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maggiedelusional · 1 year

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Let Me Go || Part 10

Pairing: Hangman x f!reader, Rooster x f!reader

Warnings: ANGST (but you knew that), minor character death, Some Fluff

Word Count: 3.8k

Summary: Reader is married to and shares a child with Hangman. Life and circumstances drives reader into Rooster’s arms, but Hangman isn’t giving up that easily.

Author's Note: The long awaited Part 10. So this is the final part of the story, but there is still an epilogue coming (actually already started writing it as we speak or rather type). Sorry for the long wait once again, school and law school apps really got the best of me. But I did end up getting into law school with a great scholarship so yay! This chapter was so hard to write, I really kept going back and forth on how I was gonna end it and I know I'm not gonna make everyone happy with how I ended it but I think I went the best possible and realistic way that's healthy for all the characters involved. And I am really happy with what I came up with. I also had such a bad case of writer's block but thanks to some brainstorming with one of my best friends (who I forced to listen to the plot of the story). He helped me come up with an ending I was happy with. So thank you again for your patience and I also I wanna apologize to everyone who asked to be in the tag list that I didn't add, its impossible to keep track of who asked. But without further ado, here is Part 10 of Let Me Go!

You needed a moment to gather your thoughts before responding to Jake's plea. You took a deep breath and wiped the tears from your eyes.

"Jake, of course I still love you," you said, your voice quivering slightly. "But that's not the point. Love alone is not enough to fix what's broken between us."

"I know," Jake replied, his eyes downcast.

"You also have to understand that what I had with Bradley was not the same as what we have," you continued.

"Yes I fell in love with him. How was I not supposed to? He loved me when it felt like you could not, he loved me selflessly and loved our daughter like his own. I can’t just ignore that.”

"You fell in love with Rooster…." Jake repeated, voice low and full of despair.

“I thought it was you and me forever Sweets. I can’t believe you’d go back on our vows and leave me for Rooster!”

“And its not just you and me (y/n), we have a daughter! Imagine how confusing all of this is for her!” Jake was fuming once again, clearly jumping from the bargaining stage of grief back to anger.

“You didn’t think about our daughter when you fucked that corpsman!”

“That’s different (y/n)! She was a stranger, you fell in love with MY friend. Someone I thought was JUST your friend.”

“This is different," you said, feeling a mix of anger and frustration rise in your chest. "Rooster is not just a friend, he's someone I have a deep connection with. And I know it's hard for you to understand, but I can't just turn off my feelings for him."

Jake looked up at you, his expression a mixture of hurt and anger. "So what are you saying, that you want to be with him instead of me?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying," you replied firmly.

Jake's eyes widened as he processed your words. "So what is it? You're just going to leave me here, alone and broken?"

The anger began to rise in you as you spoke. "No, Jake, I'm not leaving you alone and broken. You did that to yourself when you cheated on me. You broke our trust and shattered the foundation of our relationship. And now you have to deal with the consequences."

Jake's face fell as your words hit him like a ton of bricks. "I know what I did was wrong," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "But I'm willing to do anything to make it up to you. I love you, (y/n), and I don't want to lose you."

Your anger began to boil over as you listened to Jake's pleas. "Love is not enough, Jake," you spat out. "It takes more than love to build a strong and healthy relationship. It takes trust, honesty, and respect. And you betrayed all of that when you cheated on me."

Jake hung his head in shame as you continued to speak. "I need time to heal and figure out if I can ever trust you again. And right now, that means being on my own. I can't just forgive you and forget what you did. It's not that simple."

“And I know you said that you’re willing to forgive my relationship with Bradley, but we both know that the hurt lives in you, you cannot just instantly forget what Bradley and I shared.”

Jake looked up at you, his eyes pleading. "Please, (y/n), don't do this. I know I messed up, I know we both did, but I'm willing to do anything to make it right. Please do this with me"

"We had your chance, Jake," you replied, your voice stern. "And we blew it. I shut you out rather than figure it out with you. I fell in love with someone else.We both need time to think and figure out what's best for ourselves and our daughter. And right now, for me, that means being away from you."

Jake's eyes filled with tears as he realized the gravity of the situation. "Please don't do this," he pleaded, his voice breaking. "I need you, (y/n)."

But you stood firm in your decision. "I'm sorry, Jake. But we can't keep putting ourselves and our daughter through this pain. We need time apart to figure things out."

Jake looked at you, sadness etched on his face. "But what if we can't make things work? What if we can't get back together?"

You took a deep breath, feeling the weight of his words. "Then we have to accept that and do what's best for our daughter. We both love her, and we'll always be there for her."

“I love you (y/n), I always will, no matter what.”

“I know Jake.”

_________________________________________________________________________

"We need to talk"

“Can I come over?”

His heart rate picked up as he replied, "Of course”

“I'll be there in 10 minutes."

Bradley quickly got up from bed, threw on a hoodie and pants, and sat on his couch as he waited for your arrival. The minutes felt like years as he tried to control the thoughts racing through his head. Was something wrong? Was everything okay with Jake and Astrid? He had to find out.

When he heard a knock on the door, he noticed that he forgot to turn the lights on, probably a result of his distracted thoughts. He opened the front door and waved for you to enter.

"Hey," you said, walking into the living room. "Thanks for letting me come over again, for the second time tonight. I know its late"

"Of course, what's going on?" Bradley asked, concern etched on his face.

You took a deep breath before speaking. "Jake and I are separating."

Bradley's heart dropped as he heard the news. He knew how much you loved Jake and how much you wanted to make things work with him, despite everything that had happened. But he also couldn’t forget your year together.

He knew he shouldn't feel happy that your marriage was falling apart, but a small part of him couldn't help feeling hopeful for what it might mean for him and you. But he quickly pushed those thoughts aside, knowing that this was not the time or place for them.

"I'm so sorry, (y/n). Are you okay?"

You shook your head, tears streaming down your face. "No, I'm not okay. But I need to be strong for Astrid.”

Bradley wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into a tight embrace. "You don't have to do this alone. I'm here for you, (y/n). Whatever you need."

You shrugged off his embrace, which you have never done before. This action took Bradley by surprise, and he couldn’t lie hurt a little bit. But he knew that there was a large weight you holding on your shoulders, one that you were mustering up the courage to tell him.

“I need to leave, I’m moving back to San Diego. I’m going to take Astrid with me.”

“You’re leaving?” Bradley couldn’t believe it

“But..how about us?”

Bradley knew it was selfish asking about his standing with you after you told him that you and your husband were separated. But the thought of losing you and Astrid left his body feeling like its been hit by a truck.

“Roo.. I love you.”

Surprise painted Bradley’s face upon hearing your words, you finally told him those 3 little words that he’s been desperately waiting for.

“But I can’t be with you. Jake cheated on me with another woman. But I am not innocent in this situation. I fell in love with you knowing that there was another man that I promised my life to. He hurt me, but I’ve hurt him just as much. And its not okay.”

“I am so in love with you but I need to get away from here. I don't know what I want right now, and I need to figure things out on my own.”

As the words left your mouth, Bradley felt like the ground beneath him had given way. He had hoped that this would be the moment when you would finally see him as more than just a friend, and he got his wish. But now, it felt like the walls were closing in on him.

He tried to keep his voice steady as he responded, "I understand, (y/n). Take all the time you need." His eyes were burning, and he struggled to keep his composure. He couldn't bear the thought of losing you now, after all this time.

You looked at him with a sad smile, and his heart broke a little more. "Thank you, Bradley. You're a good friend."

Friend. The word echoed in his mind like a taunt. He had been fooling himself all along, thinking that he had a chance with you. He couldn't help but wonder if he had missed his shot.

Before you could leave, you turned to him and said,

"I hope that there will be a time for us but not right now."

“I promise,maybe one day when my head is less fucked up, and I can give my entire self to you and I can give you all the love you deserve. When I’m ready, I will come back for you. If you’ll have me..”

Those words left him feeling even more uncertain. He didn't know when you would be ready, or what you would say when you finally did reach out. All he knew was that his heart was breaking, and he didn't know how to fix it.

As he watched you walk out of his apartment, he couldn't help but feel like everything was slipping through his fingers. He didn't know if he would ever get another chance with you, and that thought left him feeling empty and alone.

Bradley closed the door and leaned against it, taking a deep breath. He knew that he needed to give you the space you were asking for, but it felt like the hardest thing he had ever done. All he could do now was wait, and hope that one day you would come back to him.

____________________________________________________________________________

After you returned home, you saw that Jake had some of his belongings packed in a bag. You made eye contact with him as he walked down the stairs, hating yourself for hurting not just him but Bradley as well. But you knew this is what you all needed.

“Thank you for staying with her, while I went to talk to Bradley.”

Jake felt his throat get dry at the sound of his rival’s name, biting down the bitter remark that would leave his mouth, knowing that it would do nothing to help the situation. Choosing to plop himself down on the couch.

“I went to tell Pixie goodbye but she’s still asleep. Can you tell her for me?”

You gave him a small nod in response.

“I’m going to stay at a place on base, give you your space.”

“Thanks Jake, I promise we’ll only be here for a few more days. Until I make arrangements for me and Astrid to get back to San Diego…. Penny said we could stay with her until we find our own place.”

“Are you sure leaving is the best thing to do right now?”

“I think its the only thing that makes sense for me to do right now.” You replied, sternly.

Silence hung in the air as Jake stared at you, processing your words. You could see the hurt and confusion etched on his face, and you wished that things could be different. You wished that you could turn back time and make different choices, but you knew that was impossible.

After a few moments, Jake nodded slowly. "I understand," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I don't like it, but I understand."

You let out a shaky breath, feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders. "Thank you," you said, your own voice barely above a whisper. "I just need some time to think things through."

Jake stood up from the couch, his eyes still fixed on you. "I'll give you all the time you need," he said. "But just know that I love you, and I'll always be here for you and our daughter."

You managed a small smile, grateful for Jake's words. "I know," you said. "And I love you too. But right now, I need to be on my own."

With that, Jake nodded and headed towards the door. Before he left, he turned back to look at you one last time. "Take care of yourself," he said softly.

You didn’t understand why but that exact moment you remembered the day of your wedding.

The wedding took place on a the beach next to the Hard Deck, where you first met, with soft white sand and the sound of the waves crashing in the background. The sun was setting, casting a warm orange glow over the entire scene.

You wore a simple backless satin white gown with a slit and court train that flowed behind you as you walked down the aisle. Jake had never seen anymore radiant or breathtakingly beautiful.

Penny held your arm tight, as you both made your way down the white aisle in the sand. She was the closest thing you had to family since your mom died and it meant so much to you that she not only planned the whole event but also wanted to be the one to walk you down the aisle.

As you reached the altar, you looked up and locked eyes with Jake, a dashing naval aviator in his dress uniform. He wore his medals and insignia with pride, and the way he looked at you made yout heart skip a beat.

You and Jake agreed to not write vows, you knew how you felt about each other and you didn’t feel the need to have to express it with words. Which is why it surprised you when he pulled a piece of folded paper from his pocket and started reading.

“My sweets,

I stand before you today, in my dress whites, feeling like the luckiest man in the world. As a naval aviator, I have flown through the skies and seen countless wonders, but nothing compares to the beauty of you. You are my everything, my anchor, my inspiration, my love.

From the moment I met you, I knew there was something special about you. Your spunky attitude, your unwavering ambition, and your stunning beauty captivated me from the start. I have never met anyone like you before, and I never want to let you go.

As we stand here today, I want to promise to always support you in your dreams, just as you have supported me in mine. I promise to stand by your side through thick and thin, in good times and in bad. I promise to cherish every moment we spend together, and to never take our love for granted.

I promise to be your rock, your confidant, and your partner for life. I vow to always make you feel loved, respected, and cherished. I will be there for you in every moment, whether it's sharing the highs of your accomplishments or the lows of your struggles.

Together, we will create a life full of adventure, joy, and love. I am so grateful to have you as my partner, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us. I love you more than words can express, and I promise to spend the rest of my life showing you just how much you mean to me.

Yours forever,

Zuko

You felt tears swell in your eyes at his admission, you had never felt this much love from anyone, and here is this man promising you love and devotion forever. None of it felt real.

“Jake… I-i I didn’t have anything prepared…” You whispered cheeks red in embarrassment.

“You don’t need to Sweets, I wanted you and everyone here to know I felt about you.”

“You show me how you love me every single day and that’s all I could ever want.”

You nodded, tears pooling in your eyes.

You exchanged rings, Jake took your hand and lifted it to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on your skin. Before he gently took your face in his hands placing a soft delicate kiss on your lips.

You smiled and blushed, feeling overwhelmed with love for your husband.

After the ceremony, both of you as husband and wife took a walk along the beach, hand in hand. Jake swept you bride off your feet and carried her across a shallow part of the water, causing you to laugh and giggle like a child.

At the reception, You held each other tightly as you swayed to soft acoustic playing out of the speakers. You were surrounded by their family and friends, who toasted to your happiness and future together.

As the night drew to a close, Jake took your hand and led you away to a secluded spot on the beach. You sat down on a blanket and watched the stars twinkle in the sky, cuddling close to each other.

Jake whispered sweet nothings into you ear, telling you how much he loved you and how grateful he was to have you as his partner for life. You shared a tender kiss as the waves lapped at your feet, promising to love each other forever.

That memory flashbacked in your mind, cracking your already broken heart even more that it already was. But you were set in your decision, you two were different people then. With different dreams, love untainted by time and circumstances. You don’t know if you could ever go back to the way you were.

You nodded, watching as he closed the door behind him. Alone in the quiet house, you let out a deep sigh and let the tears fall freely once again. You didn't know what the future held, but you knew that you needed to take things one day at a time. For now, all you could do was focus on yourself and your daughter, and try to heal from the pain and heartbreak that had consumed your life.

You are going to be okay. You and Astrid are going to be okay.

______________________________________________________________

“Mom! Hurry up! I’m supposed to be at practice in 10 minutes!”

Your 8 year daughter was such a stickler for punctuality, you honestly sometimes questioned if she really was your daughter. You had the tendency to be fashionably late (if fashionably was 30 minutes), taking your time to make your way to events.

“The field is 5 minutes away Atty, you’ll be fine.”

“That’s what you said last week, but I ended up being 10 minutes late to warm-ups!”

She pouted as you walked out into the foyer pulling your shoes onto your feet.

“Coach wouldn’t let me play the first half!” She continued.

“Well don’t worry Sweetie, you make such a pretty benchwarmer.” You joked pinching her cheeks.

You were greeted by your daughters scowl, she looked absolutely terrifying for a little (*ahem* big) girl dressed in a bright yellow soccer uniform, pastel pink cleats, and pigtails.

Her punctuality and her terrifying glare, two things she’s inherited from her father.

You dropped her off at a mostly empty soccer field, with only the two coaches and 2 other players occupying the area.

“Where is everyone?”

“Coach moved practice to 30 minutes later.” Your devious daughter smiled coyly.

“Astrid Eleanor Seresin…did you just lie to your mother?” You raised an eyebrow at her.

She quickly opened the car door and rushed out.

“Omission is not a lie!” She yelled as she ran away.

“Casey’s mom is dropping me off at home!”

“Okay! I’m gonna see Auntie Penny!”

“Tell her her I said Hi!”

You chuckled as you watched her retreating figure get further into the field. What kind of 8 year old knew the word “omission”? She no doubtly learned that from her father. Classic Jake.

You put your car back in drive and made your way to the Hard Deck.

“Hey Sweet Pea! Where’s my sweet little goddaughter?” Penny asked from behind the counter as you walked into the bar.

It was still early afternoon so the bar was occupied by the bar staff getting ready for a night of servicing navy men.

“Soccer practice.” You replied.

“You said putting her in sports will tire her out but its somehow made her more energetic.” You groaned taking a seat at the bar.

“She is her father’s daughter.” You heard a voice quip originating from the supply closet.

“Hey Mav.” You smiled at the captain,

“Hey (y/n), you and Atty still coming for the barbeque on Thursday?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Atty says no one can grill em like you.” you responded.

“That’s why shes my favorite.” Mav smiled with a toothy grin as he returned to the storage closet.

“Sweet Pea, do you mind manning the bar for a second? I’m sure no one will come in, but just in case. Last time I left Pete unsupervised he dropped a whole pallet of beer.” Penny sighed.

