone in an awkward situation. Also, it’s cringe. Super cringe.

The issue with Charlie in these groupchats isn’t that he’s saying he’s cool with Lalex to fans, and definitely not whether he ships it himself; it’s that they’re asking him about it, and putting him in a situation where he’s obligated to talk about it. It’s that minors are asking him about smut, and automatically putting him in a situation where he could be called predatory. It’s that he’s put himself in this situation anyways, by being in these group chats and engaging with them in the first place.

Fans are not friends. Actors have a responsibility in how they engage with fandom and interact with their fanbases. It’s not just “don’t be creepy”, it’s “don’t act like you’re a normal person”  ---  because to fans, you’re not. You’re a public figure, and that power dynamic will never be equal.

And it puts Charlie in a dangerous situation that could potentially damage his career and public image. All it takes is one groupchat with one minor, where someone brings up smut fanfic, and suddenly people are like “who’s this 22-year old actor talking about smut with 16 year old girls??”  A Very Bad Look, and dangerous for his career as a whole. 

That’s why this is a big deal. The fans need to learn to respect boundaries, and Charlie needs to learn to set them. If he wants a successful career as an actor, he needs to. For fans’ safety, and his own.

[rainofaugustsith]

Ror Takes Ossus

** Ossus spoilers, anti-Doc; snide Jedi comments. ***

Ror tackled Ossus tonight, and it was fun. Of course it's an AU for her. I think Ror is a shining example of how the saboteur route does not seem even a little plausible for some characters. For her, it's completely unbelievable that anyone would or should trust her, Republic-side.

In my headcanon, Satele Shan and Jenari knew damn well she was DS, and Satele’s efforts are the only thing that kept her from being sent off to Belsavis as a Fallen Knight. Satele also helped her when she fled, by not sending anyone to pursue her and bring her back. This change of sides to the Jedi would not surprise her.  Let's ignore the red lightsaber, open use of the Dark Side and gold eyes for a moment, since the game doesn’t recognize most of that. In the context of the game, Ror’s choices still make Daerunn’s trust implausible. Given that she has allied with the Sith Empire every chance she could, and given that even in the class story and SoR Satele called her out for being DS, she is not convincing in returning to the Jedi/Republic fold. 

Caption: NR-O2: I trust you’ll treat this operation with the discretion it deserves.

Yeah, okay, sure, Ror is great at being subtle. *smirk* 

When she tells Lana she wants to be a saboteur, Lana's not at all surprised. That is how it's scripted, true, but nobody who is at all observant would be shocked.

Aaaand yet, General Shark and the Jedi trust her on Ossus. Um. Okay. Right. I decided to send her over in an Imperial shirt to really illustrate how ridiculous this is.

So off we go to help the kindly old Jedi Master who is kindly studying the Sith so he can exterminate them from the galaxy. And that's okay because the Jedi just shit rainbows and when they suggest genocide in their own source media it's clearly not true. /sarcasm

Here's Ror sabotaging the Republic's water supply...right in front of Tau, who undoubtedly would completely approve of this course of action and would not comment on it. O_o 

I mean, come on, this is obvious. She's out there breaking things in broad daylight. Not very subtle or believable, devs. The conversation choices kept asking about Doc. Dude. Unless Doc is volunteering himself as Geonosian food, I assure you Ror would not want to see him. 

And this? WTF with these convo choices. Why does she have to say something nice to Doc? All these other conversations in the game that have withering choices, but not Doc’s? There’s no reality where they think a Jedi Knight would be unhappy to see him? Caption:  Tau Idair: Malgus or not, we have to get the Old Man back to the colony. Now.  Choices:  - Agreed.  - We should bring Doc here.  - He isn’t the priority. 

Caption:  Doc: We’re a long way from Bugtown on Balmorra. I’m proud of you,.  Choices:  - And I’m proud of you.  - What’s next for the great Doc? - I prefer the old days.  But at least there was this in the end. 

Caption:  Ror: The Alliance isn’t the place for you, Doc.  The sheer rage he shows when he realizes that someone really doesn’t find him cute and appealing, and has told him to leave - that’s chillingly realistic. It’s the way a lot of straight men seem to act when women turn them down.  This was AU of the AUs, though, because Ror’s headcanon is that Doc never joined her crew. She and Kira put up a united front and told Satele Shan straight out that Doc was not welcome on the ship. T7-O1 backed them up. They told Satele that they’d spend all their savings on a med droid or go without, but they were not dealing with this creep. Doc was left on Balmorra to...well, I don’t really care what he did. 

[canonicallysoulmates]

Hi. Hope you're doing well. Can I ask you to give me a run down on the whole Louis and Harry situation? I listened to their music on and off but never followed their personal lives (other than the highly publicized thing with TS). But the situation, from what I gathered, seems... Interesting. What are the theories here? Hope it's not too much trouble. Thanks.

Hi, anon!

Sorry, it's taken me so long to reply to you but I wanted to find and provide some links with more information on the things I will be mentioning.

Now I'm going to do my best to give a quick rundown of Louis and Harry's history touching upon some of the bigger theories but Larry is a lot, it's multiple theories and years of history and multiple things seemingly happening at once like doing the research for this I fell down this hole all over again because there's just so much so this turned bigger than I was planning but let's get into this...

For those that don't know Louis and Harry are singer-songwriters that started their careers as members of the group One Direction. From pretty early on in the conception of the band fans noticed the close relationship between Louis and Harry and it wasn't too long before tumblr gave them a couple name: Larry Stylinson. 

Now, all 5 boys were close and got along well but Larry was magical to look at:

And what at first was a tumblr/fandom thing kept growing to the point it left fandom in a way I'd never seen before and have yet to see again with a lot of focus being put on Larries (people who believe in larry) themselves with articles being written about the theories and those who believe in them in an often mocking way; Larries were turned into villains, mocked and painted as silly little fangirls by the fandom and the media, and to this day we are still looked upon that way by those in and outside the fandom (and even by those who were once larries but that's a convo for another day).

Point is Larry grew and theories are aplenty, so let's look at some of them…

Theory #1: Louis and Harry are/were romantically involved and made to hide their relationship by management.

As I said, there's a lot of theories surrounding these two but this is I'd say the original one, the biggest one, and the one a lot of other theories come back to; I don't know when speculation about the boys' sexuality and their relationship started but it has been going on for years to the point, as I said, that it left the fandom.

The theory is self-explanatory: Harry and Louis have been together since their X Factor days but made to hide their relationship by their management for years, and all the girlfriends they have had publicly have been beards including Miss TS herself. (As a bonus fact, that made a lot of people in this fandom dislike her, and some think it’s because of Larry or because she was dating Harry, no it’s because she shaded him multiple times.)

You probably noticed that I said "are/were", the reason for that is that there are some larries (are you still a larrie if you think they've broken up?) that believe Louis and Harry were together but have since broken up. That's not the case with all larries since there are also plenty who believe they are still together, and some who even think they got married in 2013, I'll talk about that a little bit more later on, for now, let's go back to the early years and some of the things that made people believe in this love story:

This is not in chronological order by the way.

Other than the heart eyes, soft touches, and overall fondness displayed towards each other by both boys there was…

That time in a radio interview when the boys were asked about girlfriends or boyfriends and Harry said Louis’ boyfriend and management were heard saying to take that bit out. Now there is some debate about whether Harry said Louis’ boyfriend or we're all each other's boyfriends so I suggest taking a close listen. 

Harry saying his first real crush was Louis and that it was mutual. 

The autograph signing where a fan asked Harry if he and Louis were dating and he said yes. 

The AIMH tweet:

Louis being asked if he does romantic things for his partner and answering he once cooked a chicken stuffed with mozzarella wrapped in parma ham (a dish he mentions often) but he's also said in the past he's only cooked one proper meal and his first cooking experience was with Harry. 

You can also check these timelines from the early years for more examples and cute gifs and photos: Larry 2010 timeline, September - October 2011 timeline. 

