#I'm so glad other people haven't given up. I'm so glad I get to devote my life to species that would otherwise have no hope of surviving

[crabussy]

I cried so hard while writing all of that. headache now. worth it. I'm so glad other people care about this just as much as I do. let's never give up hope ever

[projectbluearcadia]

Welcome To The World Of Tomorrow!

Lucifer: Annelie? You're...

Annelie: I'm okay. I'm okay, honey; you don't need to cry.

Annelie hugs Lucifer tighter, and Lucifer wipes at his eyes. Barbatos slumps over.

Barbatos: So it was... that way...

Barbatos' eyes flutter, and he falls unconscious.

Diavolo: What... just happened?

Annelie: ...I think I have an idea.

Lucifer: You... You do?

Annelie: Uh, so... remember how I accidentally took like most of your soul out of you.... y'know, back in that... place?

Lucifer's eyes widen.

Annelie: Yeah... I think I might've.... done that. With maybe some damage control since I took it from three people this time. Maybe a little disproportionately.

Diavolo and Lucifer glance over at Barbatos.

Diavolo: Well... I'm glad.

Diavolo smiles with relief.

Diavolo: Lucifer, take her back home and make sure she gets some rest. I'll take care of things here.

Lucifer: I want to hit him again.

Diavolo: Later. I've never seen you so upset before, and I think you need some time to recover from this. I'm saying this as your friend; I want you to take a few days off at the least. Annelie, don't you think so too?

Annelie sends a brief, malicious glare towards Barbatos.

Annelie: Yeah. Let's go home and split a nice bottle of demonus. We'll listen to your record of Danse Macabre.

Lucifer: ...okay. Anything you want, Annelie.

Lucifer kisses her forehead, her cheek, and then her lips as he hugs her, still squeezing one hand.

[ timeskip ]

Mammon: So, uh... Is nobody gonna ask what happened?

Mammon points at the scene in the living room, where Lucifer is laying on Annelie's lap, his face turned into her stomach. Annelie herself blinks at Mammon slowly, her disconcerting eyes making him shiver as she pets Lucifer's head.

Annelie: Shh, Mammon, stress is bad for the baby

Lucifer: Oh, shut up.

Annelie: I'm kidding; don't get snippy.

Beel: Omgroph guffs worph...

Belphie: Yeah, I agree with Beel. Seriously, I've never seen him act this clingy.

I will continue not to understand how these two comprehend each other.

Annelie covers Lucifer's ears.

Annelie: I kind of almost died in front of him again. So he's been really on edge lately... I can't imagine how traumatizing it was for one of his closest friends to try to kill me while he couldn't do anything.

Mammon: Hold the hell up, what?

Satan: Yeah, what?

Annelie: Just please don't talk about it in front of him; I want to give him some space from the whole shitshow. Fill in Levi and Asmo later when they come downstairs.

Satan: You can't just drop something like that on us and expect us not to ask questions.

Annelie: I wasn't---

Lucifer finally swats at Annelie's hands and sits up, revealing his haggard face.

Lucifer: Barbatos thought she would be better off dead, so he tried to kill her. Apparently, the future he saw with her in it was grim.

The brothers fall silent, and Annelie sighs.

Annelie: We'll take care of it as best we can, just like we always do. Diavolo texted me not too long ago that I nearly killed Barb trying to resurrect myself, so I feel like we're even.

Satan: I have more questions than I started with.

Lucifer: That makes two of us.

Lucifer rubs his face.

Lucifer: Among other things, Annelie clearly awakened some kind of power, which I suspect is a stronger variant of what she already has. Which is a problem, given that according to Barbatos, the vaccine is only effective towards treating surface level symptoms.

Annelie: He could have just been a little delulu, considering he admitted to being romantically attracted to me.

Lucifer: Annelie, you can't pretend to me that you haven't felt something change. Don't coddle me.

Annelie: ...hah... Sorry. I just... I don't want you to be at your wits end because you're worried about me. It's bad enough that you're afflicted with whatever succubus bullshit that makes your love for me border on blind devotion. I want you to worry about you first right now.

Lucifer: ...I will try. That is all I will promise.

Annelie: Fine. Good enough. And anyway, I haven't really felt much of a change. Except for a ridiculously strong desire to...

Annelie's face pinkens, and she whispers in Lucifer's ear.

Annelie: ...to see you tied-up, red-faced and begging me in the most obscene way possible for the slightest stimulation.

Lucifer's body shudders, and he clears his throat.

Lucifer: Of course, you didn't have breakfast this morning. I should fix that.

Lucifer takes Annelie by the hand and leads her upstairs while she grins. Satan groans, facepalming.

Satan: Please tell me I'm not the only one who hates it when he makes that euphemism.

[formula-fun]

I just wanted to come by and say I absolutely loveee your writing, especially the relationships between the characters💕 Now, idk if it's a spoiler, feel free to not respond, but i loved Charles and Pierre's friendship and now I'm really surprised how much I ship Pierre and Yuki and how wholesome Charles and Yuki's interactions are. I was wondering if you have given any thoughts abt P/Y future and maybe how they/Charles might react to them being pregnant/having a baby?

(2) Also, not to be annoying lol, but do the pack get to know at some point abt Charles and Max's baby? 👀👀👀👀 they're all such a mess of emotions, I imagine how would that go

Hi! Thanks so much, that's so sweet <3 I put it under a read more because it's really long, sorry!!

First off so glad you like the vibes because I knew the pack dynamic was a little unusual, but I've kind of had fun writing it! Charles and Pierre are what would traditionally be the 'pack leaders' except they're romantically not compatible, and while they both are in relationships with other people those other people aren't really in the pack per se--Yuki is friends with everyone but he didn't grow up with them, so while he ends up being close with them over the years he still has another pack back home. But he and Charles are still bros and they have a good influence on each other since Charles helps Yuki feel more included, Yuki helps Charles feel less isolated about his secondary gender, and they can both bitch about Pierre together <33

I haven't thought about Yuki and Pierre having kids a lot to be honest but I know irl they both want them, so they'd probably have them somewhere down the line! In my head Yuki is really casual about everything even when he's freaking out about it (he asked Pierre to be his mate over breakfast while on his phone and didn't so much ask him as just say "I think we should be mates" and then had the audacity to look startled when Pierre choked on his smoothie), so I think one day after they've both retired from racing he would tell him he thinks it's time for them to have kids and he's ready to come off birth control. To which Pierre again chokes on his smoothie.