“It’s been a little while, but sure Penny.”

“Anything for you.”

“Thanks Sweet Pea”

It was strange to be behind the bar, you and Astrid had been back at Fightertown for the past four years.

It was really hard to explain to her the situation, but she was a smart child. She knew there was more going on between you, Bradley, and Jake than you let her in on. She knew that space from her Uncle Roo Roo and her Daddy was absolutely necessary for her mother’s well-being, and she was more than willing to be amenable to change if it meant you were happier.

You eventually found a little one story house near Penny (and now Mav’s house), it was small but it was cozy and it was more than enough space for the two of you. You found a job in a nearby law firm, where you rose up the ranks and got your own corner office.

You finally got the time to relax and breathe, to really focus on yourself, your dreams, and your daughter. And finally after 4 years, you finally felt at peace.

The pain and the trauma will always live within but you have gotten to a place where you are content with your life and your past because it led you full circle. In Miramar, right where you belonged.

As you stared down on the bar and wiped down the glasses reminiscing on your life, you didn’t notice the figure that walked into the empty bar.

He plopped himself down in a stool in front of you and cleared his throat.

You looked up and made eye contact with the figure and smiled.

“Hey”

“Hi”

It honestly felt like coming home

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castrian-amore · 8 months

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Bitter, had the Heart

Dead Tired (Tim Drake x Danny Fenton), Tim Drake-centric, unfinished, the author is plotting, temporary death, please check out ao3 for full tags list.

4/46 Chapters | Word Count: 5751

Chapter 4: You Stole my Fuckin' fruit snacks

Tim and Dick snuck into the warehouse through the upper floor window. The one they normally entered though. Jason was cleaning his nails with one of his knives waiting in the warehouse which had a few small collections of boxes stacked around the area. The lights flickered above making the scene eerie. The walls were creaking in the autumn Gotham wind.

This entire thing had been last minute, but it had been

Decided over a silent breakfast and staring at Dick. They had to go and meet this mysterious vigilante who had stayed so far from them for so long. It was better they do it now than let B be the one to meet. Both rescheduling their plans for the evening.

“Heyo Little wing!” Dick greeted a smile plastered across his face as Jason glanced off. His helmet set off to the side just wearing the red mask over his eyes for the moment.

“Hey,” Jason greeted back giving them a nod as he gave a spin to his knife before sheathing it.

“Where is Mr. Distortion?”Dick asked with a smirk crossing his arms as Jason shrugged.

“Fuck if I know, he comes and goes as he pleases. I’m not the boss of him.” Though Tim wouldn’t pick up on what Dick did. He could only read so much into a person. Dick was really good at it. While Tim could tell if people are lying Dick could tell you what about and could direct the conversation where he wanted it a lot easier than Tim could.

“So what made him change his mind? Getting caught in action by us?”Tim raised an eyebrow at Jason.

“You two are really just working on the same case but trying to tackle it from different sides. He has valuable information and wants this case closed as much as you do.”

“And how long has he been working on this case?” Tim was pressing.

“3 years.”

“The murders didn’t start until 6 months ago.”

“That’s what you think Replacement. It’s his case I’ve just been making sure he doesn’t get himself killed by my men,” a nonchalant shrug came from Jason’s shoulders. The tenseness in them though told him something else was going on. “Don’t know why he’s fucking late though.”

“Guess he got held up,”Dick chuckled until an empty cardboard box hit Jason in the head and bounced off towards the bats.

“YOU TRAITOROUS BITCH.”

They looked towards the voice and dropping from a small spot in the roof was the masked figure they’d seen running from the crime scene 5 days ago.

He wore no respirator this time but his goggles remained on. He was angry, that was for sure. He landed with a roll unsheathing a fucking batarang?!?! Oh yeah wait. That tracked. He had thrown one at the guy. Hit him actually.

Jason merely smirked as if this kind of response had been expected. Dick moving to pick up the cardboard box. Tim watched as the kid(?). He was short, okay?

The man with black hair whom they could Assume was distortion began his onslaught onto Jason. A swipe to the man’s arms as Jason blocked and moved to punch the kid who ducked underneath slipping between his legs and nailing a kick to the back of Jason’s knee dropping him down a bit as he used Jason’s shoulders as a vantage point flipping the man who was easily close to a foot taller than him. Jason hit the ground, hard. That didn’t unmotivate him though.

“Feisty tonight Dis.”

“Fuck you.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Jason feigned innocence as he kicked Distortion off of him sending the man reeling. Dick and Tim watching the man correct his position mid air to land sliding backwards hand on the ground knife behind him.

“Yes you fucking Did!”He hissed out as he charged again blade against blade before Jason managed to knock the batarang towards Red Robin and Nightwing. Tim picking up his batarang.

“Hey, Red I think that’s yours anyways right?”

“Yeah it is. So wait, what did you do?”

“One second.” Jason groaned out as Distortion wasn’t letting up and got a solid kick to his chest knocking the wind out of him. Tim thought he might have even heard a clean snap at some point as Jason landed a hook onto distortion blood beginning to trickle from his nose. Ignoring it though he pressed on.

“You went to my safe house,”Distortion began as he skillfully knocked Jason’s blade away and threw a kick at him. The leg going just above Jason’s head. “And stole my SHIT.”

“I left a sticky note! Also,”Jason caught Dis’s leg before flipping him this time arm against his throat. “Are you not taking it easy?”

Dis landed a hit on Jason’s nose sitting up coughing a tad. “WITH NO APOLOGY.”

Dick tapped Tim’s shoulder to show him the box in question. It was an empty box of fruit gummies. A sticky note haphazardly put on it saying ‘took your last pack’.

“I’d fight him too,”Tim nodded. “Especially if he did that to me.” Tim had a small laugh and couldn’t help but look at the silliness of the situation. Though it became clear Dis was lagging.

The fight finished not even 30 seconds later as Jason slammed his hand into Distortion’s leg and the man crumpled holding it.

He began cursing in… was that fucking Esperanto? Kid still landed a small kick on Jason’s ankle which had him cursing.

“You owe me so many fucking gummies you Dick head.”

“Yeah yeah whatever.” Jason offered a hand down to Dis who stood up moving to sit on a box as Jason went to go grab his first aid kit.

“So You’re distortion.”

“One and only.”

“Reminds me of Robin with less murderous tendencies,”Tim looked over at Dick.

“I have to agree,”Dick chuckled, pulling over boxes so they could sit. “So, are you finally okay with meeting two of the bats?”

“You’re stuck, I’m stuck. Guess it’s finally time to get my head out of my ass and ask for help.”

Jason came back with a kit the two bickering as Jason moved to cut away his loose fitting pants revealing the neatly wrapped wound soaked now in fresh blood. Tim could pick up that the man hadn’t really wanted to ask for help. He obviously was hesitant, untrusting. It seemed his walls were so far up, that it was a miracle Jason was close to him at all.

“Well it’s nice to meet you though I wish we could say we’ve heard of you.”

“I would be concerned if you had heard of me.” Distortion clarified flinching away from the other as he cut away the bandages handing him a tissue for his bleeding nose. “After all there is the whole ‘Batman doesn’t like Metas rule’.”

“You’re a meta?” Dick asked, leaning forward on his knees a bit. Dis nodded and held his hand up letting his hand fade from view. Right as he did it though he gave a sharp gasp of pain.

“Fucking hell,”he hissed out through gritted teeth.

“My hand slipped.”

Jason’s hands didn’t slip. He knew his elder brother far too well. He was hiding something. Dis wasn’t supposed to have outed himself. The cry of pain was the only explanation. The two of them seemingly having a quiet conversation to himself and Tom gently poked his brother’s side to see if he noticed it too and he did give a small nod in response.

“You’re the one who ripped their stitches,”Jason chided as he continued to work otherwise carefully.

Dis mouthed the words mocking him only eliciting another harsh pull from Jason.

“The case?”Dick redirected them back on task.

“Yeah, sorry. The case has been going on for 3 years. It’s the entire reason I ended up Gotham.”

“You’ve been here for 3 years? For a case?” Tim couldn’t hide his surprise at that. You didn’t just come to Gotham for a mere case.

“Not for this case but it did kinda fall into my lap yeah.” That made more sense, but still raised his questions for just how long this kid had been working under their radar. Not just how long, what was he capable of?

“So what do you know?”

“Hood wanna be a doll and grab my file since I’m currently injured,”The kid had a flair for the dramatic as he feigned a hand to his forehead leaning backwards on the crate looking absolutely “injured”.

“Fucking spoiled prick.”

“SAYs YOU!”

“YEAH SAYS I DIS! I’m the one who has to deal with your fucking bullshit all the time!”

All Tim could currently think about was how Jason had claimed he had not much to do with Distortion but from what he could see the two were remarkably close. Tim wouldn’t understand but he was admittedly jealous. He wished he could have had a better relationship with Jason from the beginning.

One that hadn’t ended in him being called Jason’s replacement. Tim wanted the Robin spot, honestly. He had taken it when Batman needed him most and needed back up and all he had gotten was shit for it. Maybe he had still been salty about that. The Robin who was the smartest but at what cost? He was the longest reigning Robin before Damian came along and forced Tim to change his name and realign himself.

When Tim had rebranded as Red Robin he had sort of gone on a quiet rampage. His morals thrown out of the loop in anger and he made some not so great decisions. Jason had found him then beating the shit out of a drug runner who had murdered an innocent little girl. It had been Jason who pulled Tim off the man in his late teens.

Jason who apologized to Tim for how he treated him, and that he was really trying to work on his anger and had confided in Tim about how badly his anger issues affected him to that day. He had called it Pit Rage. An ever consuming anger he couldn’t get rid of. Jason just seemed more relaxed than he had, ever. Maybe this person was doing some good for him.

Jason came back over handing Dis the manilla folders with neat labels and tabs.

“Year one we have out first 2 victims.” He pulls out photos. “Small but noticeable markings. Missing heart. Missing kidney. Blood everywhere, but it was almost more surgical?” He hands over the photos. “Then we have year 2. 5 in total. Same thing as the first two. Missing heart. Missing Kidney. Same symbols but we watch the motives slowly get more and more deteriorated. The kills start to get messy.”

Tim and Dick flipped through the photos noticing the same thing. “Like the person who did it in the first place was loosing the reason that they started doing it in the first place.”

“Yeah.. that’s what I was thinking,”Dis admits. “You’ve seen the most disturbing ones from this year, so I won’t go into detail about that. Here’s what you need to know that I know. I’m meta, and one of those abilities allows me to see things and understand things not known to the human eye, specifically on the field of the supernatural. Thing that one chick who I keep seeing posters of, uhhhh Hood help me out?”

“Zatanna.” Jason was mildly amused at him not knowing who she was.

“Yeah her. She’s dripping with magic, I kinda have access to see it, not access it but it’s an entire thing. Not important. What is important is how those abilities relate to this case.”

“Okay..”Tim nods taking in the information at hand. He was useful.

“Those markings are a language. Nothing that still breaths should be able to read it but those who have sold their soul, or been touched by Death themself can read it. Don’t ask Hood he can’t read it. I kind of can? Think like I understand it but it’s borderline untranslatable.”

“So our culprit either soul their soul or was touched by death and survived?” Dick clarified looking over to Tim who was thinking the same thing. Ra’s and John Constantine might prove useful to this case.

“Exactly. Ghost Speech can’t easily be translated, but I did manage to do it after going through like 5 languages until I could get it into English. Belong, to live, to die, again, trust not the living, friend.” Dis set the folder down. “I’ve been staring at those words for 3 years and I got nothing.”

“Belong, to live, to die ,again, trust not the living, friend. That sounds like a warning?”

“For who? Us? The serial killer is the one who’s torturing and murdering people!”Dis exclaimed. “Look, Red, Nightwing. I get it. You probably don’t want me involved but I am useful. You need me on this case!”

“Look, we’re not going to turn you away or down. This is more information than we’ve been able to get in the entirety of the case.”Dick began slowly. “But Hood mentioned you were weary of Batman. Red and I can respect that but if we officially bring you into this case you know he will get involved. He already is in terms of this case.”

“Bring me in.”

Tim and Dick shared a moment of surprise between each other. Jason would do that? For Dis?

“I’ll act as messenger when needed. It’s only a matter of time before the next body is dumped in my alleyways right? You let the kid help and report information to me and I’ll act as messenger.”

“You know this will mean you’ll have to be at the BatCave more, right?”

“Trust me, I’m painfully aware.”

“I have a question though,”Tim spoke up. “You removed a viscous green substance from the bodies. What was that? It was glowing.”

“Ectoplasm.”

“Pit water, but more pure,”Jason translated as he finished sewing up Dis’ leg.

“I still don’t know what that means,”Distortion whispers under his breath as Jason ignores him.

“So definitely something supernatural related,”Dick merely took it as a clarification.

“Exactly.”

“So our murderer is what, undead?” Tim rubbed his forehead a little in frustration.

“Probably.” Dis moved to examine the wrapping on his leg a moment before looking at the group as a whole. A small quirk to his lips as if he wanted to say something else but held back. “I’m not completely against working with Batman, but it’s just--”

“Just?”Dick pressed gently. “We won’t tell, you know. I hope Hood has spoken that much of us.”

“Yes, I know you two won’t tell. That is why it’s you two here. Closest people to the case right? I’ll help from the sidelines. Give you my information. Share, what I can but what I need is if you discover a body let me see it before you do anything.”

“What do you mean?” Tim crossed his arms a little, in a more relaxed way than before.

“I’m going to be honest, I think we’re up against a ghost. Which means a whole lot of issues for more than just you and I. If I can get my hands on the ectoplasm left on the scene I can start working on tracking him.”

“You mentioned Zatanna earlier. Do you think bringing in people who know that sort of magic will be any help?” Dick asks genuinely.

“No. No. No Magic users.” Distortion’s words were quick. Dick and Tim shared a look recognizing the panic in his voice. Jason said nothing off to the side either. The words hard to understand and distorted in their own right. Was that how he got his name? Jason walked over and rested a hand to his shoulder, the young man taking a deep breath, or really, several. The room dropping a few degrees.

How powerful of a meta was he? Tim noticed Jason’s hand grabbing the youngers wrist face dropped in serious thought as he counted heartbeats. Distortion pulled his arm away from him.

“I’m fine Hood,”he hissed out before looking back in the direction of the two. “No. Can you imagine how widespread the chaos would be if any of the mainstream powerful magicians found out about a Ghost being strong enough to commit murder? It would turn Gotham into even more of a bloodbath. They exist but they’re not supposed to be powerful enough to be so--so.”

“Consistent?” Jason offered before stealing Distortion’s arm again to check his pulse.

“Hood.” Another threatening glare between the two of them. Silent, but a conversation nonetheless. One Distortion obviously lost. “But yes. Consistent. There’s a reason Ghost’s aren’t commonplace here.”

“Wait, here,”Dick frowned this time. The two would be having serious conversations about not only Jason but his apparent ward.

A deep breath from Distortion. “Whoops, yeah, I’ve said far too much.”

“If you’re from the future, we've dealt with that kind of stuff before,”Tim offers an olive branch to the man. A hesitance in doing so.

“As long as you understand one thing, I don’t care how you identify me,”he chuckles standing up as Hood frowned and released his hand. He moved and made his way witha limp to the front of the warehouse.

“Dis!”Jason called out after him. “We need to ask about you--”

“Shut it Hood!” A frustrated groan and hands running down the side of his face. “Just know that I don’t exist. You never saw me. You don’t know who I am. It’s safer for everyone that way.”

And though, they saw him leave it was like he was gone and never was there in the first place. A cold chill coming in through the now open door and causing Jason sigh sitting down where he was.

“He’s a character,”Dick started. “His mood dropped there at the end.”

“Yeah.. he mentioned Justice League Dark to me once in passing too. I think he has beef with them. “

“It would explain why he’s so testy about magic users, especially if he can see the things they can too, without a spell.” Tim spoke up rummaging through the file some more looking over the hand scrawled tedious notes. Even the original workings through several translations with picture through history of Ghost speech written on the walls. It was more than Tim had ever thought he would have on the guy.

Dammit. Tim hadn’t gotten the chance to apologize to him. Fuck. Maybe he could chase him? He couldn’t be super fast with that injury, but then again he did have that whole weird disappearing act up his sleeve.