Those are just some of the reasons people believe in Larry, it's not even the tip of the iceberg; I'll be talking about the tattoos and song lyrics in just a minute but before we move on to the next theory I do want to add what happened with Larry in the public eye.

Those familiar with my blog know about separate narratives well Larry didn't get a separate narrative they got an "enemies" narrative. When the rumors got too big about them they got shoved farther into the closet, they rarely interacted, they weren't seen together and rumors were spread through managements favorite gossip newspapers that they were feuding and hated each other. 

And to this day some fans and solo stans claim this to be true even though Louis has complimented Harry on his solo music, said he’s proud of Harry work in the movie Dunkirk, said in an interview that Harry messaged him congrats when he released his single:

and Harry follows a bunch Larry accs and Louis fan accs on twitter.  

Theory #2: Complementary tattoos.

Also, called matching tattoos by some but they're actually more complimentary not matching but anyways this is another reason why some believe in Larry, it technically falls under fact but for this answer, I'm going to present it as a theory simply because neither of the boys has outright confirmed that their tattoos are meant to complement each other.

Harry and Louis have several complimentary tattoos there's the famous rose(Harry) and dagger(Louis):

The Ship(Harry)and Compass(Louis):

The Oops(Louis) and Hi(Harry) (this one has a more personal significance as there’s a theory that those were the first words the boys said to each other):

The Rope(Louis) and Anchor(Harry):

Masterpost of Louis and Harry’s tattoos.

Theory #3. RBB and SBB

This one is harder to explain, and as far as I know, it's still a fandom mystery.

It all starts when at some point during the boys' Where We Are tour a fan throws a rainbow teddy bear on stage. Someone kept the bear, put some tape on it to make it into bondage bear and the bear got a twitter account. Yes, the stuffed bear got a twitter account, I know it sounds insane but it's a thing that actually happened. At first, it's just silly fun with the bear appearing on tour and tweeting, at some point the bear gets named Rainbow Bondage Bear or RBB by the fans, then the bears twitter acc gets suspended and he is not seen again.

The boys start a new tour, their last tour, the On the Road Again Tour.

The boys are back on the road and so is RBB! Once again, at first, everything is silly fun with the bear appearing on stage when one day out of the blue….a second bear! A small one. This second bear gets labeled Sugar Baby Bear or SBB. The bears are always together, the costumes get more elaborate, the boys don't acknowledge them, and the fans have no clue who is behind it all.

Then things get weird…er, the bears start posing with props including books like a biography of someone coming to terms with their sexuality.

And remember how I said some fans theorize Harry and Louis got married back in 2013? Well, on September 24th the bears appear as always on stage, this time dressed in wedding outfits in front of a signed picture of a man named Larry. On the 29th Harry tweets:

The theory is that Harry and Louis got married on September 28th, 2013. 

The number 28 does seem to have a lot of significance for the boys with Louis even having it tattooed on his body. 

And there was that recent "Louis Styles" moment from Roman Kemp who is from my understanding friends with Harry. And after that happened Christian Saad who Louis follows tweeted (and later deleted):

And liked:

Make of that what you will.  

Back to the bears...after that things get even weirder, the bears get security, they get another twitter account, they keep posing with props, things get more and more elaborate and none of the boys acknowledge it. At one point the boys are set to appear on Kimmel and a really mocking potato bit is done which offends fans, that same night RBB and SBB post a picture looking as angry as two stuffed bears can be next to a box of mashed potatoes.

When the boys are finally asked about the bears all of them immediately look at Louis - and I just have to say Niall's reaction will never not make me laugh - and when he says nothing Harry says he believes it was the crew, and the boys act like they have no idea what is being talked about.

The theory is that Harry and Louis were behind RBB and SBB and were using the bears as a way to communicate with fans. 

RBB & SBB masterpost

Theory #4: Song Lyrics.

Okay, last theory we will be discussing on this ask. I hope you’re still with me on this way longer than intended post.

As I said in the beginning, both boys are songwriters and it is theorized that both have written songs about each other and their relationship. There are parallels in their lyrics and Music Videos* (*Walls and Lights Up also have similar themes song-wise.) 

Among the songs that are said to be about each other is Habit from Louis first album Walls, which contains the lyric:

“come so far from princess park”

And Sweet Creature from Harry’s first album:

“And, oh, we started Two hearts in one home”

The lyrics I highlighted are significant because Harry and Louis lived together in Princess Park Manor.

And if you take a close look at the lyrics both songs also have similar themes, with both being about a relationship that has its struggles but they’re both still deeply in love with the person. 

Now Harry was actually asked in an interview if Sweet Creature was about Louis and after stumbling a bit he eventually answered that he didn’t want to tell anyone that they’re wrong on what they’re feeling about a song even if they’re not necessarily right but he thinks if you really listen to the lyrics you can work out whether it’s about that or not and he leans towards no. 

It’s pretty funny to hear him stumble around for an answer that could have been answered with a simple yes or no. 

A funny comparison that was often done is that in another interview Harry was asked about another one of his songs, ‘Two Ghost’ and if it was about TS because it was rumored on the media that it was; he tries to dodge the question at first but when the radio host introduces the song as the one about TS Harry screams out and shouts ‘NO!’.  

Something to note is that Harry’s stumbled through answer on whether or not Sweet Creature is about Louis is presented in the media as Harry flat out squashing those rumors, while Harry’s scream of ‘no’ during his Two Ghost question is ignored with the media focusing instead on him saying that it’s self-explanatory, with some acting like its confirmation and some even writing articles about all the TS hints in the lyrics. 

-

And there you have it anon a not so quick rundown of Harry and Louis that doesn't even cover the tip of the iceberg and some of the bigger theories surrounding them. I hope you found this informative and that is answered your question! 

One last Larry gif for the road (this one’s one of my favs) 💙💚

[chipchopclipclop]

Any ships for the Witcher?

I GOT ALOT

this WAS under a readmore BC TUMBLR LIKES TO BREAK WHEN YOU EDIT ASKS I GUESS bc it started to get embarrassingly long but im pretty much a multi shipper in any fandom or thing im into but also especially with geralt if hes involved bc i like to hc him as being in love with like…80 percent of the people he knows and is a hashtag #openrelationship king bc the way this game treats him being weirdly exclusive annoys the fuck out of me we, live in our city now.

geralt is involved

Geralt/Dandelion - ouch my dick ouch my balls the original brain dick pounding. I pretty much like any iteration of them with each other but no show geralt bc game geralt is superior in every way 2 me (PERSONAL PREF PLS NO FLAME (him with no beard is fucked up also)) i usually dont like the pair though if people depict dandy as some… naive pure waif or some such…. this man is a hoe and stupid through and through dont overlook this. its important.

I am also actually am a sucker for geralt singing his praises quietly fr no goddamn reason aside from hes infatuated with him and getting weirdly defensive about him and everyone else around him is just like. Christ. this is influenced by me never being able to pick the bully options when i was playing w3 ( i am whipped)

Geralt/Eskel/Lambert - soon as i knew they were more wolf witchers my brain entered a state of superflux. which means i followed them around making mooney eyes constantly, Im more fond of Geralt/Eskel leg of this ot3 bc they have such. old married couple energy and i am in love with Eskel but i love and respect our king lambert as well and he deserves a good ramming, DONT WE ALL? I REST MY CASE.

i also like to think like geralt, the two are pretty open relationship wise by nature tho i could say this about any of these characters bc i like poly hawhaw but something about witchers being seen as unemotional and unfeeling but these guys just having alot of love to give to each other and with others…poetry 😔

Geralt/Yennefer - i have complicated feelings on this pairing bc the show confounded me in how it happened and then it felt so faking weird in w3 bc of all the weird jealousy love triangle stuff i was forced to sit through as well as yen p much just calling me a dumbass donkey every hour before being like alright. time to fuck randomly. and it was executed bad. i didn’t like it and it was bad.

