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juuuulez · 10 months ago

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showing them your party dress, and they judge you (thinking it’s slutty or they get jealous) and won’t come to the deannas party with you. you get drunk and they help u 😝😝😝 (comfort angst)

info: Rick Grimes x Reader, NSFW, sorta drunk sex, Spencer is a creep, unsafe sex/pulling out, p in v.

summary: After pissing you off over a comment about your outfit, Rick tries to prove your worth another way.

omg idk when this escalated into smut but it did, but thanks for the request!!! thought i’d show rick some love because he’s soooo dilf and there isn’t enough rick appreciation on this page

You wrap your hair around the curling iron, clamping down the hot metal and holding it in place. Tonight, Deanna is having a party for the new residents, and you’d been practically buzzing with excitement all day. Not only was Alexandria a miracle to come across, but they treated life with some semblance of normality.

“That the dress you’re wearin’?” A voice behind you asks, your gaze fluttering up to watch Rick through the mirror. He’s standing behind you, eyes scanning the dress you’d put on.

It was black, form-fitting and short. Paired with some kitten heels, you looked good enough to eat. Except, you’d thought it would illicit a bit more… excitement from your boyfriend.

“Yeah,” You agree, “Rosita found it for me. Said I’d look good in it.”

As if to prove your point, you turn around, giving a little spin in an almost childish manner. Rick stands there, stone faced, not betraying a single emotion.

“You do,” He finally lets up, “But is this the impression we wanna give?”

A response doesn’t come right away, silence filling the space between you as the words stew in your mind. They sound strangely negative, causing your brows to furrow into a little frown.

“C’mon, baby. You know what I mean.” Rick tries again, having sensed that he’s said something wrong.

But you’ve already turned away, continuing to primp your hair in the mirror. “Are you coming tonight?” You ask, completely avoiding his previous misstep for the sake of not becoming upset before the party.

“No, not tonight,” Rick sighs, “Got some shit to sort out.”

This one doesn’t get a reply either, and Rick knows that you aren’t pleased. So far, your relationship has been anything but normal. Back at the prison, he’d kept you at an arms length, finding your alluring nature and sweet smile threatening to his morals. Yet, over time, he’d let you in, and you’d wormed your way into his life.

“You could stay home, too. Wait for me. We’ll watch a movie when I get home.” He ends up suggesting, trying to alleviate your souring mood.

It’s fruitless, for you’re still persisting. “No. I want to party, like every other person in this town.”

“In that dress?” He questions once more.

You turn again, shooting the older man a glare. “Yes. Now leave, I’m getting ready, and you’re distracting me.” You essentially demand, and as not to get bitten, Rick obeys.

Part of you is pissed that he folded so easily, even though it was your bad temper. Regardless, you swore to have fun tonight, Rick or no Rick.

So, you finished doing your hair, even going so far as to put a little makeup on. It felt good, all of it, mainly because it just felt normal. You ventured from your house, trailing down the street to where the commotion was, eager to have a fun night out and remove Rick’s comment from your mind.

Though you claimed to be over it, your actions were saying otherwise.

Alcohol wasn’t commonplace during the apocalypse, at least not for your group. It wasn’t a necessity, and would only worsen the burden of surviving, having to recover from hangovers or be momentarily inebriated.

But tonight? You’d drink as much as you wanted to. Wine had never really been your favourite, but now, it was like liquid gold.

Maybe you were still annoyed at Rick, and you certainly were annoyed at Spencer, who kept talking to you at every possible opportunity. He didn’t like Rick, so in favour, you didn’t like him.

Everything turned into a blur at one point, and you would vaguely remember sitting down on the couch, nursing a cup of water in hand. Who gave you water? It didn’t really matter, for once more, Spencer had sat next to you.

He offered you another glass of wine, and stupidly, you took it.

“Ever get bored of playing with your old man?” He asked, lips upturned into a wicked grin, like the joke was supposed to be amusing. It wasn’t.

There’s a sickly feeling in your stomach, though it doesn’t stem from the alcohol, but guilt. “I need some air.” You end up mumbling, uncoordinatedly stumbling from the couch.

Spencer follows a few steps behind you, his hand on your arm with the feinted intention of helping.

“Without you!” You clarify in a drunken yell, messily yanking both heels from your feet, leaving them in the hallway while you make a break for the door.

Fortunately, Spencer gets the message.

Not that it mattered, for there was another face you didn’t want to see, waiting right outside.

Rick looked so good in the little police uniform they’d given him, with his clean shaven face and trimmed hair. It was a completely different man from the one you’d known, but delicious nonetheless.

“I don’t need your help, asshole.” You snap whilst faltering down the steps, barefoot on the pavement. Right now, he didn’t deserve the satisfaction of helping you, or knowing how good he looked.

“Yes you do, c’mon.” Rick persists, and when he moves to take your arm, you don’t protest. Maybe you are a little far gone. He gently leads you along, one hand wrapped around your shoulder, the other carefully tugging the bottom of your dress down a little more.

It’s a short walk back home, to the little picket-fenced house you’ve been living in. The instance you’re inside, you collapse on the couch, melting into the fabric and willing to pass out right then and there.

Rick kneels down on the ground, leaning in and removing your jewellery. Necklace, earrings, bracelet. Once they’re all set aside, he sits on the couch, the movement causing you to rise with a little frown.

“What’s wrong, baby?” He asks, large hands scooping under your thighs and manoeuvring your body into his lap.

When you only look down, he grips at your chin, forcing the eye contact. The frown deepens, though now out of defiance, still drunk and a little pissed off.

“We’ve spent so long bein’ dirty ‘n muddy ‘n gross..” You begin in a mumble, the words coming out as one long sigh. “I just wanted to feel sexy.”

“You are so sexy,” Rick urges, hand caressing your side. “Always.”

“Then you should’ve come to the party with me.” You retort, that sad look still on your face, and it takes everything in Rick not to kiss it off.

“I know, I know. I should’ve been there,” He agrees, “And I should’ve told you how damn good this dress looks on you.”

Your nose scrunches up in confusion, “I thought you didn’t like it.”

Rick finally releases his grip on your chin, skating both hands down the smooth curve of your sides, all nicely contained in that skimpy dress. It’s like a perfect package, one he wants to unwrap.

“You’re fuckin’ gorgeous, baby. I love it,” He reveals, eyes locked onto yours, “But I wanna be the only one who can love it.”

A grin finally grows on your lips, still all pink and glossy from the makeup. Even in your drunken state, there’s something alluring about the way you lean closer, breath fanning over Rick’s lips.

“Then prove it.” You whisper.

Like a moth to a flame, Rick bites. He closes the gap, savouring your sloppy kisses as you devour his lips, hands fumbling to cup either side of his smooth face. Somehow, kissing him felt even better drunk, like everything else just melted away.

Disconnecting, Rick trailed purposeful kisses down your neck, sucking brief marks into your skin, staking his claim. He peeled the straps of the dress down, pushing the fabric down under the swell of your breasts, until they were completely bare to him.

You gasped as his lips trapped a nipple, fondling at the supple flesh whilst worshipping you with his mouth. But you were already strung tight, not having the patience to deal with a night of teasing.

Fingers hooked into his belt, painted nails scratching at the denim as you failed to muster enough coordination to unzip him. “Please.. please, Rick.” You whined.

“I know, baby. Don’t have’ta beg tonight.” He assures you in that rough, yet soothing tone, taking over and pulling his cock free of its restraints.

Rick pushes the dress up over your hips, the soft fabric now simply a band around your waist. You’re eager to take him, arms wrapping around his broad shoulders whilst you hover over his thighs, allowing Rick to line you up and make the slide easier.

The drunken haze has faded some, replaced by a blanket of arousal as you slowly ride him, fingers gripping at his shirt. You’re saying something, begging probably, but it doesn’t make any sense. Not that it matters.

Though you’re set on riding him, Rick knows you’re probably sore from those heels all night, so he grips tight at your hips to flip you over, drilling you down into the plush couch.

“Fuck..” You gasp, head lolling to the side as Rick bites into the flesh of your neck, body completely surrounding you as his thrusts become powerful and short, angled up right where you need it.

“I know, baby. You can take it.” He grunts, using all his strength to draw you closer to the edge.

By now, he knows your tells. The tightening of your cunt as it squeezes him, the way your legs wrap around his slim waist. Whatever words make it from your mouth, though unintelligible, take on a whiny pitch.

Rick snakes his hand between you, pressing firm, tight circles around your clit that make you gasp and squirm under him. “Quietly, baby. You can do it. Let go for me.”

And that you do, hips bucking upwards as your peak finally hits, muffling your cries into his shoulder. The pulsating around his dick causes Rick to finally falter, managing a few more staggered, sharp thrusts before roughly pulling out and spilling onto your stomach. Spurts of white cum coat the bunched up dress, some even reaching the underside of your tits.

“Fuck,” Rick pants, catching his breath. “Looks like you can’t wear this dress anyway.”

#the walking dead x reader #twd x reader #twd x you #the walking dead #rick grimes #rick grimes x reader #rick grimes smut #rick grimes x you

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anthurak · 5 months ago

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For a while now, it seems that the most popular, or at least most VOCAL, theory about the ‘Goetia Trial’ that we’ve gotten hints towards is that this is Stolas’s and Stella’s divorce hearings and/or a custody battle over Octavia. With Stella’s and Andrealphus’s ‘evil plan’ being to somehow turn Octavia against Stolas.

The thing is, as I brought up in my theory post on how Season 2 (and Stolitz) is going to end, I think it’s far more likely that the trial is actually all about Andrealphus and Stella dragging Stolas up on all the ‘less than legal’ shit he’s been doing in an attempt to get him stripped of his position and power as a Prince.

For one, the whole ‘custody battle’ theory feels particularly head-scratching when we consider that neither Stella nor Andrealphus have been shown to really care all that much about Octavia, certainly where their scheming is concerned. Stella cares nothing for the inheritance and just wants Stolas dead while Andrealphus seems to not give a crap about Stolas and is looking to do a straight power-grab. Now while some people might envision their plan as looking to manipulate Octavia as some kind of ‘puppet heir’, I think that is missing some very KEY details:

For one, it’s clear in Western Energy that Andrealphus specifically wants to AVOID Octavia inheriting everything from Stolas, otherwise he wouldn’t have convinced Stella to call off the hit on Stolas.

And even more substantially, the whole idea of a ‘custody battle’ kind of MISSES a very key detail of how much the show has stressed that Octavia is NOT A CHILD ANYMORE.

That was the point of Loo Loo Land, the point of Seeing Stars and Stolas himself even says as much in his argument with Stella in The Circus. In fact, going off the timeline that the show has implied with a number of episodes set on Earth, Octavia actually HAS to be at least eighteen at this point. As in, given that Octavia’s age being seventeen was revealed in pre-series promotional material, we kind of have to assume she’s seventeen in Loo Loo Land. Then we have Spring Broken (March), The Harvest Moon Festival (September), Unhappy Campers (July) (this is actually shown on a flyer for Millie’s show) and now Apology Tour being set on Halloween (October), meaning that we are over a year and a half AT LEAST since Loo Loo Land.

Heck, if the present-day portions of The Circus (and by extension, Ozzie’s and Queen Bee) take place prior to Halloween that year, then it’s possible that Octavia could have just turned NINETEEN as of Apology Tour.

The point being that it makes little sense for there to be some big ‘custody battle’ over Octavia, especially if Andrealphus is out for a power-grab on Stolas’s assets. Sure maybe they could manipulate Octavia, but at the same time Stella and Andrealphus would have no actual power over Octavia, meaning that she could shut them out anytime she wanted, AND would have all the power and resources to ensure there would be nothing they could do about it.

Instead, as I brought up in my previous theory post, I think it’s FAR more likely that Andrealphus’s and Stella’s plan is actually to drag Stolas up on all the questionably legal stuff he’s been doing in an attempt to get him stripped of his power and status as a Prince. Most notably bringing up the whole ‘loaning his grimoire to an IMP’ thing, which is something I have to imagine the other Goetia would take some BIG fucking issue with.

For one, I think this makes WAY more sense as a power-grab for Andrealphus. Because Stolas being found incompetent and unworthy of his position and being stripped of his power and status could likely ALSO invalidate Octavia as a viable heir to his position. Meaning that everything Stolas has would go to Stella instead, who in turn would almost certainly pass off all that power and responsibility to Andrealphus.

More than any of that though, I think this option makes WAY more sense THEMATICALLY. Because it effectively puts Stolas’s turbulent and dysfunctional relationship with Blitzo in center stage as the source of the conflict. Which in turn has Stolas having to recognize all the problems HE brought to their relationship that everyone has been complaining about ‘not being addressed’.

As the finale of the season, I think it makes perfect sense that the Trial would force Stolas to confront, and own up to the many mistakes he’s made, to his peers, to Octavia, and to Blitzo. Which in turn would be the perfect resolution to where he started this season in The Circus.

Finally, as I brought up in the theory post, I think it’s very possible we could see Stolas abdicate his position and allow Octavia to inherit everything. For one, it’s been brought up twice this season that Octavia is by now fully capable of inheriting Stolas’s position. We’ve also seen Octavia be just as interested in and passionate about celestial studies as Stolas.

And then we have this rather interesting shot from the trailer of Octavia catching a falling mote of purple light, which could definitely represent, or at least hint at, Stolas leaving his power to her.

All in all, I think this whole fixation on the Goetia trial being a divorce hearing/custody battle feels a bit too much like headcanon-fixation and dramawanking rather than something more based on what the story has been actually showing and telling.

#helluva boss #helluva boss theory #helluva theory #stolas goetia #stella goetia #octavia goetia #andrealphus goetia #helluva stolas #stolitz #to be honest the whole idea of the big goetia trial being the stolas-stella divorce hearing has always felt a little... stupid?#like it's a fandom getting a bit too into the dramawank?#centering it more on Stolas's affair with Blitzo feels much more appropriate

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rocketbirdie · 9 months ago

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MASSIVE dump of thoughts about Rebirth. Obvious major spoiler warning for pretty much every story beat aside from side quests. That goes for the compilation as a whole.

Think of this as a collection of what would otherwise be literally hundreds of separate obnoxious text posts. Half-review, half liveblogging. Genuine praises and criticisms interspersed with unhinged nonsense. This post is so long it's making my computer lag, so make of that what you will.

To keep it organized and make it easier to find specific moments, this is split up chapter by chapter. I cover the Zack/Biggs stuff in a separate section just before the final chapter, and then follow up with some miscellaneous thoughts.

I'm not of hardcore OG FFVII faith. I love the original, and I view it as separate from Remake/Rebirth, so I embrace most of the major changes. This is generally a very positive review, aside from a few nuisances *cough cough WHISPERS cough* and only one genuinely upsetting letdown. Rebirth is more than I could ever have asked for, and I can't wait to spend the next 4+ years obsessively gushing about it. And now, without further ado...!

Chapter 1: Fall of a Hero (The Nibelheim Incident)

NAILED it.

Love seeing Cloud's teenage squishiness scrambled together with the Zack mannerisms. Restless as a little puppy! Body language, facial expressions, etc. I wonder if they animated a lot of it with Zack's model first, and then replaced it with Cloud? Modders are gonna have a field day with this when the PC version drops.

Sephiroth really was just Some Guy, huh? It's very refreshing to see him acting fully human for once. Helps sell the catastrophic mental shitshow that ensues.

Horfin' down those sandwiches Strife style

"You went into my room?" "I did..." LMAOOO THE SHAME IN HIS VOICE. Cody Christian doing god's work voicing this sopping wet pathetic mess of a man

Zangan manhandling Cloud like that was NOT on my Rebirth bingo card.

The bridge collapse scene is beautifully expanded upon. Such a delicious moment if you know the real story. RIP Ramirez. o7

There is NO fucking way Sephiroth just... stood there unfazed by waist high rushing water. Y'all have any idea how dangerous just ankle-deep water is at those speeds? At least the generous use of artistic license in physics is established very early on.

Tifa demonstrating incredible self restraint by choosing not to strangle Zack to death at the mako spring. I would have walloped his cocky ass lol

"Such a puppy." We're establishing the homoerotic tension right away as well, thank god.

oooOOOouhh the way you can pinpoint the precise moment that Sephiroth starts to lose control at the reactor. The way he walks up those stairs.......

Mwahaha-ing over the visual parallels. Raising his hand to the candle flame... Jenova's face flickering over his own... wow. Every shot, every angle is carefully chosen. Cinematography at it's finest.

OG painted a picture of "no survivors," so it surprised me how many people seemed to have escaped from Nibelheim. Although, it's not certain what their ultimate fate was. I imagine they did it this way to show that the incident impacted far more people than just Cloud and Tifa. Makes sense, considering "sheer scale of suffering" is a recurring theme throughout the Re-trilogy so far.

Sephiroth's mass slaughter is bone chilling. The music, the tension, the iconic shot of the flames framing his figure. Goddamn. And then there's the poor trooper, reaching out for his mom.........

"Why didn't they just shoot him?? They had him surrounded!!" 1, Fear doesn't give a damn about rationality. 2, It's SEPHIROTH. They were almost certainly correct in assuming that their dinky little hunting rifles weren't gonna do jack shit.

Catch me giggling over the most mundane shit. LOVE the detail of the sword tip clanking on the metal floor as Tifa drags it. I'm obsessed with lovingly crafted, nearly unnoticeable sound design like that.

"Mother, they have come again." THANK FUCK they kept this line. I don't even know why, it just stuck with me so hard from OG.

Not sure why people are cranky that the flashback cuts off. It ends at the exact same point as in OG. That's the point, it's supposed to be frustrating.

Seeing an unfathomable number of dumbass comments going "huh??? why did cloud tell the story all wrong??? that's not what happened!!" Dear Lord Please Give Me The Strength

AERTI!!!!!!! hell yeah

Tifa being proactive instead of stewing in confusion!! Love that for her. But damn it didn't go down well, huh. "I was so happy to see you again, but maybe I shouldn't have been." BIG OOOOOF

OUCH. Cloud. At least take off the pauldron if you're gonna sleep on that side LOL

Chapter 2: A New Journey Begins (Kalm and The Grasslands)

Very interesting news broadcast ya got goin' on there, Shinra...

Kalm is so so so so pretty. Feels like an actual full sized city now! Wish we could have seen more of it at night, like in the OG.

Broden!! I like him. I want the best for him. I know he's fucked. But really, it's cool to see more SOLDIER characters. We get to see Cloud's uh-oh brain static moments from the outside perspective, and boy howdy, it ain't pretty.

Broden says he's "...on your side. Got a contact at HQ." Meanwhile, my delusional ass: CONTACT? KUNSEL? IS IT KUNSEL? DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE NAMED KUNSEL?

Mentioned it in a different post— I suspected they changed the arrangement of Midgar's sectors. Sure enough, it's confirmed by looking at Rebirth's world map. Is this a meta fate-has-been-altered thing, or is it just a curious retcon? Maybe a bit of both?

HOLLOW REMIX HOLLOW REMIX HOLLOW REMIX HOLLOW REMIX HOLLOW REMIX AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Oh my god, her name is CHLOE????????? "Chole" was a typo this whole fucking time???? I can't handle this

NOT CHOCOBO BILL BLINDSIDING US WITH THE CLOUD GETTING DOUBLE PENETRATED IN A NASTY SWAMP SHACK IMPLICATIONS???? HELLO?????????

My sweet son Chadley has returned from the time void.

Ok serious talk. Wtf is up with the audio mixing. Someone gave the thumbs up for this production?! The default music volume is WAY too loud and overpowers voice lines. Doesn't help that Remake's npc dialogue deluge in crowded areas hasn't been addressed at all. C'mon people, you had years to fix this shit. It's a shame too, because I would love to hear all of the beautiful music and talented voice acting, just... separately, please.

The Soggy Strife Agenda is off to a great start!

I know Midgar Zolom was a blind idiot translation, but I dunno man. Midgardsormr just doesn't do it for me. Zolom sweetie come home :(

FUCKING. FUCK. WHERE'S THE LINE. FUCK!!! Apparently Sephiroth Did Not Do This. Goddammit. Fucking blasphemy. Genuinely gutted that they didn't include that line. Imagine if they had pulled that shit with Me Gongaga. Unacceptable.

Chapter 3: Deeper into Darkness (Mythril Mines)

"Enough for her Standard Course twice, right?" keep it up Aerith you're doing amazing :)

Ah, the opening area of the mines has been converted into a museum. No wonder people are allowed to just waltz right on in.

ELENA!! Oooooh I love her voice!! She's got that young overconfident sass. Fits her perfectly. She's got me sweating bullets seeing her kick a grenade around like a soccer ball though YIKES

Those Boulders Are Not Made Of Solid Rock

Not much else to say about the mines. Love when the original version of the music kicked in. Barret and Red's dynamic is so good!

Chapter 4: Dawn of a New Era (Junon)

We just, uh, waiting for the bus there, folks? OH SHIT sorry about the bird of prey thing man, that sucks. Hope you feel better soon

Contrary to maybe popular opinion, but I actually love it when you know exactly what a character is going to say or do next. It means the writers have done a great job at getting that character across. Predictable does not always equal bad; tropes exist for a reason after all.

Under Junon. mwah <3

Priscilla!! Omg she's so cute and annoying. Just how I remember.