Tim was missing something. They both were missing something and it seemed very important they figure it out to unlock this case. He wished the man had the clean photos of the writing but it seemed he had similar bad luck with them. There were photos but they sure were blurry as fuck.

“Red.”

“Huh?” He looked up between the two to see which one called him. It was Dick.

“Any other questions to Hood? We gotta go finish our patrols before B starts asking questions.”

“Fuck, yeah. I have questions, too many, though. Distortion was honest all the way through. He hesitated on saying he was a meta though, and the fact he doesn’t want people to think he exist is concerning.”

“He lets me know he exists.” Hood snorts motioning to the discarded box of gummies from earlie.

“He trusts you, that much is obvious,”Dick gave a small chuckle. “Guy has more walls up than the fucking pentagon, but at least we could hack past those.”

“He wears his heart on his sleeve honestly,”Hood pulled off his helmet to reveal the domino mask underneath. “Trust me. He’s guarded about his past. About what and who he is but his real personality shines through a lot. I take him to the soup kitchen for me and he watches me back during particularly rough land grabs from other mob bosses.”

“He knows about the pit, which is more than any other civilian has ever found out,”Dick pointed out.

“You could say that again, this answered a lot if he’s right but fuck. It also gave us a lot more fucking questions.” Normally Dick would be on his ass all day for that swear jar money, it seemed he had decided not today.

“Let me be clear. What he said is right. He’s a fuckin’ ghost for all things considered. He knows far too much shit to be just a civilian. Trained too much to be a civilian. If he doesn’t have training he has experience. His knowledge of things far beyond our reach, our control? It’s uncanny.” Hood motioned for the file back and Tim gave a whine.

“Calm down Babybird I’m just gunna go make you a copy really quick of what’s in here,”there was an obvious eye roll to his voice that caused Dick to snort.

“Leave him along Little wing,”Dick teased lightly. “The mans was distracted on a date Wednesday and he’s been out of it ever since.”

“NIGHTWING, once again NOT a date!” Tim insisted looking at his traitorous brother.

“Uh huh, tell that to your little black haired friend who was laughing at practically everything you said.” A smirk as Dick playfully leaned on his knees.

“You are not doing this to me right now, I swear to god.”

“A date?”Jason’s turn to smirk leading the duo into his office. Medical supplies sitting on his desk as he moved to the copier.

“We can’t leave without that file,” Dick began moving to flop onto Jason’s couch. “So I’m going to temporarily enjoy this~”

“It wasn’t a date,”Tim insisted. “We literally just fucking met!”

“So you took him to a coffee shop and paid for his food and drink?” Dick offered.

“He’s my partner for the semester for my 101 Linguistics class!! We have a lot in common!”

“Dateeee~~~”

“No.”

“I don’t know Babybird, that does sound like a date.”

“You two are fucking impossible oh my god. He’s smart and speaks a million and a half languages guys! We started talking about those. He knows fucking Tagalog!”

“Oooo the baby bird got himself another genius to fool around with,”Dick wiggled his eye brows.

“Are those copies printed yet?”

“Almost,”Jason smirked.

“I might as well just finish this shift alone tonight. Face the wrath of B of doing it by myself than deal with you two.” Tim goes for the door.

“Okay okay,”Dick lightened up. “We’re glad you finally found a friend, not a date, a friend.” Jason and him shared a look which caused Jason to snort. Motherfuckers.

“I have friends!”

“A non-superhero friend,”Jason emphasized as he began gathering papers and clipping them together. “You‘ve needed one of those. One you’re not constantly worried about on the field. Or even better, one who won’t die as easily.”

“Hey!”

“He’s right though RR,”Dick spoke back up this time. “Proud of you. We do have to go so we’re gunna take those files and scedaddle. Anything else we need to talk about?”

“One more thing about Dis… he’s a good kid. I promise, but he can be brutal and obsessive at times. If you see shit involving him going down I need you all to promise to not intervene unless his life is in danger. He can handle himself but he is also,”Jason contemplated his words there for a moment. “He’s got the skills down and the experience under his belt but he has plenty other things going on that can leave him vulnerable during battle. There’s a fine line between him fucking with people and him struggling. If he uses his meta powers, join in because he’s doing to fucking drop afterwards.”

“Drop?”Dick sounded concerned and they both shared worried glances. “Is that why you were checking his pulse earlier?”

“… yeah.”

“Can we ask what specifically you were looking for?”

“I promised i wouldn’t rat him out. I am not going to break his trust like that.”

“Fair,”Tim took the paper’s from Jason’s hand folding them neatly and shoving them into his belt. “Ready to go Big Bird?”

“You bet. Catch you on the flip side Hood.”

“You too Nightwing. RR, get some fucking sleep please. I will call Kon.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Tim would have made eye contact if it weren’t for the masks. “I slept a day or two ago!”

“A day or two ago,”Dick mimics. “Yeah exactly the problem, now come on Red.” Dick almost dragged him away before Tim could respond to Jason’s threats any further.

“THIS IS NOT DONE HOOD.”

“YES IT IS RED.”

“FUCK YOU.” Cue Tim flipping off the Red Hood as they left. The quiet sounds of grappling hooks going off and then silence settling over the warehouse and Tim left with far too many questions and concerns. What kind of Meta can’t handle using his own abilities? He thought that wasn’t how that worked.

At least Tim had gotten something out of tonight. He had liked Dis. The man was a firecracker and funny when he wasn’t being serious. A bigger Damian if you would, but at least Hood had a better control over this one. At least he trusted this one not to outright stab him. Ha, Big Damian. Their little brother would definitely clash with Dis if/when they met. Tim was almost excited to see it happen.

“So what are we telling B again?” Tim voiced silently as they were a few houses down.

“We found a lead but had to turn off coms so we couldn’t be found. The lead wanted total security.” Dick replied with ease. “Hey Oracle.”

“Nightwing—“Tim didn’t get to finish his statement before Oracle’s voice came online.

“Ready? I’ve been spewing lies for hours now Nightwing. You owe me.”

“Yeah yeah. I know. I’ll come by and make dinner one night, we can watch a movie.”

“Movie night?”Tim asked.”Can I join?”

“Yes you can Red, thank you for asking.”

“We should stop the small talk before B spasses.”

“Probably. Reconnecting.”

B’s voice was immediate. “Nightwing, Red Robin, report. Why were your coms offline?”

Tim was letting Dick trip over himself with this one quite enjoying the show.

————————

Damian Wayne liked to think, no he knew himself to be the best of the children when it came to several things. Grades(mostly only being topped by Drake), Fighting, and most importantly Stealth. The only other one coming close to him being Greyson with his light feet and acrobatic training.

So when his father had come to him telling him tonight he would be checking up on Hood instead of their normal routines, honestly, Damian had been excited. Excited at the prospect of a fight. Excited at the idea of proving himself worthy to his father.

What he had been told and what he knew though were two different questions.

He knew Red Robin and Nightwing were supposed to be patrolling the docks.

He knew Jason Todd Aka Red Hood was acting quiet and suspicious and had been for months.

He knew that Father would be annoyed that the trio of them were meeting.

What he had been told though was another thing.

He’d been told to keep his head down.

He’d been told that Red Hood was violent, Damian had already thought otherwise in the guy who made him vegan cookies and sneakily brought them to the manor and set them on Damian’s bed every time. He got along with Todd even if it was in their silent sparing sessions during his rare visits.

He was totally not jealous to see the very obvious affection he was showing for somebody— some nobody. His father had asked him to watch Jason and then leave and report back, that was all. He was to not engage and while originally the plan had in fact been to just hang out with Jason for the night, things had obviously changed.

Something felt off about the stranger clad in black. Whispers through the air like a mistake. Something was wrong with that guy, and not just in the fact that he was obviously injured. Something was just off. That also meant he didn’t trust that man around Todd.

He moved closer keeping an eye on what was going on the slow curling and whisp of ideas floating inside of him.

The pit calls

It whispered. A familiar feeling when Todd was near, yes. A longing feeling drawing him closer to the man with Lazarus water running through his veins, but it had never called this loud before. He hadn’t even told the others he could tell when he was near the pits of Gotham. The festering bubbling green waters.

When the stranger left, his feeling of the pit began to die down to the quiet hum of the familiarity of Jason.

And then it was behind him.

“You did a pretty good job hiding you know.”

How was he able to see him… Damian looked back unsheathing his katana pointing it at the stranger who was leaning against the door to the building bright green goggles glowing with that unearthly Lazarus green.

The man put his hands up stepping out of the shadows. Gently moving to push the katana out of the way as he began to circle Damian, and for the first time in his life.

Damian felt like prey.

Like the predator before was watching with a smirk. He gave a gentle smile but Damian noticed the sharp fangs protruding from his mouth as he gave a sinister smile.

“If you weren’t radiating ectoplasm I wouldn’t have been able to detect you,”he gave a low chuckle that reverberated through Damian’s veins.

“Who are you?” Katana remaining up as they seemed to circle each other. Damian in a defensive position.

“Come on, I think the question you’re more curious about is what I am.”

“Then answer whatever question you wish.”

“So cold for the young Robin. Red and Nightwing have so much more spunk than you.”

“I can show you spunk.” He bolted forward at the man who dodged hands behind his back. Dangr. Danger. Danger. It filled his senses no, it consumed them. What the fuck was he. His Lazarus sense was on fire. Blinding. Nauseating.

So when he felt the stranger pulse with the energy of the pits calling upon it from just somewhere he felt overwhelmed dropping to the ground unable to stop himself from puking. He expected the figure to attack him. Kill him in his moment of weakness.

But no.

Instead he felt a gentle gloved hand rubbing his back and the figure was crouched next to him rubbing small circles.

“Shit, sorry kid. I just wanted to fuck with ya’ didn’t think you were that sensitive to me,”he apologized with genuine concern in his voice. “Fuck.”

He smacked his hand away wiping his mouth breathing heavily. The figure stepping away getting the cue.

“Leave Gotham… you thing.”

“Thing? Now that’s hurtful.” The man chuckled. “Look. I am sorry for what it means from a stranger. I got to go and I’m sure you do too. I don’t think you want your fellow birdies to find out you were here right?”

“I don’t follow directions from monsters.”

“I’m not a monster.”

“You radiate danger. It’s in your entire being.”

“I didn’t realize I still radiated that. I didn’t even know those infected could still pick up on me, different breed and all.”

“Different breed?.”

A small gentle smile. “Different breed of those infected with that you guys call the pits. I’ll keep away now that I know though, but if I have to fight near you kid. You’ll have to get that sense of yours under control.”

“I can’t control it.”

“Yes you can.”

The man handed him his katana back before backing up again.

“I’ll stay right here,”The man gave a smile moving to sit down himself. “Close your eyes. Feel where all the energy is.”

Damian hesitated. Would this be weakness? Was he the enemy? He slowly adjusted to sit like him closing his eyes focusing on the feeling.

“Imagine it as a bubble. A giant bubble as far as your reach will lead you.” Damian could feel the waters through the man and feel Jason and his movements next door.

A slow growing toxic green bubble seeming to encompass all he could sense.

“Good. Now take a deep breath and deep in your chest pull that bubble in with every breath. Slowly. It’ll overwhelm you if you try to reign it in al at once.”

Damian obliged, what the fuck was he doing. “No. It’s not working you are lying to me.”

“I’m not lying.”

“I am not going to listen to someone maddened by the pits far more than Hood.” The man put his hands up again.

“Then be my guest to faint next time I do more than flare my abilities.”

“Who are you…”

“A friendly,mostly. if you need some help, though Feel free to ask Hood all about who I am.”

And with a blink of an eye he was gone, and Damian knew he was right. He had to fucking move. He rose with shaky knees.

His father did not need to know about the powerful entity able to bring him to his knees. Maybe he did? Would the being be able to bring him to his knees too?

No. He would not his weakness. He would not let anyone know what a walking pit of toxic waste that person was. Not until he could determine what exactly could bring him down. For now, all his Father would know was that Jason was going over some of his own investigations details. That is all. He moved positions to readjust himself to look into one of the windows. Only leaving when the sun began to peak over the horizon.

He was surprised his body handled making it back at all. Ignoring the brief look of concern and comment from Alfred about how pale he looked as the child changed and headed to bed for the few hours of sleep he would obtain.

He wasn’t going to tell anyone about that.

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#danny phantom #danny phantom au #dcxdp #danny fenton #dc x dp #dc x dp crossover #batfam #danny phantom is a little shit #tim drake #dc x dp fic #red robin #dead tired #nightwing #tim drake x danny fenton #red hood #jason todd #batfamily

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isleofdarkness · 1 month

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excuse if this is a weird question or if youve answered this before, but . you have so much worldbuilding in your au. theres TONS of characters it feels like and im just so curious.. how do you keep track of all of it??? it looks so overwhelming but so freaking cool at the same time

ive tried personally to build off of the descendants world in my mind but its so hard even if i write any ideas down XD

To put it simply, there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that you don't see.

I am also insane.

Well, this actually isn't the biggest project I've ever done. My very first fanfic, which was a mashup of Disney, Marvel, Monster High, Ever After High, Dreamworks, and paranormal lore, was way more complicated and had a cast of over three hundred named characters, and those were just the original characters. That was when I was ten. You could say I know my way around complicated lore and massive casts. I don't think I can write without having those things, really. I wouldn't know what to do with a small cast or simple worldbuilding.

My worldbuilding comes from being a massive nerd. Disney and Marvel are massive properties, they have so much for me to work with and Disney did the work for me in giving me an excuse to combine everything. I looked into the world of Disney properties, DC properties, Dreamworks properties, and the properties of other media I enjoy that I decided to include, and then I just combined them in a way I thought made sense. I also took inspiration from Earth 27, a really great fanwork that also combines a bunch of different fandoms and has a massive cast of characters, in some things I've done.

As for how I keep track of it, that's complicated. The politics of the world are common sense to me, since the politics in my work reflect my perception of the real world and how I think things should be improves. And then I know the changes I would make to the properties I've included, I know the things I think need fixed and that I chose to fix them. And then I have my lists. Gods, my lists. I have so many lists of fandoms, of characters, of crews, of kingdoms, of gods, of powers, of worldbuilding. You can see some of them in Isle of Darkness AU info, but those aren't even close to all of them. And then there's my tagging system. I do my best to character tag extensively, both for your guys' benefit and for me to make finding things on my blog easier.

Keep in mind that I'm not perfect at keeping track of things. There are things I've messed up that you guys probably haven't noticed or if you have, haven't pointed out to me. Continuity errors. That's to be expected with something as massive as what I'm doing. I do try to fix things when I notice them and do try to keep everything in order, but I mess up. A lot.

Also, this isn't my first Descendants AU. My original Descendants AU, written when I was like, fifteen, was me watching the movies and adding in one character, Riah, changing some events in minor ways, and that was it. I started simple. But by the time I got to the third book in that series, I realized that I wanted to worldbuild more. That third book veers massively into original work area because I wanted to add more of the supernatural, which led to the shedim plot. I realized that I had fun with that plot, so I started rewriting the series to include more fun stuff. That didn't last, because I wanted to include so much new stuff that the rewrite would be unrecognizable. Thus, Isle of Darkness was born. There was a long planning period, and then there's been a massive amount of things added because I'm doing an esoteric work. The Endless plot? Added that maybe halfway through chapter four. Maverick didn't exist at all until chapter two, and I didn't make the decision to make her a major character until chapter two of Isle of Darkness. The rebellion? Originally wasn't a plotline, I was going to go for something closer to what the movies did. Jasmine helping? Wasn't on the drawing board at all until recently. The supernatural properties? You have no idea how majorly those have changed as I've written this because I originally wasn't going to include angels, most demon and djinn stuff, Roman deities, Norse gods, Aztec gods, or Lovecraftian horror at all. Heck, Jay wasn't even originally a djinn! I wrote the first chapter and then read this excellent fic where Jay was a djinn, realized it made sense, and added it to chapter two. My worldbuilding looks complex but man, most of it is because my work is esoteric. I add stuff in as I go along and come up with a way to make it work. Most of this wasn't planned when I wrote chapter 1.