BUT. the potential here is still good and i like a cagey yennefer who finds it hard to trust opening up more slowly to geralt bc hes just like. straightforward…. i think their convo on the boat was kind of cute too… i think i just am really not into the THEY’RE TIED BY DESTINY TO EACH OTHER. LIKE. LITERALLY. aspect of their relationship especially when they seem to clash to hard against it. when she broke the wish with the djinn though and they were acting sweet with each other it made me kinda 🥺 uhu…. my goth wife….

i also dont mind these two deciding they work better together platonically as well though and being like, chummy exes lolol the ribbing that would entail…

Geralt/Yennefer/Dandelion - i think aqua gave me the idea for this but i am tickled by the thought of Dandelion landing himself TWO powerful beau’s who will step in to defend him from the stupid shite he gets himself into 24/7. Yennefer walking in front of him while he gets cussed out by someone just saying “Is there a problem?” smiling menacingly… does that not fuck…. i say it does !

i think her and dandelion’s relationship is just…..very funny and not dramatic so its very fun to think about even romantically. and also geralt is there and plays the beleaguered straight man.

Geralt/Regis - i am putting this here even if i have not finished blood and wine yet bc oh my godddddddddddddddddddddddddddd [smacks head with rock] also my first interaction with w3 was watching a friend play one of his quests with another friend and and all three of us go mad bc we were like IS THIS MEANT TO BE DRIPPING WITH SEXUAL TENSION AND INNUENDO. WHAT IS GOING ON. ARE WE LOSING IT. HELLO. we all deserve a big word speaking vampire boyfriend

Keira/Geralt - they are cute…. i dont need to defend myself….her being so pompous around him is so funny 2 me

Geralt/Zoltan - i like zoltan okay, actually these two have similar retired dad energy but zoltan is the one who makes them go out for date night still

Geralt/Zoltan/Dandelion - i am thinking about it i am thinking about it

edit: Yennefer/Eskel/Geralt/Lambert - poki put this idea in my head just now GEE YENNEFER HOW COME YOUR MOM LETS YOU SMASH THREE WITCHERS?

not geralt centric

Triss/Yennefer - oh my god they were schoolmates.png and yenn calling triss her best friend made me go hmmmghhh 🥺 also im sick of this series being like oh no my best friend slept with my boyfriend, DRAMA! they are also dating okay shut up #lovewins, i need to intake more witcher content to further solidify these two as a pair in my head but its on the agenda. i am looking. i am watching. WAITING.

Eskel/Dandelion - take my faves and smack them together like barbie dolls also dandelion having a type thats just - witcher is comedy gold on top of that? eskel being flattered a pretty dude like this is into him…cute

Ciri/That One Readhead Girl Whose Name I Forgot - you know in the quest where ciri asks you to come around with her in novigrad and help thank the people who helped her and one was the cute barmaid with freckles, they were so cute what the fuck it lasted all of 5 minutes and i cant stop thinking about it, ciri’s government assigned girlfriend (i am the government)

Regis/Dandelion - when i was walking around his sick basement in w3 he had a book that dandelion has written about him in there… and all it said was nice things… and regis kept it in clear view? much to consider… thinking on this….

Priscilla/Dandelion - these two…surprisingly wholesome… also god i love bards. i dont think about the end of the quest where she gets owned for no reason they’re just faking chilling in novigrad making bank. ALSO i still cant believe these two dont come with you when you’re forming the avengers crew to defend kaer morhen how r they gonna write about it if they arent there !!!!!!! let them sit in the rafters and throw bombs conspiratorially !!!!! smh !!!!!

Priscilla/Yennefer - think pris having a hero crush on yennefer is very cute… she meets her for the first time and her thoughts r just oh god shes even prettier than the song said she was [brain explodes into mush] also her singing about her when geralt rocks up dare i say gay activity ?

Keira/Lambert - find it very funny w3 was like ‘and then keira decided to pick up lambert to roam around with her like he’s some weird fucking stray cat whos hair she likes to fuss over’ also lambert being forced to behave around her scholarly friends lmfao

Dandelion/Everyone okay - this man be fucking

[liliaeth]

Dutch Comic Con meet and greet

I’d been delaying this one, sorry about that, I’ve had way too little time. I’ve been way too busy with overtime at work.

But since it’s weekend, and almost a week since the con.

Now I’ve already made a post on the Q&A (here), though I forgot to mention one or two things, like how Tyler was asked if he’d had a choice, which character other than Scott, that he would have wanted to play on Teen Wolf.

Answer being Derek ;-)

He also talked about what a great dramatic actor he thought Dylan was, and how the two of them are still friends. That often they separate themselves from a crowd just to talk and share what they’ve been going through.

One of the things I noticed about the Q&A is what a natural entertainer Tyler is. He never sits still, and he keeps everything lighthearted and fun. Or how he meandered on the inspiration question.

Now admittedly, my memory is killing me, and I keep mixing up things he said in the Q&A and the meet and greet, so my apologies in advance if I do so. It’s why I probably should have made this post sooner, but ah well..

Now on to the meet and greet.

I’ll admit, I’d never before done one of those. So since I didn’t know what to expect, I’d looked things up online. I figured it’d be a line and getting to talk to him for a moment and then he’d move on to the next. (that actually ended up being the autograph line)

What it really was, is that we were taken to a separate private room near the VIP area. A place with nice comfy seats and one chair in the middle. And then a crew member told us the rules, you know, no taking pictures, no getting out your phone to record anything,  no asking questions about Tyler’s personal life, that if the convo got stuck, she’d try and help it get going again. Things like that. And then they brought Tyler in, and we got to talk to him for half an hour, no interruptions...

This would have already been amazing under normal circumstances. Normally these things are for about twenty people, But as I mentioned in my previous post... Tyler had only been announced five days before the con.

Now keep in mind that the tickets for these cost 200€.

That’s not a small amount for anyone to find, esp. in less than a week to think it over. Or with people who do have the money, finding the time to come to Utrecht for it, and be at the con. (and there were two of those meet and greets a day on a two day con)

End result being, there were two of us who’d paid for those tickets in the room with Tyler.

Me and bohentastic (she mentioned it on her twitter, not sure if she has a tumblr)

Now she’s apparantly more used to these things, but as I said, this was the first time I ever took part in one of those meet and greets (and honestly there’s currently only two people I’d pay that kind of money for, Tyler Posey, and Jensen Ackles), so I was nervous as hell, and when I get nervous I get talky, often embarrassingly so.

(which is why I was grateful that there was at least one other person, so I didn’t scare off poor Tyler entirely ;-) )

Now Bohentastic was wearing a shirt from a band called WSTR. I didn’t know the band before, but the fact she wore that shirt, had Tyler totally excited cause he loves that band. (she pretty much made his day)

he’d already started singing one of their songs for her at the autograph line, though at the time he didn’t quite get it right yet.

aka this song:

(which really makes me want to make a teen wolf vid with it, but that left aside)

Thankfully he’s used to people like me being over the top nervous.

Anyway, one of us, not sure if it was me or Bohentastic asked about his new music, since Five North currently has only one song out. And he let us listen two two of the bands unreleased songs that he was really excited about, and that should get released soon.

I got to say, I liked those songs better than I did the PVMNTS ones. But that might be my taste in music. And I can’t wait for them to be released :-)

He also talked about why he left PVMNTS, said that it was a disagreement on what they wanted out of the band. He wanted to try new things, and his friends disagreed, and there was a constant ‘no’ going on, whenever he suggested doing something other than the style the band already had.

With the new band he gets to experiment more, try new things, new styles, and from what I got to hear of the songs, they’re definitely worth it.

Now before the meeting, I kept reminding myself, ‘do not talk about my dislike of Stiles’, so of course, after two days of telling myself this, I of course just had to mention that I’m one of the few people in fandom that  utterly can’t stand Stiles... (sometimes my mouth is faster than my brain, or common sense)

He found it amusing and when I said it’s cause Stiles irritates the hell out of me, he told me that Dylan would apparently love that. (I leave it to you to take it as him amusing me on that one ;-) )

I mentioned some of my views on the show, mostly why I love Scott, how unique I feel that Scott is. And how different Scott is from your average protagonist.