Max and Charles have a good number of brain cells between them but all of them are devoted to motor racing, which is not the case with Yuki and Pierre whatsoever, so everything they do is planned. Pierre is much more insane about it. Yuki has finally opened his restaurant in his retirement, and he's happy to wait out the nine months sitting at the bar eating sorbet and sorting through bills and invoices. Pierre is the one who listens to about thirty parenting podcasts while doing core workouts at the gym every day so that he can easily lift his small child when the time comes. It's excessive. He's squatting 190. A baby weighs like...3 kilos. Every time someone asks him he gives this speech about mental and physical strength. His brothers are a little worried about him.

As for Charles, he's as laissez faire about the whole thing as Yuki is, which Pierre finds extremely annoying. Small spoiler, but at this point Charles is still racing, as is Max, and they're both seasoned parents. They've got two already with a vague idea to have a third once they retire for good, so unfortunately for Pierre and Yuki this means they're given babysitting duty much more often because "it's good practice" and "it's not like you're still working" and "now you can finally put all those parenting podcasts to good use" etc etc. The Verstappen/Leclerc children are 5 and 7, are extremely loud and have the added ability to throw tantrums in four languages at once. Yuki teaches them lots of Japanese swear words so they can add a fifth. They're very adoring of the baby when it's finally born, which Pierre claims is a good sign they're not actually psychologically damaged and tries to give Charles a lecture about the importance of a diverse age range in early childhood friendships immediately after the 2031 Vietnamese Grand Prix podium, when Charles is too exhausted to escape. Charles retains exactly none of that information.

(Pierre ends up calling Max in a panic late at night a lot, because Max is the only one who really sees his side of things. Max wasn't terrified of fatherhood until the instant an exhausted Charles placed their equally exhausted newborn into his arms, and then it slammed into him like brick to the face. He had to get over it fast. He was the stay at home parent and things weren't easy that year, so he had to learn very very quickly how to be a father--the kind of father he wants to be, anyway. He's still trying and there are no real guidebooks for these things, but their kids seem to be alright so he can't be fucking up too badly. Sometimes that's all Pierre needs to hear.)

As for your second question, I can't give you specifics but they'll all learn about it before the fic is over!! It'll happen very soon and I promise they will be suitably messy about it. Thanks so much for the asks, these were so fun to answer! <3

[darklordazalin]

Greetings!!! Big fan of your work and comments and pissing off one vampire in particular! I watched one livestream on the ravenloft setting, with an interesting take on things. Unfortunately, DM turned out to be a controversial individual, so there won't be a follow-up. So if you can answer this question and share your opinion, I'd be very happy! Question: if you could team up with other dreadlords ( you obviously being the leader) to create an elaborate plan to escape to the material plane (maybe you alone, or maybe with other dreadlords) while messing with a simp vampire, leaving him behind and decreasing his chances of escape, which dreadlords would you partner with? If there's a module about this that I didn't know about, I'd love to read it! Thank you for the reviews and great lich-comments!

IC: As a King, it is natural that you should feel devotion and pay homage to my magnificent self. As for angering a certain ruler a mud slump, it is a simple task. His emotions drive him more often than not and is easily manipulated. As for your inquiry, I prefer working alone. Considering we all have our own goals, methods, and skill sets its difficult to identify a Dreadlord I would trust enough to work with on such a cause. Additionally, none match my knowledge in the arcane nor in the true nature of dominions and the thought of sharing such with them is appalling.

If I was forced to choose a conspirator, Hazlik would be the obvious choice based on his magical prowess. However, Harkon Lukas nearly succeeded in his own escape attempt and I would be willing to overlook his theatrics in favor of mutually beneficial alliance. Given Harkon and I's shared hatred of the alluded to vampire in your note, I believe we may have much to gain from one another.

As for non-Dreadlords, I have been known to work with the Gentlemen Caller (or the Caller as he's now known) and a night hag named Strix and on a few occasions even provided van Richten with some knowledge to elevate his 'hunts'. OOC: First, thank you! It always nice to hear that people enjoy my work on here. I do it for mostly for myself and I'm glad it brings others joy as well. I cannot think of any adventure that was based around Azalin working with another Darklord to escape the Mists. However, the Grand Conjunction series (Feast of Goblyns, Ship of Horrors, Touch of Death, Night of the Walking Dead, From the Shadows, and Roots of Evil) and the Grim Harvest Trilogy both revolve around events that occurred because Azalin attempted to escape. These series are both from 2nd edition.

Azalin did work (very reluctantly) with Strahd for almost 40 years in attempting to escape Barovia. This is detailed in the novel I, Strahd: War Against Azalin and touched upon in the adventure Ravenloft 2: The House on Gryphon Hill. The module is a weird one and Azalin is more there as an observer than anything else.

Additionally, the 5e Mist Walkers Adventure League modules revolve around Azalin's escape attempt as well. I believe only the last two of them actually get into it in more detail. I haven't played in or ran any of them so I'm not sure. I'm not a huge fan of Adventure League as its designed for people to pop in at any point so the stories tend to be a bit disjointed. They're wonderful for convention play and I'm always impressed when people are able to incorporate them into their own long term campaigns, but they're just not for me.

Also, keep in mind that Azalin tends to manipulate circumstances and people from a complex web, so many are working towards his goals without ever realizing it. It's rare for him to work directly with another, but he's not above doing so if he thinks its the best way to obtain his goals. I've seen a lot of people align him with Lyssa von Zarovich and I think that's a decent fit - she wants to destroy and replace Strahd and there's some evidence that Azalin believes that Strahd is the lichpin of the Domains of Dread and destroying him permanently would allow for them all to escape.