If you want advice or to talk through ideas I'm always up to answering more asks or private messaging. I'm sure you have wonderful ideas. Also, I don't know if you're comparing what you're doing to what I am, but if you are, don't. I am insane. My grandfather, a New York Times bestselling author, looks at my stuff and goes "Good lord." I have been creating stories for nearly twenty years- I started when I was three, that was when I created my first story about a team of superhero misfit animals. I have a lot of writing and storytelling experience, and I have a lot of experience in things so insane that most professional writers would fear me. These things are what make my particular story as it is told by me, a unique person as all people are, work. These things are not going to work for most people, just like small casts and simple worldbuilding aren't going to work for me. Every writer has their own individual strengths and their own individual weaknesses. Play to your strengths, not mine.

And just have a blast. God may judge you but his sins outnumber your own.

#the darkness speaks #anonymous #isle of darkness #caps #swearing

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duckiemimi · 1 year

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how certain are you about gojo not being dead or his revival? do you think gege might bring him back? some buddhist revival theories make sense to me but if the main problem is that gege just wanted him gone for the plot to progress then nothing is bringing him back. i also see that a majority of people are now praising the chapter when i'm still not happy about it so it might even give the impression that the chapter is well received....

i’m not certain at all because i can’t even tell what we’re working towards plot-wise 😭

before 237, i was 50/50 about it. it could either happen because his “death” just seemed so lackluster and lacking something (a lot of things) that there might be more to come, especially knowing how capable gege was at wonderfully handling death as a subject, but it could also not happen because gojo wasn’t even given the grace of an on-screen development from his unsealing to his death. (i talk about this more here.) after 237? if he’s only going to come back as a convenient plot-device, i’d rather he stay dead.

i honestly think gege killed him off to write him out of the story because nothing is indicating to me that there’s more to what we saw in 236. not even a mention, not even a scribble of his body in the battlefield in 237. (but i don’t know. prove me wrong, gege.) 236 would’ve worked if the gojo vs. sukuna battle was a short story separate from the overarching storyline, separate from jjk in general, and instead of gojo and sukuna, they were both new characters that we got a brief rundown of prior to the battle. but like everything is, the story should be bigger than them both and the battle. 236 and the battle should fit in with everything else, even the very edges of where we started.

there’s this habit in fandoms (but especially in the jjk fandom) of retroactively justifying (and subsequently, plainly accepting) chapters/plot points that weren’t initially well-received. it’s crazy because when 236 came out, the only people praising the chapter were sukuna stans and people who heavily favor the technical side of jjk more than the narrative (and some shippers who’ve lost the actual plot long before, but what’s new).

a week later, there are all these discussions saying, “well, maybe we just didn’t get gojo’s character,” or, “well, actually it’s in-character of him.” it shouldn’t have to take a week for part of the fandom to reluctantly accept what was written. hindsight nuance is supposed to add another level of understanding, not change the whole perspective. this isn’t a case of an author withholding information to keep readers on their toes, this is a case of an author not being consistent in characterization (among other things).

we keep trying to piece mismatched puzzle pieces for it to make sense, but we’re in the long run now! the bigger picture (including gojo’s character) should be clearer than before! why are we left more confused now than before, and so close to the end of the story, too? if the majority of the fandom is confused (all of us, honestly, don’t lie), the problem isn’t us not understanding—the problem is the goddamn writing.

“let them cook!” yeah, but if you leave the fire on too long, the food burns. then the kitchen catches fire. then the house is in shambles. it’s okay to admit that the story we once knew is no longer the same. it sucks, but it really is okay to dislike a chapter and be disappointed with an author. and it’s okay to take your time grieving what you once knew (hell, it’s why i’m talking more on this app these days). and it’s okay to keep reading and following along because you still have hope.

the way i talk about this, you’d think the whole fandom is in a relationship with gege and gege just keeps negging us 😭 some people have faith, despite the downhill track record, some people are pissed and feeling cheated, and some don’t even know what to think. coping is different :’)

#jjk #jjk 236 #jjk 237 #jjk leaks #jjk spoilers #jujutsu kaisen #gojo #asks

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lurking-latinist · 2 months

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The fascinating thing about mediocre Victorian three-volume novel The Pit Town Coronet, which evidently I am liveblogging now?, is (what I know to be a characteristic of the era and the genre, but this one's taking it to extremes) its propensity for jumping between characters. As soon as we've gotten invested in one little scene, we drift away to some other vignette with completely different people, often brand-new people with little obvious relevance. We just spent an entire chapter getting to know a burglar before learning that he intends to burgle Georgina's husband's cousin (whom we barely know). None of the events seem to have any consequences for the characters, because the plot just goes somewhere else. Lucy did get blackmailed for a bit by a servant who had found out she was Lucius' mother, but all he wanted was to get his old job back, and then we got distracted by the new High Church curate and what the vicar's wife thought of him. (To be fair to the author, the new curate did go on to propose to Lucy and she turned him down, and while she was turning him down she seemed to be motivated by guilt over her secret baby, but she had already made up her mind to turn him down anyway because she just doesn't want to be married, so there's no actual cause-effect relationship going on there.)

You know what it almost feels like to me? It feels like a science fiction novel that's more interested in worldbuilding than anything else, and that will give you a chapter randomly from the perspective of the sentient android toaster just because the author wants you to know about sentient android toasters in their world. But this is set in the real world, about twenty years before its publication (I think--it wasn't indicated as set in the past at any point, but there was an offhand reference to the battle of Waterloo being forty-something years ago), and I'm not used to that kind of book being so dedicated to just wandering through its world.

I'm wondering if maybe the author isn't very comfortable with letting his characters experience consequences, develop, and change. He seems to enjoy drawing little character sketches of various types and classes of people (many of them very stereotype-driven, but some--I suspect those from his own class and background--with a certain amount of insight). Maybe letting his characters outgrow those caricatured roles wasn't what he wanted to do. But it's affecting the course of the plot, because he's not writing a series of character sketches; he's setting up events which they ought to change in response to, and don't.

I wonder whether he's planning to set up a huge denouement where everything everybody's done throughout the novel will come back to bite them. I think Georgina's husband might inherit this earldom, in which case Lucius' real parentage will become extremely important, but the thing is it doesn't seem likely anyone will do anything about it! Georgina was massively conscience-stricken when she first agreed to pass off the child as her own, and she was described to us as someone who loved truth but who felt completely bound by a promise she had rashly made to Lucy; but we haven't seen Georgina for chapters and chapters, or her husband, to be honest. Also Lucius and George ought to be old enough to be interesting by now, but they seem to have vanished, and I'm not sure the author is keeping track of the passage of time.

#the pit town coronet

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zyafics · 1 month

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he has a gun to her head, and she has a syringe pointed at an artery in his neck, yk if u insert air into someone's vein, they die, so he's like "drop your weapon," and she's like "drop your gun,"????

OMG?!!! u are an actual genius i can not wait to read this!! i wanna know how it’s gonna play out after tho like is she gonna help him or what??😭😭 omg can’t wait

i can’t wait for the next chapter i’m so so excited but you kinda got me clutching my pearls now cuz what are you planninggggg omgg 🙈🙈 i can’t wait to see where their relationship will go🤭

i was cooking fried rice and dancing in my shorts, and i'll just imagined mexican!reader cooking in her apartment with rafe, and him watching her with amusement and her stopping her cooking, midway, grabs him off his seat, and force him to dance with her?? 🥹🥹🥹 my babies fr

omg it’s missing them hours :(( imagine her making some tacos for dinner while listening to bachata and she’s just dancing in her own little world and rafes just looking at her with a little smirk on his face just completely in love🥹🥹 then she gets scared cuz she hasn’t noticed him and she makes him join her and she teaches him to dance (and he’s actually good??) then they end the night with some filthy sex while she’s calling him papi

omg zya i love you so much amor <33

i think for the mafia fic, im currently writing it, but i'm probably gonna write one part to see how i feel about it, but it's definitely a respite for me to gather my thoughts and just have fun <3 BUT I ALSO HAVE LIKE PLOT TWISTS PLANNED IF I CONTINUE FORWARD hehehe

also also, mexican!reader, i can imagine so so so many different scenarios for them. he's dancing with her and he sees that there's a spot where the oil splashed against her stomach, so he lowers himself and kiss it better but they got off track and suddenly they're in the bedroom, clothes off, making out and having sex OR she makes him taste-test what she's cooking, he's smacking his lips to figure it out, and she's shy and nervous that he doesn't like it, so she goes, "do you like it?" and he goes, "i do, but i rather taste something else," and he kisses her, splaying his palm over her ass before pulling her legs to wrap around his waist while he carries her off to their bedroom (either way they're having sex 🤭)

#asks #moots asks #fanfic asks

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chrisbkdk · 1 year

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When asked this question in the past, my answer was maybe but probably not. However, at this point, I find it hard to believe Horikoshi hasn’t been planning on pairing Izuku and Katsuki for years, if not since the beginning of the manga. At the very least, there are major plot holes if Izuku doesn’t have romantic feelings for Katsuki. If Horikoshi isn’t planning on at least that much, he has written himself into a corner.

While there are many reasons, the biggest at this point is how Katsuki has served as Izuku’s trigger and Izuku’s response to that. While we have seen Izuku triggered several times now, specifically when he manifested Blackwhip he was told point blank why it happened. After being taunted by Neito (who insulted Katsuki on Hitoshi’s recommendation) Izuku manifested Blackwhip and lost control of it. He had to be brainwashed and ended up in the Vestige mindscape where the former Blackwhip user, Daigoro told him that it was responding to his emotions and that he needed to control his heart.

However, when he discussed it with Toshinori and Katsuki (chapter 217,) Izuku lied to them and told them he had no idea what could have triggered it, even going so far as to suggest that it may have been some external catalyst.

When you look at the other times Izuku has been triggered, the common factor pretty much always comes back to Katsuki. He saw Katsuki was the student the Sludge Villain had taken. He heard Katsuki was being targeted during the summer training camp and then watched as Katsuki was taken. He manifested Danger Sense when Katsuki took a hit for him and went absolutely feral on Shigaraki who, after impaling Katsuki, said his sacrifice was pointless. (Sharing images from that last one because, quite frankly, Izuku breaking the Rivet Stab blade with his teeth is freaking awesome.)

Again and again, it’s always Katsuki who sets Izuku off, and though being his trigger alone isn’t enough to prove that Izuku feelings towards Katsuki are romantic, the fact that he lied about it does. Izuku has never made secret how much he admires Katsuki. He has been laying on the praise since the very start of the series, both to others and to Katsuki. Moreover, at this point, most of the people in his life think he’s completely selfless and would sacrifice himself to save anyone. Heck, that’s why Toshinori chose him as his successor in the first place. All Izuku had to say in there was that he was upset over Neito insulting Katsuki, no further explanation needed. No one would have been surprised.

I’ve seen it suggested that Izuku didn’t want to upset Katsuki by bringing up the specific insult (that being that Katsuki had ended All Might,) but even that doesn’t really track. If it was only Katsuki he wanted kept in the dark, he would have told Toshinori later, “Hey, this is what actually happened, but I didn’t want to remind Kacchan…” In fact, that would have been the smart thing to do even if it wasn’t true, because then Toshinori, the only teacher he had at that point who knew about One For All, would know that Katsuki was his weak point. But Izuku lied to them and never offered either an explanation as to why.

In fact, around this same time, we started getting less and less of Izuku’s narration and thoughts. When the manga began, Izuku narrated a lot and we got into his head a lot. We were always getting his thoughts both in the moment and retroactively through narration. Now, we get almost nothing. We’ve had narration from Katsuki and Ochako, but Izuku’s internal perspective has been largely kept from us for quite some time. The only reason an author makes a switch like that is because whatever the character is thinking/feeling would spoil the story. The only thing that really makes sense with the pieces Horikoshi has played is for Izuku to have romantic feelings towards Katsuki.

Horikoshi’s writing thus far demonstrates a lot of careful planning and patience. He plays the long game with tons of foreshadowing, set up, and build up. Given how he’s handled other lengthy plotlines, I cannot imagine him leaving this massive plot hole. I can’t even imagine him having stumbled into it either. He’s not the sort of writer to write himself into a corner. Until proven otherwise, I have to believe this has all been intentional, and you don’t set up your protagonist like that in as hopeful a story as MHA is, only to have it fizzle out either. While there is plenty of evidence that Katsuki reciprocates Izuku’s feelings, the tone and themes of the story alone suggest the protagonist is getting a complete happy ending. In all likelihood, he’ll “defeat” AFO, he’ll “save” Tenko, and he’ll find out that the person he’s in love with feels the same.

And that’s all without touching on the dozens of additional romantic tropes Izuku and Katsuki have been written with, many of Izuku’s other telling behaviors, how the other characters respond to them, or any of the evidence as to Katsuki’s feelings for Izuku. Personally, I still don’t want to get my hopes up, because I’ve seen writers set everything up beautifully only to either lose their nerve along the way or for their publisher/network/producer/etc… to step in and force a change. However, at this point, I feel it’s impossible not to have at least a little hope that this has been the plan all along because if it is, this is one of the best written stories I’ve ever enjoyed.

Edited to add: With the latest volume release, I am now wholly convinced Horikoshi plans on Izuku and Katsuki as the endgame ship for the series. Volume 37 saw its Japanese release last month (Jan ‘23) and with it brought the biggest piece of evidence for the ship (ironically enough, rooted in Katsuki’s death.) During the volume, Katsuki dies fighting Shigaraki and the heroes remaining on the field work together to bring him back and hold off Shigaraki while Izuku continues to return to the fight. Specifically, Edgeshot is using his quirk and his own body to repair/replace Katsuki’s heart.

On the back cover of this volume is a message from Edgeshot telling Katsuki not to give up, that the guy he’s waiting for, Deku is on the way, and that he (Edgeshot) won’t let him die. While the whole message is quite romantic, it ends with “Connect yourself to your future where you dreamed of your ideal.” (Point of interest, “connect” in this sentence is Tsunaide, the same word used in Izuku’s description of a boyfriend during Himiko’s confession, and the same root for Best Jeanist’s name Tsunagu.)

Then, when you flip open the volume, this image is the title of the table of contents:

Here you see Edgeshot’s head and his body stretched out to spell the word “contents”. The end of his thread is wrapped around Izuku.

While the message and image are already very romantic, it takes on an additional level of symbolism when you consider the color of Edgeshot’s quirk: red. The Red Thread of Fate, also known as the Red Thread of Marriage is one of, if not the biggest and most explicit romance tropes in east Asia. Based on Chinese mythology, the belief is that Yue Lao (a god in charge of marriage and matchmaking) ties together soulmates with an invisible red thread. That thread then compels the two people together so they can find their true love.

The myths surrounding the red thread are ubiquitous in Japan and east Asia. There is no way Horikoshi is unaware of them and just so happened to include this imagery and language by accident. At this point, the only way I could see them not being confirmed canon by the end of the series, would be if Shonen Jump refused to published Horikoshi’s intended ending.

#mha bkdk #bkdk canon #bkdk #bnha bkdk #bkdk soulmates #bkdk quotes #bkdk ao3 #bkdk fanart #bkdk angst #bkdk winter au

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sebstanaddict · 7 months

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Too Good To Be True

Sebastian Stan x Reader Story

Summary: A romantic comedy story where Sebastian Stan falls in love with reader but she is not who he thinks she is.

Against all odds, reader and Sebastian's 'girlfriend' stayed stuck in each other's body for the third day, the day the table read for a movie Sebastian and her were starring in. She couldn't be more ecstatic when she found out all the big Hollywood stars that were cast in the movie, which included Jennifer Aniston as her mom and Chris Evans as Sebastian's rival. Will her happiness last? Or will Sebastian's 'girlfriend' ruin it again for her?

Pairings : Sebastian Stan x Female!Reader

Chapters : 13/28 (Might add more)

Chapter list >

Warning : slight cursing, some very minor spoiler of Sebastian's potential new project Pumping Black, but I changed the character names and most of the plot details, so it shouldn't be a problem. I did take the first scene from the actual script and put it here though. Just a head's up.

Word count : 7.5k words

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Chapter 13 - The Table Read

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13320 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, California - Tuesday, July 11th 2023 - 7.00 am

—

“Y/n.. Y/n..! Wake up!” A harsh shrill female voice entered her consciousness and she felt her body being shook harshly.

She opened her eyes and found her own body looking down at her in annoyance from behind thick glasses. Relief filled her heart as she realized she was still stuck in Aurora's body.