Soggy Strife Episode 2. This time featuring an off-putting amount of romantic tension between Cloud And That Dolphin

Lowkey disappointed that they cut the uncomfortably long CPR minigame. Gamers nowadays have no idea how good they have it. Back in my day, we had to give mouth-to-mouth for 5 minutes straight in deafening silence.

YUFFIE!!!!!! Oh my god the leakers weren't exaggerating about the naruto run

Yeah ok just. gonna do some good night crunches. Very. Uh. Normal of you, Cloud Strife. God I love this weirdo

ROCHEEEEE My Boyfriend Has Returned

Aerith and Priscilla doing the arm bump thing............ yeah...........

Yeah you work those tanker controls gay boy. I was really expecting a jumpscare as the tanker lifted up. Would have actually shrieked if Sephiroth was just like "sup lol"

WOW the sister ray!!! Honestly the first moment that made me go "DAMN this is Final Fantasy alright!" What a view.

Glad they kept Junon's silly amount of elevators.

Oh hi Glenn

So Aerith wants to know if there are any good restaurants in Junon. Well, maybe if this guy hadn't been busy barfing in an alleyway....

Gee Tifa and Aerith, it's a good thing you guys practiced your highly choreographed military drill, just in case you ever had to pretend to be a trooper during an inaugural parade. Gotta be prepared for even the most unlikely scenarios! (As a writer, I know how it is with suspension of disbelief. But it's still kinda doofy lol)

That being said, I'd let the commander have her way with me

THE MUSIC

Tee hee omg it's so cute to see Cloud in his element! Look at that boy go. He's so into it. I like hearing all of the Seventh Infantry's interactions, too. Really hammers it in that they're all just normal people with their own worries and hopes.

Oopsie daisy. I am not immune to Shinra Propaganda. Huh. Well done, writers.

THE GLABRESCENT!! EXCLUSIVE CLUB FOR BALD PEOPLE

Awww look at all the 1/35 soldiers! Man. This whole chapter is just one huge love letter to the OG. So much nostalgia, plus so much new exciting stuff. God I could go on and on

This Just In, Entire Junon Nursing Home Full Of Elderly People Dies Of A Heart Attack After Rufus Shinra Decides To Fire The Fucking Cannon

Roche please sign my forehead

Uh oh. Yuffie

Yeah Ok don't mind me, just a SOLDIER 1st Class, protecting these little infantrymen with my life. No parallels to be found here, folks

GENUINELY HONEST TO GOD I AM SO SORRY FOR SLICING YOUR BABY ANGEL IN HALF LIKE THAT ROCHE PLEASE FORGIVE ME. Cloud say you're sorry Right Fucking Now.

Oh good no hard feelings. Well. Actually. Uh

Chapter 5: Blood in the Water (Shinra-8/Ship to Costa)

Oh to be a girl hiding away in a cargo hold with another girl.......

Little bit of Traces of Two Pasts! So Aerith told Tifa about Faz, the weird guy that was a little bit too nice to Ifalna. Apparently Aerith is still shaken up by that. Don't blame her.

Ok. I've been avoiding the topic of Queen's Blood, because frankly, my opinion on it is completely unfounded and irrational. I fucking hate card games in video games that are not supposed to be solely about card games. I can't help it. I'm here for the pretty people rpg and the gut-wrenching t4t heartbreak, not for the Magic the Gathering subplot. Any time this game so much as breathes the name Queen's Blood in my direction, I feel something visceral welling up inside of me. So as you can imagine, The Chapter Where You Play Queen's Blood is not my personal favorite.

But I get it! It's not like there was much to do here in the OG. I like that they went out of their way to flesh the ship out and give it more to remember. And for people who like Queen's Blood, I'm happy for them!!

Silly boy humming the victory fanfare I love himmmm

*wiggles*

Gotta get me one of them bigass cardboard cutout palm trees to put on display inside of my grungy metal hallway. Wow what a vibe

DAMN RIGHT YOU SHOULD DEMAND THE MANAGER, RED

THE MOONWALK SJHSYAFDFKKFFJF oh mny fuckijngh god the terrified kid crying his eyes out LMAOOOOO

Dang It! I wanted to see what Cloud looks like swaddled up in that hammock. Why do you deny me that which I desire. Screw your fade to black.

Good to know Hojo is just as disgusting and disturbing as he should be! Yayyyyy :(

"Holy shit..." YUFFIE SAME????? TITOV BOUTTA BLOW SOME TITS OFF????

YEEEHAAWWWW time for another absolute fucking banger of a Jenova remix!!!! I cannot praise the soundtrack enough.

Chapter 6: Fool's Paradise (Costa del Sol)

Obligatory beach episode

Johnny!!!!! My favorite dramatic idiot with a heart of gold! It's ok babygirl I love your seasmell hotel. I'll stay there anytime.

Cloud acting like that lei is strangling him. Sameeee dude same but no really. This place sucks. Too many people trying to force this poor guy to have fun against his will.

If I have to hear "hang loose" one more time, there will be bloodshed.

I do not trust that man to ride safely and sanely on that wheelie. He can't even walk on his own two feet without endangering every physics object in the vicinity.

Empty materia moment actually made me gasp out loud

AERTI DATE AERTI DATE AERTI DATE AERTI DATE

OUTFIT REVIEW TIME

Cloud's Tits Out: An unusual sight. I feel like he should be smooth under there like Link BOTW. He looks a little too robust for someone who's got Big Oil And Brain Worms In There and hasn't slept in weeks. I appreciate the commitment to making him pale as paper and flat as a board. No top surgery scars lose points big time. I'm neutral about the toes. 4/10

Cloud's Business Casual: Immaculate. Tastefully hideous. That blue is NOT your color, girl. Chocobo imagery is always a plus. Absolutely mystified by the untied capris + 3/4 sleeve scoop neck combo. Pretty sure he's not wearing any socks with those tennis shoes. Sneakers in the sand is a helluva sensory experience for an autistic guy like him, I deeply respect it. 9/10.

Tifa's Frilly Miniskirt: Cute and confident. Split between it being utterly out of character for her, or 1000% perfect for her. The white and purple is a great color combo. Slightly concerned about the structural integrity of the neck strap. Uncooperative hairstyle is understandable but kills the vibe a bit. Jealous of the sandals. 8/10

Tifa's Tie Front: DAMN. Stripes with the collar, black jean shorts, hell yeah. The giant belt buckle is just asking for a nasty burn mark, though. Whatever. She's rockin' it. I dunno man, I'm at a loss for words, you just gotta see it to believe it. 10/10.

Aerith's Keepin' It Simple: Tried and true. Pink always works in her favor. Love the little matching flowers in her hair. The wrap around wallet chain is a welcome sprinkle of weirdness. Otherwise masterfully boring; it suits her city-slickin' down-to-earth attitude. 9/10

Aerith's Floral Cover Up: Classy. Got that Final Fantasy princess look with the ruffled sleeves and the push-up cut. The long skirt is nothing short of perfection. Lovestruck by the splash of lime green with the leaf pattern. Can't imagine how annoying those shin-high sandal straps might be though, that's gonna leave a mark. 9/10

Barret's Bear Wearing A Marshmallow: Pillsbury Dough Man at his finest. Faithful to the original, exquisite in 4K HD. Hoist hook arm adds that extra sailor flair, sealing the look. He's having fun with it, and that's what matters most. 10/10!

Ok back to reality

uh oh.

Yup, somehow they managed to make Hojo even more nauseating than ever before. Good. The more we hate him, the worse it'll sting when he keeps dodging his comeuppance. Hohohohoho.... That's Good Writing, Babie! Twist that knife. Keep us ravenously thirsty for revenge!!

Seen a lot of complaints about the women that accompany Hojo to the beach and shower him with compliments and oohs and aahs. Not sure why. Pretty sure it's heavily implied that they're being paid SHIT LOADS of gil to act that way. It's stated outright that they're working for Mayor Kapono, and it's well established by that point that the mayor is wrapped tight around Shinra's pinky finger.

The moment that beach fight started, I knew right away... GRAB THAT UMBRELLA, DO YOUR LEGACY PROUD

Aerith showing her vengeful side, just a tiny bit. So much pent up hatred and grief. Love how it mirrors Cloud's character. She's so forgiving, she doesn't know how to turn anger into action. He's so caught up in his anger, that he forgets what forgiveness could do for him. Man. :'(

Yuffie joins the team!!! Cloud's just like. >:/ lol

Chapter 7: Those Left Behind (Corel)

Fun time is over folks

Huh. Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but that's not even close to being a Weapon. Major retcon, or legendary fakeout?

Sighh... Aerith looking up at the sky like that... The longing sure is long isn't it

WELL! Ain't that the dolly zoom of a lifetime! It's absolutely wild to watch Cloud's mental state worsen gradually in real time. Seeing him almost walk off a cliff was freaky. Good stuff

I WILL LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR CLOUD JUNIOR

Poor Barret...... damn dude. The people of Corel were nasty to him in the OG, but they cranked that up to eleven in Rebirth. Wow.

"She your new wife? Well good for you..." istg i'll reach through that screen and choke you out with my bare hands bitchass

"NO." Well that settles that! Gee I wonder why Cloud's not interested in helping out the doctor with his test...... hmm......

Yuffie honey... read the room.........

Chapter 8: All That Glitters (Gold Saucer First Visit)

And now for a jarring tonal shift! Yeahh... this game suffers from awkward pacing. A lot. Though I do suppose that's the point— hellish suffering juxtaposed with distasteful extravagance, just how Shinra prefers it.

Dio should snap him in half like a twig. I think it would be good enrichment for Cloud.

Ok. I'm pretty sure this is like. the fourth time Cloud's pupils have gotten all blown out upon seeing Sephiroth. There may be a clinical explanation for this, but there sure as hell ain't a straight one. The submissive little gasps are NOT helping.

I'm fucking pissed on behalf of anyone who has to stay the night at this dumbass hotel. Oh my god. How could anyone fall asleep in this obnoxious hellscape.

At least the receptionist looks good tied up and struggling ;)

Cait Sith meowing his own theme song is doing something unfathomable to the part of me that almost became a furry back in middle school. Oh god no he's so adorable. I'm screwed

I'm going to dismantle that tonberry robot bolt by bolt.

Aerith and Cloud commentating the races omg kicking my feet like a little schoolgirl i love them so muchhhh

The bike minigame is just not the same without Roche's "encouragement"

Jessie 😭

Ok I'm glad that it's made clear from the get-go that Barret isn't responsible for the shooting, and he also doesn't try to take the fall for Dyne. That left a bad taste in my mouth in the OG, so this is a welcome change.

Cait Sith is a little bit too enthused about the muggin' maimin' and murderin' lmao

OH MY GOD CLOUD. Baseball bat to the back of the head was genuinely shocking. As if he didn't have enough brain damage to begin with D:

Oh yuck. Gus is insufferable and nasty. I've known this guy for all of five seconds, and I already hate his guts. Fantastic characterization right outta the gate. The music is hilarious.

Billy???? How the hell did you end up here????? Kid you GOTTA get tf out of this place

LMAOOO Elena is my favorite turk confirmed. "NO VANILLA."

Oh man. Dyne time. This entire part is so damn good. Barret wants so badly for Dyne to be the beloved friend he used to be, but he's just way too far gone. So much resentment and grief.

Second half of the Dyne battle is a little bit weird, but I can tentatively accept it.

Was definitely wondering how they would handle Dyne's suicide given the teen rating. They circumvented the issue by having Shinra troopers gun him down in a crazed last stand. Different from the OG, but still believable and well written, considering their limitations.

Now that I think about it, this game is REALLY pushin' it with the teen rating. I'm willing to bet the rating boards were like, "yeah uh we can make an exception. it's FFVII we're talkin' about." Still... wonder why they couldn't go as far with Remake.

"You carry that guilt... That weight..." Wow. That line.

Annnnd jarring tonal shift! Robot frog fight versus the comedy relief villain. To be fair, I can't think of any other decent place to put this boss, either. On the bright side, Anuran Suppressor is awesome. Favorite fight in the game so far!

I need this soundtrack in my possession right fucking now.

Oh hi Glenn

Chapter 9: The Planet Stirs (Gongaga)

dune buggy :)

Oh Yuffie... just keep a barf bucket on hand or somethin will ya?

"I just... I feel like I've been here before." Well wouldja look at that... no jenova static...

Going over the hill and seeing the reactor... damn.

CISSNEI!!!! Ouuugh girl you know EXACTLY who tf he is, don't lie.

Noooo give Cait his little mushroom back you meanie :(

Ah. The deranged picnic music.

Gongaga has a much different vibe than it did in the OG. The intense feeling of mourning and hardship is missing. No hazy purple hues or Anxiety playing. Seems like they went in more of a CC direction, with the bright blue sky and uplifting soundtrack. Can't lie, I'm a tiny bit disappointed; I was really hoping for something more heavy and melancholic.

The existence of ordinary chickens in the FFVII universe has some frightening implications for the true nature of chocobos. If you have ever kept backyard chickens, you'll know what I mean.

Ohhhhhhh.... Zack's home............. :((((((

No. No. Don't play Sky Blue Eyes. Don't fucking do this to me. I'm gonna fucking cry. Oh my god no.

"They do say no news is good news, right?" I'm gonna do it.

You know shit's bad when even Cloud "I'm Fine" Strife admits he needs to have a lie down. Yikes.

Man, I really wish we knew more about Tifa and Aerith's chats. Dramatic irony's a bitch.

They sure went all out with the mushroom thing, huh. I know they were trying to differentiate Gongaga in terms of gameplay and worldbuilding, but I feel like they went a little overboard. Gongaga was its own unique thing in OG, not sure why they felt the need to quote unquote improve upon it. Just kinda weird.

Now the reactor is a different story. They did an incredible job here. The scale of the reactor, the unprecedented destruction—

Oh God Damn It The Whispers Are Back

Seriously trying so hard to justify in my own mind why the whispers are here. I don't despise them as a concept, but their implementation is awkward and overdone. In the Gongaga reactor, they fulfill the same narrative purpose as the black robes would: to facilitate the Reunion by mentally dragging Cloud along. Sigh... I get it's because they want to familiarize the player with the whispers in anticipation of future scenes, but it still pisses me off.

That being said, the whispers' theme goes HARD and I'm elated to hear it again. It also fits super well in the Gongaga reactor. So I guess I'm not that pissed.

Touch Me renamed to Amphidex. Can't have shit in Gongaga :/

ooOOOOO!!! The mako fumes getting to Cloud's head! Poor guy's about to pass out. Nice touch.

Sephiroth/Jenova taking advantage of Cloud's mako poisoning... Oh man... the instant change in demeanor is nuts. So fucking good. Here we get to see the first time that Sephiroth has total control over Cloud, and it does not disappoint. Ruthless.

Tifa honey how and why tf are you keeping it together right now. Girl, you do NOT have to fix him. You do not have to show him your boobs a second time. You do not have to take a single thing he says seriously. You can just get up and leave I promise he's doomed by the narrative until further notice 😭😭😭

Telluric Orca Vore Moment was also not on my rebirth bingo card but Okay

Teasing the lifestream. Sure, I can get down with it. Just... y'all got a bit of a whisper problem down here. Want me to call pest control?

"No! Don't take him too!" Damn...

I would not feel safe alone in a room with a man who just tried to kill me, let alone even remotely consider intimacy, but maybe that's just me. It is refreshing to see Tifa and Cloud actually talk things out for a change.

Cloud knows there's something wrong with him and he's so scared... man :'(

What does Aerith say to her???????????? ARRRGHHH

So we're all just perfectly fine with Cloud continuing to be in charge? Nobody's got any objections to that? Alrighty Then

SURPRISE Cid Highwind!! Leaks were right, he's cleaned up. No cigs, less swears, very friendly guy. Not as off-putting as I worried it might be. I'm convinced it's just because he's got a business to run— we'll see good ol' cranky Cid in part 3.

ROCHE NOOOOOOOOOO DON'T!!!!!!!! :(

Chapter 10: Watcher of the Vale (Cosmo Canyon)

Red's real voice reveal! Red's real name reveal!! Though I really would have preferred to see his name change to Nanaki in the menu and subtitles...

Cosmo Canyon is coming off as a hippie stoner tourist trap. Yeah all of these people are correct about the planet and the lifestream, but dang if it doesn't feel like someone's about to heckle me into buying healing crystals and dreamcatchers.

The nostalgia is A++. Beautiful remaster of the music, too.

BUGENHAGEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!!! SO jealous of him zoomin around on that sick af crystal ball. Screw the Costa wheelies, I want one of these bad boys.

...A legendary fakeout in the making, I think!

The observatory is stunning. Can't even put it into words. The planetarium brought me to tears, it's such a flood of nostalgia and a deeply emotional scene. I love the nice detail of the planet being different from Earth— mako tinted oceans instead of deep blue. Watching the model planet rot and crumble broke my heart.

Sobbing the whole way through Aerith's speech. My god. Poor girl. Knowing what her fate is in the OG makes it hurt even worse.

Gi Nattak. Would

Expanding upon the Gi. Unexpected but super cool. Their story reminds me of FFIX, with the parasitic planet Terra lurking deep within Gaia. The Gi and the Cetra seem to have something similar going on. Who was here first? It almost sounds like the Cetra and their lifestream are invaders.

I could easily relate to the Gi's opinion, that the endless cycle of the lifestream and the persistence of the spirit is tantamount to torture. Never being able to truly rest in peace sucks. Don't worry friends, I'll bring you the black materia! :) (THIS USER CANNOT BE TRUSTED WITH THE BLACK MATERIA)

Aerith sticking her hand into the mako..............

Chapter 11: The Long Shadow of Shinra (Nibelheim)

The intense gaslighting about Nibelheim was one of my favorite things about the OG. It also helped seed even more doubt into Cloud's existence as a real person, setting up his descent into madness over the black materia and vulnerability as Sephiroth's puppet. So the changes they've made to Nibelheim in Rebirth are... unnecessary, to put it lightly.

The villagers do not argue with Tifa or Cloud about their memories of the town. They greet them and tell them all about the town's development into a mako poisoning treatment center. Sigh... Part of what made OG's Nibel revisit so dreadful was the unshakeable feeling that you are not welcome there, and that you're being watched like a hawk. I feel a little bit too comfy here in Rebirth Nibelheim, with how friendly and open everyone's being.

Love the chat with Tifa in her old room. We get so much insight into her thoughts and feelings about Nibelheim, Avalanche, and about Cloud and herself.

"Every time we made eye contact, you'd look away. And when I tried to talk to you, you'd ignore me." ouch, don't gotta poke him in the autism like that

Ohoho. The hotel's digging up some memories. I've said my piece.

dillydally

LORD have mercy. This boy's noodle is scrambled like you wouldn't believe. Good news, he remembers Zack, sort of. Bad news, he thinks he fucking drowned?!???? It's intimidating to see the lengths Jenova/Sephiroth will go to to obscure the truth from Cloud. Damn.

Ok Yuffie is actually starting to get a bit obnoxious. Please stop interrupting emotionally charged moments. We get it, you're excited about materia. Cut it out.

If I were Tifa I would be shitting my pants terrified right about now. Girl I do NOT know how you're holding it together.

And now for the most distasteful tonal shift and momentum killer of all time. It's silly kitty cat hijinks time!! ...What the actual fuck. I like Cait Sith, but this is unacceptable. The basement is supposed to be a sickening place of fear and tragedy. Turning it into a cutesy little box chucking playground is downright disrespectful to the original FFVII. I can't even believe I'm writing this, it's so absurd as a concept. This is the only major change that I'm legitimately seriously upset about.

And by god does it drag on. Every time you think, surely this is the final section!... nope. It just keeps on fucking going. Fuck my life, my blood is boiling. Unreal. Remake's slow ass hand-crane highway thing is nothing compared to this. I'll take a Queen's Blood tournament and a hurricane of whispers any day over this unrivaled masterclass in unnecessary bullshit. Fuck.

At least to some people, the reward for getting through the Cait Sith Crate Slog is worthwhile— a few cutscenes starring Vincent Valentine, and a battle against Galian Beast. But if you're like me, and you're not utterly obsessed with Vincent Valentine or Matt Mercer, then by this point, you're just feeling drained and disappointed.

Overall... least favorite chapter. Mellow start, juicy build up with great potential, completely shafted by baffling nonsense.

RIP Roche. Heartbreaking. It's been a good run. Side note, Roche's conversion into a black robe was... quite bizarre. That's just, uh, how that works, I suppose? Okie dokie then

Oh hi Glenn

Chapter 12: A Golden Key (Gold Saucer Revisit)

Always felt weird about the Gold Saucer revisit in the OG. Unusual pacing. Well, at least Rebirth's being consistent in that regard.

What's the point of the theater if you're just going to do a VR performance instead? I know it's a silly little nitpick, but I wanna hear some soles squeaking on a hardwood stage!

Ah, that's the point of the VR. So Shinra can use a dead woman's likeness to keep selling tickets to their overhyped shows. Surprised none of the characters say anything about that, given Avalanche's well-established anticapitalist message.

This is what Genesis Rhapsodos decided to hyperfixate on? No wonder the guy's hair started turning grey and falling out in chunks. [SARCASM]

Barret sobbing uncontrollably, right next to Nanaki looking like a rejected Crash Bandicoot reboot clapping his paws together. Sums up this entire game so far.

The "audience participation" in the play is altered significantly from the OG. It's, uh, very neat and tidy. I strongly prefer OG's hysterical secondhand embarrassment and awkward ad-lib.

