#I know you could like‚ listen separately and discuss later but it's not the same...

[the-magpie-archives]

The sad thing about great horror podcasts is that it's really hard to just sit down and enjoy an episode with a friend unless you're driving somewhere or something.

It takes a very specific kind of friendship to sit in a room together silently listening to some guy suffering.

[cyn-write]

"Waited All Night..."

Prompt - NRC is in upheaval. A video of Yuu singing a song has been circling around the school about her being "bewitched," and everyone is trying to figure out by who. Yuu is embarrassed and upset about her private song being the subject of gossip, so she decides to hide from everyone only for her crush to find her and reveal he has been "bewitched," by her...

Pairings - Savannaclaw x F!Yuu (Separate)

Warnings - FLUFFF; Incredibly shy Yuu; stagefright (Yuu again); swearing (mainly by Leona); Spoilers for book 3 (Jack's part)

Song Prompt - "Bewitched" by Laufey

Prologue - Heartsyble - Savannaclaw (Here) - Octavinelle - Scarabia - Pomefiore - Ignanhyde - Diasmonia

Leona hated the fact that he couldn't get to Yuu. He tried calling her but she didn't answer, he tried going to Ramshackle but the ghost kept him out, and when she didn't show to any of her classes or to clubs that is when his patience broke. He knew the Yuu had feelings for him and was waiting for the right time. When the song came out, he knew the time was now and he had to get her out of the stampped of gossip.

He was in an irritable mood for most of the day and by the end of it, Ruggie was ready to snap Leona's neck. Anytime Leona heard her name or the song or head and tail of the betting pot, he would snap at the closes person to him... which was often Ruggie. The last straw was the absolutely grueling Spelldrive Practice. He worked them harder than Vargas ever would and by the time it was over, half the team was crawling back to their dorms. Ruggie stayed to "help" clean up, but he had anterior motives. Leona was toweling off after showering, still scowling from hearing the guys discussing "the pot." apparently there was a lot of money on names that weren't his... but also the sum on his name was hefty. "Go." Ruggie said, done with the grumbling mess. "What?" Leona spat back. "Go. To Yuu. I'm done with this- whatever this is." Ruggie gestured to Leona, "You've been in an awful mood all day and taking it out on everyone around you. Namely ME. So Go. Talk to her. and PICK SOME DAISES. I don't care what it takes. But if you keep acting like this, I promise to make your life a living Hell if you keep all this bottled up." Leona knew Ruggie meant and could keep that promise. And that is what he needed to hear. "Fine." Leona threw his shirt on and grabbed his bag before leaving. "But If I hear your name anywhere near winning 'the pot', You're a deadman." "Wouldn't dream of it!" Ruggie chuckled as Leona made his way to Ramshackle. He had no clue what he was going to say. but he had to say something. By the time he made it to her door, Leona debated just barging in... but he knew if he did that it would make her even more scared than she already was. He knocked and called for her, when she didn't answer, decided to say what came to his heart; "Herbavior... let me it... I wanted to tell you this sooner or later but... I've been bewitched by you for a while now."

Leona was growing tired of waiting. He had to see her, he had to know how she felt, he had to fight for the one thing he was not going to let pass him by. As he reached his hand out to the know, the door opened.

On the other side, Yuu looked completely exhausted and relieved. She looked into his eyes and asked him, "You mean it? Truely?"

Leona sighed and said, "I won't repeat myself again. So listen." He placed his outstretched hand on her cheek. "I like you. Herbavior. A lot. You're my favorite pillow and one of the few people I can stand being around. But you drive me crazy at the same time." He looked into her doe eyes and closed the gap between him. "So I need to know. Your song. Do you mean it?"

Yuu placed her small hand on top of his and her eyes pricked with tears, "I wrote that song to work out my feelings... for you."

Leona never felt more relieved. He gave Yuu a smug smile and caressed her cheek with his thumb, "I knew it."

He leaned down and claimed her lips. After waiting around patiently, listening to the chatter of his classmates, and getting radio silence for a day, he finally had her in his arms. She wanted him. No one else.

When they parted he placed his forehead on hers. He finally saw her smiling and she had a blush on her cheeks that boosted Leona's ego. "I'm guessing you liked the song?"

"What do you think?" Leona chuckled, "I was hoping to hear it in person..."

That made Yuu divert her gaze and turn around, facing her back to Leona. "I-I... I would love to but... n-not yet..."

He could smell how nervous she was. Ever the smooth prince, Leona wrapped his arms around her mid-section and nestled his head into the crook of her neck. "I'm a patient lion. I'll wait as long as you need me to, herbivore."

Leona walked her to the bed and plopped down with her in his arms. And for the first time today, Leona and Yuu were able to nap.

Leona knew it would take time for her to become comfortable enough to share her voice, and thankfully he was a very patient man. The two spent a lot of time together, and after seeing Leona's arm around Yuu's shoulders all the vultures flew away and Ruggie became very happy. Leona was a lot easier to find, and Spelldrive practices became bearable again! In his opinion, Leona and Yuu getting together made Ruggie a very happy Hyena.

Over time, Yuu began to show Leona some of her songs and hum them, but nothing more. Until one evening after Spelldrive practice, Leona was lying in bed using Yuu like a pillow while she mindlessly played with his hair. The moment was peaceful, and Yuu was mindlessly humming. Leona was about to drift to sleep when he got a pleasant surprise, Yuu began to sing, "While You Were Sleeping,"

Ruggie has an uneasy feeling in his gut all day. He was doing laundry when he heard some of his dormmates talking about Yuu's song, and his heart sunk. He knew Yuu had terrible stagefright, she told him this when directly when they were both doing chores the other day. He tried to call her and text her to see if she was alright but she left him unread. He listened to her song before bed the night before, and his gut began to twist.

He wanted to check on her, but she never showed up to class or clubs. What was worse was hearing the debates. Everyone was taking their bets and at times he would hear his name in the midst:

"It HAS to be Ruggie. They are always together! I saw them doing laundry like an old married couple the other day!" One of the Savannaclaw Underclassman pointed out. This made Ruggie start to blush and his stomach feel light.

Then, a scarbia student pointed out big wall in his way that has kept him from pursuing anything beyond a friendship with Yuu: "Why would she pick Ruggie when she has Kalim asking for her hand? Why choose a pauper when she could have a prince?"

That comment has been haunting him for weeks. Ever since he realized he liked Yuu as more than a friend. He had been able to brush off the feelings for a long time, but Yuu's song and the debate around it made him confront these feelings. He spent the day in a daze and out of it. He got his work done, but he nearly ran into a pillar twice that day and almost walked square into Jack.

During Club, it got dangerous as he nearly got hit in the head with a disk if not for Leona. Leona pulled Ruggie aside and called him out. He knew Ruggie has been crushing on Yuu, it was plane to see, but he also knew Ruggie's dilemma and was sick of it.

Leona dragged Ruggie into the locker room and threw him his duffle bag, "Go."

"What?" Ruggie thought he was being thrown off the team for a second.

"Do I need to spell it out for you?" Leona was incredibly annoyed and shook his head, "G. O. to HER." Ruggie just looked flabbergasted at his dorm leader. "B-but-" "If you give me that 'I'm too poor' bullshit again, I will knock your head in." Leona pinched his brow before grabbing his wallet and throwing a bundle of cash at his friend, "You work to the bone. You deserve to be happy. She makes you happy and she is happy with you. I can smell the attraction between the two of you and if I have to hear you whine about it or make dopey eyes at her one more hades-damned time. I will lock you two in a room and make you work it out." Leona sounded threatening, but Ruggie knew this was Leona's way of 'encouragement'. The lion-beastman walked past Ruggie and opened the locker room door before looking back at him. "If you are here by the time I get back and not taking Yuu out to a nice dinner. I swear you will be doing all of the teams laundry until you do." Then stormed out. Ruggie just sat there shocked before looking down at the cash in his lap. He could only smile. Leona may not show it often, but he does care. He decided to shower really quick before leaving for Ramshackle. On his way, he tried to think of what to say, and still even after stopping by Sam to get dinner, he had no idea by the time he got to her door. He hesitated to knock but just spoke what came to him in the moment. "Yuu. I know I'm not the... best choice. I don't have anything in the prospects of money or career besides Leona's runner, but... you've bewitched me and I don't want to get out from your spell..."

Everything was still, and Ruggies heart was teetering on the edge of breaking. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe the fleeting moments were just made up in his head. Maybe Leona was lying. Maybe she loved someone else...

He was about to walk away when he heard her move towards the door and twist the handle. As the door opened, he saw Yuu look at him with tear-stained eyes and a slightly agape mouth. "Do you mean it?" Yuu asked holding the door tightly, "You... feel the same?"

Ruggie nodded. His heart was beating out of his chest, his stomach was twisting in knots, but he pushed through those things and was able to give her a small smile, "I do. Every word." He scratched the back of his head and looked at himself then at her, "I know I don't have much, but I will work hard to give you the life you deserve." He looked her in the eyes and took a deep breath before professing his feelings, "I will work hard to be with you because you make me forget my situation for a moment. When we... when we walk together, do chores together, or even just hang out, I feel like a normal student for once instead of the hyena at the end of the food chain... So please," He reaches out and takes her hand in his, squeezing it gently and smiling sweetly, "please give me a chance?"

Yuu stared at him for a moment. She looked like she was about to cry again and Ruggie was readying an apology when she surprised him. She stepped forward and placed a gentle kiss on his lips.

Ruggie tensed for a second before melting into the kiss. He dropped the bag of food in his one hand and used it to gently hold the small of her back while the other still held her hand. She adjusted the position of her hand to lace her fingers with his and deepen the kiss.

They eventually parted and she was finally smiling. "Is that a good enough answer for you?" She asked with a coy grin.

Ruggie's signature smile returned to his face for the first time today. "Shishishi, I don't know, maybe I need to hear it one more time?~" This time he leaned in and kissed her deeply. She let go of the door and looped her arms around his shoulders this time.

It didn't last as long since Yuu's stomach interrupted the kiss.

Ruggie leaned back and chuckled again, "Someone hungry? Guess I made the right call." He crouched down, picked up the bag, and held it up, "Chicken sound good?"

Yuu nodded and giggled, "Sounds delicious!"

The rest of the evening, Ruggie felt like he was dreaming. Between a nice dinner, snuggling on the couch, and her falling asleep on him as they watched some TV, he didn't want to wake up.

Ruggie has never been happier. He and Yuu spent as much time as they could together between school, work, and chores. The gossip halted quickly as Ruggie made it clear the SHE chose HIM. Leona was also a smug ass for the week after and would throw smug comments at the two in the vain of "finally," and "You're welcome," that even though they annoyed Ruggie, he was grateful to his friend.

It took a while for Yuu to feel comfortable enough to show Ruggie her notebook, and it was even longer for her to start humming. Sometimes, when they are doing laundry, dishes, or some other chores alone together, Ruggie and Yuu would hum or softly sing together to pass the time. Until one night, after a particularly rough week, Ruggies was enjoying a rare night in with Yuu. They were snuggled together on Yuu's bed, just enjoying eachothers embrace. He was enjoying the peace, and Yuu's humming turned into singing, "Dandelions"

Jack was on edge all day. From the the gossip that surrounded him to his friend (who he has had a crush on since the octanvinelle situation) disappearing and ignoring all attempts at contact, Jack felt cornered all day. Anytime someone brought up Yuu's song or the bet going on, Jack's hair would stand on end and he would get tense. Epel, Ruggie, and Leona all knew Jack had a huge crush on Yuu for a while and the former two would ask him if he was alright and check in on him all day which only proceeded to annoy him. When Jack saw Grim, he had to contain himself from punching the cat. He betrayed Yuu's trust and privacy, he hurt Yuu, and Jack wanted to protect her but he had no clue how. Due to this energy and rage being pent up for most of the day, Jack was like a cornered canine all day. He snapped at his classmates, his friends, and what got him was snapping at VIL. Jack was jogging around the school and down the main street where the Film Club was shooting a scene. They were packing up for the day and Vil was talking to an Ignanhyde student about something or other. Jack was distracted trying to think about anything other than Yuu and ran into Vil accidentally. Due to Jack's size, he knocked Vil into the Fairest Queen Statue behind him. "JACK!" Vil called and dusted himself off with grace. Jack stopped and bowed, his ears flattening, "Vil, I-I am sorry." The Ignanhyde student was frozen in place and looked Jack up and down. Vil looked at the student and gestured for him to leave, which his clubmate appreciated. "I didn't see you there. I'm so sorry." Vil looked at his childhood friend and sharpened his gaze, "It's alright." He nods for the underclassman to follow him behind the statue. Once out of sight, Vil crossed his arms and asked, "What is going on? According to Epel, you have been on edge all day. It isn't like you to not keep an eye on your surroundings." Jack shook his head and said, "It's nothing. I'm fine." Vil stepped closer and tilted his head, "It's Yuu isn't it?" Jack's cheeks went red and he looked away. "No." Vil kept pushing Jack as he knew the freshman was lying. He knew he pushed the right button when he said, "You're in love with her aren't you?" "WHY CAN'T YOU LEAVE IT!" Jack snapped at the upperclassman and immediately regretted it. Vil wasn't phased but had a stern look on his face, "Jack. Because you are a good friend of mine I am going to let that go. But listen to what I say and take it to heart." Vil's tone was sharp and the beastman listened intently, "Go find her and tell her how you feel before it is too late." His eyes softened and he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Yuu is a shy person and you obviously have very strong feelings for her and a desire to protect her. She is probably scared right now and needs someone to lean on. Go to her and do what you do best. Make her feel safe." Jack rubbed the back of his neck and felt small, "But what if... what if she doesn't feel the same?" Vil sighs and says, "You don't know she doesn't until you try." Jack nodded and released some of the tension in his body. "Thanks, Vil." The Pomefiore Dorm leader nodded and released the freshman in the direction of Ramshackle. Jack jogged over to the dilapidated building and was finally able to get inside. He stood in front of Yuu's door, took a deep breath, and let his heart speak. "Yuu... I'm here for you and always will be... I don't want you to feel any pressure, but I need to get this off my chest... I-I... ever since you saved everyone from Azul's contracts, you... I've been bewitched... by you."

Jack's tail never stopped wagging for the next few weeks. Anytime Yuu's scent was in the air or they were sitting together, his tail would give away his joy at having her near. The other first years did point this out (Ace), but he didn't care, and Yuu found it endearing. Vil smiled when he saw the two and Jack thanked him personally saying that he always knew they were meant for each other (Rook and Vil had known about the two's mutual feelings for a long time now, but it wasn't their place to tell).

Jack felt incredibly self-concise about his size, his hair, his smell... everything. He had no clue how to stand, where to put his hands, and his heart was beating out of his chest. He felt like he was standing there for hours and debated leaving when he heard footsteps on the other side. He looked up in time for Yuu to open the door. He looked directly in her beautiful doe eyes and saw a glint of hope.

She stood there silent for a moment, both of them searching for words. When words failed to come, Yuu hugged him. Her small frame fit snug against him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and the back of her head. He held her with such gentleness as if he was scared to break her.

Jack needed no words to express his feelings, he expressed them in the way he held her close. His large hand cradled her head and stroked it with such love. His lips barely grazed the top of her head, but that is all that was needed. He loved her. He wanted to protect her. And no words could express how much he felt for her, and no words were needed. She knew how he felt.

"... I love you too Jack ..." Yuu said softly and it made Jack's heart jump again.

His tail began to wag and a smile graced his lips. His large hand moved to her cheek and gently guided her to look at him. He stroked her soft cheek with his calloused hand and leaned his forehead against hers, "I know I am not much for words but... I promise, I'll protect you, no matter what comes our way. And I will love you with all my being."

"I know," Yuu smiled, "and so will I,"

With that, the two leaned in and sealed their promise of devotion with a tender kiss.

Eventually, Yuu had gotten comfortable enough with Jack to work on her songs while he was in the room. It was a random Thursday night, Jack was working on homework and Yuu was working on her songs. She caught Jack by surprise when she asked him his opinion on a song. He put down his homework and agreed to listen. He curled up behind her and listened as she sang the song she had been working on the past couple of weeks, all while Jack's tail lightly wagged on the side of the bed; "Lovesick"

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

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[gurugirl]

Relax | bfd!harry

best friend's dad harry x reader

Summary: Fae asks you something that you aren't prepared to answer. You and Harry discuss what to do next.

Word Count: 4.9k

Warning: 18+ only, smut, lying, cheating, age gap, angst

Best Friend's Dad!Harry Masterlist

“It’s like pulling teeth to get any info from you about this mystery man. You can’t even tell me what his name is?” Fae was sitting across from you at the little café you both loved. You had a coffee and bagel and she was drinking her matcha. You hated the conversation. Hated that she was so observant. Hated lying to her.

“I just don’t think it’s worth mentioning. It’s… not serious.” That was especially hard to say. Because it was serious. You were in love and Harry was already making plans to talk to his wife. You were both so serious, in fact, you were willing to sabotage your relationship with Fae. Harry knew it wouldn’t go over well but he didn’t want to not be with you. And it was the same for you. Even if Fae was mad at you and never talked to you again, you couldn’t see yourself ending it with Harry just to keep your relationship with Fae.

At the beginning, of course, that was always the plan. That what you and Harry were doing was short term and Fae was more important to you than he was. You’d end your little thing with Harry and both go your separate ways to never speak of the bad thing you’d done together. No one would be the wiser.

Except it never stopped. You never ended it and Harry wanted more of you. But when he told you he’d fallen in love with you and admitted to not wanting to touch his wife again…

“Tell me his name. Come on. I need to know how to address this rich mystery man. You’ve been seeing him for a while too. And I know you’re more serious about him than you’re letting on.”

You sighed and looked your friend in the eye and made up a name, “Henry.” God, you were the worst liar. Couldn’t even come up with a name that wasn’t similar to Harry’s.