“What time is it?” She asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“It's 7! You have to get ready for the table read!” Aurora commanded and she sat up immediately.

The table read! Yes, the rehearsal and table read for Pumping Black was happening that day at 9 in the morning!

“Seb is coming in an hour.” Aurora reminded her.

“Yes, I know.” She immediately stood up and went to the closet to grab some clothes but Aurora pulled her hand back.

“I already prepared the clothes for you.” She pointed towards the bed.

“Oh, okay. Thanks.” She nodded.

“Stop..” Aurora said.

“Thanking people? Even you?” She asked, her eyebrows raised.

“Even me.” Aurora nodded and she shook her head in disbelief.

“Why though?” She asked as she grabbed the clothes from the bed.

“I just don't do that. I thought you wanted to make sure you behave like me so people won't be suspicious? I want to make sure you remember that.” Aurora stated.

“Okay, yeah, that's true. But it's not a bad thing to change that behavior.” She shrugged.

“Hmm.. we'll see.” Aurora said and she raised her eyebrows. Her behavior seemed off a little bit, but she decided to brush it off. She needed to get ready so she turned and went towards the bathroom.

When she got out of the bathroom Aurora was nowhere in sight. She assumed Aurora must have gone out and went downstairs. Maybe to the employee kitchen or her bedroom so Rosa and Gabriella wouldn't be suspicious.

She went to the closet and put on a black blazer over the white strapless mini dress she had worn in the bathroom earlier. Then she looked at herself in the full body mirror in the closet. Once again she felt like the dress was too short. She pulled the hem of her dress down and sighed. Well, Aurora did have slim and smooth thighs, she knew she loved to show it off. She was just still not used to it.

She went to the dresser and she found instructions from Aurora again on how to put on her makeup. She sighed as she realized that the make up Aurora had chosen was again too much for her taste. But of course she had no choice but to follow along.

Once she was done putting the makeup on she slipped on the black stiletto Aurora already prepared for her. She wobbled a little but finally got the hang of it after a while.

She grabbed her purse and went out of Aurora's room. She was about to go down the stairs when she heard faintly the voice of someone crying.

She stopped in her tracks and turned around to try to find the voice. It seemed the voice was coming from the living room on the second floor so she went towards it.

Moments later she found Gabriella in the living room. A piece of cloth was in her hand and she was down on her knees, cleaning the coffee table in the middle of the room.

Gabriella's hands might be moving back and forth across the table but her eyes weren't looking at it. She was crying and her other hand was wiping the tears from eyes.

“Gabriella?” She called out.

Gabriella jumped in surprise and sniffled, then she quickly wiped the tears falling on her cheeks.

“Miss Watson, is there anything I can do for you?” She asked as she stood up, her head bowed.

“I.. umm.. I was just wondering why you were crying. Is everything okay?” She asked, looking at Gabriella with her eyebrows furrowed.

“Oh! Umm.. e.. everything is fine Miss Watson.” Gabriella stammered.

“Are you sure?” She asked again.

“Y.. yes.” Gabriella nodded.

“Okay. Well.. if there's anything I can do to make you feel better, just let me know.” She said and Gabriella's eyebrows shot up.

“Really?” Gabriella asked.

“Yes, of course.” She smiled warmly and Gabriella's face immediately brightened.

“Umm.. actually.. There is something Miss Watson that you can do for me. But I was afraid to ask you about it as I'm sure you wouldn't give me permission. Even if you do, you'll just cut my pay and I can't have that. I'm already behind on some of my bills and..” Gabriella rambled.

“Sshhh.. Gabriella.. stop. I'm sorry, could you explain to me again? Much more clearly about what you want?” She asked, her eyebrows raised.

Gabriella took a deep breath and started to explain. “My mom and dad are both sick, with Covid. Thankfully I don't seem to have caught it and so far they don't need to be hospitalized but, you know my mom is in a wheelchair and needs help doing things everyday. Usually my dad helps her out but since they are both sick, it has been a challenge for my dad to help my mom. And I just wish I could stay home and take care of them. But I can't because you'll just cut my pay like last time when I had to take a day off to take my mom for her regular check up. I can't have that. I need the money to pay for everything. So.. yeah. I.. I just wonder if maybe.. I could..” Gabriella trailed, fear and uncertainty in her eyes.

“Take some days off to take care of your parents?” She asked and Gabriella nodded.

“But.. without cutting my pay… impossible isn't it?” Gabriella chuckled nervously.

“Of course not. Sure, go ahead. Take as long as you need. I won't cut your pay.” She smiled and Gabriella's eyes widened, the corners of her mouth slowly turned up.

“Really?!” Gabriella exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yes, really.” She smiled.

“Thank you so much Miss Watson!” Gabriella gushed, her face brightened.

“No problem. I'll have Y/n replace you. Focus on your parents and yourself. She'll replace you until you get back.” She said and Gabriella nodded.

*Thank you again Miss Watson!” Gabriella said, her eyes shone with relief and happiness as she looked at her.

“You're welcome Gabriella. Now go!” She commanded.

“Right away Miss Watson.” Gabriella nodded and smiled then she left her alone in the living room, watching Gabriella's back as she walked away from her with a pang in her heart.

For the first time in months she felt grateful and lucky that her parents were well. She couldn't imagine how she would feel if they were sick and she was far away from them, unable to take care of them. She felt the least she could do to show how grateful she was about it was to allow Gabriella to take some days off even if Aurora would most likely cut her throat for that.

She sighed and braced for the worst as she continued to go down the stairs.

When she arrived downstairs she heard Aurora's, well, her own voice coming from the employee kitchen so she went there.

“What?! She allowed you to go?!” Aurora exclaimed out loud.

“Yeah. She was really nice. I don't know what has gotten into her but I better take advantage of it before she changes her mind.” Gabriella said.

“And she said she was going to ask me to replace you?!” Aurora continued.

“Yeah. That's what she said. I'm really sorry Y/n. I hope you're okay with it. If my parents weren't sick I wouldn't ask for this.” Gabriella said.

“There's no way I'm replacing you!” Aurora yelled.

“What?!” Gabriella asked in confusion.

“Y/n!” She entered the employee kitchen, her voice startled both Aurora and Gabriella.

“Miss Watson.” Gabriella bowed her head while Aurora looked back at her in defiance.

“Miss Watson, I'm sorry, but I can't replace her.” Aurora protested.

“Why not? You did a great job last week. I'm sure you can do it again.” She said, referring to the time when Aurora was punishing her after the whole incident with the interview.

“But I need to come with you today, to the table read. Remember?” Aurora reminded her.

“You don't have to come with me Y/n. I can handle it. Just stay home and replace Gabriella until she comes back.” She insisted.

Aurora glared at her but miraculously didn't say anything else.

“Why are you still here Gabriella?” She asked, turning to Gabriella.

“Oh! Yeah. I was just letting Y/n know about replacing me before I go.” Gabriella explained.

“Okay. Well I hope your parents will get well soon. And don't forget to also take good care of yourself. I don't want you to get sick too.” She said.

“Very well, Miss Watson. Thank you so much!” Gabriella gushed then she quickly turned around and left the kitchen, her handbag slung around her shoulder.

As soon as Gabriella was gone Aurora immediately turned to her.

“I am not replacing her!” Aurora insisted.

“Aurora, it's just for a couple of days. Well, maybe a week or two. If you don't want to, Rosa and Nelson would be suspicious. I mean, if I were you, I would definitely replace her with no hesitation. You refusing to do it would just make them more suspicious.” She persuaded her.

“I don't f*****g care! There's no way I'm replacing her!” Aurora hissed.

“Y/n?!” Rosa suddenly entered the kitchen, startling both of them.

“What are you doing? Why are you cursing at Miss Watson?” Rosa asked, her eyebrows raised.

“Oh, Rosa, you surprised us.” She said, chuckling a little and feeling relief at her intrusion.

“Gabriella asked to take some time off to take care of her sick parents and I asked Y/n to replace her but she doesn't want to.” She explained, making Rosa's eyebrows raised even further.

“Well Y/n, even if you don't want to, it's not a good thing to curse at Miss Watson like that. I expected better from you.” Rosa said with a slight disappointment on her face.

“Yes, it's not a good thing at all. And I should just fire you, Y/n. But I'm not gonna do it. I know you need the money. So I'm gonna let you stay but you need to listen to me and replace Gabriella.” She said sternly, hoping Aurora would play along.

Aurora stood there and didn't say anything but just stared at her. If looks could kill, she would have been dead on the floor.

“Anyway, Miss Watson, Mr.Stan is here.” Rosa finally said when Aurora didn't respond.

“Oh yes. Thank you Rosa. Well, I better go. Rosa, could you help tell Y/n what she should do around the house?” She asked.

“Of course Miss Watson. Come along Y/n, let's start by cleaning upstairs.” Rosa said, beckoning her head towards the outside of the kitchen.

Rosa turned around and thankfully, miraculously, Aurora started to walk and follow her. But she paused as she passed her and whispered.

“You are not getting away with this. And don't you dare ruin the table read.”

“I got you the role, remember? And I look forward to what you have in store for me.” She whispered back and Aurora looked back at her in surprise. She was surprised herself at how daring she was towards Aurora.

Aurora gave her a last condescending look then flipped her hair and immediately went out the door.

She released the breath she didn't realize she was holding then breathed a sigh of relief.

“Alright, table read, here I come.” She said, feeling excited yet nervous about her first ever table read for a movie. She looked forward to meeting the whole cast and hoping she wouldn't make a fool of herself.

—

Universal Studio Lot, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California - 9.30 am

—

Her eyes widened and her heart rate quickly increased as she stepped inside a big meeting room at Universal Studio where the table read was being held.

A huge circular table was in the middle of the room with chairs positioned all around it. She looked around and felt her hand sweat as she studied everyone sitting on the chairs.

She couldn't believe the number of famous Hollywood stars involved in the movie. She should have known, should have done some research before coming that day but she didn't have the time. She kicked herself mentally as she realized she should've at least asked Sebastian about it because she felt she wasn't ready to face these giant Hollywood stars.

She looked to the right of the room and felt like her heart stopped as she glimpsed a familiar face. Jude Law?! Jude Law was in the movie?! Then she scanned the rest of the table and her heart started to do somersaults.

Next to Jude was Rooney Mara. Next to Rooney was Jennifer Aniston and next to her was Joey King and Toby Jones. She tried hard not to gasp as she saw more celebrities sitting next to Toby Jones. Chace Crawford, one of Sebastian's best friends, was there. He sat next to three celebrities she never thought she would ever see to be in the same movie as Sebastian again. Anthony Mackie, Chris Evans and Tom Holland!

“Wow, this feels like a Marvel reunion a little.” She couldn't help but comment and Sebastian chuckled.

“It does, doesn't it? I swear I didn't vouch for them and I didn't plan this. It was all Maya's doing.” He said as they made their way together towards some empty seats next to Chris Evans.

“Chris!” Sebastian greeted Chris. Chris looked up and flashed them a bright smile.

“Seb, my man! It's so nice to see you again, man!” Chris responded and they hugged each other tight.

She wished she could whip out her cellphone and document their reunion. She knew the stucky fans would go crazy over this.

“Come here you Vanilla Ice, don't ignore me.” Anthony remarked, making them laugh.

“Chocolaccino, how could I ignore you? I could never even if I wanted to.” Sebastian commented as he released Chris and gave Anthony a brief hug, making them laugh again.

“Hello Sebastian, Aurora.” Tom Holland greeted them and she smiled.

Tom really seemed like a nice guy. She couldn't understand why Sebastian and Anthony loved to roast him.

“Hey there Spiderboy.” Sebastian greeted him and clapped Tom's back.

“It's Spiderman.” Tom protested, pouting, making everyone laugh.

She and Sebastian took the time to go through each seat and shook everyone's hands. She couldn't help but feel starstruck at each and every one of them. She also felt relief that Aurora didn't seem to have worked with any of them. Otherwise, they could probably notice if she was different from the real Aurora.

Moments later all the cast, screenwriter, producers and Maya the director had come. Maya smiled at all of them and cleared her throat.

“Thank you everyone for coming here today for the table read of the feature film, Pumping Black. I'm Maya Carver the director and before we start, I think we should introduce each other and our designated roles in this movie, just to make things clear. Let's start from my right. Hannah, please introduce yourself.” Maya turned to her right and nodded at a blonde lady next to her.

“Uh.. hi everyone. I'm Hannah Barton, the screenwriter for this movie. I just want to say, thank you to everyone for being involved in this movie. This is the first ever script of mine that got to be produced. So I'm really excited! And I'm open to any ideas you probably have about your characters and how a scene should play out. So, if you have any suggestions that can make the script thus the movie even better, please don't hesitate to let me know.” Hannah smiled at all of them and she nodded.

Well, she was glad she wasn't the only novice in a big Hollywood production. The screenwriter was a newbie as well!

Next to Hannah was the producer and casting director Donna and Harold she had met several times before. Next to them were the cast including herself.

“Hello, I'm Jude Law, just call me Jude.” Jude flashed them all a bright smile and she couldn't help but feel her heart skip a beat. He may be in his fifties but he still looked amazing!

“I play Alex, the coach.” Jude continued and nodded.

“Hello everyone, I'm Rooney Mara and I play Ava Lawrence, the doctor.” Rooney introduced herself.

“Hey everyone, I'm Jennifer Aniston and I play Mary Nichols, Celeste Nichols' mother.” Jennifer Aniston made a point to look across at her and smiled at her. She smiled back as she realized Jennifer Aniston was playing as her mom. She couldn't believe her luck!

“Hi everyone, I'm Joey King and I play Sarah Taylor, Mike Taylor's sister.” Joey greeted them all and looked to her right where Toby Jones was sitting.

“Hello, I'm Toby Jones, I play George Baker, the staff from UCI.” Toby smiled.

“Hey guys, I mean, everyone.” Tom said, his face reddened as everyone laughed.

“I'm..” Tom continued.

“Peter Parker!” Anthony interjected and immediately the whole room broke into laughter again.

“No, as much as I want it to, I'm not Peter Parker. I'm Tom Holland and I play Billy, Mike's teammate.” Tom said as he glanced at Anthony with a pointed look.

“Well that's a shame because I'm Anthony Mackie and I play Landon, Mike's real teammate and best friend.” Anthony remarked and Tom just shook his head.

“Hey everyone, I'm Chace Crawford and I play Daniel, the actual teammate and best friend of Mike's.” Chace said, making everyone laugh again.

“And I'm Chris Evans, I play Mike's teammate and rival.” Chris said, flashing everyone with his perfect white teeth.

“Hello. I'm Sebastian and I play Mike Taylor, the man all these guys are fighting to become his best teammate slash best friend. Newsflash, none of you are. But she is. Celeste is Mike's best friend.” Sebastian said, turning to her and smiling warmly at her. She couldn't help but feel warmth crawling from her neck up to her cheeks.

“Uh.. hi everyone. I'm.. Aurora Watson and I play Celeste Nichols, Mike Taylor's girlfriend and best friend, as Sebastian has said.” She smiled back at Sebastian and his face brightened.

“Alright, thank you everyone for the entertaining introduction. Now let's start the table read. I will narrate the script. So let's start.” Maya said.

She looked to the table in front of her and took the script with Aurora's name printed on it then opened the first page. She had the script already with her, but it was the one she obtained from before her real self auditioned. She wondered if there were any changes in the one in front of her.

“Exterior, Sunshine Canyon, Boulder, Colorado. Afternoon, super wide on an Alpine Lake, flanked by snowcapped mountains. A harsh blue sky punctured by a sharp sun. A thin ribbon of road before the lake. Breathless, stillness. Then.. The silence shatters as a team of pro cyclists rips across the frame.” Maya started to read the opening scene.

She listened as Maya continued to read the script and finally Sebastian, Jude, and the other actors playing as his teammates started to play out scene after scene and read their lines.

It was amazing to see all these professionals work. She took many mental notes as she studied their line deliveries and performance choices. Before long it was time for her very first scene with Sebastian.

“Mike! Are you okay?!” She shouted as Celeste Nichols. Her panicked voice traveled across the big room.

“I'm fine, Celeste. It's no big deal.” Sebastian as Mike Taylor, shrugged.

“Mike winces. A big open wound is seen on his right leg. He walks hobbling towards a chair and sits on it, prompting Celeste to come and attend to him.” Maya continued to narrate.