I NEED to know what happens if you fail all of the QTEs. Please tell me it goes off the rails and Cloud gets booed off stage PLEASE.

Pretty song. But my god if that is Not What She Would Sound Like.

The gondola rides!! Overall fantastic. So difficult to pick a favorite. Tifa's is obviously phenomenal, but I think I still have a soft spot for Aerith's. I like that Barret's is taken more seriously; it's such a heartfelt moment. Yuffie reminiscing about Zack was adorable, as well as Cloud relating to her being bad with feelings. The Cait Sith/Cid/Vincent one had me laughing out loud, it was so stiff and awkward lmaoo

THE SCOTCH AND KOTCH DISS TRACK IS SENDING ME???????? SKSJKHAGAAAFDSDSDHHBFD I'm so happy to see these freaks doing their thing again.

RUFUS SHINRA?????

Yeah, no Cait Sith, you ain't garnering any pity from me. Not happening after the crate incident.

Chapter 13: Where Angels Fear to Tread (Temple of the Ancients)

So the temple is to the north now. Understandable, since that's where the Forgotten Capital is, too. Still took me by surprise. Also means we won't be going back to Gongaga... aww :(

HOLY FUCK the way the temple assembles itself... now THIS is what I'm talkin' about!

Teasing us with that fractal square symbol since all the way back in Remake...!

Roche....... "my... friend..." :(((((((

These troopers are NOT getting paid enough for this shit lmao

Oh howdy there Rathalos from Monster Hunter, you look a bit different than I remember

Thank goodness the Cetra had the foresight to incorporate some aesthetically appropriate rest benches into their temple's design!

Aerith's seance + the camera angle of the whole team watching... beautiful nod to FFX...? <3

That better not have been Kunsel.

Reno jumpscare

Elena's pretty pink pistol with the charms and stickers is so goofy. I love her. Hopefully Cloud won't try to chop her head off within the next sixty seconds or anything like tha— uh, nevermind.

oooOOURGHH Cloud is SO fucking terrifying throughout the whole temple. Cody hitting it out of the ballpark BIG TIME with the voice acting. DAMN.

Everybody but Cloud has memories to retread... broke my heart. Sad and scary. By the way Hey uhh Temple? Why the fuck would you do this to us? :(

ugly sobbing

Followed up by the Gayest Thing I Think I've Ever Seen In Video Game History

YOU! WITH THE WING!! GET DOWN HERE!!! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!

Oh god no you're going to make me fight Demon Gate aren't you

THERE'S TWO OF THEM??!?!?!??!?!!! AAHGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HORRIFYING BUT RELATABLE, CLOUD

Wait. Cloud. Hey. Can we talk about it for a sec. Come back please

"There's no point fighting over a fake." WHOA I actually straight up forgot about that twist! Hell yeah! What a wham line!

"I wish I hadnae skipped leg day." pFFFFT LMAOOOOO

"Yeah... I'm good." The Fuck You Ain't

PHHWAAHH HE JUST GETS CRUSHED AWWW!! RIP LMAO WHAT A WAY TO GO

The temple's transformation is breathtaking. And that music score, too, holy fuck.

Honestly I'm not even mad about the whispers being there, they're just a setpiece at this point. Adds to the frantic atmosphere. I'm choosing to ignore their narrative relevance until absolutely necessary.

ROCHE? YOU GOOD THERE BUDDY?

THAT BOY on his hands and knees SCRAMBLING for that black materia. Gayass

CLOUD AARHGRFGGFFFFF OHHGGHH SEPHIROTH HAS COMPLETE CONTROL OVER HIM HHHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

OUUGRRHHHH OAWWWWGGHH

LISTEN. Listen I cannot formulate coherent thoughts about this. Go see it for yourself. Just go.

tee hee hee he's so proud of himself handing it over :3

It Begins.

Interlude. The Zack Moments so far:

Yeahhhh not a huge fan of Zack just dropping Cloud off at the nearest recognizable npc. Not after he almost gave his goddamn life to protect him.

MAN! Finally get to see what it's like to enter/exit Midgar. No fade to black, just on your feet and out the gate. Feels good; kinda surreal honestly. Never realized how bad I wanted this.

Regardless of what you think about the Zack thing, you gotta admit, the atmosphere during his sections is ethereal. So beautiful and calming in such a tragic way.

Love how he fights different than Cloud. Throwing punches, brutal kicks, shoulder checks, much like in Crisis Core.

HOLY FUCK don't mind me just gonna uhhh rip this five hundred pound metal post out of the ground and chuck it like a toy hammer. Suddenly the Buster Sword doesn't seem all that unwieldy.

......RIP Barret, Nanaki, and Tifa. Oof. What a way to go out.

DON'T MAKE MY SWEET BOY CRY LIKE THAT FUCK YOU!!! :(((((

Damn bitch you live like this??? To be fair, that's probably the most luxurious resting spot he's had in literal YEARS. Like wow there's a mattress!! And a roof!!!!!

Good to know that Cloud's goofy ass flinging himself out of bed straight into a combat stance thing from Remake is actually a Zack mannerism lol

Ohhh... my heart... seeing things from Cloud's perspective... I like the how this expands upon what the OG established, about "dreams" of this type. Sort of like the sleeping forest scene. Also makes Aerith's resolution scene in Remake all the more curious.

Aww... walking out onto the balcony and seeing the whole garden dead...

Obsessed with the music that plays during Zack's sections. Wow.

Awwww Marlene and Zack are such a silly duo :')

Biggs wtf did you do????????

Ziggs crashing hard onto my list of OTPs. Oops.

Divine intervention preventing a headshot? I'm sure some CS:GO players can relate.

Biggs' and Zack's conflicting memories of Cloud, plus the "broken internal clocks" is intriguing.

"Zack-of-all-trades" tickles me :D

All of their dialogue together is so self-aware... two characters who have had their narrative purposes torn out from under them, desperate to find a new one. The fact that there is no reason for them to be here is the whole point.

"We're all headed for the same place. You'll see your daddy and Tifa again." Oh ok yeah sure go ahead and rip my heart right out of my chest Elmyra

"Hello in there..." 🥺

So Remake Aerith bestowed memories of her future death upon Marlene. Is childhood innocence a prerequisite for this ability to work? Seeing as she did something similar with Nanaki. Otherwise, you'd think she would try to entrust her own fate with someone more influential, like Tifa or Barret.

I cannot fucking believe that Zaclerith endgame is real. Am I dreaming

Aww Zack has Aerith's ribbon tied around his hand...

Chapter 14: End of the World (Forgotten Capital/Final Chapter)

Ok Tsengru shippers. I finally see it. You are 100% correct about them.

Now we're getting WILD with it. The timeline shenanigans are in full swing. Speculation aplenty ahead.

"...or 'homeward bound' maybe?" Still trying to make sense of what exactly these sky-rift worlds are. Aerith's line here seems to imply that this is some kind of purgatory...? Where timelines go to wallow in their death throes? That's my understanding, so far. Especially with all of the mournful npc dialogue.

Aww... Aerith's date with Cloud mirroring the one she had with Zack in Crisis Core :')

I tell you what, the Stamp figurine made me GASP. So that's three timelines now. Beagle, Terrier, Spitz.

So Terrier Zack goes to Hojo in hopes of finding a cure for Cloud. Not his finest idea... but oh well. Jealous of his motorcycle. ;)

Sephiroth is combing timelines for one version of Aerith in particular...? Am I on the right track here? Is this the same Aerith from her resolution scene in Remake?

THE PUG made me spit my fucking drink out. Hot damn, there's four! We saw this timeline's conception in the form of the bright flash of light when Terrier Zack chose to go to Hojo.

So Pug Zack instead goes to Biggs at reactor 6. I really, really love this scene. The pump is dry, the planet's life is flashing before its eyes. A heartfelt moment shared between two characters who have had their narrative purposes torn out from under them. Zack gets a delicious bit of character progression, wanting to take back control of his life. Price of Freedom playing in the background has got me wailing like an air horn.

"I'm sick of taking its shit!" WHOA Zack swearing caught me way off guard. He flees from battle for once, instead of facing Shinra head on in this timeline. Wonder how that'll change things.

"You don't look like you're on a date... More like 'at a funeral.'" Mhm. duly noted

Give it up for timeline number five! Corgi Zack is sitting on the stairs at the church.

"Cloud, Biggs, or Aerith... How the hell am I supposed to choose?" You don't have to, darling. It's called a polycule.

Sephiroth slashes a hole in reality, and the black whispers drag Corgi Zack through it. Starting to think I shoulda done my Lifestream Black/Lifestream White homework.

So far, Aerith+Cloud's date "dream" has taken place entirely in the Spitz timeline. It's not clear if this is also true of the scene inside of the church, especially since Sephiroth comes waltzing in after we just saw him outside in the Corgi timeline. I'm getting the impression that time and space are a very hand-wavey thing in this layer of reality.

HEART EXPLODING GHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now for one of the most exhilirating things I think I've ever seen in MY LIFE.

"Behold... The true nature of reality. When the boundaries of fate are breached, new worlds are born. The planet encompasses a multitude of worlds, ever unfolding. [...] In the planet's embrace, all life is as one." Sephiroth's entire dialogue here... I got goosebumps. That's all.

"Very poor form." LMAO

I notice now on my second watch through, that as early as the sleeping forest scenes, we're cutting back and forth between two different timelines, I believe. Whenever the black or white whispers rush past, we shift perspective from one timeline to another. Pay close attention. Two worlds, simultaneous, but different.

Cloud delivers the white materia from one Aerith to another. Is this the same white materia we see from the beginning of Rebirth? I don't think she swaps the materia out, just transfers its power into her own empty materia, then hands Cloud the newly empty one.

Interesting! Looks like the timeline had already split, all the way back when Cloud handed over the black materia. Previously we saw Cloud and Aerith fall, but now— the white whispers rush past— and we see him rescue her and pull themselves up before they fall. Interesting!

Some youtube theorycrafter will piece together the symbolic significance of literally every tiny detail in this prerendered cutscene and make perfect sense of it. Looking forward to it too, because this is WAY above my paygrade.

Hello, whiper pest control services? Hi, yes, I would like to know why the white whispers are suddenly getting in the way? I thought they were my friends :(

Aerith's prayer :(((((((((

OHHGH MY GOD fucking legendary use of the haptic/adaptive triggers. Holy shit.

👁️ 👁️

Meanwhile, Zack Fair

me, banging my fists on the table: KISS! KISS!!! KISS! KISS!!!! JUST KISS ALREADY!!!!!! KISS!!!

Lmao Zack is so indifferent to this interdimensional insanity. After being the protagonist of Crisis Core, he's just like "lol whatever this is fine"

"Look at you takin' charge! I like it!" 😏

Zack+Cloud synergy attack!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!

"What in the hell is going on!?" SAME ZACK, SAME

AERITH!!!!!!!!!

OH FUCK IT'S THE SONG

the hand hold 💔

i'm incoherent. i'll figure out my thoughts about this some other time

Oh hi Glenn— OH SHIT??!?

THE SWORD CAN DO THAT?????? what

Man... the in-game skybox does NOT do that rift in the sky justice. Absolutely staggering in the final prerendered cutscene.

Next time I have a migraine aura, I'll be at ease knowing that it's just the timelines rippling and merging. No big deal

Two separate worlds, one where she lives, one where she dies. Realities overlapping and intertwined. Cloud's fragile mind fluctuating between both… wow. Can't wait to see where this leads in part 3.

Misc. thoughts, not chapter specific:

Love the accentuated mako in SOLDIER eyes. It irked me that the iconic mako color was so muted in Remake, so seeing it so vibrant in Rebirth is sexy as hell.

Um. No comment on Glenn, really. I'm not heavily invested in his story; maybe I'd be more interested if SE had actually done anything substantial with First Soldier and Ever Crisis. I don't mind that he's here, and the Jenova/Sephiroth twist was pleasantly surprising. Matt and Lucia name drop was also a nice touch. It's pretty obvious that the only reason Glenn is here is to help set up a confict against Wutai for part 3. Fair enough.

So no Kunsel? *SMASHES PHONE ON THE GROUND* *CRUSHES SKATEBOARD*

#PHEW. finally got most of it out of my system.#ok. now i can focus my autism ray on something else.#ffvii #rebirth spoilers #my writing <3

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thedawningofthehour · 2 years ago

Note

Is there a reason Splinter calls Donnie by his color more often than his brothers?? I remember in doth, Donnie felt like Splinter never liked his name, because the artist Donatello wasn't part of the 'holy trinity' of the renaissance or something, and that Splinter wanted a daughter. Is this true, or is Donnie's perspective in that scene somewhat warped, and Splinter just does it to tease his son? This was a while ago but idk, I just liked this detail a lot.

Donnie's definitely talking from his own insecurities about his place on the team.

I went from being vehemently against Splinter calling them by their colors (because he's SPLINTER, he calls his boys by their full names! It's just wrong otherwise!) to seeing the colors as beloved childhood nicknames that he still uses because those are his babies. (though I still don't like him referring to them by their shortened names-he will use their full names or the stupid nickname he has for them, no in-between) The way I imagine it, he had four turtle babies. He was a single dad. His vision wasn't that great to begin with-it might have even gotten worse after his mutation, as rats have terrible vision. And he was fucking tired. He needed some kind of system because he was calling Leo and Donnie Stripes and Stripes 2 in his head, and no it was not consistent who was Stripes 2. Turtles have cloacae, which means their sexual organs are inside and all their species generally don't display secondary sexual characteristics at birth, so he didn't know if they were males or females. So he slapped some colors on them and called it a day. When they actually started sleeping through the night and he could poop in peace, then he started thinking about real names.

Canonically, he calls Donnie by his color the most. I can't find it now or I'd link it but someone did go through the series and catalogue it. He uses Purple the most, closely followed by Blue. He only rarely calls Raph Red, and actually never calls Mikey Orange. I kind of get it for the others-orange is more difficult to pronounce that blue or red, and Raph and red are close enough that he made the switch pretty easily. But purple? It's the same amount of syllables as Donnie and is actually more difficult to pronounce. (though Splinter is not a native English speaker so what would be easiest for me to say would not necessarily be easiest for him, to be fair)

I can't really chalk this up to favoritism because honestly, while Splinter loves all his kids equally and his favorite kid shifts from day to day based on shit like who's amusing him the most and who ate the last poptart, I do feel like he generally likes Donnie and Mikey a little more. So the fact that he almost always calls Donnie by his color but exclusively uses Mikey's real name doesn't really make sense.

So in my canon, Donnie was the last one he sexed, so he called him by nothing but his color the longest. (I think when I did my research Leo should have actually been the last one to start displaying secondary sexual characteristics, but whatever)

And he did want at least one daughter-not because he preferred one or the other, but he would have liked a mix. He wasn't being weirdly gendered about it, this is Lou Jitsu for fuck's sake-his kids played with dolls and racecars, they watched Barbie movies and then some anime mech show. He didn't give a fuck about gender roles and he certainly didn't force them on his kids. But Splinter is also an older dad and grew up in a very different culture. He didn't have siblings, didn't really have friends with kids. So there were definitely times he was sitting at his kitchen table while his four sons ran around screaming their heads off and thought "it would be nice to have some little girls." (meanwhile a few blocks away April is playing Frankenstein with her barbies)

#aw fuck this was one of Those asks where i dump i'm sorry #i ordered food and now it's cold and my bird is yelling at me because he was promised lunch #doth #doth asks #splinter

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xadoheandterra · 8 months ago

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A little something for Chain On Your Neck. Husk's perspective in this scene. It's not done yet, this is only part of it. The rest is planned to be between Husk and Rosie but the phone call wouldn't get out of my head.

Below cut.

“Yeah, no, I’m stuck in Cannibal Town for fuck knows,” Husk grumbled into the phone pressed to his ear. “I won’t be able to stop by and pick it up.” “Well what do you want me to do about it, pussycat?” “Drop it off! What else?” Husk snapped. He glanced around at the wide, smiling faces of the cannibals nearest to him and carefully hunched himself downward. “He ain’t home right now, ya coward.” “But he might be comin’ here.” “Yeah and it’d fuckin’ serve ya right to have him stop by while yer out, Bas��,” Husk agreed with a faint grin. “I mean it’s not like yer hidin’ somethin’, are ya?” He knew precisely what Basil was hiding and exactly how well it would go down if Basil wasn’t there when Alastor found out. “Gale! Pussycats bein’ mean,” Basil yelled. Thankfully the man had pulled the phone away from his face to do it otherwise Husk would have chewed him out double for screeching in his ear. He could faintly hear Gale respond, but the words were garbled from the fact that the signal for this phone was shit in Pentagram City. Husk sure as fuck wasn’t going to get a damn VoxTek phone if he could help it. He’d deal with the shitty reception if it meant keeping a phone that was bug free, and not liable to get Alastor on his case about giving away secrets to the enemy. “Quit yer bitchin’ already,” Husk grumbled and carefully stepped around a group of three cannibals that eyed him. He shuddered heavily and looked away with a grimace. “He’s not gonna head to yer place so quick.” A quieter, softer whisper reached Husk from the phone. Basil was really upset over it all, Husk knew, but he hadn’t expected this response. Still the goat said, “You’re sure?” “Yeah. He was headin’ to the old stompin’ grounds first.” Meaning that Alastor had decided to check on the Radio Tower that was left in disarray before anything else in the territory. Basil and Gale’s little shop was set up in the complete opposite direction, and while Alastor could certainly be there in a snap of his fingers Husk knew the man would rather spend time walking the familiar streets of his territory first. “Ya’ve got time.”

The sound of Basil grinding his teeth was like sweet music to Husk’s ears. He wanted to grin, but the way his fur stood on end and the numerous, hungry stares put a quick stop to any amusement Husk got out of this phone call. A part of him wished he made the call before he reached Cannibal Town, but then that would put him too at risk for someone to run off to the Vee’s with news of Alastor’s potential return. Husk didn’t doubt that the stupid television had his eyes out for when Husk bothered to show his face, given Alastor hadn’t walked around the rest of Pentagram in seven fucking years. “Fine,” Basil grunted out. “Fine. I’ll take the damn box to the house.” Husk breathed a sigh of relief with the agreement. He mumbled, “Great. Perfect. And can ya get Gale to look for Niff too?” “Still haven’t been able to find her?” “Would you be able to find ‘er when she don’t want to be found?” The silence on the other end of the line was telling enough. Basil sighed, tinny and static filled. “I doubt Gale will be able to find her either, you ass.” “He’s better at it,” Husk pointed out. “Done it before.” Gale had done a lot more than that, but Husk didn’t need to say it for Basil to know what he’d meant. Their pasts, and their deaths, were all open to for Husk to know. He massaged between his brows with a grunt. “Just…find her. Before he realizes she’s been missin’.” There was quiet, and then a whispered, “You didn’t tell him?” “It’s Nifty. The fuck you think he would do if I told ‘im?” Alastor would have been beyond infuriated. He would have ripped Husk to shreds if Husk had told him no one and seen or heard from Nifty in almost the full seven years he’d been gone. That Husk didn’t have her phone number or another way to contact her didn’t mean much to Alastor. It was Husk’s job to know where the rest of his precious deck was. Husk was the Joker, and while he could be anything Alastor needed he couldn’t outright replace the rest.

Nifty was his Queen of Spades; his pride and joy so to speak. Husk couldn’t even begin to comprehend the full bond between Alastor and Nifty, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. Nifty unnerved him on a good day. Despite it being over thirty years since his Deal, and despite working with Nifty for most of those years, Husk never quite got used to her brand of crazy. He scratched his cheek and huffed. “You made your point,” Basil agreed, voice tight. “So deliver the box. Get Gale on finding Nifty. Got it. Anything else ya bastard?” “Nah,” Husk tilted his gaze toward the sky and came to a slow stop. He could see the bright sign that indicated Rosie’s Emporium in front of him. He’d reach the destination. “I’ll call ya if it changes, though.” “Great. Good. Wonderful. Fuck I am so dead.”

#hazbin hotel husk #hazbin hotel #fanfic #fic: chain on your neck

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kristannafever · 1 year ago

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She Ain't Gotta Do Much - 7

Kristanna Modern AU Rated: M WC: 3274

Chapter Index

-----------------

Anna came to interrupt him and Sven about an hour after they started work the next morning. Her face looked apprehensive.

“Kristoff, the CEO from upstairs is requesting a meeting. With you.”

“When?”

“Now.”

Kristoff looked at Sven who was giving him the stink eye. He turned back to Anna. “What’s it about?”

“I don’t know. But I did see Chad walking towards his office not too long ago.” She smiled slightly. “He has two black eyes.”

“Think we’re about to get shit canned?” he asked bluntly.

Anna shrugged. “Honestly, I have no idea.”

“Well, let’s find out. Lead the way, Anna.”

They gave each other an encouraging smile. They had talked about it last night, that if there was fallout from Kristoff’s impulsive self defence, they were going to fight it tooth and nail and expose Chad for the slimeball he truly was.

They climbed the stairs to the floor above and Kristoff left Anna in the lobby when one of the secretary’s announced she would show Kristoff to the CEO’s office. He followed, thinking about how he had briefly rehearsed explaining himself on the drive to work in the morning.

The secretary knocked and they were told to ‘come in’.