See, most protagonists are pretty generic, they’re generally characters like Derek, or the every man like Stiles. They fit stereotypical tropes, and you see them in every show out there.  (aka the broody guy or the sarcastic funny guy)

Scott’s not like that. Scott is kind, determined sure, but he listens to others. (he just doesn’t always do what people tell him to when he disagrees with what they want to do (esp to others)) Also Scott utterly and totally lacks toxic masculinity.

Scott doesn’t try to control others, he’s not brave for the sake of being brave, and his focus is on healing, taking care of others, rather than on violence or taking out the bad guys. He likes to talk things out instead of fight whenever possible.

And chars like that are far too rare, especially in today’s climate.

I was just glad that I was able to tell Tyler this, and that he at least seemed to love that I actually got what they were trying to go for with Scott on the show. 

We also talked on how dark s1 is and how it compared to s3b (ever notice how Scott in s1 goes through many of the same things Stiles goes through in 3b)

Bohentastic asked him about his tattoos, and he gave us a better look of them. And he talked about how he has a fave tattoo artist, and how he basically picks them based on what he likes, instead of trying to give meaning to every single tattoo. And how sometimes one spot will remain empty till he gets a new one. he also mentioned how they hurt, esp. apparantly ones on the wrist :-)

For the record, yes I talked too much, and I did try and check to make sure I wasn’t saying too much, cause I’m well aware of how over the top talky I get when nervous. Seems like Bohentastic has the opposite problem and talks less when nervous, after mentioning that, Tyler actually went to lie on the floor to make us less nervous, he’s so damn sweet.

I mentioned that I’m primarily a sceo and scerek shipper, and you know every other Scott ship, and he said he was all for it. My guess is that he’d have been all for bi Scott. Too bad the show didn’t go for it.

He also mentioned still being in touch with Gideon Emery, who played Deucalion, which awesome. (sceucalion is so one of my fave crack ships)

He would love to have had more scenes with Cody in s6b, though he did like the scenes between Cody and Dylan Sprayberry. (which he brought up with no prompt of mine) There was a short moment there, where he talked how Dylan was only 14 when he joined the cast, I said i thought he was 15, but I’m sure he knows better, since you know, he actually knows the guy.

We also talked on how the show was divided in 3a, 3b, 5a, 5b, 6a and 6b, so the producers didn’t have to pay the actors more. Cause now they were basically paid for six seasons, instead of the nine that we actually got.

He talked about Lost Boys, I mentioned how I was sorry it didn’t go to series, since I’d been interested in it, and it turns out he was actually not too happy with it. Seems like he felt the script was cheesy, he was told it was going to be funny though, since he gave it his best shot, but in the end, he felt he really didn’t want to play the character. So for him the fact it didn’t go to series was actually a good thing.

He also talked about ‘Alone’.  And how since there were so few actors on set, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t being an asshole on the set, cause if he had been, the entire mood on set would have sucked;

His new band will apparently also be touring in Europe, I mentioned hoping they’d come to Belgium as well, he said they might :-)

Probably missing a few things here, might add those later, but yeah, that was probably one of the best half hours of my life.

And not just because Tyler is even hotter in real life than he already is onscreen,and is the nicest guy ever.

Or because I get another two, or three hugs out of that meeting.

Or that he tried to sing that song again, and this time got it right, which he was so damn happy and excited about. I might have to listen to more of that band’s songs, since Tyler’s love for their music is infectious :-)

[castcharmperson]

how does the convo with dav and taako go,, are lup and barry there?

Well it’s only been forever, but I finally wrote an update. To anyone still reading this series, thank you all for your kindness and your patience. To answer your question, anon, few words are exchanged. Lup and Barry are “helpful”

Mornings were the only time this house was quiet. The Starblaster had been quiet usually just after lunch, mornings busy with preparation for whatever the day held. But here, in the house his crew had made for themselves, even the lazy time after lunch was filled with noise. Spells or shouting, occasionally the bark of dogs, there was always someone coming or going or something to do.

But mornings, well, his crew deserved to sleep in after all they’d done. Davenport couldn’t, even in what was supposed to be his retirement. His body was still too regimented. Not that he minded; the quiet was nice while it lasted.

So when a flyer was slapped in front of his coffee mug, Davenport wasn’t surprised. But he was retired and, regimented or not, he wasn’t looking at anything until he finished his drink. He refused to care which twin was demanding his attention, as they kept pushing the paper under his nose.

“Come on, Cap’n, it’s a big week! Memorize that schedule!” Ah, so it was Taako then. The forced cheer in his voice was something to look into, but not now. Davenport wasn’t awake enough for that yet, and despite ignoring the flyer, he already knew they had a big Candlenights’ week ahead of them. There was a formal gala in Neverwinter tonight, the speech for which Davenport wrote before he even docked his boat, and another event in Goldcliff tomorrow. Parties from Merle’s bar to Raven’s Roost littered the rest of the week, ending with one final massive celebration here.

They were saving gifts for the eighth day, so Davenport figured he could stay that long. Maybe he’d stay until Angus went back to school. How their crew adopted a child, he would never understand. Half of them were still children themselves, Magnus and Lucre–

He tried not to crack the empty mug when he put it in the sink a little harder than he should have. Might as well get this over with.

“I’d say that was a successful Candlenights,” Taako mumbled, a week later. He was curled around the literal Grim Reaper, something Davenport didn’t have the brain power to continue to be baffled by, since he felt as hungover as Taako sounded.

“It ain’t over yet!” Lup cheered and the remaining mortals of the crew groaned at the noise. She was unfazed, plucking out packages from under the dimly glowing Candlenights bush and tossing them towards whatever name was scrawled across their tags. It wasn’t long until the living room transformed into a sea of crumpled wrapping paper and emptied boxes.

“I thought we fuckin’ talked about this!” Merle laughed, gesturing to Angus, who was surrounded with five copies of the latest Caleb Cleveland novel. The boy didn’t seem to mind, chattering with Mavis about having copies to lend to his friends. Lup had already put on the “Liches Get Kisses” shirt Davenport had gotten her, trying to convince Barry to stop cleaning up and wear his matching shirt with her. Mookie jumped into whatever attempt at cleaning had been started, as though it were a pile of leaves in autumn.

It felt right, seeing his family enjoying themselves like this. Strange, but right, like the universe had been shifted just a degree to the left this whole time and had finally clicked into place. Davenport wondered if he could stay here forever, laughing with them.

“Thank you,” Lucretia whispered, sitting in an armchair to his left, and Davenport was suddenly reminded that he definitely needed more coffee. That he definitely wasn’t going to stay on shore forever. She was clutching the ship in a bottle he’d given her like it was more precious than any of her journals, but Davenport didn’t respond. He kept his eyes forward, hopped off the couch, and walked right past her. She didn’t follow.

“I just don’t get it. Lup was really insistent about it.” Magnus and Taako were sitting together, voices low. Or at least, low for Magnus. He was gathering a collection of wrapping paper into a trash bag, and Taako seemed to be ‘supervising’. The hand carved umbrella was sitting in his lap, the odd gift from Lup and Magnus. “I thought the two of you would never look at another umbrella again.”

“It was probably a joke. Lup’s weird like that.”

“She asked for the sturdiest oak I had. We had to make an extra trip to Raven’s Roost for it. Not that I mind but it seemed pretty elaborate for a joke.”

“What do you want me to say, Mags?” Taako’s voice was strained, the same nervousness Davenport heard a week before. “It’s a great gift, I like it. Would you stop bugging me about it?”

The couch shifted and Taako was standing, walking past Davenport without seeming to notice him as he went upstairs. Magnus didn’t follow, neither did Davenport, though both of them wanted to.

Being retired had several drawbacks, Davenport was realizing. He definitely couldn’t leave until he figured out what was going on– not just with Taako, but both twins and Barry seemed more squirrelly than usual. When they were on the Starblaster, he was fine with waiting. Secrets were hard to keep for very long when they all lived so close. Now though, he might be halfway around the world by the time someone felt comfortable enough to talk. If he has to wait around long enough for this crew to have an emotionally vulnerable conversation, he might as well burn his boat.