Fae squinted at you and sipped her matcha. She kept her eyes on you as she placed the mug down and nodded, “Henry. Interesting.” She sighed and closed her eyes and then looked back at you, “I need to ask you something and I need you to be honest with me. I… some information has come to light and… I hate to accuse you but you are being shady about all this kind of and…”

You swallowed thickly as you listened to Fae bumble about what she needed to ask you. You felt your heart pounding in your chest and braced yourself for the direct hit.

“He’s older? Right? Like… your dad’s age.”

You blinked and tried to steady your hands around your mug as you nodded.

“Okay. And he’s married?”

You let out a breath and pinched your brows together, “What? Why would you say that?”

“His name’s not actually Henry is it?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…

You thought you might pass out. You thought you might fall to the floor and crack your head open and that would be a good thing. To avoid this question. You knew what was coming next. This wasn’t good and you were cornered. You wouldn’t be able to lie to her anymore if she called you out for seeing her dad. Which you knew was just about to happen.

“Fae! Y/n! Hey, it’s crazy to see you two here!” Saved by the fucking bell. The bell being an old friend you and Fae used to hang out with. Beverly. She had moved away a few years ago.

She pulled up a seat and sat down with you as Fae gave you a look that told you the conversation wasn’t over. She was going to extract the information from you sooner or later. But you knew that would happen anyway. You and Harry were gearing up to tell everyone. You just hadn’t imagined it being this way.

Beverly started talking about herself, what she’d been up to. You were not all there and could barely pay any attention to her words as you kept glancing at Fae and trying to think of an excuse to get out of there so you could dodge Fae’s interrogation.

You made small talk quickly and then stood up, “I… uh… I have to go. I’ll call you Beverly! We can catch up soon. And I’ll talk to you later, okay?” You looked at Fae as you spoke the question.

You left your half-eaten bagel and rushed to your car. You tried to make it look as if you were calm and normal but you knew Fae had seen the tremble in your hands and it was very unlike you to get up and leave mid-conversation. Especially when she knew you had nowhere to be.

You called Harry and left a voicemail. He was at the office that day and you knew he’d be busy. He had a bunch of things for a work meeting with some investors that were visiting so you didn’t expect to hear from him right away. And you didn’t. In fact, it wasn’t until his day was over at work that he finally called you back.

You were in a bit of a panic when you answered his call. Because you’d been ignoring Fae’s calls and texts all afternoon. You felt awful. Felt like you were going to spiral and have a panic attack but Harry’s voice on the line gave you some solace.

He sounded calm. Which helped you feel more at ease, “Have you heard from Fae? Or your wife?”

“No. I mean…” he paused, “Fae called me and left a voicemail but I haven’t listened to it yet. Why?”

You sighed and told Harry about your morning with Fae and the kind of questions she asked you.

“And she’s been calling and texting ever since and I’ve been ignoring her because I think she knows, Harry. I don’t know how but she did say some information had come to light and I don’t know what that means but–“

“Baby. Breathe. Calm down. I’m coming over okay?”

“No! She might see your car here and what if she stops by? She knows something! She’s onto–“

“Y/n. I need you to calm down, baby. I am coming over. If she stops by then she stops by. We can handle this. It’s going to be okay.”

You paced and kept looking out your window to look for Harry. Or even Fae. You weren’t sure if she worked that night or not but you wouldn’t put it past her to show up unannounced.

Harry’s knock on your door startled you. You were in your kitchen trying to distract yourself when you heard the knocking. You looked out your peephole first just to make sure it was him and quickly let him inside.

He had a serious look on his face as he sat his briefcase down and pulled you to your couch to sit with him. You knew he found something out. And now you were reeling with nerves.

You sat on the cushion but Harry pulled at you, “On my lap,” murmuring his words as you were brought to his thighs and sat over them. He wrapped his arms around you and kissed your forehead, “Fae does seem to know something. I listened to her voicemail. Someone saw us together. A friend of her mom and mine.”

“Wait. So… She knows? Like for sure?”

Harry sighed, “Maybe not for sure. But the description of the man, which is obviously me, matches and they saw my car too.”

“And… your wife? So she…”

Harry nodded and thumbed over your jaw softly, “I think so. She’s the one who found out and told Fae. As far as I know. Haven’t spoken to either of them. I can’t think of who would have seen us.”

Suddenly you recalled the week prior when Harry dropped you off and picked you up from work, “My boss. Caressa Fiedler. Does that name sound familiar to you?”

“Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. She must have called my wife. Maybe… told her she saw me.”

You sighed and rubbed your hands up Harry’s arms, “She did see us. She asked if you were my boyfriend but she said you must not be the person she was thinking of because you’re married. So I thought she would just drop it.” You put your hands over your face and groaned, “I’m so stupid. Should have known she wasn’t going to just let it go. That she would figure it out.”

“Hey…” Harry peeled your hands off of your face and wrapped his hands around them, “You’re not stupid. We didn’t expect any of this. But it’s okay. We’ll be okay.”

Harry was soft and patient with you for the rest of the night. He made dinner and kept you close. Kept reassuring you that you two would be okay and it would be worth it all in the end.

And it was the first time that you’d slept in a bed with him that you didn’t have sex. Harry held you close and kissed you but the comfort of his arms around you was all you needed. And it seemed to be all he needed as well. You could tell he was trying to be strong but he was upset too. He was nervous. Your little bubble was about to burst and things were about to get very difficult. But there was no reversing it. Even if you and Harry did break up and stay away it was too late. The damage was done now.

Fae didn’t stop by that night. You kept imagining her banging at your door and telling you both to open up. You imagined her seeing Harry’s car out front and knowing what was going on immediately. Knowing 100% that you and her dad were doing something very wrong and very stupid.

You woke up early the following morning to Harry’s phone chiming with a message. Three in a row. He kissed you and yawned as he rolled over to pick up his phone and sat up. You watched his face as he read the texts and he frowned before looking at you.

“I don’t want you to worry, baby. Okay? They don’t know for sure yet so we can still control the narrative but we need to figure out when to do this. And I mean,” he swallowed and sat his phone down, “It’s gonna be soon. Because that was my wife. She wants to talk.”

You sat up and set your gaze on the painting you had framed above your dresser, “You think she wants to talk about this?”

Harry took your hand in his, “Yeah. She said she talked to Caressa in her text and mentioned that Caressa is your boss. So… she’s letting me know that she knows something. Or she’s assuming she knows something.”

“Already…” you whispered the word as you looked down at your lap in shock. It felt like you’d just begun your tryst with Mr. Styles. But it had been months. Almost six. And you loved all six of those months with him so much that you were about to hurt your best friend and disappoint so many important people in your life because it was going to be worth it. You hoped. It had to be.

Harry pulled you into his side, wrapping his arm around you and leaning back into your headboard, “I love you, Y/n. Whatever you want to do is what we’ll do. Okay? If you want to do it today, or tomorrow, or next week… doesn’t matter. You tell me when you’re ready.”

You turned your face to press into his arm and whined as you spoke, “I don’t want to hurt anyone. Let’s just go away,” you looked up at him, “Like… a little getaway first. Just us. So we can clear our heads and decide the best way to do this and… then we tell them.”

Harry nodded and soothingly smoothed his hand up and down your back, “Sure, baby. If that’s what you want. How about tomorrow afternoon? Can you take the weekend off?”

You nodded, “Yeah. I have Sunday off already. And tomorrow. So I could just call in on Saturday.”

“Then let’s do that. We’ll leave tomorrow. Go out of town. Just me and you.”

You had to work a full shift knowing Caressa had said something to Harry’s wife about you and her husband. But you were curious to know if Caressa learned that the man you were with was indeed who she thought it was. It was possible it was all just speculation. You were certain Caressa hadn’t gotten a good look at Harry. And she didn’t seem all that sure when she asked you about it.

You continued to ignore Fae’s texts and calls but you didn’t know what else to do. Things were getting very complicated. As if they hadn’t been before. But now your silence was probably a dead giveaway to Fae about what was going on.

You packed a bag and weren’t sure what you needed for your little getaway. Harry said he’d take care of the trip details because he didn’t want you stressing or worrying about anything.

He picked you up at your apartment after you got off your shift. The plan was that you would stay at his house. Your car would stay at your apartment and then the next day, Friday, you and Harry would be off on your little getaway and return Sunday evening.

“You’re all wound up, Y/n.” Harry rubbed your shoulders when you two got to his house. He sat you down in a kitchen chair and began to massage your neck gently, “What can I do for you to make you relax a little?”

You shook your head, “Nothing probably. I’m trying to keep myself sane. Just… happy to be going away with you.”

You learned that Harry was taking you to Quebec for the weekend. A nonstop flight would have you there in only a few hours and you two could walk through the pretty city hand in hand and no one would ever know you were with a married man. A man who was not married to you. No one would even care probably. You knew no one in Quebec. It sounded quite ideal actually. A stroll through Old Quebec, romantic dinner, a cozy little hotel room with a big bed, a few bars, and maybe some shopping. You could finally act like a regular couple before it all blew up in your face.

Harry leaned down and kissed the space on your neck below your ear, “I can think of at least one thing that might help you relax a bit. Could help distract you. Relieve some of this tension,” he squeezed your shoulders softly and then slid his hands to the front of your neck and tilted your head back so he could kiss your mouth.

And you found yourself in his big bed before you could even think about what was happening. He took his time with your body. Removing your clothes piece by piece and kissing your soft skin.

“Just lie here, baby. Let me take care of you.” He whispered against your breasts and nosed at your plush skin as he made his way down your body. You could feel his warm skin, his eyelashes, the scruff on his face, his moist lips, and his tongue. His hands.

You were under him completely bare of clothes, while he was still fully dressed. You tried relaxing and letting go. Tried to just let him take over your body and do all those magical things he knew how.

“Still tense, my love,” he looked up at you and ran his hands over your stomach, “Don’t worry. Gonna make sure you feel so relaxed when I’m all done. Okay?”

You nodded as you watched him lower his face between your thighs. He put his hands on your ass and lifted you up toward his face as he pasted his mouth to your cunt. The look in his eyes on yours as he ate you out felt so animalistic. He was determined to get you off. Your thighs were over his shoulders and your hips were lifted up by his hands holding you steady as he fucked you with his tongue and his lips.

“Ohh!” You moaned and closed your eyes when you felt his tongue swirling over your clit in a rigid pattern.

Soon you had forgotten all about what was making you so upset because Harry’s mouth and tongue parting your crease was all you could think of. All you could feel. His moans vibrating off your bones and through your insides had you panting and squirming.

When you had your first orgasm you clenched your thighs together around Harry’s head but it didn’t stop him from working you to your end. Until you were laughing and biting back loud cackles.

Harry lowered your bottom down to the mattress slowly and sat up to look over your pretty body with a moan, “Fucking gorgeous,” he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as he settled back between your legs and pushed your thighs up to your chest. Slowly, and softly he pushed two of his fingers into your cunt knuckles deep. You gasped and watched him but he looked like he was on the job. His brows were stitched together as he watched his fingers disappear and over and over again inside your pussy.

He let out a breath and licked his lips. He looked horny. Looked like he was aching to be inside of you. “You can fuck me, Harry,” you breathed as you bucked your hips upward.

“Oh I will, honey. Just need to make you come again. Want you all over my bed and my hands first. Okay?” His breaths were heavy. You knew him well. He was probably making a bit of a mess of his underwear with precome dribbling out of his pretty tip.

You moaned and nodded. His fingers always felt so good inside of you. Always reached into your bits just right. And you knew you’d be all over his bed and his hands just like he wanted. You were wet. You could feel it dripping down your cheeks. He liked it when you left a little spot under your bottom. Loved getting you all worked up and sloppy.

He gave your clit a moment to recover as he slipped his fingers in and out and watched you. Watched your shiny arousal coat his fingers and knuckles and palm. The sound of it was dirty and gushy.

“Harry!” You shouted as you lifted your neck to look at him when he began to fuck his fingers into you faster. The deep ache had you feeling that tightness in your core that only came about when you squirted. And you weren’t much of a squirter. Except Harry could make you squirt. He didn’t always do it because it was messy and it wasn’t better than an orgasm (you preferred to just come without squirting usually) but you knew that’s what he was doing. What he was aiming for.

“Hold on baby…” he spoke his words with clenched teeth as he looked from your face to your pussy. He released your legs and continued poking into you with his fingers at a fast pace as he added his other hand and quickly rubbed over your clit.

You began to shake and moan loudly, “Harry! Oh god!”

“Fffuck…” Harry groaned as he watched little splashes begin to spurt out and then he pulled his fingers out of you, a gush over your thighs and onto his comforter, and bits of your creamy dribble on his hand. He continued rubbing over your clit as you shouted uncontrollably and released involuntarily.

You kind of hated squirting. Though it did always leave you feeling limp and pliable after. Kind of wore you out. The biggest reason you hated it was that you weren’t in control of your body. The way you trembled and how loud you were… of course the spraying liquid part was uncomfortable too. And it didn’t always result in you actually having an orgasm. It was just really intense and it didn’t hurt, but it felt strange. Felt like something forced out of your body without you doing it.

You gasped and heaved your chest as Harry wiped you up. Your clit was sensitive and you jumped when he dabbed at you, “Sorry, baby.” He laughed. He wasn’t sorry. You rolled your eyes at him and shook your head.

“Feel a little better?” He asked you as he tossed the towel to the floor. You nodded.

“Yeah. But I want your come. That will really seal the deal for me.”

Harry breathed a laugh through his nose as he stood from the bed and removed his clothes.

“Gonna give you whatever you want, baby. Want my come? It’s all yours anyway,” he smiled at you, those dimples digging into his cheeks. God you loved him.

Harry crawled over you, his dick swaying as he adjusted himself above you. And you were right. He’d been steadily leaking precome. His cock was damp. You grasped him in your hand and sat up, “Let me have a little,” you dipped down and swiped your tongue over his slit and then stuffed him into your mouth as deep as you could get on the first go.

Harry whined and reached his hand to the back of your head, “My angel girl. Fucking perfect, baby,” You drooled a bit, saliva dripping down his shaft as you bobbed over him and sucked him in, swallowing what you could down your throat. You loved the taste of him. Loved how warm he was in your mouth.

Suddenly Harry pushed you up so you were forced to release his cock, and his face was flushed as he breathed heavily, “I want that pussy. Okay? Need to be inside of you.”

You nodded and sat back, “How do you want me?”

His soft smile widened, “Was just gonna ask you the same. What do you need right now?”

You shrugged and put your hand on his thigh as you looked up at him, “You could do anything to me, Harry. I love how you fuck me no matter what position.”

He groaned and pulled you into his chest before he pressed his mouth against yours. You felt every ounce of his love as he slowly kissed you, his tongue smoothing into yours, his lips puckering around yours and his hands holding you close. Harry was on his haunches, legs folded under himself as you climbed over him and rocked yourself into his cock.

Harry put his hands on your ass and smushed you into his shaft as he continued kissing you slowly.

You both writhed together, your labia kissing his foreskin, wetting the underside of his cock as you lid yourself against him. But then he leaned into you, making your back hit the mattress. Your thighs were still over his as he thrusted gently through your folds until he had pushed at you so he could finally fit himself into your hole. Slowly pushing past your little wet muscle and spreading your insides apart as he drove into you.

The whine that fell from his mouth had you popping your eyes open to make sure he was okay. Harry’s mouth was dropped open in a small smile and his eyes were closed as he tilted his head back and began to fuck into you deeply. You grasped onto his thighs and put your feet flat on the mattress and worked yourself over him, circling your hips slowly as he buried himself into you with his hips rocking forward. You pushed against his thrusts as he fucked into you. You wanted it to feel so good for him. Wanted him to explode into you. Wanted him to come harder than he ever had.

Harry opened his eyes and finally looked at your face, “Fuck, baby. That feels so good.”

You nodded and continued circling your hips, “I know it. Feels perfect with you inside of me like this.”

He massaged his hands slowly up your thighs to your hips and tummy. He leaned over you as he continued rolling into you and grasped your tits in his palm. With his angle over you, his pelvis jammed into your clit with each rock of his hips and you moaned, gripping his thighs harder to keep your clit pressed into his body.

“Oh god… Y/n your pussy is just begging for my come. Needs to get filled and loaded. Yeah?”

“Yes! Harry, I need it… Need you to come inside of me. Want you to feel good,” you breathed your words as Harry released your tits and grabbed your hands from his thighs. He pressed your hands down into the mattress next to your head and didn’t let up from shoving himself into you with each thrust.

Harry moaned lowly as he kept his eyes on yours. He wanted to watch your face as he fucked you. Wanted to see you come on his cock. He enjoyed watching you come undone. Loved how affected you were by him. Harry’s tip reached deep as he kept his hips pasted against yours, stuffing himself inward until he couldn’t get any deeper. His back and his arms were flexing with every move into you. His solid body above yours slowly started to tremble with ecstasy.

“Oh! Harry! You’re really in there deep, oh god…” your body was receiving all of him. His cock slipping deeply inside, his eyes on yours, his hands grasping your hands, his pelvis nudged into your clit…

“I know baby, feels so good with my cock in there like this doesn’t it?” His words were tensed as was his body as he spoke. You could tell he was about to burst. But he was a gentleman so he’d always make sure you came first.

Harry had repositioned you so that you were flat on the mattress and he was in between your spread legs as he railed into you deeply and slowly. His grunts were getting louder as he neared his end, but he kept his eyes on yours and his hands held your own down, his fingers between yours.

“Yes! Oh fuck,” you felt the blissful beginning of what you knew would be a big orgasm. Something that would have your body wrecked when he was done with you. Which is exactly what he intended.

The slick gushing noises that came from between your bodies told you that you were drenched and soaking the blanket under you. You couldn’t tell at that moment but it would be all wet and need to be cleaned up before you could lie in it for bedtime. Which tended to be normal when Harry fucked you like he did.