As soon as Kristoff entered the office, he was taken aback by the opulence of it. Sure enough, there was a long and sleek gas fireplace mounted into the wall with a full living room set in front of it. The built in book cases were on the wall with the door this time, and between the biggest desk Kristoff had ever seen and the lounge area, was a full twelve-person conference table. Art adorned the walls, as well as many framed certificates, and between many of the books on the shelves sat various shapes and sizes of trophies.

The man certainly liked to flaunt his accomplishments.

Chad happened to be sitting at the head of the conference table, giving Kristoff a satisfied smirk and still managing to look like a dumbass with his two black eyes and swollen nose. Kristoff didn’t think he’d actually tagged him that hard, except the bruises said otherwise.

The CEO, a man who appeared to be in his early sixties, stood when Kristoff approached. He was a little surprised by the stature of the older man. He was a good two inches taller, just as broad and carried about fifty extra pounds. If Kristoff was the type, he might feel intimidated.

The Big Boss walked around the side of the desk and stuck out his hand when Kristoff approached. He shook it, and they both gave each other a respectful and almost imperceptible nod of the head at the near matched hand shake technique.

“I hear you are Kristoff,” said the CEO in a booming voice. “My name is Richard. Have seat.”

Kristoff obliged and took a seat at the far-left side of the four available chairs adjacent the deck, putting Chad sitting at the conference table slightly behind him just barely in his peripheral vision on his right.

“My senior manager Chad here claims that you assaulted him,” Richard began.

“Oh yeah? What else did he tell you?” Kristoff asked, genuinely curious at the tale he wove for his boss.

“Let’s just leave his side out of it until I hear yours.”

Kristoff perceived Chad shifting in his chair and he held back a smile. “Self defence plain and simple. I wasn’t about to let him hit me, so I hit him first.”

The larger man leaned back into his chair and appraised Kristoff for a moment. Perhaps he was trying to be imposing to see if Kristoff was going to say more on the matter. He wasn’t however, unless he was asked to.

“Any why would my senior manager attempt to hit you?” Richard finally asked.

Kristoff gave it to him point blank. “Because I called him and his friend pathetic fucking excuses for men and disgusting degenerate fucks.”

Chad moved in his chair and spoke up. “He did more than that, he-”

Richard held up his hand to Chad, and the idiot shut up immediately. He smiled at Kristoff. “And why would you call them pathetic fucking excuses for men and disgusting degenerate fucks?”

“I wouldn’t dare repeat the vile things they were saying. It involved most of your female staff and some extremely inappropriate things they had the desire of doing to them.”

Richard tapped an index finger on his desk. “Where did this happen?”

“In the elevator,” Kristoff answered, then turned to look at Chad for the first time. “You’re welcome by the way, for holding the door.”

He turned back to the CEO and his eyes were boring into Kristoff, and ever so slowly his mouth contorted in a smile. “Can I ask you something, Kristoff?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What is it that you think Chad said about the encounter? Because I have a feeling you might have an idea.”

Kristoff’s answer was quick. He’d already thought about it. “That it was an unprovoked attack. That he wanted to let you know first before he was going to press charges. I assume he said he will do it on Friday so as not to interfere with the remainder of the work downstairs. The real reason he’s waiting, however, is because he wants the cocaine out of his system, just in case I press my own harassment charges first. Which I never intended to do.”

Richard kept his eyes on Kristoff as he spoke to his employee. “You hear that, Chad. Almost word for word.”

“Sir, I didn’t do cocaine. He approached me and-”

The CEO looked at Chad. “Are you aware we’ve installed cameras to fix that blind spot on the service area parking since that truck was vandalized a couple of months ago?”

“You… what?”

“I was sent a video clip this morning from the security desk downstairs. Shall we take a look?” Richard turned one of his two monitors so that Chad could see it. The angle was off for Kristoff to get a good view, but he didn’t need to watch it. He was there.

Chad moved to get up, looking rather pale. “Sir, listen, I-”

“Sit!” Richard roared.

Kristoff smiled to himself.

The video played, with audio no less, making Chad look like an even bigger asshole than Kristoff had made it sound. After it was over, Richard turned his monitor back into place and Chad couldn’t look anywhere but at the floor.

“Here’s what we are going to do, Chad. You are not going to be pressing any charges, and I am going to arrange for your urine and blood to be tested within the hour. If it comes back with illegal substances, you will be terminated. Or, you can choose to resign right now and take your severance with you. Your choice.”

“Sir, please-”

“Answer now, Chad, while I am still in a generous mood.”

Chad was silent. He swallowed audibly, then spoke in a whisper. “I’ll get that resignation letter to you right away, sir.”

The degenerate skulked away and just as he was at the door, Richard spoke up again. “If you know what’s good for you, don’t put us down as a reference in your job hunting, Chad.”

Kristoff didn’t see any reaction. He just heard the door click quietly shut behind him.

Richard let out a long sigh and returned his attention back to Kristoff. “You know what, Kris? Can I call you Kris?”

“Absolutely, sir.”

Richard gave a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Call me Dick. Everyone else does.”

Kristoff nodded once.

“How do you think I got my start?”

Kristoff shrugged. “With an idea that you built on?”

Dick smiled wide. “You get it, don’t you, Kris?”

“I think so.” Kristoff smiled back.

“I started with nothing,” he said, as he stood and walked around the desk towards the couches by the fireplace. “Built my company from starch. Started in a rented garage space with barely a cent to my name.”

Kristoff stood and followed, taking a seat on the opposite sofa from Dick.

“How about you, Kris? Your start sound something like that?”

“It sure does. Sven and I have been working extremely hard to get our company off the ground. Been through a lot of lean times.”

“I am all too familiar with lean times,” Dick answered, looking thoughtfully around his office. “It’s how you persevere through them that matters.”

“Sink or swim,” Kristoff agreed, smiling at the words from his Pop and how Anna had uttered the same thing not long ago.

*****

Anna was nervously flitting around Sven trying to help in any way she could while Kristoff was upstairs. It had been a long time. A very, concerning, long time. Sven looked as nervous as she felt.

She’d only met the CEO a hand full of times, and they had been brief encounters. Someone else interviewed and hired her, someone else had promoted her, someone else still had promoted her again, and she’d never actually sat down and had a real conversation with the man who was the head of the entire company.

She had no idea what kind of man he was.

Then her phone dinged with an urgent email and she opened it to see it was an attachment from the CEO with the single line ‘I think you will enjoy this’ and his digital signature. Anna opened it immediately, not even realizing Sven had come to snoop and was looking over her shoulder.

The attachment was a video, and as soon as Anna opened it, she realized it was from the encounter with Chad in the alley. She watched it, smiling and filling with delight to actually see it unfold with her own eyes. Kristoff was just walking out of frame of the video when he walked into the room.

“What are you guys looking at?”

Sven and Anna looked up. “What happened?” they asked, almost in unison.

Kristoff smiled. “Not much. Chad had a change of heart and decided to resign.”

He proceeded to tell them all about the meeting and their conversation afterward. Dick had managed to goad the kinds of things that Chad and his friend had been saying out of him – perhaps to see if it was as bad as Kristoff had deemed it – and Kristoff was blunt but very brief with the truth, feeling even more respect for Dick when he became physically upset and muttered that he was going to put everyone through some harassment and workplace etiquette training and actually apologized on Chad’s behalf. He added he was going to make it a zero-tolerance policy in the workplace as well.

Not only that, they’d talked briefly about Chad’s friend, David, who Dick felt no need to reprimand further since he’d been trying – although feebly – to deter Chad from acting out. Both men agreed that David seemed to get the message and would no doubt be very careful about how he conducted himself in the future.

Then they talked business for a while and Kristoff was given some seriously good advice on things that him and Sven could do to grow their company, which Kristoff told Sven they could discuss on their Friday night beers at the pub.

Then the conversation turned personal, and Kristoff found himself opening up to the CEO. Dick certainly was a charismatic person. He admitted him and Anna were dating, and Dick mentioned to him that he was really proud of how she had been running that floor since she took over for Chad. He even said she might be up for another promotion, which Kristoff didn’t respond to. He knew Anna wouldn’t want to move on anytime soon, and he had a feeling that when push came to shove, Dick would respect the hell out of her decision.

After the intercom on the massive desk buzzed that a scheduled meeting had arrived, Dick walked Kristoff to the door, shook his hand, and commended him and Sven for doing an amazing job getting the work to the lower floor done quickly.

Kristoff had wandered back down to the floor below in a daze, realizing he had a newfound respect for a person he assumed he would dislike upon meeting for the simple fact that he was a while collar CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company.

How wrong a person could be for a world they did not understand.

And what a poor example some could be for the entire industry they represented.

Truly, the book should never be judged by the cover.

Afterward, Kristoff and Sven got back to work and the afternoon seemed to drag by. Time always seemed to move slowly when there was something at the end of it to look forward to, and Kristoff could not wait to get to Anna’s for dinner, even if he did have to finish the quote for Tony.

He knew that Anna wouldn’t mind.

*****

The bedding was changed, the apartment was immaculate, dinner was in the oven, and Anna was anxiously awaiting Kristoff’s arrival.

She’d watched the video of how he dealt with Chad several times. Perhaps a dozen too many. It was such a turn on and Anna would be dammed if she was going to let this quasi date not be counted as an official third, which meant she had every intention of taking that man to bed.

He arrived in his jeans and flannel, smelling like the freshest load of laundry and whatever shampoo he used. Anna kissed him deeply, until he put a gentle stop to it.

“I’m sorry, Anna, I hope it’s okay to work on that quote for Tony a bit before dinner?” He held up a laptop bag with an adorably apologetic look. “I didn’t quite finish it last night.”

She suddenly felt a little bad for trying to make a big deal date on a weeknight. She knew how busy Kristoff was, and she knew that he had a lot to quote after the jobs he’d looked at on top of working all day long to finish their offices.

Kristoff hesitated at her pause. “Or I can do it after dinner?”

Anna smiled at him and how sweet he was. “No, that’s fine, Kristoff! I just kind of forgot how busy you were. I hope I’m not making your evening busier by inviting you over?”

His eyelids dropped and he leaned over to kiss her lips again. “Not at all.”

He left her lips and her body tingled long after.

Kristoff sat at the kitchen table while Anna made a salad and ogled him as much as she wanted with his attention on his work. It was a delightful sight to see him there, and she realized that it wasn’t something she was going to be able to do without on a regular basis.

It was a little frightening how fast she was falling in love with him. But welcome. Oh, so very welcome.

She’d had a relationship with a guy in her office once, and it ended badly. He’d cheated on her with several other women and everyone was laughing about it behind her back. That was when she was new to the company and didn’t understand the world she’d become a part of. Thankfully, there weren’t many of those people left there. They’d either moved on or been fired. Her ex had personally been let go by the CEO and Anna always did wonder what he’d done to warrant that. Perhaps some day she’d get to ask the Big Boss.

After that she was careful who she dated, and everyone she dated was a lesson in what she wasn’t looking for in a man. Which was why Kristoff was such a breath of fresh air.

She’d never met anyone so genuine, wrapped up in the most beautiful, hunkiest, manly shell. Looking at him now, those boot cut jeans and a light sweater, Anna felt a fondness for him she’d felt for no one else. He truly was a special person.

“Shit, do you have a calculator? I forgot mine.”

Kristoff’s voice pulled her from her mind and she smiled. She knew right away he wasn’t talking about any old calculator. He could use the one on his phone if he was. He was talking about an accountant calculator with printing tape, and Anna did indeed have one of those for any time she did work from home.

She went to her little den off the kitchen where she had her office and grabbed it for him. When she set it on the table he looked first at it, then at her, and gave her a wide and knowing smile.

“Thanks, Anna.”

“No problem,” she said, leaning over to kiss his lips.

It was hard not to linger.

Going back to the kitchen, Anna finished dressing the salad and took the chicken and rice casserole out of the oven to cool. Then she poured herself a glass of wine and gave Kristoff a beer. She leaned against the counter watching him, looking from his laptop to the notebook in front of him and putting numbers into the calculator and checking the tape to make sure everything was correct.

He really didn’t have to do anything at all to turn her on apparently.

Which was why it felt so contradictory that her mind decided that this was not the night they would sleep together. He had a lot on his plate, and a lot on his mind no doubt. Not only that, they had been starting extra early all week to get the finishing touches complete so that everyone could move fully into their new offices all day Friday. It was just not the night.

Saturday on the other hand…

-----

After dinner, which Kristoff raved about, making Anna feel a Michelin star chef – which she was certainly not – she found herself helping Kristoff run through the numbers for Tony’s quote. She had to admit, his system for pricing and estimating the labour was fascinating. It was similar to certain aspects of what her job was when she first started for the company.

When he had it all buttoned up, they shared a bowl of chocolate ice cream while they talked a little more about the certain things Kristoff and the CEO had talked about in their meeting.

Kristoff was trying not to let it show, but he had started to stifle quite a few yawns. He worked so hard it was hard for her to fathom how tired he must be. They were just finishing their conversation when Anna had an idea.

“Hey, about our date on Saturday? Do you have anything planned?” His brow furrowed slightly so Anna clarified. “Like anything set in stone, I mean.”

His face relaxed. “No, nothing that we can’t do some other time. Why?”

Anna smiled. “Because you’ve been working so hard these past few weeks. I was thinking a nice relaxing break is in order. You know, a spa day. For you.”

He smiled back but there was a light grimace behind it. “I’m not really a spa kind of person, Anna.”

She laughed, knowing he was going to say that. “I meant what you like and need kind of spa day.”

An eyebrow came up. “And that would be?”

“Oh, I am going to show you,” she stated. “You leave it to me. Be here at noon.” Then she added, “And pack an overnight bag.”

His face went blank and he blinked at her for a moment. Then his eyes went to her lips and he launched across the table to kiss her.

---

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

#cee wrote this mess #she ain't gotta do much #kristoff #anna #kristanna #kristanna modern au

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dakogutin · 2 years ago

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For @goodboylupin 's Candy Hearts Challenge. My candy heart prompt was Forks.

Once again Sirius finds himself sneaking to the exit at the basement, down the sloping path to where the shore is kissed by the ocean. The night’s breeze is relentless, cutting through the layers of his coat. The lantern in his hand is weak, which is ideal for the sneaking part– for its main function though, it’s admittedly a bane.

As soon as he settles himself on the edge of the wooden foot bridge, the water ripples, giving way to the crown of a head breaking the surface. A pair of golden eyes gleam in the darkness; sharp and guileful, but at present, only bright in wonder.

“Remus!”

Sirius leans over the bridge, just enough to watch as Remus hauls his torso out of the water. Remus’ dark lashes are water-flecked and that’s the last thing Sirius registers right before Remus’ lips are on his.

Sirius gasps into the kiss, one hand swiping at the dripping strands of hair at Remus’ cheek. “I missed you too.”

Leaning back, Remus grins. “Sorry I made you wet,” he says, not at all apologetic.

Sirius chuckles. Remus has always been very tactile, nothing Sirius would certainly complain about, of course– just that Sirius isn’t always on board for a spontaneous swim especially when the day’s temperature is at its lowest. And besides, Remus, for all his endearing fascination, is also brazenly impish.

“Did you bring me anything?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Sirius drawls. “Are you saying my presence is not enough?”

Remus shakes his head. “Took you long enough to realise I’ve just been using you all this time.” He does a good show of displaying his false nonchalance by doing a small lap– his back against the water’s surface and his gaze upward.

“I’m sure my devilishly good looks would say otherwise. I’d prove it to you now but the water is freezing.”

“That’s a lot of barking and no biting, Sirius Black.”

Sirius’ movements of retrieving the items he brought for Remus drop at that. His eyes narrow but his lips curl into a smirk. You insufferable little shit.

Remus simply winks back. You can’t resist me.

“What am I going to do with you…” Sirius sighs, utterly helpless.

“There’s lots of things you could do with me.”

The purr in Remus’ voice almost makes Sirius dive into the water at that instant. His desire to touch Remus spreads through him like wildfire– something he realises Remus must not have even seen or known about yet.

“The water is cold,” Sirius says more to himself than anything, pulling out a polished utensil from his rucksack. “Here. I still don’t understand why– of all things– you’re most intrigued about a fork,” Sirius says quickly, distracting Remus by reminding him of his excitement.

It works brilliantly. Remus pipes up. His tail raises above the water, swishing to the other side, oddly reminiscent of an intrigued cat. The scales catch the moonlight, but only just. Hints of its iridescence flash Sirius’ eyes.

The sight of Remus always has Sirius stuck in admiration. Maybe it has something to do with the magical qualities they possess– that perhaps Remus can naturally manipulate and allure humans, but Sirius is rather confident that it won’t make much of a difference.

Remus’ pointier and webbed fingers wrap around the fork, taking it from Sirius. He tilts his head and his eyes widen as he takes in the object’s appearance. But then the expression melts away and he swirls it around the water’s surface, creating small patterns. “It’s not as fun if you’re just up there.” He sounds more sincere in his wistfulness. Sirius’ heart clenches.

“I just don’t fancy having to walk back soaking and freezing everywhere, darling.”

“Then remove your clothes.”

It elicits a surprised laugh from Sirius. He stops when Remus continues to stare at him expectantly.

“Come on. I’ll make sure to keep you warm.”

A blush forms on Sirius’ cheeks. And though it lasts for just a second, he’s not safe from Remus’ stupidly keen eyesight in the dark.

It’s Remus’ turn to burst out laughing. “I didn’t mean it like that!”

Sirius scoffs– Remus floundering is enough to help him regain his composure. “Don’t go shying away from me now, Remus. We both know that’s exactly how you meant it.” He sheds his coat and pulls his shirt over his head.

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before anyway.”

Even while shivering, Sirius manages to roll his eyes at Remus. Now with an entire expanse of skin exposed to the cutting ocean breeze, he debates on slowly sinking his feet in the water, but it doesn’t last as every second he spends not in the water is excruciating.

Sirius dives in, and all his hairs rise from the sudden plunge. “Oh fuck!”

Remus’ gentle and tinkling laughter echoes around him, followed by arms that wrap around his waist. Remus holds Sirius from behind, keeping him afloat while also giving him warmth. It’s not as warm as a human body, but it’s absolute bliss.

Slowly, Sirius shifts until he’s facing Remus and rests his head on Remus’ shoulder, snuggling in the crook of his wet neck where his gills are. They stay in that position as Remus swims on his back, doing laps across the footbridge with Sirius practically laying on top of him.

“Alright?” Remus murmurs ever so softly to Sirius’ ear.

“Happy now?” Sirius bites back.

In response, Remus kisses Sirius lips, nothing short of joyful and contented, especially as Sirius kisses him back with just as much fervour. Before Remus can melt away on Sirius’ arms, a recollection hits him. “Wait. Where’s the… thing?”

Sirius huffs– it comes out in a shiver. “I’m right here. And you’re thinking about the fork?”

“Yes, because you’re here and the fork isn’t!”

Sirius groans. “I can get you another one.”

And Remus doesn’t even hide his delight in that. “I’m counting on that.”

“Yeah, I love you too.”

#RScandyhearts #lets not think too much on the time period lol #shoutout to littlelass for the idea bcs i couldnt handle how random forks are #wolfstar #wolfstar au #wolfstar fic #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin

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adozentothedawn · 1 year ago

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I am hatching so many avatar fanfic ideas right now that I will probably never write but hot damn I am marinating in the ideas. A lot of them include Agni’s-favourite!Zuko cause I unfortunately read a fanfic that made me completely obsessed with Agni as a character and I just cannot stop. Agni as a mildly scary but also very smug patron spirit who is very done just watching shit go down and also has a very loving relationship with his sibling Tui now lives rent free in my head forever.

So yeah idea number one would be a one shot and is primarily an excuse for sun god drama. Zuko once again almost gets assassinated and Agni is very annoyed and done with this shit. If La gets to go on a giant water monster rampage and kill a bunch of his people, Agni gets to put on a dramatic show to discourage further murder plots against the first fire lord in a while that he actually likes and wants there. Really I am mostly picturing a scene with an unconscious Zuko getting carried past a huge crowd of people (throne room? palace steps? Unclear) by a very hot (in both ways) and glowing but otherwise for now mostly human looking Agni. He’s also glowing in a few spots which will later be revealed as injuries he would have died from without Agni’s intervention. Agni also gets to hold a speech/conversation with someone? Unclear details. Either way the more and more angry and unhinged he gets the less human he looks until he’s just a maby possibly but probably not slightly human shaped source of light.

Idea number 2, something about Zuko being briefly possessed by Agni and creeping everyone the hell out cause that calm and absolutely murderous smile is not a facial expression Zuko should be capable of making.

Idea number 3, Agni just straight up incinerates Ozai. Either at the Agni Kai already or post war, not sure. Either way it’s a “You want power? I will give you power” situation. Zuko is absolutely terriffied of that attention and not really on board with any of this but he doesn’t get a choice. A god’s attention is as much a curse as a blessing.