So in the quiet of the next morning, he was in no rush as he prepared his coffee. It wasn’t long before whispering started, just outside the kitchen, and Davenport grinned into his mug. If those three were at least talking to each other, it was a push in the right direction.

Literally, in this case, as Taako nearly fell into the kitchen. The strange gift caught him, his knuckles turning white as they gripped the wooden handle and the tip of the umbrella scrapped against the tile floor. “Yeah! Great idea! Fucking push me, after we just–” Taako stopped shouting with a wince, turning to look at who they pushed him into before glaring back at the door to the kitchen. Davenport tilted his head just enough to see Lup and Barry give Taako a thumbs up before darting away.

Taako turned back to Davenport, squinting at him with the kind of focus he gave to any particularly challenging transmutation requests. Curious, calculating, with a glimmer of determination. All that melted away and Taako sighed, collapsing bonelessly into the chair across from Davenport.

For a while, he just kept his eyes closed. Davenport watched, between sips of his coffee, as Taako intentionally slowed down his breathing until he opened his eyes to meet Davenport’s gaze. He didn’t mean to turn it into a staring contest, but Taako sat forward, staring more intently now, biting back to the edge of a grin. He blinked first though, everyone in the crew always did, immediately huffing out a laugh at himself and leaning back in the chair. Less boneless from exhaustion now, more boneless in the way the twins seemed able to turn themselves from solid to liquid at will.

Just to really rub it in, Davenport continued to stare at him, unblinking, for another thirty seconds. That sent Taako into a fit of giggles and only then did Davenport blink, letting a soft smile smooth across his previously blank expression. Taako quieted down, but kept smiling. Not the performer’s grin Davenport had seen all week, but the smile he gave when Lucretia used to bring them cucumber sandwiches after they all spent too long in the labs. Davenport was pretty sure that it was a smile Taako expected no one to have seen.

The joyful look faded away, whatever Taako had been sent in here to discuss coming back to the forefront of his mind. He broke eye contact, glancing down at the new umbrastaff he was still clutching. There was the sharp smell of magic, just for a second, before it drifted away like mist, then Taako was looking at him again.

Davenport had more than a lifetime to memorize his crew, but even that didn’t spare him from the power of the Voidfish. When Taako, Merle, and Magnus walked into the Bureau of Balance, Davenport couldn’t recognize them. He couldn’t express it at the time, and he maybe still couldn’t really find the words to explain it now, but the arcane energy around them was familiar, even if their faces were just static.

So when Taako came back from their final mission, when the Hunger became a story to tell around campfires, Davenport could sense the energy lingering on his crew. It was stronger now. Their connections to each other had once powered the bond engine, and now the bond engine had returned that gift. The seven of them, and all those that they’d brought into their strange little family, were vibrant with that arcana, especially to Davenport, who’d dedicated his life to the study of that magic.

Illusion magic had been a hobby before the Starblaster. With a century of time on his hands, and the rest of the wizards in his crew already having claim to the other schools of magic, Davenport could sense the shifts in that arcana too, even if he couldn’t see them.

When Taako came back from their last mission, it wasn’t just bond energy on him. The dropping of this altered Disguise Self spell wasn’t really shocking to Davenport. The results weren’t either– this face was more familiar than the static had been. He could see why Taako was upset though, could see that Taako had been upset, rather recently if the smudged mascara and deep bags under his eyes were anything to go by.

At the end of it all, though, the face was the same. Tired, curious, determined. Davenport held his gaze, and nodded. Taako laughed, softly, like that was funny in a way he hadn’t expected and couldn’t explain. He stood up, rather suddenly, but Davenport wasn’t confused for long. He let out a low whistle, didn’t need to roll a high arcana check to know scarring like that was the least pleasant kind of dark magic. Taako rolled his eyes, leaning on the umbrastaff, trying for casual and missing it by just a few inches.

Davenport was up now too, moving around Taako before he really realized what he was doing. Taako rolled his eyes again, whole body moving with him, but he didn’t walk away. Just let Davenport check him over, like this was just another mission as they sped through the stars. It didn’t matter that they’d stopped running, Davenport was still his Captain.

“So I’m pretty sure it’s scurvy,” Taako broke the silence and Davenport, satisfied that Taako wasn’t about to immediately keel over, burst out with a deep laugh that nearly knocked him off his own feet. He sat back down and Taako joined him, twisting his wrist to transmute his shorts back to long, soft flannel.

“But…” he started again, trailing off. Davenport watched a few different emotions play across this almost familiar face, each half-formed before flowing into the next. Nervousness of a few different kinds, for probably a few hundred reasons, finally settled into a sheepish play at determination. New face or not, the twins were still exactly the same. “I think I’d like for Merle to look at it?”

Davenport nodded, reaching for his coffee before realizing the mug was empty. When he looked back at Taako, his expression had twisted back up with a fake smile and too wide eyes.

“How is Merle doing?” He asked, laughing to try and elevate the weight of the words. Davenport leveled Taako with another unblinking expression, not as neutral as before, brow arching when Taako still didn’t cave. It took longer than Davenport would have liked, but Taako eventually slouched over.

“He doesn’t know. I haven’t told him.” There was a sharp scraping sound that made them both jump, before Taako lifted the wooden umbrastaff and placed it carefully on the table. He glanced down, but Davenport was sure whatever scuff he’d made against the tile would come off with half a cantrip.

When Taako looked back at him, still rattled from the noise or the confession, Davenport sighed. “We’re family, Taako. Ten years doesn’t change that. We always know, even if we don’t know exactly what it is or how we know it.”

Taako looked away, fingers twitching along the handle of his spell focus. “It was that obvious, huh?”

“No, your magic is good. You learned from the best after all.” Davenport grinned and Taako managed to do so as well. He let the moment linger before he got up to refill his coffee mug. “If you want to know how Merle’s doing,” he said, not looking back. He already knew how Taako would respond to this. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Taako groaned, loud and over dramatic and predictable. When Davenport turned around, the elf’s face was pressed against the table.

“Am I wrong?”

“No,” Taako whined.

Silence spread over the kitchen again. It had been comfortable before, and it still was now, but it felt lighter. After some time, Davenport wasn’t really sure how long, Taako peeled himself off the table and prepared what smelled like oolong. Davenport raised an eyebrow and Taako just flapped a hand at him. A story for another time.

The silence was punctured by Taako slurping at the last dregs of his tea. Davenport realized his own coffee had gone cold. He wasn’t surprised he’d lost track of time, another side effect of the last decade, but he was trying not to let it bother him as much.

“Lup wants you to talk to Cresha.”

Davenport wasn’t exactly sure what face he pulled, but Taako huffed a laugh at it. So much for not letting it bother him. “Look, Cap, I agree. I’m just saying.”

“And why isn’t Lup telling me this herself?”

Taako opened his mouth but seemed to realize he didn’t have an answer. He ticked through the same emotions he came in here with. Curiosity, frustration, grim determination. Davenport didn’t need him to say whatever answer he’d come to.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he offered and Taako nodded.

It seemed like he had something more to say, but he didn’t open his mouth again. Instead, he stretched out his legs and took the umbrastaff off the table. It’s point clicked a single, clear note against the floor as he stood. He didn’t immediately leave. Davenport realized, dully, that he wasn’t going to be able to leave either. The itch to explore was deep in his bones, back with a vengeance after so many years dormant, but the world would still be waiting for him in a few more days. Weeks, maybe. The least Davenport could do was take his own advice.

He reached a hand out, gripping Taako’s wrist. There was only a moment of confusion on his expression before Taako placed his own hand on Davenport’s outstretched arm. He seemed sturdy, comfortable in this kitchen he and Lup had crafted together. With only the faintest squeeze around his wrist, Davenport loosened his grip and Taako did the same.

More sharp, focused clicks from the umbrastaff against the tile and Taako was gone. It was nearly noon though, so the lingering silence was short lived.