“Fuck, honey…” Harry groaned softly and ground into you, his pelvis against your clit. He kept himself buried into you, his hips pressed into yours until you snapped and cried out.

“OH! Harry!” Your brain melted as you spasmed around his cock and gasped for breath. The intensity of your orgasm was everything you needed. You could feel him moving inside of you as you clamped over him tightly and he groaned out as he began to come.

His thick, hard cock pumped into you. He moaned deeply in rhythm with his thrusts and pressed his mouth over yours as he slowly calmed from his exquisite orgasm. He loved fucking you and coming in you. And every time you two had sex it only felt better.

“Oh honey, so fucking good,” he kissed you and released your hands, putting his finger up to your face and gently cupping your jaw as he rutted into you one last time for good measure.

You yelped a laugh at his movement and wrapped your legs around his low back kissing him back slowly as you put your arms around his back.

Everything felt so safe and perfect with him. You knew that things were about to get hard but you knew you could get through it if you had Harry by your side. He promised you things would be okay and you believed him. Believed that he was right. How could you not believe him? What choice did you have anyway? You two were going to have to go through with what was to come and it was definitely coming. The breaks could be applied and there was no stopping Fae and her mother from finding out the whole truth. And now that they suspected you and Harry were fucking? It was only a matter of days probably.

Harry laughed softly and spoke into your ear, “Don’t fall asleep just yet my love. Need to clean up and change the sheets.”

You groaned and opened your eyes, “Not my fault. That’s all you.”

Harry nuzzled his face into your neck and kissed your skin, “I just want you to feel good and sleep soundly tonight. Hate seeing you worried.”

You tightened your arms around him and hummed, “Same. I just want you happy, Harry.”

Harry pushed himself up and smiled down at you, “I am happy, honey. I’m so happy with you.”

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[ittybittyremy]

imagine how dorian felt during that whole kerfuffle

Two days ago, his brother died and the Crown Keepers separated, all because of the Spider Queen.

A couple of hours ago, he and Orym reminisced about how Orym put a blade to his chest and told him not to put the crown on his head. Something that Dorian is clearly grateful for now. ("Otherwise, I wouldn't be here right now")

Now, he woke up to two of his friends fighting. Then, Laudna claims that the blade on Orym's back will corrupt him "just like it corrupted Otohan." He's still catching up on everything, but he knows that's the name of the person who killed Orym's husband and father. To put it simply, he just heard that Orym may become corrupt like his family's killer was because of a sword.

And here's the thing: He's seen a real cursed item before. He's felt the lure of one and has seen/experienced the consequences of holding onto one. His brother's death was one of those consequences 2 days ago! And now there's apparently another cursed item that's on his "very good friend's" back. The same "very good friend" who he just talked about the crown with. The same "very good friend" who put a blade to his chest so long ago.

Then later, it turns out that the item Laudna was so insistent on being cursed (to the point of injuring another party member [be it unintentional]) is actually not cursed.

Now he's listening to Laudna talk about how she wants to take the blade in energy while belittling Orym for taking it in hand. (Yes, I am aware that this is very simplified)

After all this, Dorian finally gives his opinion.

I think [Orym] should keep it. It's just a thing. I'm so tired of things having control over us. You two are friends. It was his to possess and you tried to steal it from him... It is just a thing. Its history doesn't shape us. Our actions do. [Laudna's] actions tell me that [she did] not have enough trust in [her] friends... What would it have mattered if [Otohon] cut him down with a handaxe or a stick from the street? It was not the thing that did the action. It was the person. It does not matter.

I believe that there are two routes to Dorian's mindset

Gilmore's Wisdom: When the Crown Keepers discuss the circlet with Gilmore, he says something very interesting. "The Spider Queen herself is dark, is evil, but the vestige is simply power, and it is whatever you make it into. Power simply is." (E1x03).

Orym's Threat: Orym confronted him when he saw that he could hold the circlet without issue. He put a sword to his chest and told him to put it down. Dorian did so, saying, "I care about you more than this" (E1x05).

Dorian's point is a combination of those two things. To put it simply, Dorian's point was that friends are more important than objects because objects are just things.

And before I see anyone else blabbering about how Dorian is a hypocrite because of how Cyrus died, Opal didn't kill him, and neither did the circlet itself. It was the Spider Queen that killed him.

During all this, he discovered that Orym, Fearne, Laudna, and Chetney had died due to the blade. He also discovered that Orym made a deal with Fearne's grandmother "to help [them] do the things that [they] have to do. Hopefully in the next episode, Dorian is able to fully process all that information

Side Note: In between those words, Dorian admits that he doesn't fully understand the situation ("You do not know what you speak." "I do not"). Apparently, this is a hot take, but I think that him being the outsider of the situation made him the most clear-headed of the group. He wasn't hurt by Ottahan like the rest of Bells Hells had been. So, he has the least biased view of the bunch (still biased but not as biased as the others).

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk!

[cityzenshark]

Terran Mirage with Malto Terrans -- Thrash

1 - Hashtag | 2 - Twitch | 3 - Jawbreaker | 4 - Nightshade | 5 - Thrash

(disclaimer: this is a fanfic, don't take it seriously with the canon)

Thrash tried to like Mirage Diaz. He really did. But ever since he came, his siblings constantly spend their time with their guest over their big bother. Even Mo. Robby shares his dismay and the two watch their siblings enjoying the presence of the non-Malto Terran in disdain.

“How lucky is this guy?” Thrash wondered upon hearing that Mirage could attend school and go about in his village without needing to hide.

“How hopeless is he?” thought Thrash to himself when Mirage informed that had no Cybertronian mentor nor any combat skills to protect himself and his village and family.

“No wonder he got captured.” Thrash muttered loud enough for Mirage to hear. His parents gave him a pointed look, Twitch elbowed him in the side, Mo and his younger siblings look at him weirdly. But Robby agreed with him. The elder brothers later got a scolding lecture from their parents.

Thrash’s disdain towards Mirage worsened after Nightshade trusted a Decepticon who nearly wipe their parents’ memories. Before the Decepticon named Tarantulas left, he pulled Mirage aside to talk privately. Thrash felt he needed to listen in; Hashtag joined him. Tarantulas showed a holographic picture of a Cybertronian who looked so alike to Mirage.

“This is Autobot Mirage of Iacon.” Tarantulas told the non-Malto Terran. “He went missing years before the final battle for the Allspark. He had info of a Decepticon team possessing a sun destroyer, but his comrades didn’t believe him and assumed he had betrayed them because he returned without his commander.”

Thrash did not stay long enough to hear the full story. Hashtag did and tried to convince her big brother that whatever he believed about Mirage was wrong. Alas, Thrash’s distrust had solidified. Mirage was no Terran. He was not one of them.

After a mind-controlled Mirage had hurt his siblings that night in Philadelphia, they frustratingly still didn’t take Thrash’s side except Robby. The older brothers were glad he was gone but they received angry, disappointed scoldings from their parents who were told of the incident by a shaken Mo and Hashtag. Dorothy and the girls went out to search for their guest while the rest stayed home with Alex, grounded.

It took a few heart-to-heart conversations with his siblings and father for Thrash to realize he may have been too harsh on Mirage yet the distrust remained. When Mirage was reunited with his family and followed them to New York, Thrash had never felt so peaceful. He did not understand why the triplets didn’t feel the same way, especially Hashtag.

Mirage returned to the Malto farm after the cybersleeves malfunctioned, this time accompanied by his adopted brother and mother. Thrash kept his feeling under wraps but couldn’t help and rolled his optics when Kris and Mirage had no problems like them despite being separated for months. The Emberstone water the Maltos collected didn’t fix the sleeves so they resorted to go to the source itself …Then the water vanished and the cave’s floor fell in while they were inside it.

Although Thrash never trusted the Seekers, he needed to ask what they know about Autobot Mirage. Surprisingly, they have an answer: Autobot Mirage never betrayed the Autobots. He had saved the entire solar system by stopping the Decepticon team who had sun killer machine by himself. They have no clue what became of him afterwards and assumed the Autobots had got rid of him for insubordination. On the other side, Starscream informed Hashtag and Mirage the same thing alongside a reminder to Mirage:

“Don’t think you and Autobot Mirage are the same person. The only things you share with him are your name and abilities. He is of Cybertron like I, while you are of Earth.”

They had forgotten to discuss it after they escaped from the caves as Robby became deathly ill because of the cybersleeve. When the sleeves were restored, Mirage and the Malto Terrans went separate ways again … but the Diaz never arrived home.

On the wall behind Mandroid’s ‘throne’ there hung the human Maltos and the Diaz mother and younger son. Thrash and Twitch were on top of the alien tower to rescue them and stop the no-longer-human Mandroid once and for all. Twitch is then forced to flee from a mind-controlled Megatron meanwhile Thrash faced a mind-controlled Mirage who was fueled with guilt and rage.

“Why do you hate me so much! Why?!” cried Mirage as he tried to control his hands around Thrash’s neck. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

Their fight was a blur. Thrash deflected Mirage’s blades over and over again until he twisted them, yanked them and tossed Mirage from the ledge. All Thrash could think about was his twin who was fighting against Mandroid alone.

Mandroid’s last laugh didn’t last long but neither did their celebration. Feelings of horror, terror and grief emitted from the triplets who were on the ground below. Realisation dawned on Thrash when he spotted Kris’ darkened cybersleeve.

When he climbed down the tower, his worst fears came true. The cries of his younger siblings and the Diaz haunted Thrash for a long time.

.

.

[A.N: Thrash should be the G1 Cliffjumper of the Terrans – fight me]

[mellowyellow236]

Manhwa AU - Meeting 2

The second meeting I made for @twstfanblog 's Manhwa AU! Yu is the OC of @st4rz666. I’m going to post the poll to see which one I’ll use if I choose to do anything else with my OC in this AU either later today or tomorrow, but separately from this so that way both have the same chance of winning. As always, if anyone has any questions, comments, or anything else, leave a comment or ask! :) 

______________________________________________________________

Yuri slipped behind a tree, cupcake in hand as she hid from the voices of various other children in the garden they were playing in. She walked a little further, trying to look as casual as they could while speed walking just hidden from the sight of the main path. She continued walking through the estate of some noble she didn’t care to know the name of; Probably another Count or Earl, not that it mattered much where a low-ranking noble such as herself would go during a party. She took a bite of the cake, humming slightly at the taste as she went through the hedges. 

They soon paused, listening to the sound of another two other young girls. Looking a bit closer, she was holding a hat with a ribbon around it, a bow, and ruffles on the hem. One of them was holding the accessory, a bit too underdressed for a noble attending a party with a very wealthy child from the frills of her gown, while the other had her hands on her hips as she spoke. 

“It has to be a part of a seaside gown since the hat is made of cloth and it’s decorated enough that it must be worn out of the house! So whoever it came from, they must go near the sea often!” Said the slightly taller girl, seeming quite confident in her assessment. Meanwhile, the other was eyeing the accessory as if trying to solve a puzzle. 

“Yes, but that doesn’t say who it belongs to.” She said, lifting it to her face. Yuri noticed the girl had mostly white hair with black streaks, the opposite of the child she was talking to. Yuri walked into the area they were in, the louder girl noticing her first. 

“Who are you?” She asked, turning before staring at the treat in her hand, “Did you come from the party as well?” Yuri nodded. 

“Yes, I did. They’re still giving out sweets if you want to go back now.” Yuri said, to which the girl with more white hair shook her head. 

“We need to find the owner of this hat first. Do you know anyone who often goes to the seaside there?” Yuri shrugged. 

“No. Most of the noble kids are boring or mean, so I don’t like talking to them. You could always try looking for a girl with a matching dress closer to the patio.” She answered as the girl with more black hair groaned. 

“I know, but we can’t leave again if we go back now.” She said, before adding, “Oh, my name is Yuu Crowley. What’s yours?” 

“I’m Yuri Akatsuki.” She answered, smiling. “It’s nice to meet you two!” She said, turning over to the second girl. 

“I’m Yu. It’s nice to meet you as well.” She said, offering a weak smile. Yuri, once more taking note of the faded yellow of the plainer dress, pulled the hat from her hands and onto her head. 

“And now you’re a noble like the two of us!” Yuu put her hands on her hips at that, saying. 

“She always was one! Besides, you put a saffron yellow next to a pale yellow, with nothing to tie them together; That’s a stupid combination!” Yuri nodded, and ‘oohed’ slightly.

“Well then, I’m sorry, Yu. But I’m not sorry about the hat, I think it looks nice.” She said, sticking her tongue out at Yuu. The two continued to bicker for a while, occasionally asking Yu a question or pausing their disagreements to discuss something else until the sun had started setting. 

“In no world would rosemary tea go better with chocolate scones than-” Yuu was cut off by the deep voice of an older man calling out. He sounded annoyed, as though this had happened enough times it was better to complain than try to change it. 

“Puppy!” He explained, happening upon the area the children were in as the girl in question stood up from where the three had taken seats on the ground. “Did you run off here for the whole party? All the attendants were worried sick when they realized you were missing.” He said, to which the child rolled her eyes, her father returning the favor. He then looked over at Yuri, giving a quick and light bow, her giving a curtsy in return. “Hello, Lady Yuri.” 

“And hello to you, Your Grace.” She said, not bothering to ask the man’s name once she saw the unique hair color that the man had. She then said, “Do you know if my mother is here for me?” He nodded. 

“I believe I saw her when I entered; She was the lady with silver hair, I assume?” When she nodded, Crewel moved to talk to Yu. “Would you like a ride back to your house? We have some extra space in our carriage.” She nodded. 

“Yes, Sir.” He hummed in response, letting Yu hand him the hat. “We found this on the ground. Do you know who it belongs to?” 

“Hm… I don’t believe so, it’s not from a designer that I know well. If no one’s come looking for it, simply put it back where you found it. The owner will retrace their steps back here eventually.” He said, as Yu nodded and put it onto a bench near them while Yuu went up to her father. “You shouldn’t touch things that belong to someone else, and you definitely shouldn’t put them onto your head. You could get lice, and if it doesn’t belong to you, the person who lost it might not know that you took it and it could get even harder for them to find.”

“Papa, let’s go now. I have a book at home that I want to read with Yu.” She said as Yu moved to stand beside the pair. 

Meanwhile, Yuri walked off, towards the location of the party. She went behind her mother, tugging on the sleeve of her dress. She smiled, taking her daughter’s hand as she led her out of the estate, already saying her goodbyes to the hosts. She smiled as they entered the carriage, patting the hair of her firstborn as she fiddled with her hands and dress. 

“You seem extra excited today. What’s the occasion?” She asked, mirth in her voice. “Did one of the boring noble ladies finally do something that you think is interesting?” Yuri shook her head. 

“Even better. I met these two girls, and they were hid- hanging out in the garden where I went, too!” Her mother raised an eyebrow as she continued, recounting the events of the day with the excitement only a child knows. She just had to know their families to open contact. Hopefully, they were also counts or maybe barons, so it would be easy for her to reach out…

“And who are those friends?” 

“Yu and Yuu! I don’t know what title Yu has, but Yuu is the daughter of the grand duke! But, I think she’s silly because she can’t appreciate how rosemary tea is the best! Oh, and-” 

-Fin-

[no-quit-lucy]

Tim realises Lucy has a crush on someone at work but doesn't realise it's him

Takes place early season 4. Rated T wc: 2,753 read on ao3

Tim had the day off. Tim was supposed to have the day off. Tim was not getting the day off.

It was a slow day at Mid-Wilshire. Dare he (not) say quiet, there was no reason for him to come in on his day off.

Except Sgt. Johnson had gotten food poisoning at brunch, (really?— who kept letting Smitty pick the restaurants?) and Tim was called in to cover the rest of his shift.

He quickly changed into his uniform and contemplated how his day could go. He could pull Lucy from her current duty— she was working, likely on patrol with Nolan or milling around the station— or he could sit his ass down at a desk and wait for someone to need him. Lucy wasn't his aide every day, but most days, he pulled her help because, well, because they worked well together and despite what he said and how he acted, he enjoyed her company.

Leisurely making his way over to the detectives’ desks, Tim wanted to check in with Angela to see if she was working on anything particularly interesting. As he approached, he saw Lucy hanging over the half wall that separated her desk from the walkway. She was animatedly discussing something with Angela (though, when wasn't she animatedly discussing something with someone?)

“I know what you're going to say, Angela, that it doesn't matter that we work at the same station, I like him and I should go for it— but that's just it. We do work together and I don't know if I—” Lucy cut off at Angela’s insistence.

“Hey Tim, I thought the game was on today,” Angela said as he got closer.

“It is,” he frowned, curious about who Lucy was talking about but not wanting to pry. “Johnson got a case of the Smitty’s.”

Lucy and Angela reacted appropriately, grimaces etched in their facial expressions.

“I gotta go, Angela. We’re still on for drinks after shift?” Lucy asked, tapping her hands on the top of the half wall. 

“Unless my sitter suddenly drops dead, I won't miss it!” Angela waves off Lucy and directs her attention to Tim.

He's still frowning, watching Lucy rush away.

“Lucy likes someone who works here?” He asked, pointing down to the station’s floor. His voice ticked up an octave and he hoped Angela didn't call him out on it.

“Come on, Tim,” Angela cast down her eyes at him, a classic Lopez look that meant she thought he was an idiot for asking.

“Is it Webb?” He asked, squaring up his shoulders and trying not to think about why Lucy having a crush on someone they work with was making him physically itchy.

***

Lucy’s voice came over the radio talking back and forth with dispatch. Tim was utilizing his overtime to catch up on paperwork and listening to the radio while he worked helped get his body to sit still.

Until he heard Lucy use that voice when requesting additional information from the guy on the other end of dispatch. Her flirty voice that she admitted to using when the lines were busy and she wanted her information first.