[uboat53]

All right, is it really so much to ask that someone, somewhere publish some genuinely sophisticated political analysis? (Warning, this is mostly a complaining SHORT RANT (TM))

INTRODUCTION

Many of you may be aware that I read a ton of news and I tend to prefer sources that do more long-form and long-term analysis, that's why I read sources like NPR, Slate, and Vox. More and more, though, I find that even those sources aren't stepping up and providing the kind of political analysis that I feel like any sophisticated professional who spends their life enmeshed in politics should be able to provide.

Let me give an example.

EXAMPLE

A couple of days ago, AP-NORC came out with a poll that showed that voters were concerned about Biden mainly for his age and Trump mainly for his character and criminality. This isn't the first such poll and it probably won't be the last and they tend to be fairly consistent in this regard. Several different news sources covered this poll and what did they write? They wrote that voters are concerned that Biden is too old and that Trump is too corrupt to be president.

Seriously, that's it. That's all I've been able to find in the last several weeks that this topic has been widely discussed. That's not sophisticated analysis, that's just regurgitating the poll findings! What would sophisticated political analysis look like? I'm so glad you asked.

COVERAGE

Let's start with examining coverage. At this point we can safely say that news coverage is driving both of those impressions. The constant drumbeat of Trump's indictments and court appearances is certainly driving the impression of his corruption and criminality while many news sources, particularly right-wing news sources, are deeply invested in covering any verbal and physical slip-ups Biden may make and presenting them as age-related.

RESPONSE

But that's just the start. After that, we look at the response by the candidates, their campaigns, and their allies. At this point, the Trump response has generally been to angrily refute all of the charges leveled against him. There has, in fact, been a full court press on the part of Trump, his campaign, and allies in government in the media to present all of the charges against him as a conspiracy to prevent him from running for office.

The Biden camp, meanwhile, has responded to concerns about his age… well, they haven't really responded to them. I mean, sure the White House and his campaign occasionally put out anodyne statements about how he's doing fine and it's all overblown, but I would doubt most people are even aware of this because they don't get much attention.

So wait a second, one camp has furiously responded to the negative perceptions about their candidate and the other one has barely responded at all? Why would that be? Again, glad you asked, it's strategy time.

TRUMP STRATEGY

Let's talk about timing. Trump has to win a contested primary election in the spring and then the general election in the fall. The spring primary will be in the middle of several of his trials which will limit the amount of time he can devote to campaigning in person. His best hope is to use the publicity of the trials to try to boost his profile during the primary and drown out coverage of the in-person campaigning his opponents will be doing.

This is a double-edged strategy for him. On the one hand, Republican primary voters are primed to buy his argument that it's all a witch-hunt, but the rest of the voting public doesn't seem to be buying it at all. There's a risk that, even if Republicans think he's being unfairly targeted, they may vote for someone else regardless in hopes of having a better chance of beating Biden. Still, the field remains divided and, given the rules of a Republican primary, unless those who vote against him coalesce on a single candidate, he's likely to win the majority of delegates as long as he keeps a fervent core of supporters.

All of this does hurt him in the general election, but at this point there doesn't seem to be a way around that. The trials are going to happen no matter what he says and, even if he gets off, lots of unsavory information is probably going to come out. In any case, he needs to win the primary before he even worries about the general election, so his current strategy is probably the best one to take.

BIDEN STRATEGY

But what about Biden? Biden isn't being seriously challenged in the primaries. Sure, some no-name candidate might challenge him and get 20%-30% in a state or two and get some news coverage for a week or so, but there's no realistic chance at this point that he's going to lose the primaries. His only real concern electorally is the general election in the late fall.

If Biden were to knock down the age attack right now, likely by sitting for long discursive interviews and doing athletic type photo-ops, he still has over a year for his enemies to think of another attack against him, one that likely involves his son's legal troubles. Better to let his enemies continue the age attack which he can easily knock down sometime later, probably next summer, than to give them time to find a more effective line of attack.

Is there a risk that the attack solidifies that impression in the minds of some voters? Sure, but no worse than the risk of any other line of attack. At least the age-related one is fairly easy to knock down as long as the candidate is fit enough to do so.

OVERALL STRATEGY

If you paid attention to all of this, I think you'd agree there's a reasonable case to be made that Biden is in a better position than Trump is. Voter's negative perceptions about Trump are based on coverage that is largely out of his control and his best line of response to help him win a crowded primary is one that will continue to damage him in the general election.

Meanwhile, voter's negative perceptions about Biden are largely driven by coverage that he has the capacity to refute but has largely chosen not to. It's also something that he can refute later by, you know, just showing himself being fit and hearty and, in the meantime, the narrative crowds out other, possibly more effective, lines of attack.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, I did this in just a few paragraphs, probably not even a full page of actual text. Am I wrong? Maybe, but it's not obvious that I am, is it? And even if I am wrong, I guarantee that I am at least looking at the right things.

So where's the sophisticated political analysis? Gone, I think. Is anyone reading anything these days that's actually doing stuff like this or it all just a wasteland now?

[draconscious]

Clair is trying. She came here, all this way, fully intent on trying--but this is almost too much to bear.

The heiress's face reddens, then drains of all color as Giovanni swings away at her family tree. Brutal, honest strokes cleave through the Dragon Clan's gnarled, ancestral branches. Clair's vision begins to blur at the edges when she dares to look up, up at that calm, self-assured face, that smug posture. Her fists clench, and--this time--they stay clenched, white knuckles resting on her lap, trembling slightly.

He speaks so confidently, yet Giovanni doesn't understand everything--and, given her prior behavior, the Blackthorn Gym Leader certainly understands the irony there--but he's also mixing in some blunt, unfiltered truths. Both pills are difficult, impossible to swallow right now, and Clair feels a familiar bile rising in the back of her throat.