“So how’d it go?” Lup’s voice rang through the house.

“For fate’s sake, I’m surprised you didn’t listen to the whole damn thing!” Taako shouted back. There was more yelling, the clatter of things falling, spells being cast. A chaotic, unquiet home was exactly what Davenport had forgotten he loved.

[laissezferre]

the terror (2018), last 3 eps

this is primarily for @corinthes, whom i’ve been yelling at for the past few days bc of this show. it got a bit lengthy and and i doubt you’d enjoy reading this from the chat box. spoilers beware for anyone curious enough.

i feel like episode 8 is the calm before the shitstorm that is ep 9-10 and it certainly has the feel of a filler episode, but i love it nonetheless. people talk! people have lines and are given the time to deliver them! francis and james have this important conversation even before the credits roll and that makes it all the more important. i love this scene; i see what you mean about how it belongs to a stage. it's just two guys having a heartfelt convo, beautifully acted. when the camera goes further and shows them standing apart, right in the middle of the frame, in this vast wasteland, looking at each other and having an understanding--gaawwd.

tobias's delivery of "i would like that very much" was so good! so vulnerable and open and hopeful. even now, he needs validation and it's important that he gets it from francis. and francis--having labeled the ship as a confessor--fills the ships' gap and becomes the confessor for everyone apparently. and at this point, he's reached god-like zen bc seriously he looks so put together after everyone's spilled their guts out to him. til the end, he dispenses "i forgive you" and "you did your best" and "you're a good lad" like pancakes. and he starts calling people by their first name too. and this, coming from a francis crozier who has known to be miserable and disagreeable, is called d e v e l o p m e n t. further on, when tells his lieutenants that if they got sick, he wouldn't leave them either, i thought "yes, i would die for you, i would follow you to hell and back". thank you, jared, for this performance.

i loved the almost-hanging scene too. it's a very looong scene and it's sad how so few shows actually take the time to have their characters talk! i can easily imagine this on a stage, complete with atmospheric smoke and sepia lighting. i knew that letter was gonna bite francis in the ass. i was waiting for it and hickey put down that card in the best time possible. hickey, you are a murdering, mutinous son of a bitch, but i also can't help but admire you.

ep 9 is like one sucker punch after another. god wants you to live, can we sleep, bridal carry, what can i do for you sir--this is... too much. special props tho to goodsir bc he has been through some shit. this show has added so many actors to my watch-for-next-projects list and that includes paul ready. he goes through such a transformation, so filled with hope and optimism and empathy and by the time they ask him to butcher gibson, he just looks so fucking done. we know he's going to die and it won't be by anyone else's hand. i love the part where hickey stabs gibson and they get into a struggle, but it’s less a physical struggle and more a battle of wills. can't believe they brought out the bits of glass from episode xX. his death was so beautifully shot. first, from where he sits still and looks in the direction of the camera while the tent canvass behind him thrashes wildly. that was hauntingly beautiful. then when he cuts his wrists but we can't see his face, only his spasms. and then when he pictures the flowers and shells. that broke me. he was a science man to the death.

i have words for jopson but i will reserve them for ep 10.

francis gave a service for james but they did it alone. ok then! fuck me up some more! this, plus blankly's revelation that he's gonna die soon, chips at francis' state of zen and we see him break a bit. i love how his voice breaks in "why didnt you say aything?!" and then they're laughing and crying at the same time and yeah, there is no toxic masculity in this murderland, just a whole lot of love.

this show like oprah giving out prizes. "you get a monologue! and you get a monologue! and you get a monologue!" and i love it! hodgson and tover are relatively minor characters but they are given time to speak up, and despite their shitty actions, you can't help but empathize. and their breakdowns aren't the same either. goodsir breathes heavily, hodgson is still and haunted, tover hugs himself and shudders, and they all do it so well! how is everyone in this show so good?? jared did mention that most of the cast was theater-trained so i guess that played a part.

i have to tell you that before bingeing the last 3 eps i watched almost all the terror crack videos on youtube, so these last eps were, though still heartbreaking, were also a bit funny for me, in an absurd kind of way. when james fires the rocket, i can hear "rocketman" in the background. when goodsir mixes the poison, i almost yelled "chemistry time!". it's just... i needed to make fun of it or i wouldn't surive the heartbreak. which leads me to:

jopsoooooonnn! the best boi! the goodest boi! the most loyal boi who did no wrong! apart from his death, what's more heartbreaking is that he thought crozier left him. he didn't know that the captain was abducted so he thought he's been deliberately abandoned. his hallucination reduced me to tears. he was probably starving to death and here was all this food but no, he! just! wanted! his! captain! he sees the captain in his best form--well kempt, alert, emphatic--and at the end of it, his captain is turned away from him. fuck me up seven ways to sunday. i desperately want bts pics from this scene bc the eeriness of having a full dining table in the wastes must be jarring.

little doesn't get enough credit, because while he did mess up, his loyalty is also something to be admired. they were hungry and sick and dying--they could very well have just kept on south but he was still insistent to save francis. "you would leave our captain with that devil of a man?" yes, little, you did your best. you deserved to die last.

if tunbaaq is meant to be a metaphor for nature and balance, it's absolutely fitting how it's defeated by lead and chemical poison. ultimately, how we've used technology and industrialization kills the environment--or at least that's how i read it.

i really have to applaud adam nagaitis for his performance here and i do think he deserves top billing as much as the lead cast. by the end of it, he draws as much screen time as crozier and you can even say that he holds the last 2-3 eps together. and you genuinely fucking hate his character. were those really james' boots he was wearing? does that mean they dug him up and looted him? that unforgiveable swine, may he rot in hell, but gawwd adam pulled it off well.

i've been debating with myself if it was kinder and more poetic to have crozier die at the end so that he wouldn't have to grieve or go through survivor's guilt, but for my own mental health, i'm glad he survived. it's a small mercy but i'm glad he got to live. i'm glad he got to see what happened to his men, that he saw jopson one final time, and little too. his survival also sends the message that the one most willing to adapt (and respect the culture) will survive. he tries to follow silna but stops when the chief says "it's just how we do things". he understands and he lets it go. he learns the language and the way of life--and he lives.

i've watched featurettes and interviews for this series and from there you can really see that this show was a labor of love. it was a product of collaboration, research, open-mindedness, and a solid cast and crew. you can have all the special effects, all the expensive costumes, but at the core of it, what makes a good story is Dialogue. i can honestly say that it's one of the best scripts this decade has ever produced. the showrunners set out to tell a story and they did it to the best of their ability. i'll be coming back to this series for the next few months and rewatching it many times over.

thank u, thank u, thank u for introducing this to me. now come yell at me back

[weirdponytail]

Huntik x Mass Effect: Crew and Enemies

Hella hella you fantastic people! I’m back with more of that Huntik-Mass Effect AU no one wanted! 

I’m still hashing out stuff for the Crew of the Huntik Foundation ship that Dante’s in command of. It’s still called the Nexus (like the Huntik Nexus stones from the show, not the Andromeda ship), and it still has Krogan!Montehue and Salarian!Tersley(Terzi is the salarian name I’m giving him), but I’m still debating the races of other Foundation personnel. I kinda want Scarlett to be an Asari, and for her to be the ship medic/doctor. Metz is human and basically is a combination of Anderson and Admiral Hackett. 

When I put out the original AU character things over Xmas, I was trying to lean away from modeling whatever I’d write about the team in Mass Effect after the Reaper War. The war in the games, especially ME3, is sharp, rushed, and incredibly (though amazingly and fantastically done) visceral and just...so brutal, especially when you listen in on side convos around the Citadel. There are terrible battles happening on multiple planets, on the ground, focused on soft target areas. I knew that if I went that direction with the Huntik Team, I’d start slipping into the style and background of writing that I generally reserved for my Modern Inheritance stories, and considering the age of Lok, Sophie and the Fears boys I didn’t want to do that to them. 