Just like he had his deal with Nell, Lucy had cultivated her own relationship with Kevin from dispatch.

Kevin, who Tim knew had a lot in common with Lucy, who willingly bent to her request because of the puppy dog eyes he gave to her anytime Lucy stopped by to give him a thank you gift when really, the gift was Kevin getting to talk to Lucy at all. The worst of it all, Tim knew Lucy turned up her charm to avoid getting attached to boring calls and pushing her down the queue.

Tim squirmed in his seat as he heard her overzealous thank yous and pleases, knowing the sharp bite of her breath when she uttered them while sitting two feet away in his shop. How much he itched to hear that sultry tone directed at him. He wondered if it might be Kevin, whom she had a crush on. It could be anyone who worked in the station. Anyone.

***

Later, Lucy came in from an arrest and Tim was sitting at his desk filling out (different) paperwork. He knew the promotion came with more paperwork, he just also wished it came with more action. Being a field sergeant was less exciting than a training officer and he was starting to miss his old title and duties.

He saw the taco truck bag gripped in Lucy’s hand. The one that was only open for an hour at a time since they sold out so quickly. The taco truck that he and Lucy had dubbed his white whale— he'd been trying to track down an order since before Lucy’s rookie days. He grinned as she made her way toward him with the bag in tow, eyes shining bright at the thought that maybe Lucy liked him more than she let on. How kind of her to act as his Queequeg and help him harpoon his whale.

“Davis!” Lucy called out as she resolutely passed by his desk, not even sparing him a passing glance. “I got La Brea bites! Wanna share?”

Shit, Tim thought, maybe Davis is the guy Lucy’s got a thing for? He shrugged it off the best he could, trying not to take it personally that Lucy didn't want to share her tacos with him.

***

Travis, who worked in motor pool, always chatted up Lucy when she went to pick up their shop. Slightly bitter about the tacos, Tim pulled Lucy to join him on the call he got that interrupted her from finishing eating with Davis.

Boy howdy was that a mistake. Tim had to stand and watch as Travis flirted and made Lucy laugh. He couldn't drop the bags that he had grabbed until Lucy got the keys and unlocked his shop.

He clenched his jaw, fighting the urge to yell Boot! And have her get a move on. Instead, he glared as Lucy took a step back and covered her mouth, she was laughing so hard at something he said. Tim couldn't see his face, but he could tell by the young man’s posture that he wanted to punch his lights out.

Not tolerating the scene a moment longer, he barked out, ���Chen!” and Lucy turned, fluttered her hand, and then said goodbye to Travis with an all too friendly touch on his arm.

With all these young, attractive, male coworkers to pull her attention, Tim couldn't tell which one had caught her eye enough to gossip with Lopez about it… Who the hell did Lucy have a crush on?

And why the hell did he care so much?

***

Coming back to the station for meetings, Tim needed a pot of coffee or a shot of whiskey, but since he was still on duty, a pot of coffee would have to do.

He made his way to the break room, overhearing Aaron’s boisterous laugh and slowing his gait. Softer, he heard Lucy’s snort and knew it was rude to eavesdrop, but they should know; there's no expectation of privacy in a police station. 

Deciding to let the curious devil on his shoulder win, Tim leaned forward to overhear their conversation.

“Come on, I want to guess,” came Aaron’s voice.

“You haven't been here long enough to have a guess,” Lucy retorted back, sassy and playfully rude.

“Let me test my skills then! Harper’s always saying you gotta be able to read people’s behavior like that—” Tim heard Aaron snap his fingers on the last word.

“Okay, I'll be your judge; guess away,” Lucy relented.

Tim could see in his mind’s eye the way she would have swished her hand in the air.

“Officer Tanaka in k-9?” Aaron said.

“No, but I can see why you'd guess; Kojo has a crush on his dog— she's so sweet.” Lucy gushed.

Tim rolled his eyes at Lucy through the wall, she talked about Kojo like he was still her dog. But that explained why Lucy was always bugging him to let her take Kojo to the k-9 doggy playgroups.

“Okay, okay,” Aaron hummed in thought, “Lieutenant Signh, he’s not on patrol anymore, right?”

“No, he doesn’t, but he works on patrol,” Lucy let slip.

Tim could tell she didn't mean to reveal that from the sound of her hand slapping over what he could only assume was her mouth.

“Ah okay, I got it. It’s obvious,” Aaron cooed.

“Oh is it now?” Lucy taunted.

“Yeah,” Aaron responded, “Everyone knows you have a thing for—”

“Tim!” Sergeant Grey shouted down the hallway.

Tim startled and turned, trying to shake off getting caught loitering.

Grey just tapped his wrist for the time— Tim had to fill in on Sgt. Johnson’s meetings for the day too. Luckily there was only one and Tim could spend the time distracted trying to fill in the name that Aaron was about to reveal Lucy obviously had a crush on.

***

“Hey, I invited Julius to join us,” Lucy told Angela as she once again stood at her half wall, this time dressed out of her uniform.

Tim observed her briefly, her long hair cascaded down her back, over her bright orange leather jacket. She wore tight black jeans and boots and as quickly as he had looked, Tim steeled himself and looked away. It was improper for him to stare at his subordinate officer’s ass. No matter how much he thought in a perfect world, they didn't live there. He lived in the real world, and in the real world, nothing could happen between him and Lucy because… because… well because of a lot of things. Namely, because they worked together.

That, however, didn't stop Lucy from liking someone they worked with, Tim thought bitterly, even if she was seeking out Angela’s advice on whether or not to act on her crush. The entire day, he hadn't been focused on his work. No, instead, he couldn't get that morning’s interaction off his mind. Lucy liked someone who worked at the station— lucky bastard.  

All day, he contemplated each male officer who walked by, wondering if they were the one who had captured her attention, wondering if they were the one Lucy was contemplating risking her career and reputation for– if they were the one Lucy Chen wanted to be with.

In a fit of overwhelming conflicting emotions, Tim walked up to the pair, still in uniform, and asked to join them at the bar. 

“I owe you a beer, Lopez,” He said as his reason why he wanted to go. Normally, he skipped out on those outings, especially since his promotion and desire to stay in with Kojo.

Lucy quickly flashed her eyes at Angela who purposefully wasn't looking. With an evil grin, she invited Tim along, promising to see him at the bar.

Tim changed out and walked to his car, hoping he wouldn’t regret his decision.

***

“Why are you in such a pissy mood, Bradford?” Angela asked as she passed him his order from the bar.

“I didn’t have lunch,” he grumpily replied, yanking the checkered basket toward him and digging in.

Truth be told, he was so bitter about the tacos that he skipped eating altogether. Why the hell was he letting Lucy get to him like this?

“I saw Lucy got tacos from that taco place you keep talking about,”

“Oh! La Brea bites!?” Lucy interjected, coming back from the bar with the drink she carefully watched get mixed. “I was their last customer today, and it was so good, totally worth the hype. Their homemade tortillas were incredible. Tim, I would have gotten you some but they only had their vegetarian tacos left and they use mushrooms as the protein so I knew you wouldn’t be into that, nor would you respect me if I had my chance to try it and didn’t, so sorry, not sorry!

Tim stared frozen during her entire spiel. He was used to Lucy rambling, but he hadn’t encountered a relaxed Lucy rambling in a while and honestly, it took him back. Then he suddenly remembered Davis was vegetarian and had a plethora of other dietary restrictions that needed to be observed when sharing community meals. That’s why Davis got the extra tacos and not him.

“Oh,” he finally said.

Then a group of officers, Julius included, showed up at their table and stole Lucy away to hang out. A hot shot like Lucy Chen was sure to be the center of attention, Tim had no doubt, just hits of jealousy that he wasn’t on the top of her list.

“Oh, I don’t think you not having lunch is what has you in a pissy mood at all,” Angela goaded, crashing into Tim’s shoulder.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tim grumbled, shooting lasers at the way Julius stood close to Lucy to hear what she was saying over the loud atmosphere in the bar.

“Lucy has a crush on someone and it’s killing you,” Angela commented, stealing food from his plate and sipping her beer.

“No, it’s not,” Tim denied.

“Tim,” Angela raised her brows, “I heard you growl when Hernandez helped Lucy get that box from the top shelf earlier today,”

“I did not,” Tim lied. It was reflex, the step stool was right there.

“Look how tense you are now! Julius has a partner and you’re acting like his close talking with Lucy is a betrayal to the nation. They’re just friends.”

Tim sat back in the booth and rolled his eyes, pushing the basket of crumbs away. He tried to relax, he really did, but then he looked over to check on Lucy and saw her close dancing with Mateo, who he knew was single and on the prowl… Guys still talked in the locker room, he couldn’t help but overhear.

He chugged the ends of his beer and roughly shifted in his seat. “I’m not jealous,” He lied, saying more about how much this was bugging him than Angela had asked.

“You don’t know, do you?” Angela realized, wholly and completely.

“Know what?” Tim asked, folding his arms tighter, missing the way Lucy looked longingly at him while his head was turned.

“It’s you, Tim.” Angela nodded, to Lucy.

He widened his eyes and looked back to Lucy. Their eyes met and it was as if Lucy could hear the thoughts inside his mind.

“I need to leave,” Tim announced, breaking the spell and grabbing his jacket as he headed for the street.

“Tim!” Lucy called moments later, stopping him before he made it to his truck.

He didn't say anything as he turned around, just offered her a terse nod.

“Are you mad about the tacos?” She asked, breathless from rushing through the crowd from the back of the bar to catch up with him.

“No,” He scoffed, “I’m not mad about the tacos, Lucy,” He looked down at her, said her name so softly it knocked the wind out of her.

She stepped closer, swept into his current. Tentatively, she placed her hand on his forearm, looking at her touch then sweeping her eyes past his lips and into his crystal blue gaze.

His mouth hinged open, his breathing stilled, his heart rushed faster than a racehorse. Tim offered a touch of his own, bending his arm to pull her closer at her lower back. He looked down at her mouth, angling slightly and gently, tentatively, slowly, carefully pressed his lips against hers.

It was a short and sweet kiss, beautiful and chaste but he knew that's all it could ever be. He pulled back and regrettably took space between them. They couldn’t do this while he was her sergeant and she was his aide.

“Lucy,” He said sadly. His thumb brushed her cheek and she took a step back too.

She knew her answer before she talked to Angela about her crush. She couldn’t be the one to act on it. In a sense, neither could he, so the point was moot. Until one of them got a promotion or switched stations, they would never be allowed to date each other without consequence.

“I know,” Lucy somberly responded, “Drive safe,” she said before turning to walk back to the bar.

Tim waited for her to completely disappear from his vision before getting in his truck and driving home to wait out the rest of his life with his dearest companion, Kojo.

[klance-headcanons-official]

hiii you’re headcannons are a such delight!! do you have any of hs au klance?

oh stars!! first off, thank you! I love that I can make you happy with my silly little ideas. Second, of course I have hs au headcanons!!

Keith and Lance sit next to each other in Biology, so they're bound to be lab partners. At first they really don't like each other. Lance thinks Keith is always trying to one up him, and Keith thinks Lance is insufferable.

By the time they're assigned probably their third project together, they decide that doing research separately is just too conflicting, so they agree to meet at The Park™️.

They start discussing stuff and writing down any relevant info they cover, but inevitably, they start getting off track. They start talking about clouds, which leads to the rain, rain leads to the ocean, the ocean leads to fish, then to what Lance had for dinner last night, favorite foods, favorite pass-times, family, and so on.

They each go home thinking that maybe, just maybe, the other isn't so bad.

Keith starts listening to Lance whenever he goes on rants, he engages, asks questions, and brings up new ideas.

Lance starts seeing Keith flaws, he starts seeing that they aren't too different, and that they're much closer to the same level than he'd thought.

In time, they both start to admire each other for different reasons.

Keith notices the way Lance talks about certain topics, how the glow in his eyes will shift when someone he does or doesn't like enters the classroom, the way he bites his lips when he's concentrated, or how he dulls when he gets texts from certain people, (cough cough, a boyfriend because conflict, cough cough).

Lance looks up to Keith, he admires how he can do pretty much anything he puts his mind to, how he never gets caught up in the local drama, how no matter what rumors are spread, he always walks with confidence and purpose.

One day, Lance comes into class looking distant and reclusive. Keith tries to ask him about it, but his only response is "We can talk about it later."

And so they go through Biology hardly speaking a word. Keith feels his stomach pooling with anxiety, wondering if it was something he did, though he knows he hasn't done anything wrong... has he?

Time goes by slowly. Minutes feel like hours. An hour feels like days. But eventually the bell finally rings, and the day is over.

Lance stands and gathers his things, and he's barely gotten his bag on his back before Keith grabs his wrist and drags him into an empty room.

"So, what is it? What's going on?" The sharpness in Keith's voice makes him come off a bit more irritated than he his, and naturally it's taken the wrong way.

Lance scoffs and crosses his arms, "What's got you so pissed off?"

Keith sighs, "I didn't mean to say it like that." And he asks again in a much gentler tone, "What's going on?"

"My uh... Well, I found my partner shoving his tongue down some other guys throat earlier this morning.... Again.... And then before Biology he had the audacity to tell me to stop talking to you, so I dumped him..."

"..."

"You aren't telling me everything. Something happened after that."

"Gods, I hate how well you know me..."

"So, what was it?"

"He... Uhm.. He told me that nobody could ever love me the way he did... He said he was the only one who could love me.. The only one that knew me and still cared... He said my friends talked about me, and even though I know they don't I still-"

At this point, tears are dripping from his eyes, his voice is cracking on every other word, and he's curling in on himself.

Keith pulls him into a hug, silently swearing on every breath that he'll make things better for him.

"If it makes a difference... I think you're pretty cool.."

"Yeah, thanks.."

Lance dries his tears and takes a step back, "We should probably go. My mom's gonna kill me if I miss the bus.. And plus if Rachel finds us in here, we'll never hear the end of it."

Keith nods and they leave the room.

Agghhh it was so hard not to turn this into a confession, i didn't want too because the last one was a confession and using the same idea that close together goes against my author brain.

also they're in choir together.

and they joined the volleyball club (shush i'm rewatching Haikyuu)

Keith is a setter, Lance is a Libero. You cannot change my mind.

during lunch they complain about teachers and gossip with each other

[rhapsodynew]

#love story

One soul for two.

58 years ago, on November 9, 1966, John Lennon first met Yoko Ono at an art show in London, where she presented her exhibition "Unfinished Paintings and Objects". To this day, many believe that this was the beginning of the end of the holiday era called the Beatles.

Without realizing it, he had long been looking for a woman who looked like his frivolous mother Julia and domineering aunt Mimi, who raised him. Everything was smooth in his marriage with his wife Susan — she did not burden him with herself, did not bother him with conversations, cooked well and was great in bed. Another man would have carried such a woman in his arms, but not Lennon. He lacked madness, passion, hooliganism. Critics will later write about this period of John's life:

"When you get everything in your youth, life becomes insanely boring and insipid. You will involuntarily start looking for adventures."

They first met in November 1966. Lennon, on the recommendation of a friend, went to the Indica gallery for an exhibition of "anti-art". The spacious hall was crowded, everyone was talking about something, discussing the latest news. John has always resisted this society of snobs and mawkish intellectuals. Out of boredom, he decided to take a walk and suddenly came across an inscription: "Beat it up." Lennon wanted to carry out his plan, but a voice called out to him: "Only for five shillings." That's what Yoko said.

This was the first time he saw the woman of his whole life, but he did not attach much importance to the fateful acquaintance. And the very next morning I received my first message from her — a book where She talked about the world order, the meaning of life and all that, which the famous musician, who had had enough of the love of the audience, did not care about. From that day on, the persistent Japanese woman continued to attack John with notes, calls and sudden meetings.

It was not the first time that the Japanese woman bewitched men with her unflattering beauty. She has already had two marriages under her belt — the first with the talented but poor composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, the second with producer Anthony Cox, who pulled Yoko out of depression several times, but, alas, did not deserve her love. The couple divorced as soon as Lennon's muse managed to win over his genius.

Susan immediately suspected something was wrong and demanded an explanation from John. He waved it off, saying that she was a crazy artist. But Yoko did not even think about giving up, she bent her line until Lennon's marriage finally fell apart. Leaving his wife, he shouted in his heart that their son Julian was the result of an extra bottle of whiskey. Then it seemed to Lennon that he had finally found true freedom. He would later say that Yoko had replaced all those who had left his life and forced him to look at himself and the world around him differently.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr still remember the day when Ono first entered the recording studio with Lennon. John didn't even want to listen to his friends who tried to explain to him that a woman didn't belong here. "She didn't know a damn thing about music, but she was telling Paul how to sing and me how to play the drums. We were furious, but there was nothing we could do about it. John didn't seem to hear us," Ringo said in an interview. In 1970, the legendary Liverpool Four broke up.

The band's business had not been good for a long time, the Beatles stopped writing new songs and were engaged in creativity separately, but millions of fans around the world refused to believe that the former team was no more. The angry audience immediately blamed Yoko for everything. The newspapermen happily picked up on this idea, and at the same moment headlines appeared in the press: "The Black Witch destroyed the Beatles", "The devil possessed the Liverpool four," but Lennon didn't care about it either: they completely dissolved into each other, even looked the same: shapeless clothes, round glasses and long Her hair was parted in the middle.

Shortly before the breakup of The Beatles, Lennon and Yoko set up their own studio where they could create whatever they wanted. It is here that John will record his famous album Imagine. Later, critics would recognize him as the best musician's record, and the real "Beatlemans" would grab their heads and curse his Japanese muse with renewed vigor.

In 1969, the mad lovers will get married in Gibraltar, the ceremony will last a record 72 minutes. And again, all traditions will be broken, it's not Yoko who will take John's last name, but he will take hers. Back in Amsterdam, the happy newlyweds will rent a presidential suite in one of the city's hotels, change into pajamas and... call together journalists. This "recumbent conference" lasted for several days, as the couple fought for world peace.