Her face burns.

"...Are you kidding me?"

She barely recognizes the sound of her own voice: incredulous, surprisingly quiet, yet still sharp. Still baring fangs.

"So many wild assumptions about my family line cheating, strong-arming, and killing. You sit there so smugly, acting like you haven't done worse. Acting like you're so much better."

Clair's voice is already rising. If Giovanni wanted to fire off some wild shots, than two could play at that game.

"You talk about coasting on privilege and status? Isn't that what you did, getting your underlings to do your dirty work? Taking over cities? Killing people?"

"Well, excuse me for still having some last-second reservations about working together, and for wanting to be transparent with each other. Excuse me for trying to figure things out. That's all I've been trying to do, lately."

A frustrated tear trickles down her cheek, but Clair soldiers on. No longer caring if she's holding it together. Letting go and succumbing to the frenzy of emotion.

"You think I don't know about the Clan's hubris? I deal with it every day from the Elders, ranting about my generation's lack of devotion. Demanding I stay in line and follow traditions, while dangling my ancestry over my head like a threat. They lecture and insult, but they never help. They're never there when I'm cradling a dying Dratini, trying to give it some semblance of peace in the final breaths. All while comforting tamers who are trying to do the same."

The tears fall freely now. It's too much. Cathartic as this meeting is, perhaps it was doomed from the start.

"I reached out because I was desperate, because I thought you'd be different. But you're just like the elders. Lecturing, demanding, saying that what I do for the Dratini doesn't matter at all."

"But I'm glad that your decision to help me save captured Dratini was so...whimsical. So easy for you to make," Clair spits, disgusted. "Then again, I suppose you're comfortable with the image of Pokemon trapped in cages."

She rises suddenly, plants her hands firm, and leans in slightly, her eyes still glistening with fury and resolve and tears. Clair's next declaration is spoken with her entire chest.

"Fuck you, Giovanni Sakaki."

And In the next second she's gone, leaving her carefully-procured data folder behind, and the door swinging wide in her wake.

Giovanni blinks and turns his head to scrutinize Clair a little more thoroughly, slowly retracting his hand as Clair pulls her folder away from him. A part of him is annoyed and exasperated. He cleared his day on her sudden request, and set aside everything that he had to prepare for.

But he does the courtesy of listening. Propping his elbows in front of him, he laces his fingers together, and waits attentively. When she's done, and slumps her shoulders, the older man takes a moment to think about his own motivations.

"... Even now, you make demands of me. As if I owe you anything."

He sighs, tiredly, with a bit of frustration at the notion his time might have been wasted.

"Listen. I couldn't tell you honestly why I decided to help you, because I don't know. Maybe it's just something to do- something whimsical. Maybe I took pity on someone younger than me floundering about and doing things foolishly. In truth? I have no reason to help you."

He shrugs, as if it was a matter of fact.

"I never cared for clan Blackthorn and their hubris. I never cared for any I fought and put in their place. I never care for people that think that they're elevated, or righteous- that their bloodline is blessed. The truth is that anyone with such elevated positions only got there because somewhere along the way, their ancestors fucked the right noble, cheated the right merchant, and strong-armed or brainwashed those without the means to do the same themselves, and killed or imprisoned those that threatened their Order... and somehow made that Divine."

"The only reason you have your position is because somewhere along the way, you had someone like me in your family tree."

Though, he imagined at least that he was marginally better, because he didn't claim a divine right to do as he pleased.

Maybe that was his mistake.

He rests one palm on his thigh, and props his cheek with the hand still on the table.

"Why would I go out of my way to help you? You see me as something profane. You won't acknowledge that I'm human. You barely acknowledge that you're human."

He pauses, sighs, and then leans back in his chair, facing the computer again.

"I'm helping you because you asked me for my help. Isn't that enough? If not- well..."

The former gym leader glances to the archway.

"I imagine you can find your way easily. Makes no difference to me. I've already lost the time I needed to do things I wanted to."

[lit-in-thy-heart]

so to counteract some of the merlin angst that has been on my dash over the past few days, i just wanted to quickly talk about the hopelessly-devoted-to-gwen people in this scene:

yes i am pissed that they cut elyan out (i giffed this directly from iplayer, haven't edited it in any way) but we all know that he is grinning from ear to ear because his sister is queen and now can boss him about and he's never going to hear the end of it but he doesn't care right now

leon is smiling in a way that i don't think he's ever done. his whole face is quite literally illuminated...like even his beard seems to be beaming??? anyway. you can tell he's trying to keep a lid on it because he's a knight of camelot and has to be, in some respects, a machine, particularly when in the presence of other citizens (i'm not entirely sure exactly who is there but it's obviously more than just the knights, where he can let loose a little) -- but this is his childhood friend. two of them, really. he and gwen grew up together, especially with her mother serving in his household, and for him to be a knight and her to now be queen...he can't quite believe it. he looks so proud as well, and excited, like this is it, this is what we've been working towards. because gwen is so well-suited to the role and he knows it. and it gives them more opportunities to regularly interact with her and there will finally be a more constant and commanding voice of reason to help him out with the chaos of camelot's knights. he had always told her that she deserved the world, and now she's got it.

gwaine, shockingly, seems more composed than leon in terms of pure glee, but look at the way his head moves. maybe i'm projecting but it looks like he's rising on his tiptoes in an effort to see what's going on -- and he's raising his head to make eye contact with someone, perhaps? just that lil bounce i can't, you can see that he is actually thrilled and that smile is definitely more of a smirk -- though not a malicious one -- and i bet my ass that he's looking straight at gwen and thinking of a whole list of things to pass (good) comment on afterwards. most of them will include opportunities to take the piss out of arthur together (with merlin) because she can legally do that now. i wouldn't say that he's overwhelmed with joy, but he's definitely pleased. if he wasn't a knight then he would absolutely be turning around behind him and excitedly going 'i know her!!' and when he next goes to the tavern and gets slightly too drunk he will be telling people that he once flirted with the the queen but, being ever so humble and good, she didn't flirt back and it's a good job she didn't because then she wouldn't have become a kick-ass queen. and then he proceeds to ramble about how wonderful gwen is until merlin comes to collect him. but yeah in conclusion gwaine is happy but also very smug because percival owes him money (which is why he's out of shot because his barely contained annoyance at gwaine would ruin the celebratory vibe) because he fucking knew it would happen and he told half of camelot it would and now it has and he loves to be right. also gwen is great and is going to enjoy taking the piss out of arthur with the knights.