Now though? After replaying the opening of ME3 and fighting through Grissom Academy, I’ve decided to put the team in the ‘Reaper’ war, but on a slower scale more similar to the Spiral War as it built up through season 2. It’ll be better explained once I get what’s in my brain down in an ‘intro’ piece, but till then, let’s talk bad guys.

There are, generally, two different ‘factions’ you fight in ME3. 

One is Cerberus, a pro-human group that was originally fighting against the Reapers (as well as committing terrorist acts against non-humans) that’s being influenced by the Reapers by the time we start ME3. 

Cerberus is now the Organization. They’re still a shady bunch, believing they have human interests at heart and that humans are the rightful leaders in the galactic political stage. Over time they’ve been warped and misguided, but there are operatives that joined because the Organization had the funding needed for special projects that the Foundation and Council would have restricted or tangled in political red tape. 

Klaus is one of those operatives. He was developing a biotic implant that would help children who manifested their abilities early, as well as help adolescents that still had problems controlling their biotics even with standard amps, implants and training. Usually children like this were even more stigmatized than your usual human biotic. Their emotional states as young children would tie in with their biotics, turning natural tantrums into deadly telekinetic hellstorms. Children like those would often be tossed aside, sold into slavery, or outright killed due to fear in their community. Klaus wanted to develop these amps and implants and help find these kids and give them a chance to control their powers where the Foundation and Council standard equipment had failed them. 

This lead to problems similar to the ones that arose when Jack(Subject Zero) was experimented on. Klaus was kept out of the loop, stuck in the lab and away from the testing process. Eventually the prototype implant stuck with one of the young subjects without killing her: Zhalia, known as #26. This implant was altered by the Organization without Klaus’s knowledge to put a heavy influence on its powers. While Zhalia was the only known biotic to have the ability to ‘charge’ and was pretty much a biotic artillery squad in a tiny body once the L5z-26 implant bonded, she has incredibly weak support power- her barriers are a joke when not charging and while she can telekinetically move items she’s got little ability to use singularity, gravity fields, ect. She was being trained to become a human tank, and once he realized what they were doing Klaus slaughtered the adults at the facility, sent the other children to a Foundation outpost in an auto guided shuttle, and took Zhalia with him so that the Foundation wouldn’t use her as a weapon, enrolling her in the Hades Academy for Gifted Youth to help her control, train and hone her abilities to prevent accidents. 

On to the ‘Reapers!’

Of course the Reapers are the Spirals, but as for their motivations beyond wiping out life and just being dicks in general, no one really knows. The Ones That Came Before, dubbed Casterwills by their apparent pre-biotic powers woven into ancient tech continually effecting people and objects long after they disapeared (Casting their will on others long after death. eh? eh??), fought them before and vanished. 

Also they can be giant killer robots and make things into indoctrinated husks of their former selves. Because I’m not giving that up. :3

Alright now I can get to my little intro. Cheers mates!

[roseymoseyberry]

A Private Moment (one-shot)

Heyo, guess who finished LL 22 and immediately spent the next two days furiously writing?

Because wow. What gays.

Is this going to be tossed in a couple weeks when the next issue comes out? Yes. Is it even feasible for them to get away for even this long a convo in the middle of a big space fight? Nope. Do I care? Naaaaah.

Title: A Private Moment

Series: TFIDW/MTMTE/LL

Ship(s): Megatron/Minimus (in the Ultra Magnus suit)

Rating/warnings: G or maaaaybe T for a couple cusses, conscious switching between calling him Minimus and Ultra Magnus, and a very gay hug

Summary: 

“Very well. What did you want to discuss, Minimus?”

Everything. Everything, but also nothing, because what was the point? What difference would it make? Why had he even said anything and gotten himself in this situation; what was there to even say?

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“May we speak in private for a moment?”

Ultra Magnus hadn’t been sure where the words had come from – well, certainly, they had come out of his mouth, he knew that, but there were far, far more pressing matters that could and should all be discussed with the rest of the crew. There was urgent danger beyond the walls of this very ship – not the Lost Light as every inch of purple reminded him, but it was otherwise so much the same, identical in every other way, and why would Megatron want this ship, why would he have searched it out in that other universe—

No. He had to focus.

There was a very real danger. They were on the precipice of death.

Again.

Truthfully, it seemed like forever ago that that hadn’t been true. The possibility of imminent death had become nearly like background noise. That very day, Ultra Magnus had thought himself to truly be dead, so death wasn’t new.

And what a twisted life he had found himself living that seeing Megatron’s concerned expression instilled far more fear in his spark than death had.

“Surely it can wait?”

Yes, it could, because there was a planet sized threat, not to mention the fleets of other ships surrounding them, and they had yet to hear back from Rodimus and the others left behind, and—

“Assuming there will be a later.”

Megatron’s expression softened and Ultra Magnus’s spark tightened.

“Clicker, keep me abreast of the situation as it progresses,” Megatron said as he turned to his crew. “Maintain proximity as possible should Rodimus and the rest of his crew need rescue, and let me know the moment they make contact. Understood?”

“Yes, of course, but--”

“A moment is all I ask,” Megatron insisted. There was stammered protest, but Megatron’s optics were on Ultra Magnus again as he turned from the group. “Minimus?”

Ultra Magnus’s denta ground together, but he followed.

There wasn’t far to go, fortunately. It was just one of the supply rooms off the deck, neatly organized with enough space for even a mech of Megatron’s size to easily move down the aisle. It still felt cramped with them both in the room, but that had nothing to do with the available space and everything to do with whom Ultra Magnus shared it. The door shut behind him as he followed Megatron inside and at once it felt suffocating.

“I apologize for the location, but given the circumstance--”

“It’s sufficient,” Ultra Magnus interrupted.

Megatron frowned, but it was so understanding, infuriatingly so.

“Very well. What did you want to discuss, Minimus?”

Everything. Everything, but also nothing, because what was the point? What difference would it make? Why had he even said anything and gotten himself in this situation; what was there to even say?

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

It was more accusation than question, but Megatron didn’t appear upset. If anything he looked confused.

“I don’t think I understand. Do you mean Minimus?”

“Yes.”

Megatron’s expression further twisted with confusion, and when he spoke it was with gentleness that was utterly at odds with the animosity that burned through Ultra Magnus’s lines.

“That’s your name, Minimus.”

“You called me Ultra Magnus first--”

“And I corrected myself.”

Ultra Magnus grimaced, because this was ridiculous, but there was no denying the way his spark ached every time Megatron said his name.

The way Minimus’s spark ached.

“But I’m Ultra Magnus right now.”

“You’re in a suit that was once Ultra Magnus,” Megatron corrected, still so gentle, still keeping the space between them though his body language was open, his servos relaxed and tilted towards Ultra Magnus. “I understand that you are comfortable with either designation, and most of the crew follow suit because it is how they best know you. However, I prefer your true name.”

Ultra Magnus’s servos clenched tight at his sides.

“Why?”

Megatron’s optics searched his face.

“I never knew Ultra Magnus as anything more than an enemy. I couldn’t even tell you when the original Ultra Magnus died and his frame donned as a suit. Ultra Magnus is not the mech I befriended.” Megatron’s pedes shifted and his servo lifted towards Ultra Magnus. There was an emotion in his optics that Ultra Magnus dared not try to decipher. “Ultra Magnus is not the mech I missed.”

Minimus’s spark spasmed with pain and the Ultra Magnus suit’s servos went slack and unresponsive.

The suit was failing him again and Minimus could feel the panic starting to build. He shouldn’t have done this, shouldn’t have tried to confront a mech he knew could trick him, could con him into believing his kind words—

“Minimus?!”

It was only when Megatron stepped forward, intending to catch him as Ultra Magnus’s knees buckled and started to give under him, that rage finally flared again, red hot and betrayed.

“Don’t!” Ultra Magnus growled as the suit’s motor system connected to his neural net again, allowing him to step away quickly. “You don’t—you can’t do that anymore!”

Finally some irritation flickered across Megatron’s face as he snapped, “Do what? Worry about you?”

“Pretend!” Ultra Magnus swung his servo out between them, warding Megatron off. “I won’t fall for your act again!”