They were inseparable for four years, but the family idyll ended when Lennon noticed another woman at a party in honor of the election of the next American president. Tipsy, John took the guest into the next room and made love to her. Like a true Japanese woman, Yoko did not make scandals for her husband in public, but only asked him to hand over the flower and say that she still loves him.

John spent the next year and a half in Los Angeles, where It allowed him everything he loved so much: alcohol, fun, women. She even picked up her secretary, the pretty Mei Pang, as a lover. Lennon was happy at first: "You are the most understanding woman in the world," he told his wife on the phone.

Loneliness quickly got tired, John wanted to return, but Yoko was adamant. To her husband's pleas, she replied sharply: "You are not ready yet." As Mei Pang later told me, it all ended abruptly. Ono called her and said that she had found a person who would help John quit smoking. So Lennon came home. Reconciliation with his wife ended with the conception of a child, whom both had long despaired of waiting for after several miscarriages. The birth of Sean's son finally put everyone in their place.

Now John was tinkering with the baby, and Yoko was arranging exhibitions and buying up expensive real estate with the money left over from the Beatles ships. Friends often teased Lennon. "You sing about freedom, a world without property, and you live in a six-room apartment with separate rooms for furs and shoes." John himself had long been sick of such a life, but how could he contradict a woman he loved to distraction.

In 1980, the former Beatle would record the last Double Fantasy album in collaboration with Yoko Ono, and a week later he would be shot by a mad fan Mark Champion. In an interview, Lennon's killer will say that he thought John was a god, but at some point he came down to earth and became an ordinary person. "Then it seemed to me that I was going to shoot the picture on the album cover, a two—dimensional celebrity without real feelings," Champ confesses to reporters while already in prison. Former detractors will suddenly begin to sympathize with Yoko and feel sorry for the woman who lost the best man. But It will not even think of grieving.

A week after her husband's death, she will put up for auction his letters and albums, and six months later the media will tell that the eccentric Japanese woman has remarried. However, this marriage will be short-lived.

[sl-newsie]

American Woman (Thomas Shelby x American OC) Ch. 40: Taken

Masterlist: https://www.tumblr.com/sl-newsie/739551758747090944/american-woman-thomas-shelby-x-american-oc?source=share

If I didn’t know better I’d say the entire Shelby family is in their Sunday best. No guns, no peaky caps. They look… oddly normal.

I watch from the side as they stand in front of the Grace Shelby Institute for Orphaned Children. More pictures are snapped, more people applaud. Charlie looks confused and Karl looks bored out of his mind. Strange as it seems, not a single soul smiles for the pictures. As if this family is supposed to resemble anything but happiness.

The crowd starts filing inside so I take my que to squeeze in as well. I need to speak to Thomas but it has to wait. This morning Ada gave me some very important proof. Proof that this whole robbery riff-raff is deeper than I thought. A single photograph of a large armored vehicle.

I sit next to Ada and Karl, who keeps toying with my purse string. One look over my shoulder shows me Charlie nearly falling asleep on Thomas’ lap. As usual the display of flowers against the elegant curtains is gorgeous; adding another touch of the Shelby charm. Anyone who’s anyone is here. Rich aristocrats and modest servants all alike. In the back rows sit dozens of small children, much like Karl, with wide eyes and shy smiles. It warms my heart to see this charity in a murky place like Birmingham.

Polly, wearing a beautiful blue dress, stands at the podium while she waits for everyone to quiet down.

“I would especially like to thank the man who made this all possible. Ladies and gentlemen, Thomas Shelby.”

Applause echoes through the room. Behind me I watch Thomas stand up with Charlie in his arms and look out at the roaring crowd. Part of me thinks he doesn’t like all this praise. All the attention. There’s no doubt Thomas’ ego is sky-high but right now he does not look to be in a flaunting mood.

“Speech! Speech!” Arthur cheers over the noise.

Thomas locks eyes with me and I nod. He hands Charlie to me and goes to take his place at the front of the room next to Polly. As I bounce the babbling child on my knee I try to measure my attention to both him and Thomas.

“I didn’t come here to make a speech but I will say this: These children are now safe. And in our care they will be safe. Because we are from the same cold streets as they are. And in our car, they won’t be shipped away to the colonies, or separated from kin, or made to work for men in their various ways.”

You can hear a pin drop. Every eye is centered on Thomas, every ear listening to his words of care and compassion.

“They will grow up here. At home. Loved. In Birmingham. Because this is our city,” he declares.

“By order of the Peaky Blinders,” Arthur announces.

More applause breaks out as everyone stands to honor the new foundation. If I had known Grace was working towards this I might not have judged so harshly. This is a beautiful thing. Something I wish I could have helped with. Maybe now I can do something to contribute. Seeing Charlie staring up at me makes me want to protect every single child in the world.

Polly takes the stage again. “Now let us sing Immortal Invisible.”

Thomas walks off without a word. He needs a moment alone after that. This is Grace’s legacy.

Ada pokes my shoulder. “Tommy said mingle and smile. You do that, I’m going to discuss some shipping arrangements for America.”

“Shouldn’t I do that-? Oh.” She walks off before I can finish. “Okay. What do you think, Charlie? All these people, eh?”

He pulls at my braids. “Daddy?”

“Daddy will be back later, oké? Right now you’re stuck with me!” I tickle his chin and he giggles.

We stand in the corner away from all the social engagements. Honestly this seems like loads of hard work. How can people like talking so much? And not just talking, they’re talking about nothing of interest at all! Just gossip and small news like the weather. 

At the end of the room Thomas strides in. He sees us hiding and starts to come over but keeps getting stopped by chatty guests. He shoots me a glance and we both know he doesn’t want to be here. Time for a little intervention.

“Charlie, look! There’s daddy.” I point.

His face breaks into a bright smile. “Daddy!”

I carry him over and use the excuse to interrupt Thomas’ conversation with some older ladies.

“Someone missed you,” I say sweetly and hand Charlie over, who keeps reaching for Thomas’ coat.

“Oh, there’s Charlie!” Thomas fusses and bounces him up and down. “Little boy.”

The ladies cheer with delight and pother over the adorable son. They call a man over and the camera flashes again. More publicity. But what’s more important is the spirit of giving seen today. No newspaper can print that.

The ladies wander off and I take the moment to lean in to have a quiet word with Thomas. Do not mention the whores. Do not mention the whores.

“I’ve been told you’re planning a robbery.”

Thomas keeps looking at the crowd with an even face. “Finn needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.”

“Do not blame Finn. He’s actually keeping me informed.” I pull out the photograph. “And you're been working on this as well? A tank? Are you out of your mind?! You are a gangster who sells cars. Not a general fighting a war.”

“Not a tank. An armored car,” Thomas replies simply.

My brow creases. “What difference is there? It all ends in more violence.”

Thomas sighs and looks to see no one’s looking before leaning closer. “I’m a gangster, not a pacifist. This is why we didn’t tell you about the robbery.”

And to think I wanted to confess my feelings for this stubborn-! Wait. Maybe there’s more. Does he believe I’ll think less of him because of his stealing? Who is he stealing from anyway?

I take a breath and make my anger melt away. “Am I right to guess that the Russians are involved?”

“Yeah.”

I smirk. “Give ‘em Hell. Compliments of the Colons.”

Thomas gets his own grin. “With pleasure. No objections?”

“You won’t stop even if I did.”

“You know me so well.” he smiles and walks off to talk with someone else. 

I don’t know what his plan is. I don’t care what his plan is. He’s come this far and if it’s against the Russians then I see no reason to intervene. If Mr. Solomons is right and he knows Uncle Colon then I know I can trust Thomas’ plan. In the end, love is about having faith in someone, right?

“Verena, have you seen Charlie?” Thomas’ voice alerts me to look up. He’s darting around the room looking much more tense than a few minutes ago. “Where’s Charlie? Ada, where’s Charlie?! Where’s Charlie?!”

“Someone said they saw a nurse take him through the back door,” Ada says.

The look on Thomas’ face is one of pure horror. He takes off for the hallway and my stomach drops. No. No. No one would dare… No decent human being would involve a child in this. If Charlie really has been kidnapped… Oh Christ! I should have been watching him! We need to find him now!

I throw down my glass and push through the confused guests. I burst out the door to see Thomas hunched over spilling out the whiskey he just consumed. 

“Tommy!” John calls from down the road. “We need Moss to block all the roads south.”

Arthur jogs up and holds Thomas to keep him upright. 

“Tell me,” Thomas gasps.

“They took him,” Arthur says. “They put him in a car and they took him!” Thomas’ legs buckle and I grab his arm to help Arthur hold him up. “We’ve got spotters. I’ll set up shop. You gotta go to the office.”

“Yeah,” Thomas murmurs with blank eyes.

“You gotta sit by the phone. Whoever took him is going to call.” Arthur jerks his head to look at me. “Verena, get him home. Now. Polly!” 

The startled woman opens a car door and we both help Thomas sit down. Lord, he’s shaking! If he gets any paler one could mistake him for a spector. Polly starts the engine and we start driving back to Watery Lane. 

I try to soothe Thomas by rubbing his back but suddenly he grips my hand so tightly I swear he’s about to crush my wrist.

“He’s gone,” he croaks.

I swallow my own terror and adapt to a brave voice. “We will find him. Thomas, we will find him. Even if I have to break into every house in England with a gun in my hand. I swear on my Aunt Eleanor’s grave that he will live.” God, hear my prayer! “Who’s the bastard who would do such a despicable thing?”

Thomas tense up again and stares ahead with dead eyes. “There’s a priest named Father John Hughes from St. Mary’s Boys Reformatory. He’s the one who’s been fucking with me. He’s the one who has Charlie!”

The priest. The one I saw before Grace was shot.

“The priest, he…? To kids…?” Thomas catches on to my question and nods, proving my suspicions and sends my stomach churning. “May he be damned by God and burn in Hell.”

The car comes to a halt and Thomas bolts inside the house straight to the telephone. Polly and I hurry after him to find he’s already talking.

“Give me Moss.” A few seconds go by. “Gone where?”

Thomas hangs the phone up. Then picks it up again to throw it against the wall.

“It’s them!” He rages and paces off to squat down, head in his hands.

The priest. He was right.

“Did you break the phone?” Polly asks as she inspects the busted instrument. “You broke the phone.”

Ada pokes her head in. “Tommy, there’s a man outside. A priest.”

Thomas jumps up as if he got struck by lightning, pointing to each of us as he goes for the door. “Stay inside!”

That damned bastard! If he lays a pinkie on Charlie I’ll skin him alive and cut him to pieces! I peek through the curtains and watch Thomas disappear into the dreary night. It’s raining hard outside now. The weather is mocking us too.

“Verena, come away from there,” Polly orders and I hear more footsteps approaching. “Are we all here?”

I turn around from the fogged up window. Linda and Esme have joined us, and just in time. From the look on Esme’s face I’d say her time has come.

“Oh!” She gasps. “Me water’s broken! Ah!”

Linda slings an arm around her and I race over to open the bathroom door. “Here, in here! We’ll get you settled.”

Polly grabs some pillows and points to the kitchen. It all feels like the same routine from when I assisted with Ada’s birthing. I fill some hot water bottles and fetch more towels. While Linda and Polly guide her through the process I stand guard outside, waiting for any word about Charlie. An hour inches by and soon Esme's screams are replaced by the sounds of a cooing child. 

Thud!

The front door opens. Thomas, Arthur, and John walk straight past me. Not a word. Instead Thomas reaches for the bathroom doorknob and opens it without any consideration for the occupants’ privacy.

“Polly! Get out here.”

They file into the back office. Before I can start to follow, Thomas holds a hand up to stop me in my tracks. The door shuts and I’m left in the dark. Did I do something wrong?

“Verena?” Finn walks in from the kitchen door, gasping as if he just ran a mile.

“Finn! Did you find anything?”

He kicks a chair. “Nothing! I’ve got to report to Thomas. Where-?”

I point to where the others just disappeared to. “That way.”

He hurries to the door and shuts it again. God, what can I do? I don’t know Birmingham like the Shelbys do. Even if I go out searching on my own I’ll be wandering around like a drunk in the dark. But I can’t just stay here waiting! The thought of Charlie being alone with that monster chills my blood.

Bam!

The office door flies open. Polly staggers off sobbing. Thomas, Arthur, and John stomp to the front door and slam it shut. Linda and Esme are still caring for the newborn. All that’s left is Finn, who slowly walks down the hall and takes a seat on the staircase.

“Any news?” I ask weakly. He shakes his head. “This whole family is falling apart, Finn. What can I do?”

He takes a deep breath. “Tommy must trust you because he hasn’t yelled at you yet. He would have interrogated you too.”

I wander to the window. “Where’s he going?”

“Didn’t say. Only told me to bring the car around,” he mutters and slowly gets up from the steps.

My nerves catch up with me. My heart feels like it’s about to choke me and my hands are shaking. I try to speak but tears threaten to spill. Instead I stay quiet and sit down to stare out at the blurry rain. Murder and robbery are terrible sins but they pale in comparison to when a child is involved. So much madness…

@meadows5

[violetarks]

Hi! Could you maybe do some Chishiya x asexual reader headcanons? (like how he acts towards the reader while in only romantic and nonsexual relationships)?

I hope you understand what I asked.

"you'd come over and say i looked lovely."

show: alice in borderland

character: chishiya shuntaro

summary: how he would be in a relationship with someone who is asexual

warnings: g/n! reader, second person pov, slight s2 spoilers, headcanons, if anyone has some pointers, please tell me!!

i don't believe he'd be so fussed about dating someone who is asexual

like he really wouldn't mind if you preferred to keep sexual contact to a low, or if you would rather cut it out all together

i feel like he keeps to himself most of the time anyway, so it wouldn't be much of a difference

the most he would do is a kiss, one that doesn't succeed more than five seconds (and this is typically done in private)

he would usually do this before or after a game where you're separated during beach games, since its unpredictable and he knows that while you can hold your own, it's not the same for everyone else

they could bring you down with them, or make you miss your step

he just wants you to know that he loves you, and he can't exactly express it that well in words

will ask for your boundaries as soon as you tell him you're asexual

if you don't feel comfortable discussing them, then he will ask you to stop him when he gets too close, or he makes you feel uncomfortable

doesn't want you to feel ashamed in any way

didn't push you to sleep in the same bed as him when the two of you decided to move into the same room

said he would sleep across the hall if it meant you would still feel comfortable

the first time you tried to cuddle, he was as stiff as a board

if you like cuddling, then you would hold his hand at the start, and a few minutes later, he'll ask if you want him to hold you

if you say yes, its a shy arm around your waist and him constantly asking "is this okay?" in the quietest voice ever

if you say no, then he's more than satisfied with just holding your hand throughout the night (might be a bit wary of how sweaty his hands are going to become throughout your sleep)

if you don't like cuddling, then your nights are filled with some talk about the day or the game you played, sometimes even just what your life was like beforehand

chishiya isn't one to talk so much, so he leaves it to you to fill the space

he likes hearing your voice

at some point niragi has made some unfavourable comment about you either to your face or chishiya's

resulted in a snide remark from your boyfriend's part that really made niragi pop a blood vessel, and if aguni overheard at all then he'd be on that guy's ass for it (i believe aguni to be a very respectable man, probably hit niragi for every person he hit on)

chishiya wouldn't hold back on insults to those who make such comments about you

would go as far as to lead them astray during a game so he doesn't have to deal with them

doesn't tolerate bullshit

will outright say in public, a hotel full of listening ears, that the person's actions are disgusting

his quick-wit is everyone else's downfall when it comes to you

on the other hand, if you hear someone say something about you that you feel uncomfortable with, it will go two ways:

if you don't like confrontation too much, then a small glare their way along with chishiya's remarks will be enough to send them way

if you don't mind confrontation, then chishiya will watch as you march up to them and say some things he can't quite hear, but the looks on their faces is all he needs to understand

puts more effort into showing you he loves you in acts of service

he really just doesn't know how to say it properly, so he will do things for you

chishiya: "here"

y/n: "oh, a taser... thank you, shuntaro"

chishiya: "use it for your next game"

y/n: "i will, this looks cool"

chishiya: "make sure you charge it"

y/n: "sure thing"

chishiya: "don't die... please?"

y/n: ",,, i won't, since you asked so nicely"

he grabs you a drink or a snack when he goes to get some, making sure to ask if you didn't like certain things

he fixes the bed while you're getting ready

he grabs you a phone when a game begins so you don't have to rush to get one

its in his actions that he really shines

tries to show his romantic side more

he has little romantic side

as in, he struggles with planning dates or whatever, he just likes to spend time around you

like you're reading a book or you're making something, and he'll sit beside you and watch

but he lives for the look on your face when he does go out of his way to plan something romantic

a nice night out under the stars, or a picnic in the afternoon

you really appreciate all he does, and he's glad he is able to show you his love this way

understands that even if a form of contact wasn't meant by a person to be sexual, that it can still come off that way amd make the other uncomfortable

so he's very careful with you

the most contact is holding your hand, a warm hug or an arm around your shoulder/waist

he wants you to know that you don't have to do anything with him

he simply loves you

not whatever you could do for him

you never feel pressured by him

maybe the first time he put a hand on your lower back, to move you slightly out of the way while he passed you, he noticed your reaction no matter how small

and he made a mental note not to do that again without your knowledge

he doesn't enjoy the feeling he gets when something happens and you tell him that you didn't like something he did

he doesn't actively go out of his way to initiate any sexual contact

at the beginning of your relationship, you distinctly said you didn't enjoy nor want him to touch or talk to you in a sexual way

and he agreed to never, under no circumstances, ever do that

in fact, he sat beside you and told you all the things he loved about you

your smile, your laugh, how you held his hand in yours

he spent the rest of the night reassuring you, making sure you knew why he liked you so much

upon the feeling of acceptance by your boyfriend, you could break into tears

if you do, he's right there beside you to hold your hand and comfort you

he knows people could be rude, and maybe some dismissed you from their lives, but he counts them as foolish

who would be so stupid as to cut you off?

just because you don't like being touch that way didn't make you any less valuable to love

if the topic of a family comes up, he leaves it entirely up to you

he's not too fussed about whether or not the two of you adopt

if you want to, then he's good with that

he's not terrible with kids, he's quite good actually with his line of work

if you don't want to, chishiya won't make big deal of it

just because he's good with children doesn't mean he wants to have a full time job taking care of them

now if you are a touchy person, chishiya won't mind

he's happy with you clinging to him every moment, following him around like a lost puppy, nudging his knuckles to hold his hand

while he is not a touchy person and makes notes on where you don't like being touched, he likes having you around all the time

if it turns out you're not such a touchy person, he's more than happy keeping it to a minimum

will learn how to show his love through his words more for you

isn't afraid to ask if he needs to change his behaviour a little

while he won't do a full 360°, he will actively try to keep you feeling safe around him

[smoothpowerforthestreets]

🌟🌹💖DATING ADVICE FOR GIRLS OR FEMENINE ENERGY💖🌹🌟

Hello! The other day I had a very interesting discussion about dating life with my friends, we were sharing a lot of interesting opinions but there was one friend who is currently in a relationship who told us something that made us silent and side eyeing each other (in a concerned way, not in a bitchy way).