merlin just screams relief to me. obviously he's ecstatic, but the way that his smile sort of holds after he's shouted? and his eyes seem to be focusing on something different to the others? idk i just get the feeling that the others are looking at something and merlin is looking beyond it. as if he's running over the past few years and all the encouragement he's given these two people and is finally relieved that something hasn't blown up in his face for once. what's also interesting is where he's stood. obviously he's the protagonist so visually it makes more sense to have him there than on gwaine's shoulders to see over leon, but his placement at the front is like arthur and gwen are acknowledging the role he had in their relationship and saying you are important, thank you for what you've done. and merlin is seeing two of his closest friends marry, like leon, but he's also seeing the beginnings of the golden age that has been promised to him since he first arrived in camelot. in arthurian legend, merlin has the gift of foresight (for example he knows that nimue is going to trap him in a tree when he wants to have sex with her as soon as he sees her -- doesn't stop him from wanting to have sex with her but that's a whole other thing) and this gif sort of nods to that. he's not only seeing the ceremony, but he's seeing the future they will all build because of this marriage. because finally, finally, everything is starting to work out and he must be doing something right. and gwen! gwen is back! he can talk to her again!

in conclusion: everyone fucking loves gwen and is thrilled that she is officially joining the gang.

bonus: gaius is just glad that all the drama is over and that he's still alive

[wiseabsol]

Do you have an ultimate OTP or rankings of OTPs across fandoms? If so, why? I found some of your OTP essays and thought they were quite thoughtful!

I'm glad that you enjoyed those essays, even though they're old as dust now XD

I don't really have any ultimate OTP or rankings of OTPs across fandoms, since my interest in ships tends to be cyclical. When I get in the mood for one, I'll consume fanwork of it for a few weeks, then move on to another and another, until eventually that mood hits me again. Off the top of my head, though, here are a few I revisit on an regular basis:

Shinji Ikari / Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion): I had a weird introduction to Neon Genesis Evangelion in that I started with the manga version by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. I knew nothing about how popular the show was at the time--in fact, because I had such a hard time getting the manga volumes, I assumed it didn't have much a fanbase. It turned out it did, of course, but the manga is considered an inferior, watered down version of the story. I don't agree with that assessment--I think all of the main versions of Eva have something valuable in them, and excluding any of them misses out on something worthwhile--but I do love the manga version the most. Shinji is more thoughtful and proactive in this version of the story, while Rei is much more fleshed out as a character. Their friendship and quasi-romance is touching, especially in how it encourages them both to grow as people. Plus, it leads to a fascinating, if very controversial take, on Kaworu's character.

Harry Potter / Hermione Granger (Harry Potter): I shipped them from the very beginning and still get hit in the feels with the concept of them on occasion. Admittedly, the last time I read the books, I thought that Hermione really should have wound up with Krum, because he at least fully appreciates her, while the boys struggle to do the same. Still, it's hard for me to not want these best friends and amateur detectives to be together, especially when their canon ships were poorly developed (Ron is too mean to Hermione for my comfort, and Ginny, while she had a ton of potential, was very underutilized by She Who Must Not Be Named).

Roy Mustang / Riza Hawkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist): Who read or watched Fullmetal Alchemist and didn't ship them? The mutual loyalty is just so good. Also he learned her father's secret flame alchemy from her naked back. Come on!

Madoka Kaname / Homura Akemi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica): Homura went through an endless maze of timeline resetting for Madoka. If that's not an act of devotion, I don't know what is. Madoka's feelings for Homura are less blatant, but I think she definitely has a crush on her "cool" classmate, and learning how much Homura has given for her probably cemented that. I really hope they get a happy ending in the movies (which we didn't need, but I'll still watch the next one).

Ash Ketchum / Misty Waterflower (Pokemon): Baby's first ship, or at least the first one where I was involved in the fandom. I still enjoy it, though I haven't engaged with content for it for years now. Still, if Ash is going to end up with anyone, I hope it's Misty. (I doubt it will be--this boy is staying 10 forever, folks!)

Ichigo Kurosaki / Rukia Kuchiki (Bleach): Baby's first smutty ship. The Bleach fandom was so horny back in the day. I also liked how the friendship between Ichigo and Rukia encouraged them both to grow, and how their involvement with each other changed their lives for the better. I'm also pretty sure the author shipbaited the fandom HARD with these two: the poems, the art spreads, that one super shippy movie! It being a shounen story, I didn't actually think they would get together...and then, when the ending happened and they married other people, I was flabbergasted. I still don't understand it.

Zuko / Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender): So this is tricky, because the trauma of colonialism is very tied into this ship, since Zuko is from the people and culture who committed genocide against Katara's. So intellectually, a part of me doesn't like this. Emotionally, on the other hand, I do enjoy it because of the parallels between their stories, and because out of the members of the Gaang, Katara is most able to be herself around Zuko, rather than a nurturer. Mai also felt underdeveloped to me, and I wondered if she'd be happier away from the machinations of court (maybe with June?!).

Mewtwo / Sabrina (Pokemon): Listen, they're a crack ship, but they're my beautiful crackship. They have a weird amount in common, to the point where I wonder if Sabrina's episodes were a test run for Mewtwo's movie. Also, I adore Beauty and the Beast stories, and this ship would fill that trope nicely. I'm also one of maybe five people that have written this ship (if only I'd done it during my heyday! Then I could have converted so many more readers! Alas, I missed my shot).