“That looks bad, Mike. What happened?” She asked.

“Just a little accident during practice. Nothing to worry about, sweetheart.” Sebastian responded, then he glanced at her and smiled at her warmly.

She couldn't prevent it when he did it, the butterflies started to fly around in her stomach as soon as she saw his warm smile. But she realized she was in a table read and she couldn't let herself get carried away.

“Nothing to worry about? You need stitches, Mike! I'm taking you to the hospital after I clean it up.” She huffed.

“Celeste immediately goes to fetch the first aid kit and starts to clean Mike's wound. Despite all the prodding on his leg, Mike's face stays impassive, as if he doesn't feel anything.” Maya continued to narrate.

“I'm so lucky. I don't deserve you. You deserve the world and you decided to stay with me? Why?” Sebastian asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Oh Mike, stop teasing me.” She replied, chuckling a little.

“I'm not teasing you, honey. I.. I really want to give you the world. And this year I will. I promise you that.” Sebastian continued with conviction in his voice.

“Celeste sighs, finishes cleaning Mike's wound then puts away the first aid kit. She looks up and stares at Mike softly.” Maya continued.

“I don't need the world, Mike. I don't need you to win the Tour de France or any other race. I just need.. you.. and I need you to stay in one piece until the end of this year's Tour de France, that's all I ask.” She said then she glanced at Sebastian, waiting for his response, bracing herself for what she knew would come next.

“You doubt me?! You think I won't survive this race?!” Sebastian yelled.

Even though she knew what he would do, she was still startled at his yelling. She could feel the vibe in the room changed as they witnessed Sebastian's anger being unleashed.

“Mike stands up and starts to pace the room.” Maya said.

“Why is everyone doubting me? Even you! You're supposed to have my back, Celeste. You're supposed to support and cheer me on but you.. you turned out to be just like all of them!” Sebastian shouted.

Her heart beat so fast in her chest as she heard Sebastian's words. Somehow she could feel herself being Celeste and the sadness and anguish she felt after witnessing his reaction prompted her to start crying.

“I'm..I'm sorry..” She said, wiping the tears from her eyes as she broke out of character.

“Wait, Aurora, don't be sorry. If this is your interpretation of this scene, I want to see it more.” Maya interjected.

“Oh.. okay.” She said, sniffling, not expecting Maya to ask her to continue to do some improv. She wasn't planning on doing it. She was just reacting to Sebastian's performance.

“Mike.. please don't say that!” She continued, tears streaming down her face.

“You know how much I love you. I.. I just want what's best for you..” She trembled, her bottom lip quivered and she let the tears continue to flow down from her eyes.

Sebastian didn't respond immediately. She stared at him as his face slowly turned from anger to regret then he sighed deeply.

“I'm sorry, sweetheart.. I.. I didn't mean to yell.” Sebastian said, his head hung.

She took a deep breath then wiped the tears falling on her cheeks.

“It's okay, Mike. I know how much racing means to you. I just.. Mike.. it's been 15 years. I just think maybe, it's time for you to.. to.. take another adventure, you know. See what life has in store for you outside of racing. With me, preferably.” She smiled and winked, making Sebastian smile too.

“Oh Celeste, I'm sorry. You really are too nice for me. I don't deserve you.” Sebastian said softly, once again making butterflies fly in her stomach.

“Mike goes back to sit on the chair and takes Celeste's hand in his.” Maya narrated.

“Celeste, I'm sorry for being such a dick. But I promise, this will be the last race, after that I'll stop.. I.. I'll retire.” Sebastian said slowly.

“Okay.. then we can travel the world like we used to want to do.” She chuckled.

“Even better, honey. We'll get married in Paris like you've always wanted.” Sebastian turned to her and smiled brightly, making her heart skip a beat.

“Oh Mike! I would love that! Is this.. is this a formal proposal?” She teased.

“Oh no.. no.. no.. you deserve something better. Consider this.. a pre-proposal.” Sebastian winked at her and she laughed.

“Mike stands up and takes Celeste's hands then guides her to stand up. Then he stares at her.” Maya continued to narrate.

“I love you.. Celeste Nichols.” Sebastian said softly as he gazed at her with love in his eyes, making her heart go wild in her chest.

“I love you too.. Mike Taylor.” She said slowly then smiled at him as she felt the blush rising in her cheeks.

“Alright! A little pause here.” Maya said, startling her. Her hand started to sweat as she waited to hear what Maya had to say about her little improv.

“Aurora, I must say that was impressive how you interpreted the scene. Make sure to repeat that during the shoot. And, you know, I had some doubts about the chemistry between you. Because, I know you're a couple in real life but I just never felt that vibe from you guys, if you know what I mean. But today, wow! The chemistry was through the roof! I'm so glad we cast you, Aurora.” Maya smiled at her and she couldn't help but smiled widely back.

“Oh my God. Thank you so much, Maya. That means a lot. It's all because of Sebastian, really. I mean.. your acting was so good I couldn't help but just react to it.” She turned and smiled at Sebastian.

“Oh Aurora, please, it was nothing. I mean, you were great! We sort of feed off each other, right?” Sebastian smiled and she could see him blushing too.

“Ahem.. now that we have witnessed these two love birds go at it and flirt with each other, maybe we can continue.” A male voice interjected, making everyone laugh.

She blushed as she looked to the left towards the owner of the voice, who was Anthony Mackie.

“Oh look who's jealous.” Sebastian snickered, making everyone laugh again.

“I'm not jealous, Seabass. I just think there's a time and place to flirt with each other and that time is not now. We ain't got all day.” Anthony said. Despite his stern message he still smiled at Sebastian and Sebastian just shook his head.

“Alright, okay, thank you Mackie for the reminder. Let's continue with the next scene.” Maya said as she flipped the script in her hand to the next page.

It took them the whole day to finish the table read. They took an hour break during lunch and finished just before dinner time.

Her heart felt light and a smile was plastered on her face as they one by one walked out of the meeting room. The table read was long but she was quite satisfied with how she did it. Moreover, everyone was very nice, it was clear the whole cast could work together very well. She couldn't wait for her first shooting to start which was scheduled for the beginning of next week.

It was a rare occurrence for Sebastian and his Marvel co-stars to meet up with each other given how busy they were, so that night they decided to go out and have dinner together. In the end, almost everyone went out to dinner together and it ended up being an informal start of production dinner event, which she couldn't believe she could be a part of.

Being the shy girl that she was, she stayed quiet most of the time but ended up getting close to the women, especially Rooney Mara. Rooney Mara seemed to be a quiet person too so it was natural that she found it easier to connect with her. Joey King was a delight and Jennifer Aniston was so nice. She kept telling Jennifer how happy she was to meet her because she was a big fan and Jennifer kept trying to brush it off.

“Oh please, Aurora, you're as big of a star as I am. Don't be so humble.” Jennifer commented.

“No, I’m definitely not. You're so out of my class, Jennifer, there's just no comparison.” She commented, making Jennifer smile at her.

It was 10 at night when the impromptu dinner event ended. Sebastian took her home and they spent the journey back to Aurora's castle chatting about the table read.

“You know, I really don't know what you did but your acting and line deliveries were like one hundred and eighty degrees different from the last time I saw you act and from some movies I've seen you in. It's like.. it's like you took a magic potion or something and you suddenly woke up one day and became a talented actress.” Sebastian commented and her heart seemed to stop.

“Really?” She asked slowly. Aurora was right, Sebastian was really perceptive, she couldn't believe it.

“Yeah. I mean.. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that you were a bad actress but just.. different.” He quickly corrected himself.

“Yeah, I understand what you mean.” She replied, laughing internally and happy that she and Sebastian shared the same opinion that Aurora was a bad actress.

“Did you take a magic potion or something?” He asked, glancing at her.

She froze as she heard his question, not sure how to answer. But then his face broke into a smile and he laughed.

“I was just kidding, Aurora. Sorry. There's no such thing, huh?” He continued.

“Yeah, of course, no such thing as magic and potions. They're all just a figment of our imagination.” She chuckled awkwardly, relieved that she ended up not having to answer him directly.

“So, are you gonna tell me your secret?” He asked, a glint in his eyes.

“No chance, Sebastian. It's my secret method. You're already an amazing actor! You don't need my method.” She replied.

He laughed, then his face reddened a little and he smiled warmly at her. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome.” She smiled back, feeling the butterflies in her stomach again.

“Okay, here we are.” Sebastian said as he pulled up right in front of the gate of Aurora's castle.

He rolled the window of his car down but before he could say anything to the intercom, the gate opened slowly.

“Thanks Y/n!” He shouted to the intercom and he drove the car into the castle's grounds.

“Okay, so. I guess I'll see you next week?” She asked once he had stopped his car in front of the castle.

“Well.. I.. uh.. I have the weekend off. Maybe we could.. you know.. practice our scenes together if you want this weekend?” Sebastian suggested, biting his bottom lip nervously.

“Oh! Right! Yes! Of course. I'd love to practice with you.” She smiled and he smiled back.

“Okay, good.” He nodded. “I'll come over on Saturday morning.”

“Yeah, great.” She smiled.

For a moment they just gazed at each other. Her heart beat faster in her chest as she looked into his eyes. Even in the darkness they looked so gorgeous. She couldn't help but drown in them.

He gazed at her with something like love in his eyes and slowly but surely Sebastian leaned closer to her. He placed his hand gently on the side of her face, making her breath hitch.

Was he really going to kiss her this time?! She wondered as his face slowly inched closer to her and she could hear her own quickly beating heart beating in her ears.

But then she saw a shadow moving behind him and she jumped in surprise. Aurora was standing next to the car, right by Sebastian's window. She could see her face looming in the darkness, looking at her with wild angry eyes, like a demon, she couldn't help but make the comparison.

“What's wrong?” Sebastian dropped his hand from her face, startled at her sudden move.

“I better go. Y/n is right outside the car.” She said as she beckoned her head towards Aurora, who was still giving her a scary look.

Sebastian turned around and Aurora's face quickly changed into a smile. She waved a little at them.

“Oh hey Y/n.” Sebastian said, waving back awkwardly.

“So, I'll see you this Saturday then.” She said as she started to get out of the car.

“Yeah. Take care Aurora.” He smiled although she could see a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

She was disappointed too. She was really looking forward to him kissing her and Aurora kept ruining it for her.

“Thanks Sebastian. You take care too.” She smiled back and he nodded.

And with her last smile she finally got out of his car and stood in front of the castle, waving at him as he drove out of the castle.

“I told you there will be hell to pay if you touch him.” Aurora hissed as soon as Sebastian's car was out of sight.

“Aurora, I didn't touch him. He touched me! Besides, he's not your actual boyfriend, why do you care so much? And wouldn't it be good for you if he actually cares for you?” She asked as they turned around and walked up the steps together towards the front entrance of the castle.

“Well I care because he's supposed to be my boyfriend and not yours!” Aurora yelled.

“Well it didn't seem like you wanted to be his girlfriend much longer with what you told him before, about you wanting another gig and eyeing Harry Styles.” She commented as she pushed open the front door and got inside.

“D****t! He told you that?!” Aurora cursed and stood in front of her, blocking her way towards the stairs, her eyebrows raised.

“Yes! He did. So don't pretend like you care about him because you don't!” She spat.

Aurora didn't respond back and stared at her, the veins on her temple bulging and her jaw ticked.

She sighed as she realized she was going to be in so much trouble over that comment.

“Once we switch back.. and it will happen soon because I hired a private investigator earlier today. Once we switch back, you.. are.. so.. fired! And I will not pay you a dime. Got that?! So you can just enjoy the last seconds of your life being me because soon it will all be taken away from you and you will go back to being your pathetic self in your pathetic life with no one that cares for you!” Aurora yelled and she turned around and stormed up towards the second floor.

She heard a door slammed shut and winced. She sighed then trudged towards her own room at the back of the kitchen. There was no way she would sleep in the same room as Aurora that night.

She tossed and turned on the small bed, not being able to sleep. She was having so much fun being Aurora and she didn't want them to switch back so soon! She was finally a hired actress working in a big Hollywood production. She had.. well.. a potential romance with the Sebastian Stan! She had a body and face like a Barbie. She had a huge house and unlimited funds to buy and do whatever she wanted. All of that compared to her old life? Well, she would love to just throw away her old life into the dustbin and forget her old life and self ever existed.

Finally she decided to do something she knew she should've done much more often. Maybe it was the missing piece she needed to fix her life. She decided to pray to God that night that somehow she and Aurora wouldn't get to switch back so soon. She prayed to God so He would give her more time being in Aurora's body and enjoy having all the blessings God had given Aurora. She knew God must have a lot of love and blessing to give to all of His creations. She just wanted some more time to be at the receiving end of it.

So she prayed that night like she never had before, allowing herself to be both grateful for the opportunity God has given her by allowing her to switch places with Aurora and also certain that what she wanted was already in her hands because she knew nothing was impossible for God to do.

She felt somewhat more at peace after praying but it took a while for her to go to sleep. Deep down she dreaded sleeping because she might just wake up as herself again. But she was exhausted and the day had been very long so she finally fell asleep with the image of Sebastian's face gazing at her with love in his eyes, his hand touching the side of her face gently and his lips finally touching hers.

—

13320 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, California - Wednesday, July 12th 2023 - 6.00 am

---

She opened her eyes and found herself staring at the ceiling. The air felt stuffy and she breathed a sigh of relief as she realized where she was. She was still in her jail cell like room at the back of the kitchen. Her eyes could see clearly so she must still be in Aurora's body.

She sat up and grabbed some of her hair and saw that they were blonde. Then she stood up and took a look in the mirror at her small dresser and found Aurora's face staring back at her.

“Thank you, God.” She smiled then she went out of the bedroom to take a shower.

After she was done she quickly went upstairs to Aurora's room to change into Aurora's outfit. She didn't want Rosa to be suspicious if she was seen wearing her own clothes, even though she missed wearing some of her own clothes.

The door to Aurora's room was still closed so she knocked gently.

“Aurora, I just want to get some clothes.” She said.

Some moments passed by and she could hear the sound of footsteps behind the door then the door opened slowly, revealing Aurora who looked like she didn't sleep all night.

“Get in.” Aurora hissed and she scrunched up her nose as she smelled the telltale sign of alcohol from her mouth.

“Are you drunk?” She asked as she got into the room and watched as Aurora staggered back towards the bed.

“What if I am?” She huffed as she laid back down on the bed then closed her eyes.

“You need to stop running to alcohol, Aurora.” She sighed.

“It's not going to help you.” She continued as she went to the closet and started to pick up some clothes.

“Yeah.. yeah..” Aurora mumbled.

“Is there a specific clothes you want me to wear today?” She asked.

“No, I don't care. Wear whatever you want.” Aurora replied.

Against her own wishes she felt kind of sorry for Aurora. It must be hard for Aurora to experience being her.

“Are you okay?” She asked after she picked up a blue long summer dress she knew Aurora would like for her to wear.

“Obviously not.” Aurora replied.

“Well.. now you know how hard it is being me.” She commented.

“It's not that you idiot!” Aurora yelled and she sighed, bracing for another of Aurora's rages.

“I'm sorry.” She mumbled.

“He never looked at me the way he looked at you.” Aurora started to say and she felt like her heart stopped.

“What? What do you mean?” She asked.

“He never.. he never initiated a kiss. It was always me that started. And.. and I know sometimes he looked at me like he was interested in me but then he always looked away as if he's disappointed in himself. But ever since we switched, I saw a difference. Somehow he.. he allows himself to like me.. no.. you..” Aurora said as tears started to fall from her eyes.

She froze as she heard what Aurora just said. Was she hearing things?

“Oh God. What am I doing? I'm telling you all the juicy details.” Aurora sighed.

“I think you need some rest Aurora. I'm just going to leave you now so you can sleep. Okay? I'll come up with something to tell Rosa.” She said as she took the dress and walked towards the bathroom.

“You think I'm pathetic don't you?” Aurora said as she walked past the bed.

“Aurora.” She stopped and turned to face her. “I just think that you need to get some rest and don't say anything you will regret later on.”

“Good point. By the way, it's Wednesday, the day I'm supposed to spend with my mom. But she just texted me saying she's not in LA. She's in Shanghai with that bitch cousin of mine. I can't believe she still follows her around like a puppy.” She grumbled.