That's why I decided to make a post with dating and relationship advice, I noticed that these type of things is better learn them before getting in a relationship because when there's already an emotional connection people usually tend to deny that is toxic behaviour.

We were talking about the most important things to look for in a man or someone with masculine energy and we agreed that patience and respect are non-negotiables, even when tense arguing.

We were agreeing saying things like: I could never be with someone who screams, insults or is not empathic. And this friend said: gosh I wish I had your peaceful nature, X and I always scream and spit venom (insult) to each other when arguing.

That's when we were surprised in a concerned way, we tried to talk to her very calmly telling her that type of behaviour is not healthy neither for his part or hers. Screaming and insults while arguing are a type of DISRESPECT. But she was like: nah it's alright it's completely normal we always do it, we could never be like you say. Then she refused to listen anymore and changed the subject. (we still are concerned 'cause she talks about it like it's totally normal and no big deal)

Without furder ado... Here are my dating and relationship advice:

Pay attention to the red flags! 👀 Don't expect someone to change and girl... don't even think about changing them. You deserve a whole and already grown up man.

Don't 👏 chase 👏 him 👏. If he really wants you he'll do the pursuing. If he doesn't, that means he doesn't really want you and just enjoys the attention you give him for his own benefit. Let him pursue you, let him call you, let him take the iniciative... If he doesn't, HE DOESN'T LIKE YOU AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO CHASE SOMEONE THAT DOESN'T LIKE YOU BECAUSE IT'S PATHETIC. The only thing you can do is let him know in a subtle way that you like him and then step back and see if he acts on it.

Be clear about what do you want💍: do you want marriage? do you want kids? do you want to live in the city or country side? Your special person has to share those things in common with you, otherwise you'll have conflict about those things and it will lead to break up. BELIEVE ME. If you want marriage but he doesn't, DO NOT try to convince him or wait him to change, because you only have to options: he'll marry you out of pressure which eventually will make him to resent you or you'll wait forever for something that is not going to come. Remember those are the type of things you want to discover on the first dates and if you don't want the same things in life, then stop there: "Thank you for the good time, but we're looking for different things and it's better to go on separate ways in order to find someone who fits what we're looking for. It's been wonderful meeting you and I'm pretty sure you'll find someone who shares the same goals as you."

Set boundaries and apply them 👑. For example: I do not like to be texted or called while I'm with friends, at work or whatever I'm busy with (except for emergencies obv). I mean, he can text me asking to meet me later and I'll answer whenever I can but I hate when people try to start a conversation while I'm busy. He can expect the same from me, I'm not going to text or call him if he's busy. OF COURSE I let him know if I'm busy and I expect the same from him, I used tell him this: "I'm letting you know that I'm going to be busy with work/with friends for the next x hours, so if I don't answer it's because I'm busy not because I do not want to talk to you. But I'll call you once I'm finished!" It's a personal example of one of my boundaries. You set yours.

This may be controversial but make him wait. Don't have sex with him on the first dates. Get to know him and let trust grow first, make sure that he's someone worthy of having an intimate moment. Sex is a beautiful and intimate moment which you shouldn't give it to anyone. I didn't have sex until we were official and talked about our likes or dislikes (if he talks about sex on the first dates🚩). I talked about this topic with some male friends and they all said that if they really like the girl they don't care about the waiting. They even told me that when they really like the girl at first they don't even see her in a sexual way. So if you feel that you have to have sex to make him like you, girl he's not the one.

Choose someone who could handle kids even if you don't want to. It's a really good tip that made me realize that if someone treats me always with love, patience, respect and empathy, will treat the same way to an innocent life like a kid or an animal. If he loses his temper while arguing then I can't trust him nor with kids or animals.

Relationships require time and patience to build trust, getting to know him, etc. So be aware of love bombing😈, you can't love someone you don't know.

I personally would never forgive cheating and I advice the same for everyone. Never forgive cheating.❌❌❌❌

3 MONTHS RULE: if he doesn't make it official after 3 months, DROP HIM. 🙅🙅🙅🙅🙅 (and I think 3 months it's too much, I used set my limit at 2).

Never date a man who recently has been through a break up. He's most likely to ghost👻 you or use you as a rebound🤡. I usually advice that he has to be in no contact with her ex and at least half of the relationship single. For example: if he was in a relationship of 2 years, he must have been at least 1 year single.

DON'T BE A COOL PICK ME GIRL. If you present yourself as a cool girl who doesn't need gifts, flowers, blablablabla, he'll never do it. He'll be confused as hell when you expect him to. Don't be afraid to show your expectations even if it sounds corny.

These may be controversial too but these are the redflags from my experience: 🚩doesn't pay the first date🚩, 🚩doesn't have a good job🚩, 🚩not ambitious🚩,🚩if he doesn't pick you up or take you back to your doorstep🚩. Don't get me wrong, someone can be a full time student or being on a temporarily job while looking for a better one. But the fact that he is working on a job he hates and is not actively looking for the better job is a redflag for me. That's why I think it goes hand by hand with being ambitious. I have studied and worked my ass off to have the future I desired, I want someone who can keep up with me.

If he disrespects you once it's his fault, he does it twice it's your fault.

I can't think of anything more right now, but if I come up with something I'll add it. If you need any personal advice feel free to tell me, you can dm me or ask me in anonymous.

You can disagree with me but do it from a respectful place or I'll block you. 🤭

BE SAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[n7punk]

“Children of the Crystal” Fic Notes Season Two

Children of the Crystal is “officially” done! I still might go back and add short (non-plot) fics set in this verse further down the line, but the story is all wrapped up at a monster 14 (15) fics.

I split the fic notes into two “seasons” just because there’s a lot to cover, so the other post has notes for the first 6 fics. This one has the playlist, the notes for the rest of the fics, and discussion of the original outline/plan. This fic series doesn’t get an “epilogue” section because I’m keeping all those ideas in my back pocket in case I end up doing fics on them.

Playlist:

Haha so. This series had a playlist that was originally like seven songs long. Then I couldn’t sleep one day, and suddenly this story had a plot(??) and the playlist exploded. I’ll cover the plot thing later, but here’s the finished playlist (I also listened to my canon Catra, Adora, and Catradora playlists while writing this).

Just Friends — Morgan Saint

Illusion — Carlie Hanson

WASTE OF CONFETTI — Meg Myers

S.T.A.R. — Mothica

hallelujah — Bea Miller

For God’s Sake — Morgan Saint

Highlights — Mothica

Crazy Bitch — Sizzy Rocket feat. Mothica

feel like shit — Tate McRae

Once More, With Feeling! — XANA

Battle demo [not released to the public. Listen, the vibe is “I don’t want to fight you, but if that’s what you’re going to do, then let’s go”]

Jealousy — Pale Waves

i did this all for you! — XANA

Two Sides — Ari Hicks (this one is for Light Hope, because I think I’m funny)

I Don’t Believe In Anything — Deathbyromy (THIS IS SUCH AN ADORA SONG OK)

I’m Trying (Not Friends) — Maisie Peters (aka the fic 13 song)

Only Love [Acoustic] — PVRIS

General Notes:

⦁ For the ease of future rereads, the big plot heavy-hitter fics are (generally) every other fic: 1, 3, 5, maybe 7, 8, 10, 12, maybe 13, and 14. I was intentionally spacing them out (as best I could) so there would be a plot beat, then something that fleshed out the universe/characters, then another plot beat, but that wasn’t always the best thing for the series so there’s exceptions.

⦁ Several of the fic titles from this series are inspired/from lyrics from a couple of songs. They are as follows: The “Crystal Kingdom” song from The Adventure Zone led to the fic titles “Beckoning to Break the Seal,” “Locked in a Cage of Glass and Steel,” and “This Is Where Separation Ends.” I listened to that way back in the day and that song stuck with me for some reason. I thought about it again after naming the fic Children of the Crystal cuz. you know. Crystal. i did this all for you! by XANA is the origin of “Carve Your Name in My Bones.” Full lyric: [in my brain] I love what you’ve done with the place/really made it your own/carved your name in my bones. “I’d Die Just to Be Someone” is a lyric from Crazy Bitch by Sizzy Rocket (feat. Mothica). (Side note: can anyone tell me if Sizzy Rocket is a terf? One of the people she has a feature track with has a sus line) The fic and chapter titles of “One of Us Has to Keep a Promise” come from I’m Trying (Not Friends) by Maisie Peters. These are the only chapter titles in the entire series not in title case. More info on songs and lyrics later >.> Finally, “Once More, With Feeling” is a XANA song (on the playlist, too) that’s actually not happy but the title was a great fit for them returning home and falling back into their relationship with a lot more peace and happiness between them.

Locked in a Cage of Glass and Steel

Chapter 1:

⦁ God the ENTIRE series was leading up to this fic. I wrote it all in one sitting. Actually, I wrote the final chapter of Halls That Make a Home, all of this fic, and all but the last two scenes of Carve Your Name in My Bones in the same day. I wrote 12.7k words that day, my highest single-day word count ever (my previous being 12.1k, which was insane and not at all usual. My average word count is 2k a day).

⦁ I guess I leave it a little ambiguous (mostly because other people lie about it), but what happened with Entrapta was that Scorpia had bonded HARD with her, so when Shadow Weaver attacked Entrapta to stop her from trying to free the captured princesses, Scorpia turned on the Horde. She can’t exactly feel for a pulse with her pincers, though, and she thought Entrapta was dead. She then freed the rest of the princesses, and when they went to recover the sword, Shadow Weaver had roused to tell Hordak that Scorpia took the side of the princesses, bonded with the garnet, and killed Entrapta in the process. He didn’t believe her, but then Scorpia showed up leading the charge of princesses into his sanctum, crackling with electricity. So he pulled the lever.

Chapter 2:

⦁ I talked about this a little in the first author’s note, but figuring out the set-up of the portal is… interesting. I think the wider fandom has kind of agreed it has something to do with who pulls the lever? Like the portal was built around Catra’s wishes? Which makes sense, IG, but it could easily be a collective thing, or just a weird mindfuck, or Adora could have some control over it too because it’s her sword powering it. Personally I think it’s a mix of all of that, but for this fic I went with the idea that it’s the person who pulls the lever, because in canon I find the angst of Catra’s “perfect world” being one where Catra is still just “second best” but it doesn’t matter to her anymore because Adora is there absolutely delicious.

⦁ In the show, the Portal was kind of “an easy sell” because Adora did know a life in the Horde, and all the Bright Moon stuff was just a recent divergence. Everybody was pretty much “with their own” in the portal, Bow in Bright Moon, Catra and Adora in the Horde, etc. In this portal, a bunch of the princesses were locked up in the Fright Zone (because they… were in the Fright Zone IRL when it was set off) and Catra and Adora found themselves transposed into this foreign world so everything would be simple for Hordak and his greatest nemesis were now working for them. The portal bridged that gap by co-opting their memories. Instead of running and playing in the woods, they were fighting rebels in them. They remembered how fighting felt from when they would fight the Horde, but when they were actually forced to fight rebels in the portal, it all felt completely wrong. The other way the portal tried to form its perfect world was by giving Adora what she always wanted: freedom from duty. She wasn’t She-ra and there was no magic destiny to weigh down on her shoulders. As much as she will deny it and doesn’t even believe it, that’s what she wants. She wants to just be able to live her life and be useful, yes, but not have the weight of the planet on her.

Chapter 3:

⦁ Before I even started posting this series, I posted “sorry” because I had just outlined this wallowing scene and Catra deciding to go to the Horde. Obviously I’ve written breakups, self-loathing, etc in the past, but I felt like I was really lulling y’all into a false sense of security with this AU. It doubly applied since I had already outlined the AU’s end, too.

⦁ Because that was such an early outline, though, in that outline scene Catra discovered for the first time that Light Hope could appear in the room they thought was private. I ended up including that earlier in the series, because it’s not much of a reveal if you don’t already know that she’s not supposed to be able to do that and I thought her having the realization when they weren’t together yet but had said some Things in the privacy of the room worked better.

⦁ Btw, Light Hope did “usually” try to leave them alone in the room, especially when they were kids and her overwrite instructions hadn’t been fully installed by a reset, but she absolutely was intending to lie to them when she said she couldn’t listen to that room. It was not a misunderstanding. Those happened sometimes, but a lot of “misunderstandings” were intentional.

⦁ I considered giving Catra a breakdown haircut in this because those are fun, and by “considered” I mean I did and then I read the scene I just wrote and went. This is scary. Like I actually felt I couldn’t include it without a significant trigger warning and what the hell even is that trigger aside from Bitch Not Well so I cut it.

⦁ I had a whole freak out with the end of this fic and whether or not it made sense. Basically, I wrote the first scene of On Stumbling Feet way before this. A consequence of that (and how long-held my headcanon for Halfmoon is) is that I just completely fucking forgot whether Halfmoon running under the Fright Zone was established. I tried to put in more hints to it in the scene itself (stuff like the mentions of their last entrance being patched up) and went back to the fic where Catra calls herself the last of the magicats to edit in more context for future reads, only to find I already outright said there that Halfmoon was near the Fright Zone. I edited the wording slightly to make it more clear it was under, but I mostly panicked for nothing.

Carve Your Name in My Bones [one shot]

⦁ I’ve talked a couple of times about this AU being where I was able to finally put my backstory headcanons for them, but they did have to be tweaked to accommodate the story. For Catra, I imagine she was just scooped off Halfmoon’s street at a battle like this and brought back to the Fright Zone. Halfmoon being the mine beneath the Fright Zone is my headcanon, but not it being connected to the Crystal Castle or anything. I did that mostly to get around 1) Light Hope would have had the foyer door locked when Adora was that age so she couldn’t get out at all to help Catra if there wasn’t another way since that blocks off the override too and 2) to force Catra back through castle when leaving the Fright Zone. The original outline called for her trying to “confront” Light Hope, which I feel would be justified considering she had emotional ties to her just like Adora in this AU, but it would be pretty dangerous and a little stupid, so making it just be something she was forced to do made more sense.

⦁ Rescuing Catra was the first time Adora had left the castle since she was a baby. Feeling the surface of the rock was really shocking to her after being used to the perfectly smooth surfaces of the castle, only broken up by the texture of her bed and clothes. Everything else is metal or crystal. Catra introduces something as simple as touch to her life, that’s how incredibly isolated she was.

⦁ Catra’s parents in this are the same ones I made up for her in TTFT, Leona and Felina. Only one of them is actually her biological parent (magic inception, common for gay couples on Etheria) so Leona has Catra’s heterochromia this time to pass it down.

I’d Die Just to Be Someone

Chapter 1:

⦁ Shadow Weaver was willing to believe Catra’s story pretty easily given she defected to the Horde for similarly petty reasons, but willing is different from believing and she knew there was a chance it was a ploy, or she could be flipped again, which is why she went in hard on her immediately. Shadow Weaver was also dying and losing her shit anyway.

⦁ Hordak growling and Catra commenting (internally) on it was because he’s an alien clone and like, reminiscent of an elf, sure, but actually has his own rules to play by.

⦁ The story Shadow Weaver told Hordak was that Scorpia turned on them and let the princesses in because she wanted to take her powers, and when she did she electrocuted Entrapta (it was implied to not be an accident). It’s kind of a ridiculous sell if you know anything about Scorpia, but Hordak barely knew her name, and when he saw her using lightning powers and fighting alongside the princesses, it checked out, especially with her leaving afterwards.

⦁ Shadow Weaver was desperately trying to either 1) break Scorpia’s connection with the Garnet so she could begin using it again or 2) find a way to siphon energy off of it with Scorpia still connected to it. If Catra hadn’t shown up, she probably would have gathered herself up after her collapse and tried to slip away to Rebellion and trade “insider intel” in exchange for healing, but with Catra calling a medic, and them taking her under observation, she never had a chance. And… yeah, she wasn’t looking good and we don’t see her again. Read into that! (If you are interested, though, her story would have been that she worked with the Horde out of fear for her life as she needed the Black Garnet to live, trying to gain an ounce of sympathy, and then she would have tried to trade Entrapta’s location for healing. To them she would have said Hordak sent Entrapta to Beast Island when he heard of her treachery.)