And idea number 4 is the only one that for now does not include Agni, but instead features Ursa as protagonist. She makes a different choice and instead of poisining Azulon she murders Ozai, not cause Azulon is really any better but she is certainly in a better position to deal with him. So second son Ozai tragically dies of a sudden unforseen heart attack, how tragic, Azulon does not care enough to ask and so Ursa is not banished. Instead she public performs grief as a proper royal widow should and humbly makes a suggestion to Fire Lord Azulon. Namely that after the tragic passing of both her husband and prince Lu Ten, perhaps it would be wise decision to have her marry crown prince Iroh. Should the marriage produce any direct heirs, good, should it not the marriage would still legitimize her already existing children, his grandchildren anyway, even better as heirs. Azulon agrees, Iroh when he returns is less happy about it but also understands that it’s the best move Ursa has to protect her children and agrees. Political hijinks commence. Of what sort I have no idea yet.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #fanfic ideas #i have spent the whole day just reading atla fics #i am boiling with hype #i've almost forgotten what it feels like to have an intense hyper fixation #but damn i have fallen for it again

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knightsarmor · 5 months ago

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@moiraxknight

Oliver looked up from the book he was reading, noticing movement from the corner of his eyes. Yael had zipped by at a lightning speed pace. Which he knew meant that she was trying to avoid being seen. Oliver took off his reading glasses. “Hey, come over here,” he called out to his daughter.

She was a teenager and she was turning out to be a mildly rebellious one at that. She wasn’t as bad as some. Oliver could only be grateful she wasn’t a terror like he knew many of them could be. She wasn’t exactly drinking and partying and doing hard drugs as far as he knew (and he was certain he would know if she had ever shown up wasted or high), but that didn’t mean Yael certainly liked to push the limits of what she could and couldn’t do. She tried his patience plenty.

“Yes?” said Yael as she peeked out from the doorway, just her head floating there.

“Come here,” he said as he tilted his head.

“Dad,” she said impatiently. “I’m trying to go. I’m meeting Athena in the city with the boys. And I’m meeting the boys, like, now.”

Oliver knew by boys she met Haki and Jonah.

“And what? You don’t have two fucking seconds to get over here?” he asked. Yes, Oliver had eventually lost the battle with trying not to swear around his kids. Considering they were both teenagers, he wasn’t going to pretend like they didn’t already hear that language in movies and from their classmates.

Yael stepped into the doorway, revealing exactly why she had been so hesitant to reveal herself. She had on a crop top that was almost precariously short and a little too tight for Oliver’s liking. “Oh, you’re not going anywhere dressed like that. Go to your room to fucking change.”

“Dad, dad. Abba,” said Yael, smiling and rocking on her feet. Her curls bounce with the movement. Her curls outdid either of her parents and were big and voluminous as well as tightly coiled. “I’m not changing. Mom said I could go like this.”

“Well, mom is fucking insane. Has she seen you?” he asked. “Don’t you lie to me. Or did you show her another outfit and then change?”

“No, she saw me,” said Yael, rolling her eyes. “She is just way more reasonable than you,” she huffed.

“Yeah, and considering you’re going into the city and that you’re going into the city with two boys, I think you need to fucking change into a shirt that you can tuck into those pants,” Oliver went on. “Does she know all that?”

“Of course she knows all that,” said Yael. “Ohmygod, I am not going to wear a shirt I can tuck into my pants. That is so gross.”

“I don’t give a fuck if you think it’s gross. You know what? How about I go up there and choose the damn shirt myself?” asked Oliver.

“Please don’t,” Yael cringed. “You literally wear the same shirt and shoes every day. You cannot choose my outfit for me.”

“Alright, well, if you don’t want me to do it, then you have to go do it,” said Oliver. “Otherwise, you’re not leaving this house. I don’t give a fuck.”

“Ugh, you’re so unreasonable.” Yael stomped off yelling.

“I cannot believe you’re making her change,” said Moira rolling her eyes.

“Have you seen this fucking shit she’s wearing? And you told her she could go out like that?” asked Oliver.

“Would you rather she change, stuff the shirt into her purse or pockets and then change after she’s left the house? Because I guarantee you that’s what she’s going to do,” Moira said as she sat down on the couch, folding her legs underneath herself.

“Oh, not on my fucking watch. I’ll check her purse and pockets myself if I have to,” said Oliver as he got up as if he was going to go do that just now.

Moira quickly caught Oliver’s wrist. “Babe, we’ve talked about this. There are some battles you have to be willing to lose. If you want her to be smart about drinking and drugs, then we have to let up in other places. She’s going to do what she wants to do. However, if we come off as reasonable, she’s more willing to listen to us about the more serious issues rather because we didn’t come off as the parents who were too strict. She’s not going out in a thong and a bra. Be thankful for that.”

Oliver ran a hand over his face. “I was a goddamn menace as a teenager, you know.”

“I know, and compared to you, she’s an angel,” said Moira as she gave Oliver a chaste peck.

Yael came stomping back down. Now she had switched out from her crop top, to a Slipknot tank top. It was a bit loose in places, but Oliver was willing to accept it. “Have a good night, sweetheart,” he nodded to her.

“Ugh, mom, tell dad he’s being the worst,” said Yael.

“I already did. You have a good time out. Remember, you have to be back by eleven, otherwise you call us and let us know where you are. At least before your father decides to file a missing persons report on you and I don’t think you want that, do you?” Moira raised an eyebrow at her.

“No,” she mumbled. “Bye. Love you,” she said as she left through the front door, slamming it shut.

“She totally put the shirt into her bag,” said Yehuda as he popped up from behind the couch where his parents sat.

“Yeah, yeah,” sighed Oliver as he waved his hand at his son, clearly having lost that battle.

“Can we have pizza for dinner?” he asked now.

“Sure, buddy,” said Oliver. “You can order it.”

“Yes,” grinned Yehuda as he then sped off to do just that.

“Just remember how happy you were when you wanted them both,” smiled Moira, this time giving him a real kiss, her arms wrapped around him.

#drabble

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musicrunsthroughmysoul · 10 months ago

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Might want to do a bit of reading about the Ramones. Several sources point to their anti-blackness and siding with white supremacy groups at their shows, as well as supporting presidents Reagan and Bush. Dee Dee was also a pedophile, grooming a sixteen year old when he was in his forties

Unsolicited but I am assuming well-meaning anon, thank you for the heads-up about the Ramones, but in case you could not tell from a very basic search of my blog, I do not give a shit about the Ramones - which is to say that I've never liked them or cared for their music and find them vastly overrated and mediocre, anyway - and the only time I ever intend to post about them is in relation to someone I certainly like better (who I, most likely, find quite a bit less overrated and mediocre). Nonetheless, it's good to know about their anti-blackness, although to be fair (not to them - just in general), that could very, VERY easily be said about almost any white artist (at the least; they would otherwise, of course, have to be rather vocally anti-racist!), which is not at all meant to be in their defense but is just to suggest, why single out the Ramones when this issue is rampant in all art forms? Honestly, it should be acknowledged in regards to everyone's white faves, and my white faves are no exception (though I am not, of course, at all saying that the Ramones are my faves. LOL I could not care less about them, except for the way their music was given far more credentials than women and non-white, and especially non-white women, in punk were ever given; THAT! I CARE A WHOLE FUCKING LOT ABOUT!! And I've posted about this before, although I will say, it does suck that my primary example is Patti Smith given her history of anti-blackness. I can certainly rethink who and how I laud those who spearheaded punk, but I also think there are lines to be drawn). Nonetheless, aligning themselves with white supremacy groups at their shows is FUCKED!!!! And that does make me consider the way my faves have associated themselves with the Ramones. Oh...*is now deeply unsettled* yeah, that's really fucked up. I will be thinking about that quite a lot more now, so thank you for that bit of information in particular. But also, *coughs* I have a song to share that speaks to that history of white supremacy in punk - from a very beloved folk singer, no less. :') (Brief, historical context for that, btw: she was in punk before she became a folk singer!! So she was there witnessing this stuff around that time - the late '70s and early '80s, which is exactly why it's relevant.)

Still! Despite my defensiveness, I do appreciate the heads-up about them, and I will gladly (I guess; just to be informed, because when did that ever hurt anyone...rhetorical question!) read about them as you suggested. So thank you for bringing that information to my attention, and if you have any recs about where to read more about them concerning their anti-blackness and association with white supremacy in particular, that'd be super helpful, but I'm never afraid of a little research, anyway.

Note: sorry to gloss over the "Dee Dee was a pedophile" bit, but...not that I am defending pedophiles in any area of anything whatsoever, but there have been far more pedophiles in areas of 'popular' music than just one of the Ramones and punk; there are people that we do not talk about (for this reason, or do so very carefully), or people who we still laud to this day, and probably always will, despite the fact that they were absolutely, 100% taking advantage of young people and children, and I'm sorry that I cannot sugarcoat that. My acknowledgment of this is not to say that we should not talk about them, nor do I think it's right to continue to give so much credit to people with so much fame, and thus power, let alone to give them more fame and power, when they've done such reprehensible things. Rather, I would like to suggest that we think about and discuss ways in which we can PREVENT things like fame, and proximity to fame (and thus power), from empowering these people (men, women, and people of any gender) to take advantage of children, young people, and young fans. Because that's a significant part of what has been happening for all these years, and it will continue if we do not consider ways to check famous people - and fame, in general - and those in power. (And if you happen to think of the whole J*ffr*y *pst*in situation, that's a great starting point! Let's consider the ways in which they're all connected, but in particular, WHY!!!)

#I probably could've chosen not to sound so defensive in the beginning but...whatever. I'm an emotional person and I strive to be #genuine even when it makes me look/sound bad. I am flawed. but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn down a chance to #think critically about things that I know otherwise will upset me. there ARE more important things than emotion still #and I try to never ignore the chance to think critically in spite of that. even though it can be difficult because god #who wants to think that their faves are horrible people? well! guess what! some of them are. and the time that fucks us the most is when #we ignore it and don't talk about it and pretend it's not true. because ignorance gets us nowhere.#and personally the reason why I enjoy looking at things through a historical lens is because it always always tells us #how we got to where we are now and it also tells us where we're going from here. ...if we're brave enough to face it that is.#and identifying those things are the first step to at least facing in a good direction. so yeah let's look at the ugly shit.

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nobodyfamousposts · 3 years ago

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Chloe's Lament

Why no! I'm still not over Miracle Queen, why do you ask?

_______________________

They were impossible odds to begin with.

That was why they had failed.

Miracle Queen smirked as Ladybug was stung by her wasps and put under her control. Seeing the once great hero brought low really filled her with vindictive satisfaction.

“See?” She sneered. “I didn’t need you. You needed me!”

If anyone had the right to destroy Ladybug, it was her. After all, hadn’t she deserved this? What right did Ladybug have to refuse her her Miraculous anyway?

Well, it didn’t matter anymore. Because now all of the Miraculous were hers. Including Ladybug’s and Chat’s.

“My lady!” Chat shouted, though he was helpless to stop it. Helpless to even escape the grasp of her guards.

And speaking of which…

Her guards didn’t move, simply standing in place while they waited for orders. She was mildly annoyed that they couldn’t think for themselves and simply take the Miraculous already to present to her in offering, but…

…actually, no. It was better if she did it. This was her victory, after all.

She considered starting with the sidekick. He had always been an eyesore, anyway.

But Chloe was never one for patience.

At her command, Ladybug approached, apparently unaware of the world around him. Before Miracle Queen, she placed both hands over her ears.

She...seemed to hesitate for a moment.

Miracle Queen arched a brow at that. Was there some part of her trying to resist?

“Give me the Earrings.”

Whatever hesitancy she had vanished and within a second, she had the Earrings off, causing the transformation to fade and revealing—

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng?!”

She barely heard that alley cat’s gasp. She took little notice of Hawk Moth or Mayura’s own responses. She outright ignored the little pink bug thing that appeared and blanched at her presence. She didn’t even register anything any of them said afterwards, her mind whirling from the implications.

She had always thought Ladybug this distant figure. Untouchable. Unreachable.

But for it to be her of all people?!

She wasted no effort on kindness, simply ripping the earrings out of the former Ladybug’s hands with a sneer.

Her own goody-goody classmate just stood there staring ahead blankly. Chloe almost regretted not leaving her unstung, if only so she could see her reaction as she lost everything.

Chloe bit back a snarl at the girl.

She had always been a pest. Always getting in Chloe’s way. Always acting as if she was actually worth anything compared to her. Always denying her—demeaning her—opposing her—stealing from her!

Her Adrien! Her Mom’s attention! And now her Miraculous!

Chloe grit her teeth.

Of course. OF FUCKING COURSE!

“Chloe! Please listen to me!” The Cat was pleading to her.

Chloe felt numb. Her mind still registering the truth.

Because how dare she? How dare she?!

How dare SHE of all people fool her like this!

Words seemed to warble through the static surrounding her.

“You don’t have to do this!”

Have to? Of course she didn’t.

Want to? Oh, she certainly did.

“If Hawk Moth gets both Miraculous, he’ll make the Wish and it could be catastrophic!”

Chloe rolled her eyes.

Like that pathetic stray knew anything.

Of course anyone would say whatever they could to convince Chloe. She barely paid him any mind, still ruminating over the clear deception. How Marinette had gotten one over on her. Again.

All this time, Marinette must have been laughing at her. Trying to use her! Now she lost and Chloe won and people were still acting like she knew better! Like she was still so perfect!

Pathetic.

How could Chloe have ever looked up to her?

“Chloe, please! You can’t let Hawk Moth win!”

“Shut up!”

Hawk Moth wasn’t the winner here, she was!

And she would prove it!

She didn’t even need to waste a wasp on the sidekick. With the guards holding him in place and at her command presenting his hand to her, she was able to get to his Ring easily. His attempts to throw them off or keep his hand closed and protected were useless as she removed the ring, causing his transformation to dissipate.

She gaped.

“Adrien?!”

Him. Adrien Agreste. The boy she loved. The only one who was good enough for her. And he was staring back at her from the same spot where that stupid cat had been.

Adrien…staring at her in a mix of horror and disappointment and rage.

“Chloe…how could you?”

How could she? No! How could he?! He knew who she was this whole time! Why didn’t he tell her? Why didn’t he stand up for her when Ladybug told her she wouldn’t be Queen Bee again? Or hell, give her the Miraculous in the first place? She thought they were friends!

She shoved away from him.

This…

This wasn’t her Adrien!

“Excellent job, Miracle Queen.” Hawk Moth called, pulling her from her thoughts. “Now bring me their Miraculous and the glory shall be yours.”

A pause.

She considered.

Ladybug was defeated. Hawk Moth had won. He had won because of Chloe—the person whom Ladybug—Marinette had looked down on. The city was under her control. Now everyone HAD to listen to and obey her.

Marinette had lost everything and could do nothing about it while Chloe was free to be the Queen she always deserved to be.

Wasn’t this enough?

Wasn’t all of this…finally enough?

Silence.

Hawk Moth was waiting.

Her subjects were waiting.

Everyone was waiting on Chloe.

It was all about Chloe now.

So…wasn’t that enough?

“No.”

This wasn’t enough.

This wasn’t nearly good enough to appease her.

Hawk Moth frowned.

“What?”

“No!” She replied. “I don’t have to. I don’t want to. And now that I have these, I don’t need to.”

She smirked up at him.

“I don’t need you anymore! I don’t need any of you!”

She held up the two Miraculous in victory.

“Now I’M the one in charge!”

“Chloe, don’t do it!” Adrien shouted. “You don’t know what the Wish will do!”

“I’m not listening to you anymore!” She shouted. “When Ladybu—when SHE refused to give me my Miraculous back, where were you?”

“Chloe!”

“NO! What right does she have to say who deserves a Miraculous or not? She should never have been Ladybug!” She shouted, stomping her foot. “She doesn’t deserve it! I do! And I just want what I deserve!”

“Miracle Queen, don’t be foolish!” Hawk Moth ordered. “You are to hand over the Miraculous to me!”

“So you can just take my power away and leave me in the dust? I don’t think so! No!” Chloe shook her head. “This power is mine!”

The power and the Wish—wasn’t that what they had said? Wasn’t that what Hawk Moth had been after all this time?

Well, it was Chloe who won. Not Hawk Moth or any of his other lame akumas! HER! So Chloe earned this!

Which meant that the Wish was rightfully hers!

She turned towards Marinette with a smirk.

And she knew exactly what she wanted with it!

But first, best to get the riff-raff out of her way.

With a flick of her control, the wasps converged on Hawk Moth and Mayura. In a matter of seconds, they were under her control as well. The last thing she needed was either of them getting in her way.

The kwamis gaped at her in surprise, like they didn’t think Chloe could plan for things? Please! These peons were so below her it was embarrassing!

Chloe was smart! She was smarter than anybody! Better than everybody! Certainly better than that wannabe heroine! Even the universe agreed! Why else would she be blessed as she was?

She looked down at the two Miraculous in her hands with a smirk because this? This just proved it!

Of course she was better! And now everyone would know it, too!

Especially…

She turned to face Marinette once more.

Because this time, there would be no interruptions for Chloe’s gloating.

And boy, was she going to gloat.

“So…how does it feel to be the one to lose for once?”

Marinette simply stared blankly, as if she didn’t actually understand what Chloe was talking about.

“All this time,” Chloe continued. “You’ve been playing it up for the masses. Making everyone love you. Pretending like you were actually worth something. And all just to look down on everyone and boost your own ego!”

She laughed.

It sounded hollow to her own ears.

She pushed through.

“Like it wasn’t bad enough even as a civilian! You were always showing off! I bet being a hero was everything you ever dreamed of so you could get twice the attention!”

Marinette didn’t respond.

Adrien, however, did.

“That’s not true!” He shouted, struggling in vain to pull out of the hold as he defended his ‘Lady’. Gag. Miss her with that shit. “She’s never shown off or done any of this for attention! She’s not that selfish!”

Chloe was only more infuriated.

“Of course she is! The glory! The popularity! The power it gives you over other people! Why else would someone like her be a hero?”

Adrien actually seemed to find his spine, because he glared at her.

“That might be what you would do, Chloe. But that’s your choice. That’s how you choose to respond to things. Not everyone is like that!”

“Adrikens!” She gasped, appalled that he would argue against her like this.

“No, Chloe! You’ve done some horrible things, but this is probably the worst! You helped Hawk Moth! You betrayed everyone!”

“Oh please!” She said, brushing him off. “I wasn’t helping him, I was only using him. Now the city is safe and it’s all thanks to me!”

“Then why aren’t you freeing everybody?” Adrien demanded. “Why reveal Marinette? Why take over the other heroes and make them fight us? Why not just use your power to control Hawk Moth and let everyone else go?”

“Why should I?” She asked, flippantly. “They were all useless anyway.”

She had always wanted people to respect and obey her, and now they would! So she would be waited on like the Queen she was, and they would have some actual purpose to their lives.

Really, if anything, she was the gracious one, here.

It wasn’t like any of them were useful otherwise.

But something seemed to upset Adrien, as he winced at her statement and shook his head. She didn’t really know why.

“No one is useless.”

She sighed.

“Oh, Adrikens.” She looked at him in pity. The poor boy just didn’t get how the world worked. “Of course they are. Why else am I here in charge,” she asked, gesturing to herself before turning her hand to gesture to the unmoving ‘Guards’ around them, “and they’re there waiting for orders?”

Whatever response he seemed to be expecting from her, that apparently wasn’t it as he stared at her in shock.

“Chloe, that’s horrible!”

“What? It’s only the truth.”

She won. Lady—Marinette lost. Everyone had to obey her. Why wouldn’t that be the case if she was wrong?

“But it’s okay now!” Chloe said cheerfully as she turned back to him. And—oh, he was drawing back from her. Here poor Adrikens. He always was skittish.

“Now it’s just the two of us. We can do whatever we want, live however we want, and have nothing to worry about. If there’s anything we need done, the peons can take care of it.“

She smiled.

“It’s you and me against the world!”

Just like it always was.

Just like it was supposed to be.

But Adrien…

…he only seemed to look more upset at that. Pale. Almost sick.

“No.”

She blinked, surprised.

“No?”

“No!” He repeated with more emphasis. “I don’t want that! Nobody wants that!”

“I want that!” She replied. Because that was what mattered! As long as she got what she wanted, things were fine! And now they always would be since she would always get what she wanted! What was wrong with that?

“Nobody else wants that!” Adrien bit out.

She rolled her eyes. “Well, they don’t matter.”

Honestly, he must have been stuck under Marinette’s thumb too long to actually take that whole ‘hero’ role seriously. Seriously, people were there to help THEM, not the other way around. It’s a good thing she saved him from that line of thinking.

“They do matter!” Adrien said with a hiss.

He paused, his gaze falling on Marinette.

“She matters.”

And his voice had gone so quiet and soft. She couldn’t recall a time he had ever spoken that way to her.

It only infuriated her.

“Oh please! What has she ever done for me?!”

Adrien actually seemed to look annoyed now. That was actually a new look for him, and she couldn’t recall a time he seemed so angry.

“Do you want a list?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, there isn’t nearly enough to bother counting, much less make a list—”

“She stood up for you time and again. Both as Ladybug AND as Marinette. More than she had to, especially as the person you’ve been bullying all this time!” He stated flatly, giving her a glare. “She helped you with your Mom and supported you. She gave up on a once in a lifetime opportunity just because you were upset she was the one getting the offer to go with your mother instead of you. And that Queen Bee party everyone put on? Her work. She was the one who got everyone to do it.”

“No, she didn’t!” All of that was just because Chloe was that awesome and people had finally realized it.

“She did!” He insisted. “She stood up for you to Alya over your blatantly false account of how Zombizou was defeated and she got everyone to convincing everyone to throw you a party to make up for saying you weren’t a hero! Even though you never apologized! Even after you tried to get her kicked out of her home city!”

Chloe huffed. “Well, she deserved it! And why should I have had to apologize for anything? It was her own fault I had to do any of that to put her in her place! If she had left, everything would have been better off!”