“Oh. I'm.. I'm sorry to hear that, Aurora. Well, hopefully by the time she gets back we already switch back into our own bodies, huh?” She said. Despite her own feelings of not wanting to switch back so soon, she couldn't help but say it to make Aurora feel better.

“Yeah, I hope so.” Aurora replied.

“Oh, speaking of appointments, today you need to attend the trial for breaking and entering the other night, remember?” She said.

“No, I don't. I already asked my lawyers to represent me.. well.. you.. today.” Aurora responded.

“Oh, okay. That's good. So, what are your schedule for today?” She asked.

“Nothing. But there's another photoshoot tomorrow for Givenchy and on Friday I need to do a video shoot with Paris for a dog food commercial.” She replied.

“Oh, right. Nothing for the weekend, right?” She asked as she remembered Sebastian asking her to practice their scenes together that weekend.

“Nothing so far.” Aurora replied.

“Okay, good.” She was going to tell her about Sebastian asking her to practice together that weekend but decided against it after knowing how Aurora felt about him.

“Okay, well I better change and go outside so you can sleep.” She said.

“Okay.” Aurora responded then she closed her eyes.

After Aurora unexpectedly blurted out about Sebastian and her earlier she couldn't help but feel happy about it. That meant Sebastian liked her! Well, she was in a different body but it seemed he liked her personality too and she felt like she was in cloud nine about that. She wondered if he would still like her if she was still in her own body but she realized probably not. The fact that he had never tried to get closer to her when she was still in her own body proved that.

Even though the last thought made her somehow sad, she was still happy she knew of that fact and decided to enjoy it while it lasted. She didn't know how much longer she would be in Aurora's body and she intended to enjoy the time that she still had.

It was three in the afternoon when she received the answer to her prayers last night. She and Aurora were doing some exercises by the swimming pool. Aurora had complained that she started to see fat around her belly and insisted for her to eat less and do some exercises.

She was huffing and sweating as they were just finished doing some HIIT exercises. She sat down on the ground and gulped a bottle of water while Aurora rested on a chair nearby and drank some green smoothies when the door from the kitchen was opened and Rosa came running towards them with panic on her face.

“Miss Watson! Y/n! There are some police at the door and your lawyers Miss Watson. They.. they want to talk to you and..” Rosa said but she was cut off.

“Y/F/N Y/L/N! You are under arrest for breaking and entering!” A policeman came through the kitchen door and announced, startling both of them.

“What?!” She and Aurora both stood up, her heart beating so fast in her chest.

Another policeman came out from the kitchen door followed by two men in black suits she assumed were Aurora's lawyers.

“What's going on? What happened at the trial?!” Aurora shouted as they walked closer to them.

“Miss Watson, Miss Y/L/N, we're really sorry but this is the best we could do.” One of the lawyers said as soon as they arrived in front of them.

“What?!” Aurora yelled.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“We tried our best today at the trial but the judge was a fairly new appointed judge and he.. he decided to sentence your assistant to one month in jail.” One of the lawyers said.

“What?!” She and Aurora shouted at the same time.

When she prayed to God that she wanted to stay longer in Aurora's body, this was not exactly what she had in mind.

Chapter 14 >

Taglist

@dhoruwolfie

#sebastian stan #sebastianstan #sebastian stan fanfic #sebastian stan fanfiction #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan x y/n #sebastian stan x you #sebastian stan x female reader #sebastian stan fluff

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rifki16 · 5 months

Text

Living with Him Episode Four Review

Photo Credit: Living with Him Twitter Promotional Account.

Living with Him Episode Four

A warm upscaled instant cup noodle (pun intended)

The episode ran through the chapters five and six. I suppose that the Live-Action is mixing and adding more materials to the contents of the two chapters, and it actually filled some gaps of logic from the manga.

They copied the first pages of the fifth chapter and acted it out very outstandingly in the scene after the cold open. I think the way that Ryo was spacing out was more consistent in the LA compared to the manga. In the manga, Ryo was actually having a conversation with Kazuhito before he became stiff and awkward when Kazuhito-kun touched him. Here, it seems to play even better with the plot that Ryo kept thinking hardly of how to answer to Kazuhito’s confession – you know because the confession got stuck in his head even when he was just walking down the street in the university.

Side note, I have to apologize to anyone who reads my Living with Him Pilot review essay as well as my tweet about the head banging incident of Ryo. It did not happen after Ryo stayed up too late thinking of Kazuhito’s puzzling statement after their pretend date. I just checked the manga, and the LA actually did what the manga wrote that the head bang happened after the sleepover the night when Kazuhito confessed to Ryo.

I think the scene of when Ryo talked with Haruna was done well. The LA also did what the manga wrote in chapter five. Now this is where the illogical itches keep appearing in my brain. Okay, Haruna asked Ryo to eat Habanero noodle, he refused. Then, he asked Kazuhito, he refused and became angered by the fact that Haruna was hovering with his precious Ryo. After Ryo went off somewhere, Kazuhito started his shift at the restaurant, Ryo then agreed to hang out with Haruna while Haruna was eating his Habanero noodle. What? Why? On what ground was that necessary? Was it to prove Yoshieri’s point in the beginning of the episode that Ryo is always lonely, not feeling alone mind you, without Kazuhito? Because the scene was very abrupt, right after Haruna was burning his tongue by ordering the meal, Ryo immediately went home.

Side note, WHY DID THEY USE THE “KAZUHITO COULD GO HOME EARLY” PLOT IN THIS EPISODE???? THAT WAS SUPPOSED FOR THE HEATING UP SEQUEL MANGA, when Kazuhito was too horknee to leave his boyfriend at the flat.

When Kazuhito eventually went home from his shift, it was nice to see another gay couple just wandering the street drunkenly. Ryo, as it turns out, was waiting for Kazuhito all along, and both were hungry. And hence they made instant cup noodles, Ryo had the broth-type one whereas Kazuhito had the fried one. I don’t think I need to add this to my illogical itches, but I was so confused as to why they were staring each other when Ryo proposed adding rice to the leftover broth. Kazuhito only answered by saying that he would like to eat his Yakisoba. They laughed afterwards. Why? Am I missing the joke here? Or is it just that Kazuhito didn’t want to eat the rice broth combination that Ryo was about to make?

I think it’s nice that the LA made Ryo waited Kazuhito until he actually came home. It gives precedent before the 6th chapter plotline of Kazuhito coming home from the party drenched in water and Ryo was waiting worriedly whether his boyfriend would actually make it through the rain.

The episode then went back on track with the 6th chapter by recreating, very brilliantly I must add, the library scene between Haruna and Ryo. The scene started out by showing a day when Ryo was definitely made available, because his sisters cancelled at the last minute a hangout date which they have agreed on. As Kazuhito was mustering up the courage to ask Ryo out for the available day – Kazuhito knew about the cancellation as Ryo retold what just happened to him – Ryo needed to go to the library to meet with Haruna. I think it answered the questions I had about the same scene in the manga, which is why I like the LA recreation so much.

The hangout in the library scene with Haruna actually went pretty similar with the manga. Haruna thanked Ryo for coming along. Haruna gave Ryo his own nickname, Ryo-ta, which is actually his real name in the manga. As someone who is down bad for the actor who plays Haruna, I was actually quite jealous of Ryo for being wooed by Haruna during this scene haha. Haruna then talked about whether Ryo does his own cooking, which of course he said yes. And Haruna asked whether he could rent Ryo for his services lol. Kazuhito then banged on the table saying that Ryo had plans on the day that Haruna was asking of him.

The last illogical itch that I’m having is, why on earth is Haruna made such a tease in the LA? I mean, in the manga, Haruna already signed to Kazuhito that he was not interested in Ryo, and that he was rooting for them. Is it that the series was just trying to prepare for the scene when Kazuhito went home from helping his aunt’s, mom’s, business only to find Haruna in the flat with a crying Ryo? I really think it is still possible to make Kazuhito jealous in that future scene without making Kazuhito-Haruna’s friendship in jeopardy.

The next episode is the LA exclusive camping episode. I’m very interested in how the LA actually conjured up the episode. I know that it’s a good substantive episode so that the breakup before the makeup scene, after the being drenched in water Kazuhito scene, will matter more as now we know how strong the bond is between the two even after the confession, and it slowly makes Ryo that he loves Kazuhito back.

So amped up for it ! Watch the 4th episode yall, it’s so good

#gay #japan bl #bl live action #kare no iru seikatsu #living with him #tanaka kazuhito #Natsukawa ryota #Ryo x Kazuhito

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sc-intothedarknightofthesoul · 2 months

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Ezra for the OC bingo?

I got a bingo! Yay!

Probably the few things that separate my Into the Dark Night of the Soul fanfic from the Libra of Soul game mode are the few changes that kinda diverge from the canon plot just as much as it follows it, the fleshed out moments that lead up to the major plot points, and the fact that Ezra Fontaine exists.

Ezra is an OC created specifically for the fanfic adaptation, but sometimes I play the Soul Edge Route as her in Libra of Soul to see how THAT will play out.

To start off, like Kasta, I didn't realize the significance of her name until I looked up her first and last name.

As I mentioned, I created Ezra on a whim while writing my rough draft a few years ago now, and she was named after a catchy tune I played a lot at the time made by Flume.

As for name meanings, Ezra is mostly Hebrew for "help" or "helper," and refers to one who is humble but is no pushover.

Given that Ezra is also a Virgo (putting her on the bracket with the likes of Voldo, Astaroth, and Patroklos)--who are known to not only be the detail-orientated and observant minds of the Zodiac ruled by Mercury, but also serve to uplift others--it's kind of funny in an ironic way. The dark side of Virgos is that in their bid to serve others, they also risk sabotaging themselves in the process and/or have bad faith actors take advantage of their willing acts of service.

Sorry guys, my Astrology slipped.

Her surname Fontaine (yes, she's French) means "fountain" or "spring" and refers to one who is whimsical yet sophisticated and lives near a body of water.

Putting her name together, it'd be "helper of the fountain."

I also like to address the elephant in the room that, yes, she is also one of the Qualifiers, the cult Azwel created after defecting from the Aval Organization and taking some of the members with him, cos I kinda wanted to go in-depth and write exactly HOW I think his cult works.

Not to spoil my fic, but what sets her apart from the likes of Daniel is that she joined after the defection under the naive assumption that the Qualifiers do what they do for the genuine charity of the people. She's kind of like Valtro in a way, as they both got out of bad situations in their lives thanks to Azwel. But what also sets her apart from Valtro is that she still has her head on her shoulders and that she is considered meek and shy.

Gods, I have so many ideas for how the Qualifiers cloud the suspicions of the regular people and get on their good graces while secretly experimenting on people behind closed doors.

There is more to Ezra's story with how she ended up with Azwel and the Qualifiers that I will eventually get into at some point in the fanfic, but I will note that he got her out of a shitty situation.

An idea I have for why Ezra kinda looks at the Aval Organization sideways is because of who's side of the story she heard first, that being Azwel's. And how he told Lord Dumas in Amy's Soul Chronicle (in a chapter that happens during the events of Libra of Soul) of how the Aval Organization betrayed the Lady of the Lake is giving me ideas as to how exactly Azwel was successful at wrapping newcomers of his cult around his fingers.

He could just easily flip the script, go all Lorax-mode to speak for the humans, and tell you "Well actually, the Aval Organization betrayed me, therefore, they betrayed the human race, and you by extension" and even if you knew the whole truth, who are you to call out a guy that, in the public eye, has done nothing but heal the sick, hunt down the demons wrecking havoc on your home, and has done so out of the kindness of his heart on his bullshit?

Anyways, back on track.

She is technically made for a relationship, but not the romantic kind, as I mentioned at some point that Ezra is also a childhood friend of Kasta's, although in the fic she has yet to recognize them as she often stalks observes them from far away to avoid getting caught. When she does recognize them, catches up with them and later finds out they joined forces with the Aval Organization despite being what they call an outsider, that creates new problems for her. What those problems lead to will be revealed in future chapters.

So yeah, she's the worst (endearingly) and the worst (derogatory).

Compared to Kasta, Ezra's easy to write and I enjoy writing her POVs in the fic adaptation and to see what troubles she gets herself into, and like Kasta, I also put a bit of myself in her.

She loves to talk about animals (especially spiders and rabbits) and it's a running gag in my story that she has a habit of referring to them by their scientific names (look, I know scientific names weren't thought of yet, but please let me have this).

She also has a love for playing the violin (she's also inspired by Lindsey Stirling's songs).

But yeah, like I said for my previous post with Kasta in regards to fanart, I don't care if you're an experienced artist or just starting out, as long as it's not made through an AI generator, I keep the fanart made for my OCs to cherish them for the rest of my days.

I have more OCs in the works, but until I actually introduce them into my fanfic adaptation, this is probably it for now. Thank you for the ask and have a wonderful day/night!

#ask game #oc ask game #oc: ezra fontaine #a-master-procrastinator #soul-engraver

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corishadowfang · 4 months

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On My Heart: 💓: is it part of a series or standalone?

Fallen Stars: 💙: how has the idea changed between starting it and where it is now?

KH folktale: 💟: how is your style different in this work?

(For this)

💓: is it part of a series or standalone?

Standalone! I don't do series very often, haha; in this case, while there's probably room for a series, I kind of wanted to keep things contained to a single story. So...hopefully it'll remain that way, haha!

💙: how has the idea changed between starting it and where it is now?

Oh, man. It's changed a lot from the original plans I had for it. Like--the very, very first iteration was back before Missing-Link was announced, and this was supposed to be a short, Brain-centric fic about learning how to live with his grief in a very different time and place. The first idea that could truly be considered proto-Fallen Stars was also supposed to be relatively short, despite the sound of the premise--basically, the plan was that it would follow Brain and Skuld's entire life in Scala ad Caelum (kind of following the idea that like...your trauma sticks with you, sometimes, and you may not always heal completely, but you can still be happy), with more...snapshots of what happened to them, rather than the monster it ended up growing into, haha. That got shelved for a little while because I started writing the first chapter and realized, "Oh, no...there's plot here." And then I made that Tumblr post and it got revived, aha.

As for how it's changed since I actually, officially started on current-Fallen Stars...uh. Well, it was supposed to be a lot shorter. I think my original outline had it in the mid-twenties, chapter-wise? That didn't pan out, obviously, haha. Other than that, the big points have remained basically the same (I've done too much foreshadowing, man, I need those to pay off), but the details have occasionally changed. For example, originally I wasn't going to reveal that Luxu was the narrator until the very end (with basically just a throw-away "As if" in the narration, haha), but it got moved up for...plot reasons that may become more apparent in the coming chapters.

KH folktale: 💟: how is your style different in this work?

This is a much less traditional story than most of my stuff, haha, so it ends up being quite a bit different! Normally, I have very character-driven based narratives that's primarily written in prose. This is...you know those literature textbooks that have compilations of stories, but also introductions to and backgrounds for them? This is like that, but the introductions/backgrounds are also telling the story of the narrator...basically trying to track down and put together all of these stories, which were kind of lost to time, since the Keyblade wielders kind of, uh...don't exist anymore in this time period. (This takes place far into the future, aha.)

The stories themselves all come from different eras, so I want to all feel very distinct. That means they'll probably all have pretty unique styles for how they're written; Daybreak Town (and pre-Daybreak Town) era-stuff will be pretty similar to some of the folktales/legends/etc. I've done for Dandelion Seeds, and the very early Scala days I know is very song-based, but I'm still working out styles for the others. So, uh...it's going to be a lot different from what I usually do, but also a fun challenge!

#on my heart #fallen stars #kh folktale story #thanks for the ask!!

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n7punk · 1 year

Text

"the long way down" Fic Notes

TLWD is done now so I get to be a little insane about it. I’ve had meta about Outside of the War fics before, but this one… is certainly something Else, so I’ve enough to say to need the structure of a fic notes post.

Chapter 1:

⦁ Off the bat, the Mara thing: again, I’ve said this a couple times, but I don’t think her surviving in the portal is canon. I’m not sure what the timeline of the Heart going off and Mara moving Etheria was, much less what was up with the first version of the portal (something happened from what Razz said, but who knows it if it was the exact same thing), so it’s hard to say if she even would have gotten suspended like that in the first place. It was fun to write that fic, but I didn’t want to carry that continuity into this one. I wanted this idea to stand on its own and Mara being alive would have complicated the hell out of this. She would have known stuff, and either wanted or really not wanted to see the ruins of Eternia, and it just… would have been so many complications, especially if she didn’t go with them on that journey, because then they would have had to debate going back for her or not and…. Yeah it’s just Too Much.