“What are you talking about?!”

“You betrayed me--us! You betrayed us!”

All Ultra Magnus wanted was even just the smallest amount of guilt, or realization, or something. An acknowledgement of the pain Megatron had inflicted on him.

Instead, Megatron’s expression twisted up further with annoyance.

“Why do you keep saying that?” Megatron asked. “I went to the transport, but you weren’t there. You abandoned me.”

“Stop lying! We waited as long as we dared, but it became obvious you used the opportunity to get away!”

“No,” Megatron insisted, “that’s not—no.” Megatron scrubbed at his face, his plating fluffing out and then slowly deflating as he forced himself through a full ventilation. A terrible silence filled the space once he had finished and Ultra Magnus’s spark tightened with each suspenseful moment.

Finally, Megatron removed his servo to look Ultra Magnus in the optics. The manic energy was now just a simmer in his optics, stern but calm.

“Will you tell me what happened that day?”

Ultra Magnus’s optics narrowed as he said, “I told you already.”

“No, I know, but – tell me exactly what happened after I asked for a moment to speak with Terminus,” Megatron clarified. His focus was so singular as he looked at Ultra Magnus, pained and determined and longing— “Please, Minimus.”

The suit felt claustrophobic in a way Minimus could never recall feeling before.

“We went to the first transport,” Ultra Magnus explained flatly, as if it might mask the maelstrom of his spark.

Megatron’s optics flickered.

“First?”

“Yes. It wasn’t functional so we had to head to a second location nearby.” Megatron’s optics were dimmed with thought, but he did not speak, so Ultra Magnus continued, “Roller commed to inform you of the new coordinates--”

“Terminus.”

“Well, yes. I was speaking with a generalized plural ‘you’--”

“Terminus never told me about a second location.”

Ultra Magnus’s frame went completely still, his ventilations stalling, his spark skipping a pulse.

Megatron’s face pinched with a pained comprehension.

“I—dammit. Dammit!” The deep lines of Megatron’s face furrowed deeper as he scowled, optics finally looking away as he rubbed at his temple. “I can’t believe he—dammit, Minimus, I promise you that I told him explicitly I was returning with you. I had every intension and desire to do so. I had no idea that Terminus would—I didn’t know--”

At once Ultra Magnus felt his process split in two – split between indignation and disbelief and fear of being hurt again, and—

And hope.

And he had no idea which to believe.

Minimus’s spark wrenched terribly in his chest.

The Ultra Magnus suit buckled again and all that kept it from crumpling to the floor was Megatron’s servos grasping it by the arms.

“Minimus? Minimus, are you alright? Give me a few seconds and I can run a diagnostic.” Megatron was already shifting the suit so he could sling one massive arm over his shoulders.

“How can I trust you?”

It was unfathomably quiet compared to the torrent of emotions rattling through Minimus’s frame, but Megatron seemed to hear it just fine.

“I assure you that I’ve become quite proficient as a med--”

“How can I trust you?” Minimus repeated, louder and losing his grip on the monotone he had hoped to maintain.

Megatron stilled, and Minimus would have given anything to move the suit’s helm so he could see the other’s expression.

“I can’t tell you that. It’s your decision to make, Minimus.”

And just like that, irritation sparked in Minimus’s chest as he snapped, “And how in blazes do you suggest I make that decision when I have no proof?”

Of all things, Megatron ex-vented with a huff that nearly sounded amused. His free servo was on the move again, slipping into his subspace to pull out a scanner.

“While I’m sure you’ll hate this answer, I think you’ll simply have to listen to your spark on that matter.”

“You think I would bother to ask if there was an answer to be found there?” Minimus argued. The scanner came to life and Megatron focused it towards the armor’s chest – a coincidence of topic and the practicality that any connectivity issues between the suit and Minimus’s neural net would likely be located there, and nothing more than a coincidence. Still, Minimus felt exposed.

“If there is not one now, then give it time.”

Perhaps it was undignified, but Minimus could not help snorting derisively, replying, “And I’m supposed to just, what, walk around saying—” It took a second to search for the word before spitting it out, like the curse word it was “--maybe?”

This time it was definitely a small, almost silent chuckle that escaped Megatron.

“Primus forbid,” he rumbled. The scanner pinged then and Megatron didn’t continue speaking right away. Minimus could only assume he was looking at the read out, trying to make sense of the oddity—

“If you cannot say that you trust me, then don’t.”

Minimus’s spark pulsed hard in his chest.

“What?”

“I said--”

“No, wait, just—dammit, would you—my helm, I can’t--”

Another rumbling chuckle vibrated against the Ultra Magnus armor, but truthfully Minimus was more distracted by gentle digits curling under his jaw and around his cheek, lifting and turning his gaze to look at Megatron again.

Megatron wore a small smile, though there was increasing sadness tainting it.

“If you cannot say that you trust me, then don’t. I’m more than willing to put in the effort to build it again.”

All at once, the twisted mess of anger and shame and confusion faded, leaving only something small and warm.

“Why?”

The corner of Megatron’s lips quirked up.

“Because I’m very fond of you, Minimus.”

The suit’s servo twitched at his side.

“And how can I know that you truly mean that.”

The arm wrapped around Minimus’s back tightened almost unperceivably.

“You don’t, I suppose.”

But he did.

Minimus was certain of it, no matter how unbelievable it should have been.

Haltingly, his arm lifted up as his pede shifted, turning him towards Megatron, bringing them far too close with Minimus’s other arm still wrapped around Megatron’s shoulders.

Megatron’s optics brightened, the smile slipping away to something hesitant.

“Minimus?”

Minimus’s servo clenched and unclenched, reaching towards Megatron’s side, just as hesitant.

“If I’m being honest, I’m not sure what I’m doing.”

The servo against Minimus’s cheek twitched and then moved, though not away; it drifted down to the junction between neck and shoulder.

“Neither am I.”

Minimus’s digits found the space between Megatron’s arm and torso, but they stilled before they could touch, hovering over the plating.

“Is this alright?”

Of all things, Megatron looked flustered. His optics were bright and his frame stiff, and Minimus expected to be rejected.

“Yes.”

Minimus’s servo slipped around Megatron’s back to settle against the plating there as he stepped in closer until their chests met, arms wrapped around each other, staring at each other nervously.

And Minimus murmured, “I don’t think we’re doing this right.”

And Megatron chuckled as his helm tipped forward to rest against Minimus’s chest.

“No, I suspect not. Perhaps we just need to give it time.”

“Perhaps,” Minimus agreed. He shifted some, curling forward so his helm could fall forward to rest against Megatron’s shoulder in hopes of hiding the embarrassment starting to heat his face. However, there was an odd comfort in pressing his face against Megatron’s plating, and when Megatron shifted so his arms were more comfortable curled around Minimus’s large frame and Minimus found his face hidden against the juncture of Megatron’s shoulder and neck, he felt—

He felt safe.

Each subtle movement found them relaxing into each other, and the more they relaxed, the tighter their servos and arms held the other, leaning against and into each other.

Minimus’s spark felt as if it had swelled past the constraints of his chest, filling him from the top of his helm to the tips of his pedes, throughout his suits and his own true form. When Megatron’s engines began to rumble like a gentle purr, Minimus would have sworn his spark was on the verge of bursting.

And then Megatron stiffened, his helm snapping up.

“Sorry, it’s—”

“No, it’s—you should get that.”

The servo pressed against Minimus’s nape moved away to answer the call. The one grasping at Minimus’s back held firm.

“Do we need to--”

“Yes, it’s Rodimus, we--”

Their faces were so close as Minimus still held Megatron, each searching the other’s face, nervous and enthralled in equal measure.

“Later,” Megatron said as he stepped back, forcing them to separate. “We will discuss this later.”

Suddenly, death seemed so much more awful.

“But if there isn’t--”

“There will be,” Megatron insisted as he slipped past Minimus towards the door.

“But--”

Megatron’s servo brushed against Minimus’s, leaving behind a warm trail.

“Trust me, Minimus.”

And he did.