⦁ Grizzlor gets to take over Shadow Weaver’s job because in the original show he was the… warden? Boss? BGIC? of the Beast Island prison. It was either him, Octavia, or Lonnie in this version, but I didn’t have room to throw in Lonnie being promoted to Force Captain in Scorpia’s place (though it definitely happened) and it feels like Octavia isn’t very respected considering the eye thing and that she still sleeps with the cadets.

Chapter 2:

⦁ When Catra mentions trying to line up to whisper in Adora’s ear during the fight, I wanted to leave it ambiguous if she was trying to gloat, but she was actually looking for any opening to tell the Princess Alliance that Entrapta was alive. She was always on missions with other people and the least trusted person on the squad, though, so she couldn’t even try to work it into a “taunt” to pass off because it wasn’t common knowledge and would give away that she was sneaking around.

⦁ Catra’s recognition of the hex-sided screwdriver is because she did spend enough — friendly — time around Entrapta in this universe to pick that kind of thing up.

⦁ When Catra says she “hasn’t managed to do anything about” the transport log, she means both that she hasn’t figured out where Entrapta was sent and she hasn’t managed to tell the Alliance she was live at all.

Chapter 3: Interlude

⦁ This wasn’t supposed to be here but I was thinking about how Adora must be feeling and then I was like maybe I have to write a one shot about this…. So I just stuck it in as an interlude.

⦁ Let’s! Talk! About! The Alliance! Okay, so like, Catra is right, they really should have known better that she wouldn’t go join up with the people who just murdered her friend and kinda-pseudo parental figure, but there’s a reason they “accepted” her defection. First of all, they were already annoyed with her for disappearing (though everyone was equally, if not more, annoyed with Adora for being a fucking idiot). Being mad at someone makes it a lot easier to believe the worst of them. Second, they had already experienced Entrapta’s defection, which was feeling more and more like a true defection as Scorpia told stories about her in the Horde, even though it was a kind of halfway thing for her. Third, Adora and Catra were really codependent, like ridiculously unhealthily so, but it had never been something they needed to work on when Catra and Adora were “doing fine” and there was a war on. When Adora broke her heart, it was possible Catra totally snapped because neither of them knew how to be a person — or even what a person really was — without each other. Four, several of them had picked up the vibe that Catra had some bitterness over Adora’s magic destiny from comments she made over time. And like, they weren’t wrong, that is what spurred her to go to the Horde, she just wasn’t joining them. And then five, of course: they were fighting her and watching her not respond to their attempts to talk. No matter what you believe, when you have enough evidence in front of you, eventually you have to give. None of that should erase the fact they knew Catra was a good person, and especially that she should want to destroy the Horde more than ever at that moment rather than joining up since they had just killed her friend, but just like they shouldn’t be too mad at her, Catra can’t be too mad at them when she didn’t tell anyone. Them believing someone they know is a good person would do Very Bad Things is kind of a commentary on how sometimes they struggle to be good friends, like how they get annoyed with Entrapta and both sides have to learn how to accommodate each other in the show.

⦁ Adora not walking all the way into the entry and leaving immediately kind of saved the planet here. With her first visit, it was quick and she got further into the castle, but Light Hope was willing to wait until a second visit before she went as drastic as locking her in, because it was going to be pretty hard to talk her into setting the Heart off at that point. This time, Adora didn’t get past the large door that could seal the main chamber from the entry walkway (the door that was closed when she and Catra were little, and that Catra squeezed through in The Start of a Legend). Light Hope technically could override the outside door, but she wasn’t prepared to do that, especially when she couldn’t do anything about the override door Adora could easily slip through. Honestly, she anticipated Adora’s breakdown taking longer and being able to use her fragile emotional state to manipulate her, but instead Adora fucking booked it away from the terrible memories and guilt.

⦁ It wasn’t fair, but one of the reason’s Glimmer was mad at Adora was for everything Catra did while defecting. They were friends, after all, and Adora breaking up with her is what drove her away, so even though Glimmer was already mad at Adora for the shitty breakup, she was also mad at them both for every shitty thing Catra did while defected because they shared the blame to her. It was more aimed at Catra since she was the one, you know, doing it, but Glimmer has a proxy-blaming problem (see: her partially blaming Adora for her mom’s death) so she was mad at them both.

Chapter 4:

⦁ Shadow Weaver “limping off to die” was actually her trying to sneak off to the Rebellion for survival.

⦁ The dent on Emily’s hull is this-universe’s version of the scratches. Emily tried to go into Hordak’s lab trying to find Entrapta after she “died” and Hordak grew enraged at the sight of her as a reminder. He threw the closest object at her and made the dent. She skittered away still not knowing what happened to Entrapta, but she picked it up soon after.

⦁ Emily has seen Catra before, back in that single battle where Entrapta got captured, but she’s dressed differently and on the other side, and it was possible there were multiple people named Catra, so she wanted to “verify” by showing Catra the projection.

⦁ I (Catra) shifted over the course of the chapter from calling Emily “it” to “she” to show how Catra was bonding with her. Using feminine pronouns for her did make it more confusing (which “she” is this she referring to, etc), but Catra really needed something to latch onto, so anthropomorphizing Emily hit hard.

⦁ I fucked up here. I came up with a cool idea literally the day after posting the chapter. Catra should have tried to take some of the files on the Heart so the Horde doesn’t find them, get caught sneaking out, and have to choose between keeping them or helping Emily to safety. She would choose Emily, ensuring the files fell into Horde hands and leaving her certain that Hordak — and thus Horde Prime — knows about the Heart when he arrives. Unfortunately, I only came up with that while writing fic 13. It’s a causality of posting as you write, even though I was ahead.

On Stumbling Feet (Find Your Home) [one shot]

⦁ Because this fic takes place before the last few, Catra is still under the mistaken impression that fire played a big part in Halfmoon’s downfall. The problem with this series is a lot of people are lying or just straight up wrong and so they contradict each other or even themselves a lot and I worry it looks sloppy when it’s intentional, just kind of misleading. I actually wrote the Halfmoon report scene before I even wrote the get together fic and wasn’t sure where I was going to stick it but had the idea for a “catch all” snippets fic possibly in the future.

⦁ Adora’s language around “manifesting” is because it’s one of those words/concepts that are new to her, since that scene is set fairly early on, like a few months in.

⦁ Adora saying “She’s going to need to hold onto these moments for the future.” just really goes to show that she can’t even let herself have good moments purely for the sake of them, but rather has to categorize how they could be useful to justify them. This girl needs therapy so bad.

⦁ The make out scene basically exists to tease Adora’s access to her powers without the sword. Obviously, canon shows her powers predate the sword, but with her runestone trapped. Originally the idea was that it would be a little one shot, but then it was brief enough of an idea to use in something like this. I ended up giving a “preview” to this kind of thing with her glowing eyes in the library fic, but she still had the sword (literally) on her then, so this showed that “disconnect” for the first time. Otherwise, this fic would be the kind of filler/fluff I would stick at the end of the series as “not part of the plot arc,” but that particular scene needed to be read before fic 14, so it ended up in the main arc. A little fluff was also desperately needed here.

⦁ The make out predates the scene in the library with her eyes glowing, but Adora still called that new because it had never been tied to anger before, and she didn’t fully understood what her eyes were doing in this scene. What she caught in the mirror was just them being extra blue.

A Thousand Years in the Making

Chapter 1:

⦁ The “true colors” in the fic description do refer to how Light Hope turns on them, but also to how she really does love them and wants to protect them from her own programming.

⦁ “The failsafe would kill the user” and Catra’s resulting “Wait.” reaction were actually because Light Hope was — in the only way she could — trying to help. She was informing Catra both of the risks and that it would work by explicitly not saying that it wouldn’t, since that’s the most logical way to dissuade its use.

Chapter 2:

⦁ The language Adora uses to describe the moving of Etheria in the library fic was carefully chosen to conflict but in a believable way with what Light Hope says here. Adora says “Mara made Light Hope move the planet,” which is what her impression of the situation was, in the sense that Mara ordered it, but what Light Hope actually says here was that Mara forced her hand and made her move the planet for everyone’s safety. Of course, that’s a total lie and Mara moved the planet without Light Hope’s consent, but it was part of the narrative needed to reach Light Hope’s goal of getting Etheria back where it should be so they can set the bomb off.

⦁ In the show what (kinda) breaks through to Light Hope is Adora mentioning Mara, which is a really cool moment I fucking love and was sad to strip away, but in this one it just made more sense for Adora to use their own bond since they had a deep one and she never discovered a lot about Mara without the signal tower.

Chapter 3:

⦁ This was the one and only time that Catra ever referred to Light Hope in a maternal way. She doesn’t really see her like that but she also… doesn’t… not see her like that, you know? Light Hope was her guardian, not her mom, but especially with the wound of Glimmer losing her mom recently, that’s what spilled out.

One of Us Has to Keep a Promise

Chapter 1:

⦁ I vagueposted lyrics from the song “I’m Trying (Not Friends)” when I was thinking obsessively about Catra’s “betrayal” twist and then untwist. The chorus really works for the clusterfuck that their relationship becomes and those two lyrics in particular were feeding my brainrot so hard I could not shut up. The urge to drop songs on the playlist that were massive spoilers and hinted at what was to come was so hard to fight. At one point I almost just posted “CotC spoilers: there’s XANA on the fic playlist” because like. if you know XANA’s music that is a spoiler. She has very few happy or wholesome songs. Most of them are breakup songs or intense shit that still implies a hot and heavy relationship like Catra and Adora don’t appear to have in this series. I was going absolutely nuts keeping all this to myself and knowing for about 7~ fics everything was going to look Fine and then it was getting insane. I then vagueposted again with lyrics from “Crazy Bitch” later thinking about Catra’s “betrayal” because this fic had a vice grip on my brain. For a while I was writing like 4-6k every other day with 1-2k in between and it still wasn’t enough to get it out.

Chapter 2:

⦁ The reason Prime hit the surface so hard and then pulled back was because he was planning on wiping out the planet and all its residents completely to cover up Hordak’s messy rebellion (as he says in the show before Catra interrupts his plan by telling him about the Heart, so he’ll spare Etheria), but he pulled back as speculated when he became aware of the Heart and its potential uses.

⦁ The position they’re sitting in while discussing their relationship in Catra’s tent is a mirror of the one they sat in while listening to music right after they came together as kids back in Carve Your Name in My Bones.

⦁ “She wants to ask Adora if she’s sure she loved her the way that Catra loved her, but while she can walk into the Horde ready to face any danger, she’s still a fucking coward when it comes to things that matter.” Yeah so Catra is saying her life matters less to her than whether or not Adora loved her here. Which is totally healthy and normal and she for sure doesn’t need therapy.

⦁ Catra eating the bread instead of throwing it back like she normally would have done is a result of both her imprisonment and her few weeks on the run/digging through Halfmoon. She’s also aware they’re running on rations and would probably be more conscientious even if she wasn’t painfully aware how important real food is at the moment.

Chapter 3:

⦁ Glimmer is basically bribing/guilting them BOTH to stay in camp using each other, because really they both need to recover, and everybody needs to fall into sync again before going out in the field together.

This is What Separation Ends

Chapter 1:

⦁ The title here has so many different implications. As I said earlier, it’s a lyric from Crystal Kingdom, but it pulls triple duty. It’s “separation” (being broken up) ending between Adora and Catra, it’s separation between Adora and She-ra ending with the breaking of the sword, and it’s separation between wider worlds ending as Horde Prime is defeated and they’re all finally free.

⦁ This first chapter was actually all stuff that was supposed to happen in One of Us Has to Keep a Promise. Then I was just… too into the whole breakup/deflection/come back together concept and the fic ended up expanding a lot from the initial concept of “quick slice of awkwardness with them on the same side again now it’s all hands on deck fighting the Horde” (exact quote from my outline doc). Yeah more was needed by the time we got there and I wanted to write more anyway lol.

⦁ Their time going back to be alone in the tent… Man, even I don’t know what they did in there LOL. I will say I did consider having them have an implied “end of the world, plus weeks of tension with their relationship” hook up, but them just cuddling and being needy also makes sense. Making out like they did in the last fic makes sense. They definitely kissed at least once in that tent, but the rest I wouldn’t be able to say definitively without actually writing it and feeling it out.

⦁ Okay, in Castaspella’s defense, Catra was very convincing, and Casta let Shadow Weaver of all people lead her off alone without telling anyone so I think this is in character for her lol. Catra basically went “yep, Adora was 100% dead and She-ra brought her back to life in the Heart, so she can heal someone else when they use the failsafe, but we don’t know if the failsafe will destroy She-ra if she did it herself, and we can’t risk that.” In this verse, they’re very aware that only a First One can be She-ra and they’re fucked without Adora. That, combined with some guilt-tripping and the valid point that they need a tiny strike team if they’re going to have any chance of infiltrating Mystacor (and that either Castaspella or Micah has to be on said team if they’re going to have a chance), convinced Castaspella to go. Catra said she would leave the message with Emily to deliver a few hours after they left to ensure they got in and out before the Alliance could catch up and ruin the plan by immediately getting caught (because let’s be real, that’s what would happen). The Mystacor infiltration was way more high stakes with a lot higher chance of failure without Melog by their side to camouflage them, so this was riiiiisky, but they didn’t have a lot of options.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Adora’s powers didn’t exactly get an upgrade post-alignment, but her perception of She-ra did, and that allowed her tap deeper into her, which is what led to stuff like the shooting blast, especially on complete accident.

⦁ So I did (briefly) consider having Catra get chipped here and Prime commanding her to walk off the cliff instead of the stabbing. TBH, I just wanted to do my own thing without retreading so much ground from the show (which was kind of my whole philosophy when it came to this AU) and there wasn’t much point to it anyway since Catra would be chipped and unchipped within hours. It seemed far more logical to me that Prime would just kill her, keeping her alive only long enough to utilize her to get the sword. He wasn’t going to risk keeping the failsafe (Catra) alive long enough to really go through her memories, so chipping her didn’t have much use, and leaving her unchipped seemed like more effective blackmail (because who would want back their loved one when they know they’re indoctrinated? Somebody who understands love, you idiot).

⦁ In the initial outline of this chapter that I did a month and a half ago (lol), Prime didn’t stab her, instead just throwing her off the cliff. But. I mean. The drama. I had to go with stabbing. The fact he was doing it with Adora’s sword, which is supposed to be the home to a goddess of healing and protection but has been perverted and turned into a destructive weapon waiting to end the world, was just too poetic.

⦁ Okay okay okay. The sword-shattering thing. I have written that into two AUs now. The first one was an idea I came up with in October 2020 and was definitely destined to just be one of those “talk about it with your friends in Discord and never actually write” AUs, and then again into… well one that didn’t end up happening. Then this AU came around and I realized I could finally use the idea. In each iteration of it, the circumstance was entirely different and the reason why the sword had to break was a little different too (Adora needing healing beyond the sword’s capabilities and She-ra’s power surging into her; being too far away from it to save the world; and needing to heal Catra leading to agony surging her power past the sword’s breaking point), so it always felt fresh and exciting while also being something that I was excited to finally incorporate because the drama. I was refreshing my inbox all day after posting this chapter because I love the end of it so much and I wanted to see people’s reactions.

⦁ Okay but what are the mechanics of it, I hear you not asking. Well, I’ll tell you. So one, my headcanon is that the sword was forged using the Heart for realsies, not just in this AU. Like I said, I was able to shove a lot of my headcanons into this AU because it was actually reasonable for them to have discovered that stuff in this ‘verse. Anyway, She-ra’s runestone was as old as the other runestones and used to work like them too where she just had to be magically connected to it, not physically, to use her powers, but it was placed in the sword’s hilt so the sword could “impose order” on She-ra. Basically, the Sword of Protection was supposed to keep her locked as a First One and give her a “weakness” in the form of making her tied to a physical object. If She-ra becomes a problem, just take the sword away and she’s gone. The sword is old, though, and She-ra’s magic is very powerful. Adora has been in a lot of tight spots before, but none of them as devastating as this, and her connection with She-ra is strong now. If Catra had died the same day that Adora got the sword, it probably wouldn’t have worked like this, but between knowing the sword is just an object now and the strength of her powers, she could reach for She-ra’s runestone even with it locked inside the sword. When she grabbed that connection is when the magic started manifesting around her, but she still couldn’t transform with the sword around it despite trying and trying. So She-ra broke the lock.

⦁ Oh yeah, what actually happened when Adora was going a little insane. As soon as Catra fell, her friends started fighting and the clones that had parted for Adora rushed her. They made the mistake of trying to hold her down and pull her away from Catra, though. That’s when her eyes started glowing. As she internally spiraled and fought against the hands, she started to glow, and the power began to swirl around her. Pretty quickly, some clones were forced to let go, and others were knocked away. The remaining ones were knocked flat when she went full power-aura a la Save The Cat, and then she screamed, it did actually cause a minor local earthquake, and then she transformed.

Chapter 3:

⦁ Remember She-ra’s earthquake powers? Because Adora certainly doesn’t seem to with how little she uses them in the show LOL. Okay, but that feeds into my “full power She-ra” thing. In episode two where Adora does that, she’s kind of… overtaken by the avatar of She-ra. She’s almost mechanical in movement, she’s absolutely glowing with power like a beacon… you know, the stuff she was doing here. She-ra definitely has a deeper power that Adora can tap into at times, and that’s what she did here when she broke the sword. Prime was dealing with She-ra like he had never seen her before and the world had never seen her since before Mara.

⦁ In the initial version of this, Etheria started surging up to meet her and those cracks in the earth started pouring magic, but I changed it because that’s more related to my post-Heart headcanons then pre-Heart and I just don’t think it would work like that.

⦁ The outline of this scene included Adora bringing Catra up to the top of the cliff and then putting her down to fight Prime, but that was… a bad idea, so I had Adora put her down on the ground. I considered having the grass grow under Catra as a part of She-ra’s “life” powers (another headcanon), but that felt too close to Perfuma’s powers, and Perfuma was literally there, so I just had Perfuma do it and she made the protective tangle while she was at it.