⦁ The little italic preview (something I use so sparingly I think this might be my first time ever) at the beginning of the fic is obviously from the scene in chapter three, but cut down to size because again, sparing. It’s contextless here and half-context wouldn’t have served it.

⦁ It has come up a lot in my fics, but Adora being into cartography is something Aimee (her VA) mentioned at a con as like, a headcanon, and my brain immediately accepted that and went right that’s canon now lol. It just fits really well so it’s come up in my post-canon fics a lot as a hobby, but this is the first time it has been plot-important.

⦁ Catra getting jealous of paper is from a previous OotW fic, return from civility.

⦁ George and Lance literally have a 3D-projection star chart in their library that they show off in the season 2 finale, but the star charts Adora pulls out are very different from that because it’s a 2D inscription of flight paths between systems rather than a chart of constellations, so it wasn’t blatantly obvious what it was until they could start translating things with Adora’s help.

⦁ Let’s talk about the chapter art because you cannot imagine how much work that took! Like it’s stupid! I wanted essentially an “arrow” made from First Ones numbers pointing in the direction of Eternia. I went through a lot of rough drafts before I decided, for simplicity’s sake (my sanity) instead of it literally saying “One thousand four hundred and sixteen” it would say “1416” because god is that a lot to cram into a small space and stay readable, much less connected. I’m like 95% sure what I produced is correct by the guidelines of the language, but it’s a lot of lines to track, so if it’s wrong… I don’t want to hear it. Some details, though. The shadowy background compass has an “indent” in the center of it — that’s actually the letter E, standing for “Eternia,” in the First Ones’ script. Each of the numbers/words gets progressively smaller as it goes on, which isn’t in the rules, but in my opinion it makes it easier to read because you can intuit that you’re supposed to start at least one of the ends, and Clare approved, so I’m keeping it. (Yeah, if you know what post I’m talking about, I’ve been sitting on this fic idea that long. I wrote half the fic then and got distracted by shiny new things lmao). It was really hard picking colors for the image that would show up well on various site backgrounds, but in the end I decided it was impossible to accommodate for most skins, so I should focus on the two most-used ones instead and ended up with the blue and gray that show up decently on both the white and dark mode site skins. It’s not perfect on either, but it’s pretty good on both, and that’s the best I could ask for. I purposefully picked numbers that were one syllable so I didn’t have to deal with multiple syllable branches since making this image do what I want was already so much work lmao. I tried to figure out the words by myself first but I always double-check my First Ones script work with the translator on itch.io so thank you to whoever made that you have been a life-saver multiple times for me <3

⦁ I went back and forth on whether they’d be wives by the time of this one, and then I remembered it’s somewhere around two years post-canon and they’re lesbians. I think they probably got married shortly before leaving. I also stand by the idea of Glimbow getting engaged first but married way later (royal wedding nonsense, it came up in either "to make a home," or "her heart on her sleeve." Maybe both) and since they were getting married right after this trip, that would mean Catra and Adora are married.

⦁ Trolla is a planet in the MOTU. It’s where Orko is from… which means nothing to you if you haven’t watched the original He-man, but google an image of him, because somehow that exact character design pops up in so much shit. I’m pretty sure there’s a character like that in Kingdom Hearts, which means there’s also a character like that in Final Fantasy, but don’t quote me on that. I feel like he and Loo-Kee were pretty equivalent to me when I was a kid and Loo-Kee was at the end of every damn She-ra episode with his little “today’s moral” shtick.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Honestly, part of the reason Catra is wielding a staff in the cult scene is because I did all the research for the dolls and her accessory in that line was a staff. Which… okay sure, but she does use them in canon. Like twice. But it felt right here with the potential flashback stuff.

⦁ I made sure to include mention of the two moons originally shown around Eternia in my Children of the Crystal series. Just a little bit of consistency.

⦁ I thought about the… manufactured planet thing from Mass Effect Andromeda (listen, I haven’t played the game since it came out, I don’t really remember) while describing Eternia, and it got me thinking about how in sci-fi and stuff, structures like this are always in grayscale. They’re gray, or maybe white, but never like… yellow, and certainly not rainbow. The First Ones ruins we’ve seen have all been very colorful, so I thought a vibrant, rainbow planet, indicating life and art and culture, but still from this destructive society, would really be interesting.

⦁ The “ruins incident” is the impotence for a fic I’ve never written and probably never will but damn has that not stopped me thinking it through every few months. The timeline doesn’t even work out because that’s supposed to happen like five years after this but it’s mostly a reference for myself lmao.

⦁ I know Catra and Adora have “memes” personal to them dating back to their time in the Horde and still forming to this day, but I imagine Catra and Melog have their own jokes too that no one else has even the faintest idea about because it all happens in their heads.

⦁ Originally I explained it in the fic before I decided the Gatekeeper wouldn’t know it, but the reason there were only signs of evacuation deep inside was because part of Protocol Zero’s mandatory evacuation was evacuation tiers. It’s the highest threat level possible and that means everybody needs to leave and could clog the skies, making it impossible for anyone to really escape. There’s also bullshit prioritization of “well, these people deserve to get out more than others” so it's stratified to ensure some people (the most important) get out first. First in line was royalty and the highest ranks of the military (to coordinate rebuilding efforts once escaped), then the highest ranks of state-sponsored scientists and nobility, followed by the mid ranks of state-sponsors scientists and high rank state-sponsored artists, and then concurrently mid-level military, more scientists, and high-rank citizens. Finally, the rest of the artists and citizens (aka free-for-all tier).

⦁ The Citadel is a reference to Mass Effect.

⦁ A whole decade ago I saw a post on Tumblr claiming a “moment” used to be an actual measurement of time (roughly 90 seconds) that I never forgot and it turns out that was actually true (this was the era of Alexandria’s Genesis so you know… easily could have been bullshit I never bothered to google) so I threw it in in this fic as a fun fact about medieval sundial measurement.

⦁ Almost nothing works on the planet because it all ran on wireless power, and the transmission towers for that were completely destroyed by the Horde’s invasion. The Horde them pulverized everything else it could find, tracing down every last electrical signal or sign of life and snuffing it out. The only thing that survived were bugs that were hibernating underground or in the rare piece of plant life that wasn’t destroyed. Seeds in the earth also sprouted later, leaving those as the only survivors of the massacre. The Horde occupied Eternia for a while making sure nothing else would pop up, but eventually Prime was satisfied and got the fuck out of there, afraid of their integration of tech and magic and tired of losing clones to lingering mechanical boobytraps.

⦁ Okay the meta for Mara’s painting is that one of the quickest paths to state sponsorship was art depicting the planet. The Eternians really did view it as the ultimate art piece. Mara did something groundbreaking for her time and portrayed it as it originally was before all the terraforming. The establishment didn’t like that. Even worse, she used an ephemeral medium involving a mix of materials that would break down over time, and while it was good and above average, she was far from the most impressive artist that year alone. Mara really did think the transformation of Eternia was awe-inspiring at the time, but doubt set in after she was assigned to the brand-new (not even begun, really) colony on Etheria and started falling in love with its vibrant nature. Eternia still had plenty of it, but it was carefully cultivated through landscaping and terraforming. Ironically, it has become a lot closer to Etheria’s untamed state by the time of the fic, thanks to the lack of direct intervention and partially-damaged terraformers. (Side note: the terraforming system ran on its own network with a million safeties in place because, you know, if they ever shut off the path of the planet around the sun could permanently be altered from its irregular shape. It was Very Important they survive anything, and Horde Prime didn't try to destroy them while occupying it because he also needed it to not be flung into the sun)

⦁ Being a state-sponsored artist basically means you get a salary instead of living commission-to-commission, access to grant programs to create big pieces of art, essentially advertising and general public approval, and access to exclusive display locations, especially in architecture or high-traffic areas (think the mosaics they found). Mara wanted to try, so she applied to the symposium basically fresh out of high school with the plan that if it didn’t work out she would follow in her parent’s footsteps (military family) and join a colony exploration program. If she got approval or even just a grant she would go to art school, but, well, she didn’t. So she ended up training in military academy, bouncing around a few colonies, and then making her way to Commander rank and Etheria.

Chapter 3:

⦁ The “three workshops that they know about” thing is because Catra is sure Entrapta is hiding more questionable experiments from them in the walls. And she’s right.

⦁ The data crystal art says “Final log” on its front and “Distress” (as in, distress signal) in the background. I never really translate that in the fic but it was also going in the final chapter when the fic notes were about to be posted so I wasn’t too worried about it.

⦁ My idea for the crystal was that it would be really hard to find any logs of what happened because, well, everybody who would have made or kept those logs was dead and the Horde destroyed a lot of what they found. This was a transmission that was intercepted at long-range on this smaller mining planet and was basically a portent of their imminent doom to them, the Horde arriving shortly after they received it, leaving this as one of the few logs the Eternians managed to preserve.

⦁ I didn’t actually reference a data crystal from the show for my drawing, I just ran off my memory of what it looked like, so it’s probably a little off, but I thought that would actually fit with the “artistic representation” thing like the planet had. The downward slanting of the words (and especially the descending of the sounds in the word “Distress”) are a visual representation of the signal dropping off and the “long way down” metaphor.

⦁ I didn’t actually intend to have an illustration per chapter for this fic initially. It was just supposed to be the first one. I drew that all the way back in January/February when I first started working on this fic, but as I was describing Eternia, I was like… this would actually be fun to draw. And then it seemed weird to have a drawing for 2 out of 3 chapters, so I added the data crystal, and I like how that worked out since I got to do the “subtle” stuff (so subtle it needs to be explained lmao) with the distress signal in the background.

⦁ Yeah so what’s up with that metaphor, right? I don’t know. Like, okay, I kind of do, but basically that song latched onto this fic and then they fed off each other and I have NO idea why. Like, it fits, but it’s also like… why this. For the people who don’t listen to songs when fics link them (I’ll be honest, I rarely do, even though I discovered my favorite band in the world that way), “Long Way Down” is a song about going to hell. I think the specific story is supposed to reflect preachers and religious folk who espouse how everyone else is full of sin and going to hell, but really they’re just going to end up down there too (“I’ve been fucking around while you’ve been saving the world... from nothing”). It’s not a direct fit in that way, but in the hubris, where you think you’re giants but you’re actually going to fall like all the others? Yeah, seemed fitting for the First Ones.

⦁ Tellus is earth in Latin. Being that the originals are 80s cartoons, Earth is of course canon and there was a Christmas special set there. As I remember it, Earth was some #Isekai shit (okay not really but) where it was just the normal modern world and then He-man and She-ra showed up to take teens on adventures so Americans could teach them the true meaning of Christmas or something. I haven’t watched it since I was a very small child so I could be wrong. I got sidetracked. Yes Earth went kaput in this universe. Yes that had consequences. Yes he was saying “Commander Adam, signing off.”

⦁ Having just come off of CotC where I finally really went into my time travel headcanon… Yeah a lot of people knew this wasn’t going to end well. Honestly, when I initially planned this fic, I had this idea that Adora would touch the console and it would greet her as the lost princess — or even that she would find a recording from her lost twin brother — but either way she would find out that she probably came from the past. The problem was… that also doesn’t match my headcanon? (Refresher/If you didn’t read CotC: my headcanon is that since dimensional portals were cut off in Despondos, only time portals worked, so Light Hope pulled Adora through after spending a long time building one and trying to figure out where to open it to get her. This is why she popped out in the middle of a field: that’s just where she was physically located in the past.) My headcanon is that Adora was a regular child to settlers on Etheria when the Horde attacked and Light Hope eventually made the time portal and snatched her away before she could die. The system back home on Eternia probably wouldn’t recognize her as a random baby in the colonies, so it just didn’t track (especially the princess thing. That was something I thought about when I was first forming the headcanon in 2020, but it didn’t stick. Adora being “normal” is what made sense to me). I did consider having it be some thing where like, well maybe she was still born on Eternia or some major colony where she would be registered in the system, but honestly, that was all too definitive, and I liked the idea of it recognizing She-ra and them learning a little more about Mara.

⦁ Honestly, I don’t think Adora and Adam are even twins in this verse for me. I think cousins makes the most sense here (especially since he was like 20-30 in the recording and Adora would have been Very Small). If he were her sibling, that would make him some random twin she doesn’t know and never learns much about, but this way he’s still important to present Adora because his recording is the one that really made her accept what happened, and isn’t that the kind of thing that older siblings are supposed to do? Take care of their siblings, loving them and telling them the hard truths, through losing their family/home/way of life, etc? Idk, this somehow felt closer to the spirit of the OG canon than giving her a random twin that she didn’t know much about. Her finding a living twin who lives somewhere out in space didn’t feel like the spirit of this SPOP either (especially since they were expressly forbidden to even consider Adam/He-man), so we ended up here.

⦁ This is gonna sound weird but — canonically — I don’t think Adora has parents unless they make a movie. Like the time travel theory still makes sense to me, and if they ever made a movie I feel like finding her parents out in space would be an obvious plot point to get a bit more of a “happy ending” and tie up loose ends from the show, but like… I don’t think the show — in isolation — intends for them to be out there, and I think her not finding them is more tragic if they’re alive somewhere than the time travel thing where they’ve been gone for a thousand years so there’s no chance of recovery.

⦁ After some discussion with a Science Person I determined that it was possible for the DNA changes to be passed down in people who constantly produce sperm, and for people with eggs too if the process also affected the eggs inside of them (since they're only produced once). Also, magic bullshit is floating around helps and all of this is all theoretical anyway so I’m doing what I want lol.

⦁ Edit: Somehow I forgot to talk about this but. The First Ones. Yeah so, in this... I mean they are basically human. Their terraforming (and general tech) processes changed them into something distinguishable, but not all that different. After a thousand years, any First Ones that did survive the original genocide would have to have intermixed with humans to survive. The changes from terraforming would long be diluted and mutated away until humans really are all that's left. Catra's speculation about resettling an old colony planet is the best chance for them still existing, and like she said, they wouldn't even know that they're secretly picking up the genetic signatures of Eternians. I've never been sure if the First Ones are actually different from humans, or just a nationality, or perhaps an ancestor/divergent race from them (I think that question is purposefully left open-ended), so I did... this, which is kind of a combination. IDK, I just thought it was a cool possibility that would explain their humanness while still making them distinct in a (fairly) plausible way. The materials our modern world is made of are causing changes to our bodies (from lettuce insecticide in our blood to earlier hormone development) so something as extensive as terraforming would produce changes that could diverge them enough to be detectable. This leads to things like Adora's puberty being a bit different (unnaturally fast) and her alcohol tolerance being wild (I mean, that's something that varies between people already without a genetic splinter) but leaves her still - essentially - human. First Ones and humans started from the same place but splintered eventually. This isn't like some other things where it's my firm headcanon, but I do think it's a cool idea, so it was fun to do here and it both acts as another hint to the time travel possibility while also explaining how Adora could have parents and there could be "surviving First Ones" in the present. It wasn't part of the original plan for the fic, but I'm really glad it developed as I wrote because it's really interesting to me.

⦁ Catra is right about the cycle wearing on Adora, but it’s a little more than that: Adora could only convince herself to leave Eternia by turning her attention back to their mission, and the moment there was a real pause in it she realized that she didn’t want to keep doing this after all.

⦁ Adora will have questions for a while, and wonder about it occasionally, but she has kind of accepted that what really makes her happy is Etheria. She wishes she knew the answers, but not enough to abandon where she's actually happy and search for them. She doesn't want to fly for a year to some location in far space for answers, she wants her true family, and that's Catra and her friends.

Meta:

Compass art (1416)

Eternia art

Data crystal art

Upcoming:

Uhhhh I really don’t know right now? Could be a lot of things. My brain can’t settle on anything long enough to choose right now so it’ll probably be a week before I’m even sure enough to tell y’all. Check back here I guess lol

#tlwd #ficmeta #fic notes #share post will be up later today since i already posted a bunch of stuff informing yall it was done XD #spread the news ou lol

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