That way, there would have been no one to challenge her. No one to take attention. No one to be compared to. No one to be reminded was ‘better’. No one for people to admire instead of her.

“She was useless anyway.”

And he just…stared at her. Like she was something abhorrent. Someone he couldn’t even recognize.

“What?” She groused.

A pause.

And then a quiet admission. Spoke just above a whisper but still somehow louder than anything Chloe had heard before.

“Marinette was right. I should never have defended you to her.”

Chloe reared back in hurt.

“Adrien—!”

He only glared at her.

“That day you announced you were leaving, everyone was glad. Nobody was sad to see you go, Chloe! Not one person!”

“That’s not true!”

“They were celebrating, Chloe!”

She froze.

“What?”

“Our entire school was literally throwing a party the instant they heard you would be gone!” He explained. “Teachers were hugging and crying in relief! They canceled classes! There was a conga line at the time I showed up! Fireworks, music, confetti—the works!”

She shook her head in disbelief.

“But...no. That was a party for me. To thank me!”

“Not originally.” Adrien corrected her. “They changed the reason for the party after the akuma attack, but reused everything from it. They just added a banner. That party was only started because you were leaving, Chloe. Not so you would stay.”

She gaped.

She had known they hated her...but that much?

“And the real reason—the only reason they did even that much to turn it around for you was because Marinette asked them to. And that was after you threw a tantrum and tried to get her banished from Paris just for saying you weren’t a hero!”

“But I was!” She shouted, stomping her foot. “I was Queen Bee!”

“Not at that time, you weren’t!” Adrien shot back. “You were a thief who used a stolen Miraculous to try to crash a train!”

“It was her fault for losing it—!”

“Marinette was on that train!” The bug kwami exclaimed, suddenly speaking up. “She and her parents could have died because of your stunt! Her saying you weren’t a hero after that was not only justified, but the very least you deserved!”

Adrien hadn’t seemed to know that previously, as he stared at the kwami in horror.

“She and her family—all of those passengers could have pressed charges! They should have! But Marinette believed you could be better!”

It glared up at her.

“Her saying you weren’t a hero at a time when you had done nothing worthy of the title was nothing compared to that!”

“Shut up!” She hissed, making the thing glare at her. “What does a bug know?”

“Enough.” Adrien cut in. “Do you really think anyone would have decided on their own to throw a party to thank you for something you caused in the first place?”

She didn’t believe it. She refused!

It was only because of her that the city was saved! Was a little gratitude so uncalled for? Seriously, after what she did for them, she deserved a parade at least! They’re just lucky she intervened at all!

She huffed. “Well, it was only the least they could have done after I saved the city from my dad!”

“Who only threatened the city because you upset him to begin with by demanding something he couldn’t give without unfairly hurting people!”

“Unfair?! You want to talk unfair? You heard what she said about me! That I wasn’t a hero! How was that fair?!”

“Because it was the truth?” The black cat kwami replied with a smirk.

Adrien shook his head and just…looked at her like he was disappointed. Like she actually did anything wrong! “It says something that you put Marinette in danger and she still tried to get everyone to appreciate you with that Queen Bee party.”

She blew up at that.

“She only did that because of you!” Chloe practically screamed. “Because she’s so in love with you that it’s pathetic!”

Adrien started in surprise.

“She loves me?”

And she couldn’t believe it, but the damned fool was actually starting to smile and his ears were turning pink! Like that was supposed to be something to be glad about!

Marinette had only ever acted for Adrien’s attention. Even that time she comforted Chloe as Ladybug when her dad was akumatized was probably just to look good to him! It didn’t matter that no one else was there to see her breakdown, it had to have been part of her plan!

She just had to explain it to him! Adrien would be on her side! He was her friend, after all!

“She was only acting nice to make herself look good to you!” She insisted.

He blinked and the happy look was gone. Chloe smirked at that, because he should be disgusted!

But Adrien only shook his head at her.

“Regardless of the reason she did that for you, she’s still the only one who did. Nino didn’t stop DJing that party out of friendship for me. The teachers didn’t corral the students or end the party out of duty to their jobs. The students didn’t receive any lecture for an unauthorized party on school grounds, celebrating a peer leaving, or just about having basic kindness and respect for others. The only one—the only one who not only stopped but advocated on your behalf to get everyone else to do the right thing was Marinette.”

He gestured to the city around them.

“And now after this, I have to wonder if it was really the right thing after all...”

She balked.

“What? No! Adrikens—”

“STOP calling me that!” He shouted sharply.

She took in a breath.

He…never…

Even when he was mad at her, he never talked to her like that!

“Adri—”

“I hate it. I hate that name. I hate how you call me that. I hate how you cling to me and hurt people and try to drive people away but also drive them away from me like I’m not allowed to have friends besides you and I hate…”

He took a breath, coming to a decision.

“...I hate you, Chloe.”

She stared at him, waiting for some sign that this was a joke. Because he didn’t mean it. He couldn’t mean it, right?

But Adrien glared back at her unflinchingly.

She felt her heart freeze.

He...

He meant it.

He really and truly meant it.

“You...you can’t be serious! You would turn on me? For her?!”

He didn’t take it back! Why wasn’t he taking it back?!

“You promised! You promised me, Adrien, that you would always be my friend!”

“Chloe, you don’t know what friends are!” Adrien exclaimed. “To you, they’re either supposed to be servants like Sabrina or things to ‘own’ like me! And I didn’t know better before because I only ever had you. But since I’ve started school, I’ve learned what friendship is!”

He looked away, guiltily.

“I wish I had learned it sooner.”

She stared.

This…

This couldn’t be.

There was no way this was real.

Adrien. Her Adrikens!

“Are you really going to abandon me, Adrien?” She asked. “You, of all people? I thought…I thought you understood.”

He winced.

But he didn’t take it back. Not one bit.

She clenched her fists.

“Fine! Then…then if you want to be with them so much, I’ll just make you one of them!” She shouted, ignoring the tears stinging her eyes. “Then you’ll have to stay with me!”

He looked her in the eyes, solemn but stern.

“It won’t be real, Chloe. Whatever we had…whatever you would call it is already gone.”

“But it doesn’t have to be!” She insisted. “I have the Miraculous. I can just…there’s a Wish! If the world won’t let us be together and perfect, then I can just Wish for it!”

It was in equal parts a plea and a warning. For him to give in, just as he always had. For him to stay by her side like he’d promised.

He clenched his fists. But refused to back down.

“Whatever you do. Whatever world you create. My feelings won’t change.”

“We’ll see about that!”

“Don’t do it!” The bug kwami shouted. “Making a Wish should never be done, especially for selfish reasons!”

“I’m not selfish!” Chloe argued. “I’m the most selfless person I know!”

Adrien didn’t look impressed. Neither did the kwamis. If anything, the bug one looked furious.

“You can’t ignore all the horrible things you’ve done and reasons people could have to not like you, then turn around and figure that doing one nice thing after hurting someone means they now owe you somehow!”

“What,” Chloe bit out, “am I supposed to be owing her instead?” She demanded, gesturing to the still frozen Marinette.

“No!” Tikki replied, earnestly. “Because friendships are not about owing each other!”

“Since when were we friends?” Chloe laughed, jerking away from the annoying pink…thing. “Everyone is so below me it’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

The thing looked up at her, almost pityingly. “Chloe, you clearly care. That day when you were going to leave Paris, you were crying because you didn’t have any friends.”

Chloe stomped her foot. “That’s not true!”

“But you can have friends!” It insisted. “You just need to be nice—”

“I AM nice!”

“You’ve hurt people, Chloe! Intentionally and maliciously! And right now, you were helping a terrorist just because you didn’t get the Bee Miraculous on demand!”

“It was MINE!” Chloe shouted. “She took it away from me! How was that fair?!”

“It was never YOURS!” The kwami argued. “There is a duty! A responsibility involved! The Miraculous is not a toy! It it not a thing you can just use as you wish! It is a magical artifact that must be used for the greater good! It has a kwami with a name feelings attached to it! Did you ever even talk to Pollen?”

Chloe faltered, but then scoffed. “What would you know?”

Geez, did Marinette always let this thing talk so much?

It was Adrien who answered. “Of course not. Because you never do, Chloe. You don’t talk to people. You don’t consider people. You don’t look at anyone outside of yourself to even notice the effect you’re having.”

The black thing laughed. “You’ve caused a good half of the akumatizations in the city! In all our time active here so far, it says something that we have spent more akuma fights protecting you than any other person.”

The bug nodded. “And not once—not once have you ever so much as acknowledged doing anything wrong! Much less apologized!”

Oh, now Chloe knew she was full of it. “Because I wasn’t wrong, duh!”

She was. Because why else would Ladybug refuse her when Chloe had already proven herself? And she had! No other hero was nearly as good as her!

“Of course I wasn’t wrong!” She insisted. “Because even the universe knows it! That’s why I won! I’m a better person, a better hero, and a better Guardian than she could ever try to be!”

The bug was having none of it.

“Marinette is a better Ladybug—a better person than you ever will be. And that’s because she chooses to be kind! Regardless of the circumstances!”

It glared at her defiantly.

“Even if your positions were switched, that wouldn’t change.”

Chloe glared. “Why you—!”

How dare she?! Acting like she was better than her?

But Adrien cut her off.

“I kept telling myself that they don’t understand. That I knew who you really were. That other people just didn’t know you.”

Chloe gave a disgusted look at the prospect. She didn’t get why he looked so angry though?

Or why that look was directed at her?

He…wasn’t still serious about hating her, was he?

Adrien shook his head, completely infuriated.

“But I was just making excuses. It wasn’t that they didn’t know you…it’s that I didn’t.”

She balked.

“What? Of course you know me!”

It was why he was so perfect. And the only one worthy of her, after all!

Or…well…had been, she remembered, shooting him a petulant glare.

But Adrien refused to be cowed.

“The Chloe I thought I knew never would have done what you have! You were willing to go this far—help the enemy and take over the city all for the sake of your own self interests! Even if she had given you the Bee this time…what about the next time? Or the time after?”

This was irritating. He was acting like Chloe was the one bringing THEM down.

“At least I would have gotten my Miraculous!” She pointed out. Because that was what mattered here! It was only what she deserved and Marinette was the one in the wrong for not giving it to her! Everything would have been fine if she had!

Adrien glared at her—and she couldn’t recall a time he looked so angry. Not with anyone. And especially not with her.

“I had already enabled you enough, Chloe. And I encouraged others to do the same, thinking it would help you. That if they got to know you—if you had enough support, eventually you would open up and finally be the great person you always seemed to think you were. That they just needed to give you a chance and you would be satisfied and everyone would finally get along. But I was wrong.”

He looked done. No, even worse, he looked done with her!

He hung his head.

And near whispered:

“You’re the sort of person who is never satisfied with anything.”

And with that, Chloe broke.

“SHUT UP!”

With a wave of her hand, the wasps surged forward and Adrien was made into another of her mindless thralls. But she didn’t care. He was as good as lost to her anyway and in her mind, there was only one person to blame.

“Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!”

She spun around on the expressionless Marinette in a rage, zeroing in on the cause of all her problems. Even now, the former hero still somehow looked so goddamn noble!

“You don’t deserve to be Ladybug!” She shouted, eyes wide and spittle flying. “You don’t deserve your Miraculous! You don’t deserve your life! You don’t deserve ANYTHING!”

She clenched her fists tighter.

Her palms hurt, drawing her attention back to her clenched fists and specifically to the two Miraculous she had in each.

She smirked.

“I do. And now I have the power to fix that!”

She turned away, putting the Ring on her finger.

"You becoming Ladybug was a fluke!” She continued, moving on to the earrings. “You just got lucky! It was just a chance! Anyone else could have had it!”

She put in one earring.

“I could have had it! I would have deserved it more!"

She put in the other earring.

“I deserve it more than you!”

“Don’t!” Came a little voice—the pink kwami. Whatever the hell her name was was now floating in front of her waving her arms frantically. “The Wish isn’t without consequences!”

Chloe cut Tikki off.

“Just shut up and grant my Wish!”

The bug gasped right before her mouth disappeared. Nice! Chloe liked this feature.

But there was still the distinct lack of Wish-granting.

“Well?” She demanded.

The black one floated up to her.

“You’re going to have to actually say what your Wish is, first.” He said amicably.

See? This is what she needed. Simple. Sweet. And straight to the point! If only more servants could be like this!

Of course, if Chloe knew Plagg—or if she was just paying attention, she would have noticed the smirk on his face and been wary of it.

Plagg was a chaotic little kwami. As such, he was never this pleasant, especially to those who were going to use him in a way he didn’t like.

Chloe did not know this. And in this moment, she was too driven by rage and spite to consider it.

She was used to Pollen, after all. A quiet, subservient kwami who was perfectly fitted to Chloe—a person who was used to quiet, subservient people in her life.

Plagg was neither quiet nor subservient.

When he was, it was a sign to worry.

Perhaps if Adrien had been in control of himself, he could have warned her.

Perhaps if she had put more thought into Marinette’s attempts to help her previously, she would have reconsidered.

Perhaps if she had just given more consideration to Tikki's own warnings against it, she would have taken her time.

But Chloe Bourgeois had won.

She won. Everyone else lost. And that was all that mattered, so it was all she needed to think about.

And thus, without hesitation. Without thinking twice.

“I Wish—“

Chloe made the Wish to rewrite the world.

And

i t

a l l

w e n t

b l a c k . . .

Reality is not as one would expect. It is both more complicated and yet also more simple than one would think. Thus, there is no scientific way to adequately explain the process through which things are rewritten so that something that once was not now is and always has been. Or vice versa.

That is what metaphor is for.

Imagine, if you will, that the story as we know it is a performance. Particularly a play. One where the people we have met—from Marinette to Adrien to Hawk Moth and everyone inbetween are all actors filling certain “roles”. And imagine further that the Universe itself is equivalent to a Director overseeing these actors and their performance.

It was a passable show. Mixed reviews so far. Decent performance depending on the actor and their scene. But overall, it was entertaining enough and there weren’t any major issues.

Not until one of those actors just up and stopped the entire performance in the middle of the climax to complain about the show, insult the Director’s choices, and demand everything be redone with her in a different role.

Now the Universe is not a person. It does not have a form. It simply is. And despite having a will and a sick sense of humor, it is in no way a human.

…but if it WERE a human, what happened next would be the equivalent of it tilting its head and considering the defiant actor before it and said actor’s ridiculous demand.

For one eternity…

Two…

Before shrugging and simply saying “You know what? Fine.”

There was a sound of a “snap”.

The feeling of a curtain closing.

Darkness.

A shuffle from behind the stage.

A cough from the audience.

Then the curtains lifted.

And Chloe Bourgeois woke up in a room she had never been in before.

#ml fic #chloe salt #miracle queen #chloe's lament #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #tikki #plagg #gabriel is an idiot #be careful what you wish for #chloe is not careful

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random-yandere-fandom · 3 years ago

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Hi, I had a good idea to order, if you accept of course! What would happen if Yandere Ciel and Yandere! Alois (together) were transported to our universe (21st century) and with that the reader found them and took them home and took care of them, maybe the boys would explain that they are from another place and the reader believes in them and helps them adapt to this century, being kind and patient with them and of course they had to be a little independent (knowing the basics of making something to eat or taking care of the house) especially when the reader goes out to work or something thus. So, over time, they fall in love with the reader, so what happens next? And what will happen if the boys return to their universe without the reader, maybe their demons have found a way to bring them back to their universe.

Ooh, I love the idea!

Yandere Ciel and Yandere Alois transported to our world

It certainly wasn’t a sight you had expected to see so early in the morning. Two men, dressed very strangely, obviously fighting each other on the side of a road. Their clothes, their accent, even the mannerisms felt totally out of place. Were the two of them part of a theatre group or something?

Still, your gut was telling you something strange was going on and so you decided to approach them, furrowing your brows in question when you caught bits and pieces of the argument. Seeing them both alert at your approach you stopped, inquiring what they were doing and if they perhaps needed help. The one with blue hair answered, or rather, questioned where they were and especially when they were. Now, you’ve watched enough movies that your first thought was Holy shit, time travellers!, before you considered them to be on drugs. Engaging them in a conversation, which made it very clear that Ciel and Alois weren’t really on good terms, you picked up quite a few clues as to who these two were, namely, time travellers. Not that they told you themselves yet, but you wished to believe that, notably because your follow up offer would really and truly put you in danger otherwise.

It takes some time before the two of them warm up to you, but after you had taken them in and cared of them, teaching them some simple housework and basic knowledge with varying degrees of success it was hard not to grow fond of you. For you, it was quite the experience. You had quickly noted that the two of them really weren’t from here and now. You also learned how tiring it is to have two entitled brats trying to one up each other in a childish approach of trying to be better. If it weren’t for their intellect and the way they so easily managed to grasp complicated new concepts you would have guessed that these are children in adult bodies.

For real though, even though Ciel was extremely prideful he was also grateful and so he worked hard to make up for your kindness. Alois on the other hand often had more difficult times and you’re sure that if Ciel wouldn’t keep him somewhat in check your home would have been trashed once and again. The blonde got better over time though, showing his gratefulness through actions and becoming quite clingy, complaining that you should return earlier from work because he doesn’t want to be left alone with Ciel, cue a fight breaking out on who has it worse with the other. It’s better to give the two of them work to concentrate on while you’re away.

Alois notices his feelings for you first, he has grown dependent on you and he really wouldn’t mind staying at your place. He doesn’t try to hide them either, declaring his affections in ways so blatantly open and unashamed that you can’t help but think of it as simple gratefulness mixed with dramatics for the fun of it. He doesn’t try to deny it either, the thought of you rejecting him otherwise and the more than annoyed looks from the Phantomhive enough to keep his advances going.

In that process, Ciel will realise his feelings with the help of good old jealousy. The twist in his heart whenever you accept his rival’s admiration, even if you don’t recognise it as such, is enough to make him aware of his own admiration for you. He won’t truly act on it though, too much in the way to act on how his heart wishes him to. Instead he’ll tell himself that it’s just a little crush, nothing much to worry about, even if it’s hard to deny his attraction towards you.

From then on there will be war between the two of them, each compliment and each smile from you remembered and later on shoved into the others face, Alois almost shouting and Ciel replying in snide remarks.

There comes a fateful day where everything changes and it appears in the form of a silent home with empty, cold rooms devoid of the usual live they seemed to hold. As you turn the key behind you, you call out their names, confused at the lack of any notable sound. You will search each room for the two men that have accompanied you in the last few months, worry creeping into your heart as you are the only person in a home used to host three. There is no use though, the two noble men having returned to were they belonged (even if they’d insist that was by your side).

Back with Ciel and Alois, the two of them had appeared back in their respective bedrooms, a worried demon in the one and an annoyed in the other greeting them. Turned out the butlers had worked together to create a method to bring back their masters only to separate once the means were acquired and they were ready to get a hold on their masters.

Alois reacted in tears and yells and sobs and wrath, destroying the room in frustration as he realised he was torn from the person he loved as Claude watched in exasperation. Nothing will calm him down, your name leaving his lips in desperate cries until finally the spider demon relents, suggesting to bring you to his master. Trancy will freeze before replying in utter happiness and hope, tears still streaming down his face, ordering his butler to get started, seeing as there isn’t any time to waste.

Ciel is shocked before he feels his heart clenching, the thought of never seeing you again causing his insides to churn in such an awful manner it’s impossible to not grasp his chest in pain as his butler checks him on injuries. He is quick to think of the solution himself, ordering Sebastian to bring you here, to bring you to him, using whatever god forsaken method he used to get him back in the first place. If he wasn’t sure about his feelings before, he sure as hell is now when he risks having lost you.

It doesn’t matter on who summons you, on who gets his hands on you first. There will be a full blown war between the nobles all the while you’re being kept safe, taught of this world you entered against your will as they will be there for you just as you were for them. The only difference is your utter lack of possibility to return to your own home.