Others I'm fond of include:

Naruto Uzamaki / Hinata Hyuuga (Naruto)

Korra / Asami (The Legend of Korra)

Artemis Fowl / Holly Short (Artemis Fowl)

Gideon Nav / Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb)

Emma Swan / Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time)

Arthur/Morgana (Merlin)

Utena Tenjou / Anthy Himemiya (Revolutionary Girl Utena)

Ahiru/Fakir and Rue/Mytho (Princess Tutu): Has the distinction of being written so well that I abandoned by original ship for the show (Ahiru/Mytho), which is something I never do.

[qqueenofhades]

The photo set you reblogged of Yusuf and Niccolo helping throughout time just filled me with so many happy feels and it made me realize that it seems so common in media with immortal couples that they take breaks from each other and reconnect after a few decades. Which is a great trope but seeing these two that seems to have been attached at the hip since the day they met just fills me with all the heart eyes.

(I haven't read your fanfics for them yet. I know I'm a bad fan but if it helps I havent been able to read anything since all this started but while writing this ask I got the feeling that all this rambling I spewed out is a big theme)

Hush. Bad fan nothing. We all are coping with this stupid, awful year in different ways, some of us by escaping into fandom and some of us being unable to engage with it and some of us doing both or anything else. You certainly don’t owe me or anyone any obligation to interact with our content, fic or otherwise. So just to have that there on the top. You’re good, hun. :)

ANYWAY, thank you for giving me a chance to meta a bit on the boys and their relationship and to have a window into what my brain looks like pretty much 24/7 these days. (I blame them.) I keep thinking about all the ways this couple is depicted in the TOG film and how lovely it was and how unusual it is for me to have an OTP where I actually love them in canon and don’t need to violently disavow it in order to create AU fan content with just the characters. (See: Timeless, Game of Thrones, pretty much any show I’ve hyperfixated on at some point.) I love AUs anyway, because that’s the way my brain works, but the fact that I can also enjoy canon just as much is rare for me and for a lot of us. I saw a post somewhere remarking on how the fanfic for Joe/Nicky isn’t fixing anything, which is usually the point of transformative fanworks: we take something that canon atrociously fucked up and fix it. But in this case, all our interpretations are based on actually appreciating the way they’re presented in canon and wanting to enjoy that and uphold it, and that -- especially with a couple like this one -- is shocking??

Like. Despite my historian gripes about the occasionally incongruous details for their graphic-novel backstories (which are the only things I HAVE fixed in my fics), I’m just... deeply appreciative of the care which everyone, writers and actors and all else, put into depicting Joe and Nicky and their relationship. And god YES, one of the things I love the absolute MOST is that they’re a loving, faithful, committed, happy married queer couple over centuries, and that seems to be the case for as long as they’ve known each other/ever since they got together. (See Booker’s “you and Nicky always had each other.”) These fools can’t sleep apart from each other even when they’re stuck on a freight train in the middle of nowhere, they flirt like teenagers at dinnertime and even when they’re strapped to gurneys in a mad-scientist laboratory, they make out to enrage bad guys and also because they’re just still that goddamn into each other after all this time.

I think it was Marwan Kenzari who pointed out that there’s simply no way to truly state the depth of their knowledge and devotion and commitment to each other. They’re 950 years old. They have known each other since they were in their thirties; they’ve been husbands for literal centuries. There is no way anyone else in the world could possibly come close to replicating the kind of bond they have with each other, and neither of them have ever had any inclination to look, because why would they? Especially with the fact that queer couples in media, even otherwise sympathetically portrayed ones, often have Drama and Third Parties and Promiscuity and whatever else (because of the tiresome old canard that Gays Equal Hypersexualized!), and Joe and Nicky don’t need or want ANY of that. There’s no urge to make their relationship a cheap source of soap-opera conflict. It’s the rock and the center and the core of both of their lives, and everything they do stems from that.

There have been some great metas/comments on how neither Joe and Nicky are sexualized, they dress like stay-at-home dads during quarantine (Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli are both objectively gorgeous men, and they’re out there looking like that, god bless), and the viewer is never invited to goggle at or fetishize their relationship. There are no leering or exploitative camera angles on anyone, and their expressions of love aren’t posed or intended to titillate the audience, they’re just solidly embodied and natural and lived in. It’s never bothered to be stated clunkily in dialogue that they’re a couple; we just see them exchanging looks and smiles in the early part of the film, and then we see them spooning on the train after the mission in Sudan, which confirms it.

At every turn, the narrative celebrates the kindness and love shared by the Immortal Family, the individual characters, and Joe and Nicky, especially and explicitly in queer form. The villains of the film are also defined by how they react negatively to that love. @viridianpanther​ had a great meta on how Keane as a villain is especially set up to menace Joe and Nicky as the narrative representation of toxic masculinity, aggressive heterosexuality, and the usual “Kill Your Gays” trope that we’ve all come to wearily expect. But instead, after that scene where Joe and Nicky fight Keane, Nicky is shot and comes back to life in Joe’s arms rather than dying permanently like we probably all momentarily expected, and then Joe gets to FUCKIN’ BREAK THE NECK of the guy who enacted that violence.... good GOD. The first time I watched it, I almost couldn’t believe it was happening. (This goes for the whole film, but especially that scene.) Like... when do we get that?? When do we EVER get that???

Obviously, there are so many stereotypes, whether visually or in behavior or character traits, that could have been assigned to a gay Italian character (excessively dramatic, effeminate, fashionable, etc) or a gay Arabic/Muslim character (explicitly announcing He’s Not Like Those Muslims, having to actively reject his heritage to make him more palatable to westerners, being tormented over being gay, etc) and Joe and Nicky subscribe to none of those. I get very emotional about Joe referring to Nicky as the moon when he is lost during the truck scene partly because it’s SUCH a common motif in Arabic love poetry. To call someone your “moon” is a beautiful way to say they’re the light of your life, and since the Islamic calendar is obviously lunar and the holidays, months, and observances, are set by the phases of the moon, this also has a deeper religious significance.