⦁ I’m not entirely sure that the ending I wrote here is possible. Let me explain. My interpretation of Prime’s hivemind and body jumping is that he basically can’t be killed because, like Corypheas (to everybody who just cringed internally, I salute you, we did time in the trenches together), he always moves to the next body when his current one is damaged. Thus, you have to disable the entire hivemind before you can trap his current body and kill him off in that. That means that in this canon, Adora can’t kill him off yet because she hasn’t yet destroyed the mothership, but I went with the logic that once she has started that… magic purge thing she does, he can’t move, and without him in the system imposing order on it, the hivemind becomes a thousand discordant voices that don’t even know how to speak on their own, essentially debilitating them until the mothership is destroyed and they all become individuals. The clones do calm down, but right now they can barely think and are prone to lashing out.

⦁ I forgot not everyone is as insane about this show as I am when someone brought up the failsafe in the comments, so I’ll clarify here: the First Ones alphabet is phonetic. A reading/writing guide was uploaded to the show/Dreamworks’ social medias with all the details, but basically the failsafe/word Heart from the show is formed from a base word bar with two decorative elements sticking out of the top on both ends to form the top of the heart. The language is read right to left, so the outlines for the bottom half of the heart are made from the sounds/letters H and R on the right, and T on the left. So when Adora says she has H and R, she means she quite literally has one half of the heart, while Catra has the other containing the T, like one of those half-heart best friend necklaces totally not baby-lesbians get with each other.

⦁ The Hearrrrrrrrrrtttt sceneeeeee god okay. Man I really like this fic can you tell XD Them intertwining in the Heart is something that can be So Personal- OKAY I swear I’ll stop memeing now. The intertwining thing was born of them needing to share the failsafe for Catra to survive it (initial outline just called for Adora “taking” it from Catra via She-ra and the healing magic, I changed that and it’s way better this way) but then I absolutely loved what it led to. It also really helps resolve a lot of their personal issues to see each other, stripped and honest and incapable of hiding. Adora can feel how Catra truly, truly doesn’t need her to be useful to love her, and Catra can feel how Adora loves her even when she doesn’t show it how Catra needs, not to mention how her friends in general love her and think about her when she isn’t there. All of these are things they realize over the periods of weeks and months and years post-canon, but they got to kind of speedrun that process here. And also it’s just so fucking yuri I had to do it.

⦁ In the finale of the show, someone on crew (pretty sure it was ND) said the original idea was for the burst of magic to shoot up and destroy the mothership, but someone on crew (and I know he named and credited them, I just can’t remember who right now) came up with the idea for it to be overtaken by that tangle of plant life instead to reclaim it, and he thought that was a better idea. And I don’t disagree with that. But in this one they went with that first option and just blasted him out of the sky lol.

Once More, With Feeling [one shot]

⦁ These two dumbasses blush when talking/thinking about the Heart for so long, half the Princess Alliance is convinced they had victory sex down there or something, but no, they’re just so fucking gay.

⦁ It's... kind of a headcanon? For my own fic? But they do end up going out to explore space with the help from some reformed clones (when it comes to spaceship building/repair and intergalactic navigation) at some point after the war and eventually come across Krytis, because I can't leave Melog there forever.

⦁ I have a list of some more ideas for this universe, so I will return at some point, but I need a break. I had SO much fun with this fic, it was absolutely wild, but it was also a long ride and my creativity needs a bit of a rest or I might burn out.

Original Outline:

Originally this series wasn’t supposed to have plot and I had disclaimers about that. Okay, there was supposed to be some plot (Fics 1 & 3, the breakup, and the finale fic) but there was very little aside from that. Even the finale fic, I didn’t have context for how that happened, it was just “confrontation with Horde Prime looked different since Catra never got captured since she was never with the Horde.”

Never with the Horde. Yeah.

So. When I was first planning this series, I only briefly considered the possibility of not breaking them up, because in this AU they’re extremely codependent and it’s not healthy. They absolutely needed to learn to function independently of each other, and I love angst. However, the initial idea was just that they would break up and Catra would run away to the Whispering Woods, having her own adventures, getting caught up in shit but luckily never any missions with Adora.

Then I went to sleep (while writing the first fic, I think, but maybe just planning), and by the time I got up the next morning I had written the entirety of the deflection fic (that’s what I called I’d Die Just to Be Someone for a while) in my head. I sat down in front of my rough timeline for the series that acted as an outline and went “‘kay how do I mess this up because this idea is so angsty I can’t not.” I mean I did consider not, I outlined like three or four different back halves of the fic using the deflection and not, but in the end I hammered out my best version of them with the deflection in place.

Having such an arc determined for the series really changed the way I thought about it in that it needed to have structure now rather than doing whatever I wanted like before, but I kept the nonlinear nature of the series like I first planned.

When I constructed the arc, it had an overall pretty simple structure with 1 plot forwarding fic followed by one character/world building or backstory/fluff fic, repeat 5/6 times. This changed almost immediately because I kept having ideas for new insert fics. Maze (Literal, Metaphorical), Girls Talk, and Halls That Make a Home were not in the original list of ideas, and HTMaH was just supposed to be a filler fic once inserted but ended up somewhere halfway between that and plot since it brings up the Entrapta thing before we hit the portal and is where Adora reveals her backstory.

The fact I kept wanting to move around fics didn’t help. The first 3 fics were as planned, the forth fic was supposed to be “something in the Rebellion,” which I suppose it is, only the ideas that were supposed to go there ended up being in the 11th fic in the series. Then the 5th was as planned, 6th and 7th were come up with while writing the series (the single fic that was supposed to take their place ended up as a scene in the 11th fic), and 8, 9, and 10 were as planned. 11 kind of fluctuated but was originally the library fic before that got moved earlier (because I really wanted to write it and it was a good way to introduce the Entrapta thing). 12, 13, and 14 were all as planned again, though.

BTW, when I say “as planned,” I mean the fic topic was as planned. Some of them still saw changes within that fic, but most of them were just a few sentences of summary so there was plenty of room to grow.

Also… let’s talk about those other endings. Because I ended up with two “main” versions once the deflection was planned, so there was a second version of the ending I was toying with up until the point of no return (fic 8). The other version of the end was that Scorpia never connected with the Garnet, but they discovered the Heart, and Light Hope was forced to try to activate it. Without the Garnet connected, it couldn’t go through, but it started enough for Prime to pick up signals and he (at least kind of) realized what Etheria’s deal was. This was the first way I explained the sword being kept intact (though Catra did still help Adora out).

What did this result in? Well, Prime figured out the temporal thing and started sending clones back in time to fight Etheria. This led to a much different looking war, with clones at first supplementing the Horde’s ranks, and then overthrowing Hordak when they realized what was up and marching on everybody. Once sent back in time, however, they were cut off from the hivemind and it was a disorganized mess, so Prime himself eventually realized that was the problem after sending waves and waves of clones back in time and went back himself. The stand off happened pretty similarly, Adora purified him and freed all the clones in their time, and then they used the Heart to move Etheria into the wider world, scattering the army in the process.

Honestly, there’s just a lot of logistical problems with this version of the end, and maybe I could have hammered them out and changed things around, but I liked the version I used better because it was just simpler and I feel like all that timetravel and different-looking war stuff would have gotten convulted and muddied the story pretty quickly. As much as I liked the idea of going in on my time travel headcanon, it was just too much. It would have necessitated at least two more fics that I don’t think would have been that interesting. I love how this series came out, so I think I made the right call there, lol. The only loss was that “This is Where Separation Ends” doesn’t also represent Etheria moving into the universe anymore since that already happened two fics ago, but it’s still the effective joining with the universe since Prime’s army was cutting them off, so good enough lol.

Meta:

Season One Fic Notes

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I’m torn between two projects right now, so I’m not sure yet, but it’ll be a short multi-chapter fic either way so it will probably start in the next couple days

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Hello again M🕵🏻‍♀️,

I just read your answer to the 1950s film anon with the MUBI screenshots and got so very excited! 📽️😻🎞️

Your suggestions are in oh-so-excellent tastes! I had to come here to share my favs (okay some might be from the 60s…😳🫢)

🚬”Breathless” (Jean Seberg & Jan Paul Belmondo, need I say more?!)

🥲”Bonjour Tristesse” (again, Jean Seberg, and the novel by Françoise Sagan was an absolute banger too!)

📸 “Rear Window” (My fav Hitchcock. James Stewart is actually not annoying in this one.)

🌂”Mon Oncle” (Jacques Tati might be an acquired taste, esp. in America…but I love the minute details he obsess over in all his films that create the whole quirky-kitsh-odd, sometimes bizarre atmosphere)

💎”Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (🙄I know, cliche…but I just love Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in this one, even with the despicable depiction of quasi Japonesque character Mr. Yunioshi played by Mickey Rooney. Funny how Peppard also went on to act in action films/shows later, just like Belmondo)

👑”Roman Holiday” (I’m partial to Gregory Peck in this one.)

⛵️”Plein Soleil” (Alain Delon is breathtaking in this one…)

Ohgosh~🫣there already are too many! Sorry! I’m just so excited for the transformation of your space where I can now find and talk about two of my odd varieties of obsessions (Bangtan & films)!

P.S. Much newer, but do you happen to like Wim Wenders films by any chance? What about Jim Jarmusch?

Your excitement is contagious, anon! This list takes me back to high school, each film has a different memory attached to it.

If you like Jean Seberg, I recommend listening to a series from the You Must Remember This podcast. Her career and life was discussed in detail in parallel with Jane Fonda. Look it up and you'll find it easily. The shooting for Bonjour Tristesse was a bit of a hell for Jean.

Your comment about James Stewart took me out because I understand the feeling. I'm not a fan, there's something about him that annoys me (maybe the way he talks?), but I can see that he was a good actor. I don't have anything serious to criticize.

Yes, Tati is an acquired taste. It never got to me to the point of wanting to watch a lot of his filmography, but he is one of a kind and an influence to those that came after him (Greta mentions him for the inspiration behind Barbie as well)

With Breakfast at Tiffany's, a cliche or not, does it matter? It's too iconic. Yes, it has a reputation and good material for specific tumblr/pinterest aesthetics, but for good reason. If we take all that aside, we're still left with something of value, given that it's also an adaption of a Capote novel.

There's so much to talk about Audrey Hepburn that it requires a separate post. I don't think Hollywood had another actress like her or even coming close to that kind of presence. She was a movie star in her own category. Anyway, I never became a fan of Gregory Peck (I didn't go and search his films) but damn the guy was hot. Can I have a Roman Holiday too? Just like that? 😄

Alain Delon in Plein Soleil is a sin. And a perfect summer film. With this guy, I have to manage to separate the actual person and his political beliefs from the star he was in the 60s. Same with Brigitte Bardot. Ignore and store that in the back of my head so I can enjoy the films.

As to your questions, I could never get into the Jarmusch vibe, although I did watch a few of his films. I don't have anything against him he's good and a true artist, but it doesn't match with my taste. With Wim Wenders, I know Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas, The American Friend, Pina. Again, it's the type of director that has his place in film history, but I never focused particularly on him.

[romaritimeharbor]

.......... dad!lotor.........? 👀

FAWN. FAWN.

THIS IS SO FUCKIGN REAL FAWN......... i've heard this song a few times but haven't heard it RECENTLY so i never really thought about making that connection but that is so real, it's actually dad!lotor real and true <3

sighhhh i think it's time i make a playlist for the imaginary dad!lotor series.......... AND BTW I FORGOT TO TELL YOU ON DISCORD WHAT I WAS THINKING ABOUT SO!!!! HERE ARE THE THOUGHTS!!!

i've been thinking about lotor's encounter with the paladins where they just... keep him hostage. he really said "i think it's time we had a talk" and they proceeded to put him in a jail cell wtf!!!!! that was NOT a talk!!!!! /lh

anyways, i've been thinking about the hostage exchange between zarkon and the paladins--lotor for pidge's dad. when they're discussing it before it happens, i feel that pidge and lotor's kid would butt heads very severely. it's no question that they would be there with him. he's declared an enemy of the state and, by association, they are as well, regardless of whether zarkon actually knows about them or not. i think the paladins would discuss keeping them around for information's sake (and lotor would actually agree with this; he wouldn't want zarkon to get his hands on them for any reason), but they would be so intensely against it.

like "you do not get to take your father back at the cost of separating me from mine, that isn't fair" kind of thing. "you do not get to talk about us as if we are just bargaining chips. we are living and deserve as much respect as you do. you do not get to judge us based on the actions of others" also. yeah. just very raw, visceral emotions. and furthermore they KNOWWWW that zarkon isn't just going to hand over her dad, like???? it's so obvious to them but of course they aren't listened to.

and they're just completely inconsolable about it, about that whole situation!!! like!!!! pidge should know what this desperation feels like, allura should know what this desperation feels like, right? but instead they are realizing how few favors having galra blood does for them and now they kind of get why lotor clutches onto his altean heritage.

(pidge DOES get the desperation, but that's the problem--both of these poor children are failing to think clearly because of that desperation, which is rooted in the same place, and it is leading to them spitting nasty insults towards one another, digging into places that should not be dug into. "this is so typical of the galra 😒" "shut up that's why your dad got kidnapped 🙄" now i think they could probably be friends actually but that would happen way later on LMAO)

*head in hands*

[ethernetmeep]

as to not taint the humor of the millipede post, i say this separately and as its own sort of weird entry thing; today was not all that nice. if you somehow wish to read emotional ramblings then feel free below i suppose. this will all probably be very embarrassing & stupid & gone at a certain point

at first, it seemed to be fine; by all accounts, i felt normal. i was happy, content, neutral, what have you. near the end of first period, i felt a sudden and all encompassing sort of emotional pain which is hard to explain besides a knife in ones gut. i try to shrug it off, go back to normal; i listen to instructions of my teacher before i ask to sit outside. i proceed to bawl my eyes out silently.

and you may ask, WHY? and i ask the exact same thing! i have no clue why i suddenly break down like this, but i do, and its heavy and uncomfortable. i sob out of both guilt and intense emotions unable to be placed anywhere definitively. i sob because i don’t know what else to do, as trying to hold my emotions in has seemingly only made me sick thus far in the day.

i continue to cry for an uncomfortable amount of time i won’t disclose. a teacher who i enjoy greatly sits beside me in the hall; without even having to say the words aloud, i answer him. i talk quietly of things i remember and talk of how upset i feel; not mad upset, but sad upset. he seems confused on what too much of something would be. ive been wondering this for months. he asks if it was possibly seen as something more intimate. i say this could be likely and i feel far worse; i feel awful, actually. he runs off because hes a busy man. i think about our conversation and i feel overwhelmingly distressed. i feel sick. i feel as if ive ruined everything by accidentally implying something different then what i may mean. i dont enjoy the vague way certain events occur. i hate being vague, i hate not being able to read between the lines of things; vagueness scares me to a point of distress and acute worry, which is probably hypocritical.

i have to resort to one of the stupidest things ive imagined in a long time in order to not feel the overwhelming & all encompassing feeling of wanting to [REDACTED]; imagining myself as stanley from the stanley parable and being lectured about how this action would quote make the timeline collapse in on itself or quote ruin the game by the narrator. i can imagine his voice clearly in my mind saying STANLEY, YOU CAN’T SELF-IMMOLATE STANLEY, THAT WOULD RUIN EVERYTHING WE WORKED FOR! something stupid like that. its odd that it helped.

i was fine, although i then proceeded to not be fine. got asked if i was okay. answered truthfully and said no. an acquaintance prompted me to talk about it with her, then simply.. left. had to find the girl she enjoys being with. she said she would find me later and talk about it; i really didn’t want to talk about it. i moved to put on my headphones then realized it was stupid & was already on the verge of tears again at simply the discussion from before & feeling like a circus animal being heavily scrutinized and laughed at under intense gaze. i get to class but i am overwhelmingly unable to do anything but cry.

i get to go to the library, but at the detriment to my friends. i text one and tell her i won’t be at lunch as im dealing with emotional distress and don’t want to quote, be a debbie downer. i am saddened at my actions; i wish i would’ve just went and talked with them, but i also don’t wish that i did because i hate distressing those i care about. i didn’t want to put more on my friends plates. i’d deal with it myself

of course, nothing is ever sound & calm for long; the area which i feel comfortable crying in is overtaken and i move uncomfortably. i am asked if im okay. i lie blatantly to a girl ive known as an acquaintance for years. i feel bad for lying; i don’t want her to worry about me. it wasn’t important, anyway. eventually i regain my composure and get back to class. it ends and i move on; as per usual, my mood fluctuates and i soon find myself worried sick and leaving her classroom.

i stay after although i know the chess club is cancelled for this week. i don’t like the change. its not as if im mad at the change, i just so desperately wanted to believe the days i dealt with before actually still accumulated to something i enjoyed. now the one thing i enjoy is off to not occur for next week, either; giving me very little to look forward to, if anything

i sit in the airlock. i write in my notebook a list of things someone would do before self-immolation. hypothetically, of course. maybe four or five things on it are actually things one would care about. one is to play a DLC, another is to finish a novel; one is to stay in order to see the cicadas arrive & to visit the cemetery in the spring like someone (fine, me!) mentioned weeks back that i wanted to do. its uncomfortable how the novel i enjoyed dearly was not one of the important things on the list.

it takes quite a lot to kill me, i think. kind of like a tick.

i’ll be fine; i always am. i think ive gotten better. im slowly feeling more and more sane again, although the stress puke is still prevalent. as ive lived on, its gone down to a point where i just gag; don’t puke. i enjoy documenting when i do feel things like this, strangely enough. having an archive of my life makes me feel sane. its also interesting to look back on.

thanks if you read this somehow, even after the warning of how stupid it would be. i appreciate you, hypothetical reader. i enjoy your hypothetical quiet company