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chitsangenthusiast · 1 year ago

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PSPSPS HEARD❗❗

first, just to get some of my true and correct canon lore out of the way:

chit “rabble rouser revolutionary” sang. full stop.

he also fought in the final battle and was at zuko’s coronation

he's actually covered in tattoos. the animators just put all of their budget into drawing aang's obv

he "adopted" zuko for the hoots and the hollers

he's not a himbo

he is babygirl tho

and now for more: he's a leader. just arguably a mediocre one, depending on the day. in fact, chit sang's skillset is probably more honed to being the strategic fall guy (see: taking the warden's abuse to buy sokka more time and then picking a scapegoat to lead them off their trail), but the other prisoners respect him and are willing to follow his leadership as needed (ex: RIOT moment)

the warden hasn't broken his spirit. not for the warden's lack of trying, certainly. but even then he's still capable of mustering up enough spite to get off the ground and walk back to his cell. he won't give the warden the satisfaction of being dragged back

he has a keen eye. obviously his little zukka comment was a joke, but he was the first one to pick up on how serious the two's feelings for each other became. it's just that no one asked him for his opinion, and so he never cared to share it lol

(that's a lie. sokka did try to sneakily talk about it with him once, and then got so flustered over almost naming what he was feeling that he dropped the convo immediately. chit sang just shrugged and moved on)

he's arrogant, but also charismatic. sokka literally had no qualms in shutting down any and all adults who tried to cross him the wrong way. the worry chit sang would've squealed on them otherwise is bogus, sokka just liked the cut of his jib (perhaps it's because chit sang reminded him of another headstrong rebellious firebender.....)

and petty as hell lol. sokka and zuko appreciate him for this, especially as they grow into politics and need that one person to reliably go "shit's fucked. want me to set fire to their house?"

toph loves him btw. chit sang is the only person in history to become a beloved advisor for two nations: zuko (for the laffs) and toph (serious request)

(sokka once tried to get his dad to make him one for the swt too. hakoda laughed and changed the subject. katara also said no when she took over as chief)

he's a master firebender!! there was never a possibility of him teaching aang, nor would he have wanted to, but aang is keenly aware of this fact every time he sees chit sang firebend.

he tolerates iroh. the guy's alright. he prefers spending time with hakoda and bato. iroh likes him though.

he tolerates puns even less. no one understands how he's stayed such close friends with sokka and zuko. or how he's in the white lotus, considering *gestures at king bumi* (it's bc king bumi and him have a thing going on)

izumi did not like him at first. but as she grew up she and him forged a bond so strong that zuko once had to tell him "you can't just show up to her school and intimidate the kids she doesn't like. why are you letting her ask you that. why are you doing it"

his love languages are acts of service and words of affirmation. quality time used to be a big one but lessened as he learned how to be his own person again post-boiling rock, but one thing that sticks with him is the fear of being forgotten. he greatly appreciates the letters zuko and sokka and sometimes suki send him, and he's known for responding back quickly.

the first thing he'll do when showing up on his doorstep is ask if you've eaten. he's not the best cook by far, but if there's one thing you can count on is that chit sang will always make sure his loved ones' stomachs are full.

and, obviously, he supports the ligbits. bc he is one himself, duh. [except i can't find the original post saying this and i'm crying a little]

hey chip will you tell me your Chit Sang headcanons so we can also tap Kath on the shoulder :D

Yes! Sure! Thank you for this excellent question.

sadly, this exceeds my field of expertise in "very hot middle-aged fire nation characters - with focus on lt. Jee" so I may redirect this question to my fellow college, friend and Chit Sang expert @chitsangenthusiast

where you can now clearly see in the name alone that they are top qualified for this task. HIT IT KATH!

#the enthusiast has spoken #stopping there bc the list could go on but i don't need to take up a whole page on the dash to keep going lol that's my wife for real tho 🧡#also nothing more embarrassing than realizing this wasn't posted bc it accidentally stayed in the drafts #and it was only in the drafts bc i needed a few days to write it out bc otherwise. i went a lil too insane thinking abt him dlknfskfn #chit sang #ask #kath posts #<- i can't remember what i tag my own posts as lmao

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bitsandbobsofwriting · 4 years ago

Text

7 times Merlin shows off his skills as a Physician,

+1 time The Knights have to work together to stitch Merlin up.

TW: Lots of blood and graphic description of injury/sickness.

The patrol had been going perfectly fine, even the small skirmish with a group of bandits was over and done with pretty quickly.

It was when the knights were taking stock of things after the fight that Elyan found Gwaine struggling to stand, leaning his weight against a tree and owlishly blinking his eyes with a look of deep concentration on his face.

Elyan put a soft hand on his back, quietly saying Gwaine’s name. The other knight whips his head up quickly to look at him, and the movement almost toppled him, but Elyan catches him with a hand on each shoulder and raised an eyebrow. Gwaine stares at him with squinted eyes, slurring his words as he slowly says:

“Elyan, mate, I don’t mean to uh... freak you out, but... there’s like... a whole bunch of you.”

It’s then that Elyan finally notices the slow trickle of blood from behind Gwaine’s ear, dribbling down his neck, he keeps hold of Gwaine’s shoulder as he looks behind him:

“Merlin! Gwaine hit his head!”

Elyan looks back around when he hears the knight gasp, to see him looking at him with wide eyes:

“Fuck, did I?? That’s not good, someone should.... should call Merlin.”

Elyan just bites his lip to stop himself from laughing, and nods sympathetically, as if agreeing with him. Gwaine slumps back against the tree and Elyan helps him sit down as Arthur and Merlin finally rush over.

Elyan moves out of the way, and Merlin crouches in front of the injured knight, setting his medical bag next to him as he takes Gwaine’s face in soft hands.

Gwaine gives him a bleary grin as Merlin checks his pupils and huffs:

“You... are very pretty.”

Merlin would have been happy to ignore Gwaine’s nonsense, but flushes slightly when he hears Elyan and Arthur snort behind him. He scowls at them briefly over his shoulder before beginning to clean the wound behind Gwaine’s ear, and checking for any further injury. The other knights gather around, having checked over the bandits for anything of interest, and Percival is the first to speak:

“He’ll be fine, won’t he, Merlin?”

Before Merlin can answer, Gwaine lifts a clumsy hand to pat the physician’s head with a shit-eating grin on his face:

“You know who is fine? This guy, very very fine.”

Merlin chuckles as he blushes, taking Gwaine’s hand and putting it back in the knight’s lap. The others laugh behind him but Merlin ignores them as he works, keeping his gaze on the wound, but speaking to Gwaine:

“Thank you Gwaine, but why don’t you keep your hands to yourself for a few hours?”

Gwaine huffs and pouts, looking very much like a child, but nods when Merlin smiles at him. Merlin finishes up, cleaning his hands as he stands, looking to the knights behind him:

“He’s got a pretty big concussion so he can’t fall asleep for the next twelve hours or so. He might feel nauseous at some point, and his balance will be way off, so I’ll ride with him. We need to keep getting water in him, but other than that, there’s not much we can do until it clears up. He’ll have a banging headache for a few days.”

Arthur nods, trusting Merlin’s judgement and gesturing Leon and Percival forward to help the knight up. Thankfully, they were on the tail end of their patrol and can just ride straight back to the city, but everyone takes great amusement in Gwaine’s slurred and nonsensical flirting with Merlin. That is, until the concussed knight turns his attention to Percival, and devotes his shoddy pick-up lines to the flushed giant, at which point it goes from mildly amusing, to absolutely hilarious.

Everyone worries when Leon doesn’t show up to training.

Gwaine being an hour late? Not a worry. Leon not being early? Definitely a worry.

But when Lancelot sprints back to the training field after being sent to check on him, calling Merlin’s name desperately, everyone’s worry gets vastly amplified.

Merlin runs up to meet him halfway across the field, brow furrowed in worry. Lance rests his hands on his knees for a moment, struggling to speak through his quick breathing:

“He’s... there’s something wrong with him, I... I think he’s sick.”

Merlin immediately starts a quick paced journey back up to the castle, sprinting even quicker than Lancelot in his panic; Arthur and the others follow behind him, having not heard the conversation but turning understandably panicked at Merlin’s reaction.

When they finally catch up to him, he’s sat on the side of Leon’s bed, checking his breathing and pulse with a frown on his face. The knight is practically catatonic, eyes shut tightly, murmuring and twitching in his sleep, drenched in sweat and shivering.

Merlin looks back with a gulp to Arthur, stood by the door with a worried expression:

“I need you to go to Gaius’ chambers and pick up my bag. It’s fully stocked, I re-did it last night and it should have everything I need, but I can’t leave him.”

Arthur’s eyes widen at Merlin’s last words, obviously realising how sick Leon is, but Merlin’s harsh-

“NOW, Arthur!”

-breaks him out of his stupor, and he sprints away in the direction of the Physician’s chambers. The other knights, a breathless Lancelot having finally joined them, go to crowd into the room, but Merlin looks up at them, sternly saying:

“No, everyone out, it’s probably contagious, and with Gaius in the lower-town I do not have enough hands to treat all of you at once. Out.”

They all reluctantly file out of the room, but leave the door open, and Merlin rolls his eyes fondly as they all stand in the hallway, staring at their sick friend with furrowed brows and bitten lips.

Leon mumbles something and shifts in his sleep. Merlin looks back down at him, wiping the sweat slicked hair away from his forehead and rubbing a soft hand up and down his arm. The knight blearily opens his eyes, breaths shallow and rasping as his hand twitches towards Merlin. The younger man gives him a soft smile, hiding his worry as he takes Leon’s hand in his own. Leon relaxes slightly at that, blinking at him confusedly as he mutters:

“Mer...lin? I don’t... don’t feel... great.”

Merlin nods, stroking the back of Leon’s hand as he softly replies:

“I know, Leon, I’ve got you. You’ll be fine in no time, alright? Just go back to sleep.”

Leon nods slightly, and closes his eyes again, trusting Merlin’s words. His hand goes limp in Merlin’s once again and the physician swallows worriedly.

Arthur finally runs back in with Merlin’s bag clutched tightly in his hands. He’s breathing deeply, and at Merlin’s gesture, gently chucks the bag to him from the middle of the room, retreating again to stand by the door.

Merlin turns his attention back to Leon, rummaging through his bag, as Arthur asks, the concern clear in his voice:

“What else do you need, Merlin?”

Merlin doesn’t looks up at him as he pulls various supplies out form his bag, checking Leon’s breathing periodically:

“I need a few changes of clothes, a patient pallet brought up from Gaius’ chambers, a constant supply of cold water and clean cloths, and a spare chamber-pot; he’s almost certainly going to throw up at some point.”

Arthur nods, going out to speak to the knights. He sends Percival and Gwaine to the physician’s chambers to bring back some of Merlin’s clothes and a pallet, sends Mordred to talk to the steward about having a servant outside Leon’s chambers constantly so Merlin could have whatever he needed, whenever he needed it, and sends Elyan to rummage through the storage rooms for a spare chamber-pot.

He walks slowly back into the room, but still keeps his distance, fidgeting harshly with his hands as he gulps, quietly, but worriedly asking:

“Will he be alright??”

Merlin, still not looking up from Leon and his bag, replies softly:

“He should be ok, but I need to keep an eye on him. I’ll be sleeping in here until he’s better, and I won’t be joining you at all until he’s at least up and walking around. Gaius should be back day after tomorrow, so try not to get injured until then, otherwise go to Gwen, she’s got a pretty good understanding of basic treatment. Shut the door behind you.”

Arthur nods mutely, understanding Merlin’s dismissal, and walking from the room silently. He turns back, quietly saying:

“They’ll be a servant out here to fetch anything you need. Thank you, Merlin.”

Merlin nods distractedly, focused on mixing some sort of paste in a bowl as Arthur sighs, and shuts the door behind him.

It was about two weeks before Merlin moved out of Leon’s chambers, but it was at least a month before he stopped periodically, almost subconsciously, reaching for the knight’s wrist to check his pulse. There had been a few scares, when his pulse was so weak that Merlin could barely feel it; he lost a lot of sleep over those first two weeks, too afraid to close his eyes in case Leon stopped breathing, and too concerned about his friend to let another physician take over.

Leon found it endearing, but didn’t mention it when he noticed Merlin coincidentally bumping into him multiple times a day and finding excuses to touch his fingers to his wrist or neck, even briefly.

He was fine in the end, thanks to Merlin’s thorough treatment, but it was a scary couple of weeks, when having to think about burying Leon was a genuine worry.

(The knight also demanded that Merlin be given a week off from his manservant duties when he was feeling better, which Arthur eagerly agreed to. Though he did spend almost the entire time trailing Leon round like a lost puppy, under the guise of “making sure he didn’t overdo it”.)

Since he had arrived back in Camelot, Elyan had been spending more and more time in the family’s Blacksmith’s.

He felt the need to fill the void that his father had left in the old forge, and he enjoyed returning to his roots; there was something therapeutic about being surrounded by fire and hot metal once again.

But his years away from it all made him a little clumsy, having lost a little of the instinctual caution he had when he was a teenager. Which is what led him to be sat on a bench in the Physician’s chambers, watching with fond amusement as Merlin fretted and gathered various dressings and bandages.

The burn on Elyan’s arm was serious enough to need more than just cold water, but it was definitely not serious enough to warrant such worry from the Warlock.

He finally came to stand between Elyan’s legs, checking over the burn with soft hands after placing everything he had gathered on the table next to him.

Merlin looked up at the knight, and Elyan had to stop himself frowning at the man’s worry, and was that... fear?

He finally cleared his throat, glancing away briefly before saying:

“I uh... I could lessen the pain a little with magic, if you’re ok with that. But I have more than enough supplies to treat it normally if you don’t want me to, it’s really no-”

Elyan cuts him off with a gentle hand on the shoulder and a soft smile:

“It’s fine, Merlin. We trust you, remember? If you think your magic can help, then by all means, go ahead. I trust you.”

Merlin lets out a breath, relaxing as he nods and returns Elyan’s smile with a weak one of his own. He had only told the truth about his magic a few weeks ago, and things were still a little... raw. After what happened to his father, Merlin was expecting Elyan to be one of the least accepting of the sorcery, and he wasn’t wrong at first, but after a few harsh words from Gwen about all the times Merlin had saved her, and about how hard Merlin had tried to save Tom, Elyan did a complete switch, and became one of The Warlock’s most ardent defenders.

Elyan marvelled at the warmth spreading down his arm as Merlin’s eyes glowed gold and he muttered a few incantations. The burn was still there, but it seemed cleaner, and definitely hurt less. Merlin followed up his magic with some burn salve and carefully wrapped bandages, looking up at Elyan with relief in his eyes at the knight’s fond, trusting smile.

He continued his bustling around the chambers under Elyan’s amused watch, returning with a few small tinctures:

“Take one of these a day, starting this evening; it’ll help with the pain overnight. Come back the day after tomorrow and I’ll re-bandage it. Let me know if... uh, you want me to... you know-”

He wiggles his fingers vaguely, and Elyan raises an amused eyebrow at him, slowly saying:

“Re-do the magic?”

Merlin bites his lip and nods slightly. Elyan gives him a wide grin, hopping off the bench and ruffling Merlin’s hair:

“Will do, Merls. Thank you.”

With that, the knight walks cheerfully out of the room, shutting the door behind him and leaving a very happy, slightly less worried Warlock/Physician/Servant behind

A particularly impressive move from Lancelot and a misstep from Arthur is what leads to The King sat on the grass with a belt between his teeth and Merlin stood behind him, one hand reached around and flat on his chest, the other on his shoulder-blade.

Lancelot is understandably freaking out, and Arthur is half focussed on how impressed he is, and half focussed on the stabbing pain in his shoulder.

Merlin moves his hand slightly and Arthur groans around the belt, biting down as the servant mutters an apology:

“Sorry. This is gonna hurt like a bitch but I need you to stay as still as possible, ok?-”

Arthur nods slightly, mumbling something that sounds like “just get on with it”, but it’s hard to understand with a mouth stuffed with leather:

“-Alright, on three, ok? One, TWO-”

On two, Merlin pushes Arthur’s arm back into it’s socket with a sickening pop, and The King groans even louder, squeezing his eyes shut and biting down on the belt in his pain. The knights all wince in sympathy, Leon putting a soft hand on Arthur’s other shoulder as the man breathes deeply.

After a few moments, Merlin straightens the arm, moving it round in a circle to make sure everything is where it’s meant to be, before grabbing the sling he’d had Percival hold, and wrapping Arthur’s arm carefully, letting it hang against his chest.

Arthur finally spits the belt out, grimacing as he flexes his shoulder slightly. Merlin puts a hand back on his shoulder, eyes glowing gold as he mutters a spell. The blond lets out a breath he hadn’t even realised he’d been holding at the blissful numbness spreading from his shoulder, down his arm and across his back, before looking up at an almost hysterical Lancelot.

Arthur chuckles at Lance’s face, shaking his head slightly as he says:

“Very impressive, Lancelot, though if you could save that for enemies, that would be great.”

Lancelot finally bursts, not seeming to have heard Arthur’s praise:

“Ar- Your Majesty I am so sorry, I really didn’t mean to-”

Arthur waves his free hand in dismissal, taking Mordred’s offered hand and standing up, still with an impressed smile on his face:

“Don’t be stupid Lance, like I said, it was very impressive, and with Merlin around there’s no harm done.-”

Merlin grins and blushes at the subtle compliment.

“-Besides, I dole out at least one injury a month, it’s about time one of you got me back. Well done Lance, you beat everyone else.”

He says it with a grin, and Lancelot finally relaxes slightly, raking a hand through his hair as he gives the amused King a weak smile, much to the other knights’ amusement. Merlin steps back in front of Arthur adjusting the sling and speaking forcefully:

“No training at all for a week, no full contact sparring or skirmishes with bandits for two. And I want to check it again before you start.”

Arthur’s face falls indignantly and he whines:

“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad! It doesn’t even hurt that much.”

Merlin scowls:

“Yeah, it doesn’t hurt because I numbed it with magic, prat.”

Arthur looks like he wants to argue, but Merlin just raises an eyebrow (very reminiscent of Gaius), the meaning of “I dare you to argue with me right now” VERY clear.

Arthur backs down, muttering a petulant “fine” under his breath, much to the knights’ amusement.

To say that Mordred was panicking would be a vast understatement.

But to be fair, everyone was panicking.

Everyone thought that the fight had gone rather well, finally surviving a battle with mercenaries injury free, that was until Mordred had tried to stand up, only to find that he couldn’t breath, and his chest hurt.

Tears leaked from his eyes as he lay on the ground, squeezing Arthur’s hand so tightly The King was sure it would bruise; but he didn’t care about that, all he cared about was running his free hand over the younger man’s armour, desperately trying to figure out what was wrong.

Mordred took in shallow, gasping breaths, his vision swimming as the stabbing pain in his chest spiked with every movement. He had been calling out for Emrys in his head, unable to speak, and finally the panicked man burst through the trees, pushing through the crowd of knights and dropping to his knees at Mordred’s side.

He’d wondered off an hour or so ago to collect some herbs for Gaius, and had missed the whole fight, though he’d begun his sprint back when Mordred had called out for him at the start of the battle, pushing himself even faster when it became apparent that the younger man was badly injured.

Arthur immediately looks up at him, but doesn’t let go of Mordred’s hand as he speaks quickly, only just managing to keep the shaking out of his voice:

“He can’t breath properly, I think he got kicked in the chest but there’s no blood or anything, I don’t know what’s wrong with him Merlin, he can’t breath.”

Merlin curses under his breath, wiping Mordred’s hair away from his face as he rushes to say:

“Help me get his armour off, someone grab me my smallest knife and a roll of bandages, now.”

With that, Percival rushes to the dropped medical bag, riffling through it for what Merlin had asked for as Gwaine and Elyan rush to remove Mordred’s armour, and Leon and Lancelot move to stand guard, watching for any more attackers.

Mordred whimpers every time he’s jostled, but Merlin and Arthur hush him, squeezing his hand and stroking his hair. With the focused look on Merlin’s face, Arthur can tell that he’s talking to the Druid through their mental link, so doesn’t say anything, knowing that it’s probably the only thing stopping Mordred from panicking even more.

The armour finally comes off, and Merlin quickly puts his ear to Mordred’s chest, cursing to himself once more as he holds his hand out wordlessly for the knife.

Percival puts it in his hand without hesitation, and Merlin quickly cuts Mordred’s tunic away before hovering the sharp point over the side of his chest, looking up to Elyan and Gwaine still kneeled at his side and saying:

“Hold him down, he can NOT move when I do this.”

They don’t ask what “this” is, trusting that he knows what he’s doing as Gwaine moves to straddle Mordred’s thighs and hold his hips down, and Elyan pushes his shoulders into the floor. Arthur leans over to take both of Mordred’s hands tightly in his own, and without any more hesitation, Merlin pushes the blade down into Mordred’s chest with a soft apology.

Mordred whimpers even more, squeezing his eyes tightly shut, and letting out a pained yelp when Merlin twists the knife slightly. With the movement, there’s a hiss of air, and Mordred takes a deep, gasping breath.

Merlin relaxes slightly, and nods at the others to let go. Gwaine and Elyan move back, but Arthur stays, holding Mordred’s hands and trying to cover the disgust on his face as Merlin holds the knife in place.

Mordred finally opens his eyes, and Merlin gives him a reassuring smile before looking to Elyan:

“Elyan, you’ve got the steadiest hands, I need you to hold this-”

He nods down at the knife, and Elyan’s eyes widen in panic before he gulps and nods his head, carefully taking the knife from Merlin’s hands, and holding it place. Merlin moves to where Elyan had been sat, above Mordred’s head, and he leans down, moving his ear from one side of the Druid’s chest to the other, careful to avoid Elyan’s hands holding the knife.

He listens to each side for about ten seconds each time, moving between them a few times, before finally sitting up and nodding to himself in satisfaction. He grabs the roll from Percival’s shaking hands, once again wiping the hair from Mordred’s forehead and giving him a reassuring smile, before looking back up at Elyan:

“Pull it out when I say go, ok? Straight out, don’t twist it, don’t bend your wrist, just straight out.-”

Elyan nods firmly and at Merlin’s-

“-Go!”

-he pulls the knife out, quickly getting out of the way as Merlin presses one hand over the wound, eyes glowing gold as he mutters a spell. Mordred lets out a breath as he’s relieved form the pain slightly, closing his eyes briefly before Merlin says:

“No, come on Mordred, I need you to stay awake, I need to know that you’re ok whilst I do this alright? You can sleep later, I promise.”

Mordred nods slightly as he opens his still teary eyes, and Arthur leans closer, smiling at him and asking some unimportant question about what he wants for his birthday coming up. Merlin gives the King a grateful smile as he brings his hand away from the bloody wound, glad to see that the spell had worked and the bleeding had slowed considerably.