I don’t know for sure if they did that on purpose, but it it’s a lovely and subtle way of showing us how Joe clearly doesn’t have an issue with being both queer AND Muslim, and is able to draw on both facets of that identity in a way that a lesser narrative would have denied him. And that is just really wonderful. Yes, we’re seeing these characters when they’ve had centuries to settle into themselves, but there are plenty of writers who would have forced those conflicts artificially to the surface, rather than letting them be long in the past. It’s the same way when you watch a film set in the medieval era, it wants you to know that it Is Set In The Medieval Era. Cue the filth, misogyny, racism, violence, etc! Rather than it being a lived-in reality, it has to be jarringly drawn attention to, and I’m just so glad they didn’t do that with Joe and Nicky. And for them to have met in the crusades and fallen in love??! Come on. That’s just rude. Rude to me, personally.

Anyway, this was a rather long-winded and feelsy way of saying that these characters are constructed, acted, and written organically in such a way that you hate to even THINK of them being separated, and it’s not because they can’t function without each other, but because they are two halves of a whole. We also see that the characters themselves can’t stand being forced apart: Joe’s freakout in the truck scene when Nicky briefly won’t wake up, Nicky making sure to tell Joe that he’s glad he’s awake in the lab, the whole post-Keane fight scene that I talked about above, the way Nicky fights ferociously to get to Joe when Merrick’s stabbing him, etc. For that to be given to the queer couple, where the strength of their love and devotion is reinforced as one of the emotional goals of the story, and for that queer couple to be written in the way that Joe and Nicky are, both individually and as a unit, is just so very rare.

Because yes, there’s plenty of drama and angst and pain in their lives, but there’s none at all in their relationship, and that’s what fans keep telling TV writers the whole time: they WANT to see the couple confront things as a unit, rather than being kept on tenterhooks the whole time and forced to go through manufactured or artificial drama. It would feel especially wrong for Joe and Nicky, who have known and loved each other for 900 years. The fact that their respective actors also put so much care and love into them is very obvious, and makes me feel even luckier that they’re played by people who clearly get them and honor them and know what they’re doing.

Basically: of course Joe and Nicky have been with each other the whole time, and of course we’re all drowning in feelings over it, and I feel very blessed that this ship exists, and I very much need the sequel ASAP. Thanks.

[colour-outside-the-liness]

Hi Colour! This is going to be a long one, so buckle up!

Oh wow, that's so precious! You've definitely earned the "real life Dani" nickname haha I wish I could find something meaningful like that to do with my life. I'm actually autistic and have ADHD so hearing you do this kind of work makes me really happy! Keep up the good work Ms. Clayton! 😁 Haha

You sound like a lot of fun to hang out with at pubs! Haha I'm glad you identify with that bit of info on your star placements. I had a lot of fun doing it too!

The thing about Hozier is that some of his lyrics are incredibly sapphic to me for some reason, I'm still trying to figure it out. NFWMB is one of the songs that feels like that to me. Don't know if you've heard it before but give it a try if you haven't. If you close your eyes it sounds like you're in an epic romantic story and there are swords, pretty gowns, and rooms lit by torches. Haha

The beginning of this song was inspired by a poem written by W.B Yeats called "The Second Coming" in 1920, and it talks about an apocalypse of sorts, alluding to all of the horrors men inflicted upon the world which ends up awakening this beast that goes to Jesus's place of birth in the Bible (Bethlehem) to be born. The last lines being:

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

So the song starts with:

"When I first saw you

The end was soon

To Bethlehem it slouched

And then, it must've caught a good look at you"

And oh boy do I think of Dani when I hear that. Especially bc of that scene where Viola accepts Dani's invitation to live inside her. And nobody knows why she accepts it (but I do!).

And yeah at first glance you might not think much of Dani. in the beginning she's just a tiny frail small-town girl with a lot of anxiety, running away from her past traumas. But she proves us wrong again and again and again. She moves to a country she's never been before entirely by herself, sees an opportunity, and doesn't let go of it even when it looks like it went wrong. Then is very loving and tender with these children who have gone through so much and are still going through so much. Tries to fight (with a fire poker!!) the threatening man that keeps harassing her, the children, and her friends. THEN manages to soften the angry, grumpy lesbian who's given up on people after A LOT of trauma (too much in my opinion) and doesn't give up on her when she rejects her either. Freaking exorcises her ex and makes him stop haunting her so she can be with the love of her life. And then finally as if all of that didn't make her the bravest hero in this story, she literally stops an apocalypse from happening and saves everyone from this beast by sacrificing herself without even thinking twice. Saves everyone that came before her and then the ones who'll come after for the rest of eternity. I mean the P-O-W-E-R this girl has. 💪 so hell yeah the lady in the lake wanted to take her.

When Hozier says:

"Ain't it a gentle sound, the rollin' in the graves?

Ain't it like thunder under earth, the sound it makes?

Ain't it exciting you, the rumble where you lay?

Ain't you my baby? ain't you my baby?"

I can only think of Dani at the bottom of the lake laying on top of all the bones of the people Viola killed and how she's at peace living forever in a dark place like that. That's kinda hardcore y'know?

After the first verses, Hozier goes on to talk abt his lover, someone so utterly terrifying even the beast of the end of the world can't stand to look at them. But this song is also about being proud to be this person's lover bc nothing can fuck with them, not bc you are there to protect them and wouldn't let anyone harm them, but bc they're more than capable of protecting themselves and you too. So in my head, this song is Jamie's declaration of love to Dani.

And then I think of Jamie's devotion to Dani when she said "If you can't feel anything, then I'll feel everything for the both of us." shown in this verse:

"If I was born as a blackthorn tree

I'd wanna be felled by you

Held by you

Fuel the pyre of your enemies"

And the fact that she took what she could get just to be with Dani. She knew she'd have to suffer for/bc of her at some point, but chose to be with her anyway. I have no doubts in my mind she'd want to be anything for her as long as they could be together in any way, shape, or form. In all the lives they happened to meet one another too.