With the help of Gwaine and Elyan, Merlin gets Mordred into a sitting position, wrapping the bandages tightly around his chest, periodically checking his pulse and breathing with his hand.

He ties it off, letting a breath of relief escape him as he collapses back onto the floor. Mordred is slumped against Arthur, groaning as he desperately tries to keep his eyes open, but Merlin presses a hand to his forehead, eyes once again glowing gold as he mutters:

“Sleep.”

The younger man passes out pretty much immediately, and Arthur supports his weight, giving Merlin a concerned, questioning look. The Warlock meets his gaze, giving him a weak smile and nod:

“Collapsed lung, had to release the pressure. He’ll be fine, but infection is a concern so I need to get him back to Camelot as soon as possible.”

Arthur nods, and with a gesture from him, Leon and Lancelot lean down to pick the younger man up, carefully depositing him on the front of Arthur’s horse, to be taken back to the castle.

Merlin looks around to the others, noticing the shaking that had slowly started in Elyan’s hands as he stares down at the blood coating his fingers. Merlin touches a soft hand to his shoulder, and Elyan gasps, looking up at him quickly with wide eyes. Merlin gives him a smile, hovering his hand over Elyan’s as he murmurs a spell.

The knight looks down again to see his hands completely clean, and he flexes his fingers, before giving Merlin a tight smile, and muttering a quiet thank you.

Everyone mounts their horses, quickly urging them to follow Arthur back to Camelot.

Lancelot was trying his best not to wince, but his wrist really did hurt.

They’d just made camp; Merlin, Lancelot, and Arthur were on their way back from visiting Hunith in Ealdor for a few days.

Originally it was meant to just be Merlin and Lance, but Arthur insisted that he come along for extra protection. All three of them knew it was just an excuse (Merlin was the most powerful Warlock in existence after all) but no one mentioned it. It had taken months and a lot of sleepless nights for Arthur to finally get the magic ban repeal through, and Lance and Merlin knew he needed a few days off, with no worries or responsibilities or titles or stupid crowns or councillors or meetings, so they were happy to have him tag along.

The knight must have sprained it when fixing the barn roof, but was reluctant to say anything; he didn’t want to put a dampener on the mood, and Hunith had been so accommodating, he didn’t want to be a bother. But when Merlin noticed him struggling to remove his saddle-bag with one hand, he raised an eyebrow, and held his hand out wordlessly.

Lancelot went to fake innocence, but Merlin just raised his eyebrow further and crooked his fingers. The knight sighed, putting his wrist in Merlin’s hand with nothing but a sheepish look. The Court Sorcerer ran his fingers over the soft skin there, noting the bruise with a disapproving tut before he mutters a spell.

His eyes flash gold, and Lance flexes his wrist as both the pain and bruise recede. He nods with a smile:

“You’re getting better at that.”

Merlin just huffs and rolls his eyes:

“Yes, well, you knights do insist on giving me plenty of opportunities to practice.-”

Lancelot huffs out a brief laugh, before he quietly apologises. Merlin just shakes his head with a smile:

“-It’ll still be tender for a few days, so don’t use it too much, Physician’s orders.”

Lancelot smirks slightly, and Merlin knows he isn’t going to like what he says:

“Of course, anything you say My Lord.”

Merlin scowls and squeezes the knight’s wrist slightly, muttering-

“I will turn you into a fucking toad.”

-much to Lancelot’s amusement.

Arthur finally reappears from collecting firewood, and raises an eyebrow at Merlin’s scowl and Lancelot’s laughter:

“What are you two up to, or do I not want to know?”

Merlin huffs and stomps off to collect his saddle-bag, and Lancelot clears his throat, still chuckling as he replies:

“Hmm. It would appear that Lord Merlin Emrys Ambrosius, Court Sorcerer of Camelot, Protector of the Once and Future King, Last of the Dragon-Lords, is not all that fond of his fancy new title.”

Arthur laughs, and Lancelot forgets his now long-gone pain in favour of joining in.

This was one of the most serious injuries any of them had seen in a very long time.

Leon had been called in the tent to help Merlin, having been the least tired with the steadiest hands at the time.

Arthur was pacing angrily, Mordred was doing his best to meditate, Lancelot held one of Gwaine’s hands in his own, and Elyan had an arm around his shoulders, as Gwaine himself bounced his foot up and down. At the beginning, he’d tried to hold his tears in, but as the image of a bloody and dying Percival slowly cemented itself in his mind, he gave up, and let them flow.

They’d been in there for hours, and whilst the rest of the knights tried to have faith, the angry curse that Merlin had let out almost two hours ago, closely followed by hurried movements and Leon shakily asking what he needed to do, had not helped their anxieties.

Inside the tent, they were just finishing up. There was blood everywhere, metres worth of soaked bandages strewn around the tent, along with most of Merlin’s medical bag, which had been upturned and spread around for quick access.

Leon was exhausted, having spent hours monitoring Percival’s breathing and pulse with no break, passing Merlin whatever he asked for, and occasionally having to hold bits of his friend together whilst Merlin worked his magic (both literally, and metaphorically). But however tired Leon was, Merlin was a hundred times worse.

He’d drained most of his energy during the fight, and had to dig incredibly deep to pull out enough magic to keep Percival alive whilst he stitched him back together. The blade he’d been stabbed with was imbued with dark magic, and shards had splintered inside the wound. Luckily, no organs had been punctured, but plenty of blood vessels had been nicked, and nothing could be left inside or it would cause likely deadly problems later down the line.

That just meant almost everything had to be done by hand; magic was useful in keeping the knight asleep, and dulling the pain as much as he could, but as far as the actual healing went, Merlin had to focus on keeping his mind sharp and his hands steady.

His face had remained blank, and his voice deadpan through the whole process, and around half a candle-mark in, Leon asked in a whisper:

“How are you so calm? I... I’m trying my best but I don’t know how you’re doing this.”

Merlin doesn’t look up at him as he quietly replies:

“If I panic, he dies. I have to trust that I know what I’m doing, and just get on with it. You’re doing fine, Leon. It isn’t... it isn’t Percival, it’s just another knight-”

Merlin’s voice lowers, whispering his last words to himself:

“-just another patient.”

Leon nods, taking another of many deep breaths, focusing on keeping his hands steady and counting Perci- the patient’s breaths.

It was maybe an hour later, that Leon widened his eyes, looking up at Merlin in a panic; before he can say anything, Merlin feels it as well, cursing loudly to himself and dredging up his last reserves of magic to hold his tools in place (in Percival’s abdomen), moving up hurriedly to be by his chest, where he quickly starts CPR.

Leon takes a deep breath, gulping before says:

“Merlin, what do I... what do I do??”

Merlin doesn’t say anything, focusing on keeping rhythm, and Leon can hear him counting under his breath; he gets to twenty-seven when the knight starts breathing on his own again, and Merlin gives himself enough time to take a fortifying breath before going back to the wound and carrying on with what he’d been doing, as if nothing had just happened.

Another hour later, Merlin was putting the last stitches in, satisfied with his work, but by no means... hopeful.

And half a candle mark after that, the knight had been thoroughly cleaned and bandaged, tightly.

Leon (shakily) and Merlin (blankly) cleaned all of the Physician’s tools, and packed away all the detritus; they needed to keep Percival’s environment as clean as possible. He’d tried to force himself to do more, but Merlin’s energy had almost completely abandoned him, and Leon had convinced him to give it a rest; the longer he tried to force it, the longer it would be before his magic built up enough to be useful again.

Merlin finally exited the tent, drenched in blood, leaving Leon to keep an eye on Percival whilst he went to update the others.

When he set foot on the leaves, everyone’s head whipped up. Arthur had given up his pacing, and Mordred had abandoned his meditating, but Elyan, Gwaine, and Lancelot were all still huddled together; though everyone jumped up quickly when they set eyes on Merlin.

They looked at him expectantly, desperately, and Merlin met Arthur’s gaze first:

“You need to go sit with him, Arthur-”

He’s interrupted by a pained cry from Gwaine, and Arthur’s grief-stricken face. A request for the King to go sit with an injured man... that could only mean one thing in their minds. Merlin held his hands (still bloody) up placatingly:

“-he stopped breathing once, but we got him going again. If he makes it cleanly through the night then his chances shoot up, but if he gets an infection before morning then... there won’t be much I can do. Someone needs to go in with Arthur to take over from Leon, he’s exhausted-”

Mordred takes a step forward, a concerned look on his face as he softly says:

“You’re tired too, Merlin, you should sleep.”

Arthur nods, but Merlin waves him off, muttering:

“I’m fine.”

Everyone notices the bleariness of his eyes, and the shaking that had just begun in his hands, but they don’t say anything. They had been expecting this, it happens every time there’s a serious, life threatening injury. Merlin can compartmentalise for as long as needs to, but shock usually hits an hour or so later, when everything catches up to him. With how serious this injury had been, with how exhausted Merlin is, and how covered in blood he is, they aren’t surprised that it’s hitting a little sooner than normal.

Arthur nods at Elyan, and the knight takes that as his cue to go into the tent. Leon walks out a moment later, almost as covered in blood as Merlin, and breathing deeply, tears in his eyes as he heavily sits down. Lancelot wraps him in a blanket cleaning his hands wordlessly with a wet cloth before pushing him to the floor and telling him to get some sleep. Leon closes his eyes and is gently snoring within seconds; Lancelot goes back to Gwaine, forcing the man to look away from the still fairly bloody Leon as he whispers reassurances to him.

As this is happening, Arthur walks slowly to Merlin, putting a soft hand on his shoulder and gently saying:

“What do you need, Merlin? Right now, what do you need?”

Merlin’s eyes had been getting wider and wider as he stared down at his hands, covered in blood and now shaking violently. He looks up in shock at Arthur’s touch, seeming to have forgotten that he wasn’t alone:

“I.. uh, I need two people with Percival at all times, monitoring his breathing, pulse, and temperature. I need... need his pupils checked every ten minutes or so, and I need someone to count how many rolls of bandages I’ve got left so I can figure out how often I can afford to change them and.... and I-”

He looks back down to his hands, gulping, and Arthur can tell that Merlin is really not with it as he continues:

“-I need to go... go and wash my hands.... excuse me.”

With that, he stumbles off in the direction of the stream they had been taking water from. Arthur gestures at Mordred to follow the Warlock, before exchanging short nods with Lancelot, and going into the tent.

Mordred grabs a cloth and a spare tunic, before following Merlin’s trail. When he catches up to him, the older man is knelt at the side of the stream, scrubbing his hands viciously in the water. Mordred sits slowly besides him, gulping before quietly saying:

“Emrys? Merlin?”

Merlin hums in acknowledgment, but doesn’t look up, and Mordred huffs quietly, leaning over to take Merlin’s hands with a quiet:

“Let me.”

Merlin tenses only slightly before he fully relaxes, and the two men move to sit cross-legged, facing each other. Mordred dips the cloth he bought in the stream, and carefully wipes the blood from Merlin’s hands and arms. The Warlock sits absolutely still, and Mordred can tell that he isn’t really... present. He tilts Merlin’s head up, and his eyes seem to come into focus slightly as the Druid cleans away the blood on Merlin’s cheek and temple.

Mordred puts the cloth to the side, picking up a spare tunic and offering it to the other man:

“I thought you’d like to change.”

Merlin looks down to the offered fabric, and it takes him a few moments to process what Mordred had said before he nods slowly, and takes the tunic. He stands on wobbly legs, and Mordred quickly follows him, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder.

Mordred looks away as Merlin changes. It wasn’t that he really cared, but Merlin was usually incredibly careful to hide his scars from people, (though everyone was aware that they existed, having caught glimpses here and there) but he was far too out of it to realise what he’d done. Mordred refused to take advantage of Merlin’s shock just to satiate his own curiosity about the marks marring his mentor’s skin.

He looks back to see Merlin just stood there blankly, bloody tunic dumped on the floor and hands still shaking slightly. Mordred sighs, he’s been warned about this, but he’s never seen it this bad before; it would seem that the last few hours had finally caught up to Merlin. The Druid takes a few careful steps forward, gently laying his hands on Merlin’s shoulders as he speaks to him in his mind:

“Merlin? You with me?”

His body doesn’t move at all, but Mordred can see his jaw twitch as he gets-

“I’m... I’m with you.”

-from the link. He sighs again, pulling Merlin into a hug; one hand running through the other man’s hair, the other hand firmly in the centre of his back, acting as an anchor, trying to keep Merlin in the here and now. It takes a few moments, but Merlin returns the hug eventually, burying his face in the crook of Mordred’s neck, and holding him tightly round the middle, breathing deeply.

Merlin takes a deep breath as he feels Mordred’s magic probing him for injuries and soothing his headache and exhaustion. In all the rush of Percival almost dying, Merlin hadn’t checked in with himself, and is surprised when Mordred finds, and heals, a bruised rib, and a cut on the back of his leg. Mordred doesn’t have nearly enough energy to be of any help to Percival, but he can heal Merlin’s aches and pains.

Merlin pulls back from the hug, giving Mordred a brief, teary smile before he croaks out:

“I need to go back to Perci-”

He’s cut off by Mordred harshly shaking his head and placing a hand on the side of Merlin’s neck:

“No, you’re exhausted Merlin, you need sleep. Arthur and Elyan are looking after Percival, but you and Leon both need at least a few hours of rest.-”

Merlin looks annoyed, like he wants to argue but is too tired to come up with a retort, and Mordred continues:

“-I promise, I will wake you up if anyone needs anything, but you’re of no use to Percival exhausted. Merlin, you’re about to keel over, and you don’t have any magic reserves left, I’ve given you a little of mine to start you off, but you need sleep.”

Merlin looks at him, his gaze assessing, though sleepy. He gulps, sagging slightly as he whispers:

“You promise you’ll wake me?”

Mordred gives him a weak smile:

“I promise.”

With that, Mordred picks up the bloodied cloth and tunic, tucking them under one arm as he pulls Merlin’s arm over his shoulder, semi-dragging the Warlock back to camp. He lays him down next to Leon, and the knight, in his sleep, reaches out and pulls him close.

Mordred lays another blanket over the two of them, before traipsing over to sit with Lancelot and Gwaine, where he finally lets his tears fall.

+1)

If Merlin knew how ridiculously they’d act, he would have hidden his injury and just dealt with it himself.

Unfortunately, Merlin had mistakenly assumed that Camelot’s seven best knights (one of whom was also King), would be able to be a little more composed.

He sat on a large rock, one arm hanging limply at his side, dripping blood onto the floor, as he stared at the knights. Mordred and Percival looked close to tears, Gwaine looked close to vomiting, Leon and Lancelot were just about managing to stay calm (but Merlin could see the panic in their eyes), Elyan was desperately riffling through Merlin’s bag, muttering something along the lines of “what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the-” , and Arthur was hovering directly in front of Merlin, biting his lip and breathing deeply as he offers reassurances to Merlin.

Merlin is half distracted by the pain, and half trying not to laugh at everyone’s panic. He’d both treated AND had so much worse than an arrow to the shoulder; don’t get him wrong, it was serious-ish, but it did not warrant this level of panic from seven of the Kingdom’s most fearsome warriors.

Elyan finally bustles over, hands full of random medical equipment, at least half of which are definitely not needed right now, but Merlin holds in his chuckle and doesn’t say anything. Arthur turns to the knight, gesturing everyone to gather close as he says, trying to keep the shaking out of his voice:

“Ok, do we take it out? Or do we break off the shaft and leave the head in?? I can’t fucking remember...-”

He trails off, and Merlin rolls his eyes, walking quietly to the remainder of his medical bag, and pulling out what he needs as he sits back on his rock. Gwaine glances back at him, but looks away again quickly as his face goes a little green and he mutters:

“Oh my Gods there’s so much blood.”

Merlin huffs and rolls his eyes; there really isn’t that much.

Leon looks to Merlin, and is the first to notice the man calmly sat there, treating his own injury. He lets out a very undignified yelp, stalking over and pulling the bandages and alcohol from Merlin’s hands and giving him a stern look:

“No, absolutely not, you’ve lost too much blood, you’ll make it worse, we’ll do it.”

Merlin rolls his eyes again, and gestures to the panicking group behind Leon incredulously as he says:

“This really isn’t a big deal, you lot are making a fuss out of nothing, I’ve had so much worse; can I have my stuff back now??”

Leon huffs, and Lancelot walks up to stand next to him, a concerned frown on his face:

“No, we’ll do it. Just... just talk us through it? It’s about time we had to stitch you up, I knew we’d need to eventually.”

Merlin stares at him for a few minutes, before sighing and shaking his head:

“Fine. Only you and Leon though, everyone else is too... jittery, for my peace of mind. They’re allowed no where near the arrow, or the needle and thread.”

At that, Gwaine goes even more green, mumbling a a quiet-

“Oh Gods, he needs stitches.”

-as he turns away. Merlin just scoffs slightly, and gestures Leon and Lancelot closer:

“Check the arrow for weakness, if it’s fully intact and feels strong, just yank it out. If it snaps, you’re going to have to dig the head out with a knife.”

Leon pales slightly, but nods, stroking his hand up and down the arrow far to gently to actually be able to tell anything. Merlin rolls his eyes:

“For pities sake-”

With that, he lifts his hand up, and pulls the arrow out in one quick motion, thankfully the head along with it. Gwaine promptly turns around and throws up in a bush, Percival running soft circles over his back distractedly as he stares in disgust at the bloody arrow in Merlin’s hand.

Leon gasps and Lancelot lets out an inhuman screech as he clamps a hand over the wound. Mordred whimpers and Arthur lifts a slow hand to cover his open mouth. Elyan blows a harsh breath out, stumbling back slightly and dropping all the things he had been carrying, much to Merlin’s annoyance.

Lancelot angrily looks to Merlin as Leon’s shaky hands try to thread a needle:

“Why?? Why would you do that Merlin? We have to be careful, we have to... we have to treat it properly.”

Merlin clears his throat, wincing slightly at the pain:

“You were being too careful. Let me put it this way, the longer you take, the more likely I am to get an infection and die a horrible death, all from a very simple, easy to fix wound.”

Merlin can vaguely hear Gwaine vomiting again in the background.

Leon takes a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment as he mutters to himself:

“Just another patient.”

Merlin remembers what he’d said all those months ago on Percival’s almost-deathbed, and rolls his eyes; this was hardly of the same magnitude, but if it helped Leon thread the damn needle, then he wasn’t going to say anything. The First Knight looked up to Lancelot, showing him that it was ready, and Lancelot looks to Merlin:

“What next, we clean it, right?”

Merlin nods amusedly, and gestures to the glass bottle of alcohol that Leon had taken from him, and a clean cloth:

“It’s gonna sting like hell but keep going alright? Wash it out properly, then put pressure on it until the bleeding slows, then stitch it up. You know how to do stitches?”

Lancelot shakes his head, but Arthur steps forward and nods, taking the needle from Leon as he says:

“I do, I’ll do it.”

Merlin takes a deep breath a nods, and with that, Lancelot cleans out the wound. Merlin hisses in pain, clenching his hands tightly as Lancelot mutters apologies and the other knights crowd closer. Leon strokes a soft hand up the Warlock’s back, Arthur has a hand on his (uninjured) shoulder, Mordred was whispering reassurances through the mental link, Elyan stood by with bandages and clean cloths, and Gwaine gave Merlin his best smile, despite still looking a bit sick with Percival at his side, holding him up.

Finally it comes time for stitching, and Lancelot swaps places with The King, Merlin one again rolling his eyes as the blond takes a deep, fortifying breath. He finally starts the stitches, and compared to the alcohol just moments earlier (and the Serket sting, and the Dorocha attack, and the fireball, and the poison, and the and the and the...) it’s a tickle.

Merlin starts making a mental list in his head of all the things he’ll need to replace from his bag next time he gets to the market, which had apparently been the wrong thing to do, because a few minutes later Arthur is slapping him gently on the cheek and calling his name. Merlin turns to look at him incredulously:

“What??”

And Arthur heaves a sigh of relief:

“There you are, we thought we’d lost you.”

“Lost me? It’s an arrow to the shoulder, I’m fine! I was just thinking about all the bloody shopping I’m going to have to do, because you’ve given me at least two extra stitches, and used way too much alcohol and bandages! Honestly.”

Arthur is a little taken aback at Merlin’s outburst, but starts laughing after a few moments of shock, everyone else joining in, slightly hysterically. Merlin looks around at them, bewildered:

“Look, I know I... go into shock or whatever when someone almost dies but this... this is too much. You’re all ridiculous, and next time, I’m treating my damn self.”

Leon finally breaks out of his giggles, ruffling Merlin’s hair slightly:

“We’re just glad you’re ok, Merlin.”

Merlin rolls his eyes fondly, giving the knights a reassuring smile:

“I am ok, I’m absolutely fine. Honestly, seven of Camelot’s finest warriors all hysterically panicking over an arrow to the shoulder. Gods, I hope you know I’m telling Gaius, Morgana, and Gwen about this, and they WILL laugh at you.”

Arthur turns on him quickly, pointing a finger in Merlin’s face as he flushes:

“You absolutely will not.”

Merlin raises an eyebrow, smirking dangerously:

“Try me.”

THE END!!

Ok so this one was one of my favourite prompts ever and I’m so grateful @semideadpanda sent it in, so thank you!!

If anyone wants to extend this or write it out properly, then go for it!!

Check out This List of things I’m working on, it will likely be #15 next! :)

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