Wouldn't it be cool to see them in an AU where Dani is like a medieval princess who's supposed to marry Edmund to form an alliance between kingdoms or something and Jamie is an assassin who is hired to kill the princess so she has to pretend to be Dani's personal guard or wtever but they fall in love and run away together and Jamie teaches her how to fight so Dani becomes this warrior but turns out Dani is naturally good at it and then she becomes a legend? Hahaha I can see her riding a horse in the winter with paint on her face and her blonde hair falling over this fur-lined cloak, fierce look on her face, and Jamie riding next to her (always). Then they come across Viola who's a witch and puts a curse on Dani and then Dani and Jamie have to travel to all sorts of places and fight all sorts of people and go on this whole adventure to rid Dani of this curse. Maybe Dani has to go back to her kingdom bc her father dies and there are other people trying to take her kingdom so there's a lot of angst and suffering but then they win at the end after a lot of sweat and tears and they live happily ever after! 😎Hahaha

Anyway, I hope you're having a great week so far and hope you had fun with your niece today! (I know if I was her and you had us make fudge and paint I'd worship you haha) I'm sorry for the very (very) long ask, but I've been obsessing over this idea for months and I just had to share it with someone! ✌️✨

(And you can call me Libby or wtever since I'm not anon anymore 🤗)

Awwh thank you so much for saying I have earned my 'real life Dani' title is means a lot to me that you guys see that in me!! I am sure you do so many meaningful things in life without even realising it!! I honestly just want to make a difference and I love helping people so going into a career like this just seemed so natural to me and I really do love what I do!! Thank you so much I really hope I can keep up the good work!! I hope I'm a lot of fun- I know I have helped win a few pub quizzes and there's been a few times I've won games of trivial pursuit as well so that really did make so much sense to me and learning about all the placements of my chart was so much fun and was so interesting so thank you very much!! I have heard some of Hozier's lyrics are quite sapphic and I always mean to look into more of his songs and then just never do but I will definitely look in to NFWMB because the lyrics you have sent me here are incredible and definitely give of Dani x Jamie vibes I definitely agree with you in everything you have said about why Viola accepted Dani's invitation- Dani and Viola are similar in some ways and this was something I was explaining to my niece when she watched it with me. I explained to her that both Viola and Dani are strong willed, and stubborn, and would do anything to fiercely protect the people they care about. We saw that time and time again with Dani, how within days of knowing Miles and Flora she was out with a fire poker trying to protect them from a strange man that she kept seeing around the manor. And how Viola would've done anything to protect her daughter. One major difference between them though is that Viola seemed to have a slight selfish streak where as Dani is entirely selfless, she was selfless for the longest time in even agreeing to marry Eddie so she wouldn't hurt him, she was selfless in protecting Miles and Flora, and even more selfless in saving Flora's life and freeing all the trapped spirits of Bly Manor and then she is selfless in the fact that she won't drag anyone down and won't hurt anyone else at Bly ever again. The one thing she did for herself was being with Jamie- and she was able to make Jamie open up and trust people in way she probably hadn't for the longest time. Dani is a truly strong person as was Viola and I can see why she would accept Dani's invitation. I will have to listen to this song to see it from a Jamie perspective which I will definitely do tomorrow but from the lyrics you have sent me I can definitely see it being a love declaration to Dani from Jamie. Jamie knew in the end she would suffer because she knew she wouldn't be able to keep Dani forever, and knew that one day she would have to leave her- but she knew loving Dani for as long as she was allowed to would be worth that pain in the end and Jamie is a truly strong person as well for knowing this and staying by Dani's side anyway when that must have been such a hard thing for Jamie to ever have to accept. Jamie would've been anything for Dani and would've one anything for her as Dani would've for Jamie and that's why I love them so much. They loved each other so purely and without conditions and so wholeheartedly and it really was such a lovely thing to watch play out in front of us (even if it did hurt us all at the end). I think it would be so cool to see an AU like that I think medieval stuff is always so fun and so interesting and a good enemies to lovers start never fails either because there's so much tension there between them. And Jamie being undercover as someone to get close to Dani and them slowly falling in love with each other would just be a great thing to see!! And I am all for warrior Dani and Jamie (women with weapons is a little bit of a weakness of mine)!! This whole AU just sounds incredible I love a good curse in fantasy stories and the curse slowly taking over and you thinking they're going to run out of time but everything works out in the end!! Dani going back to her kingdom because of her sick Dad dying would be great for angst because it would look

like she would have to marry someone to create an alliance and that she would have to take over a kingdom (perhaps something she never wanted to do in the first place)!! I think this could be a very angsty one shot and could be so interesting and fun and the happy ending would definitely make all the angst worth it in the end!! I am having a good week so far thank you and I had so much fun with my niece today, making fudge went great and she was happy that I was able to show her how to do it because she'd never made it before so now that's something she knows how to do (I think she thinks I'm way cooler than I actually am haha thank you for saying you'd worship me though if you were my niece haha 😂) but tomorrow she is teaching me how to do something because I taught her how to make fudge today... she's gonna teach me how to draw in an anime style- which is something she is really into and even though I'm not she loves drawing so I've asked if she can teach me since I taught her something today!! There's no need to apologise I loved this long angst and I loved this idea I think it's really great and interesting and that song just seems amazing and I am definitely gonna listen to it tomorrow when I get chance!! Thank you for sharing this idea with me I loved it!! ☺️ Haha oki doki then as long as that's alright with you Libby is what I'll call you!! Like I said you can seriously call me anything!! ☺️

[peakysabrina]

Heaven

How Jeremiah met his wife, how they got married, and the story of how Isaiah was born.

TW for miscarriages, sorry!!

Jeremiah Jesus had tried to become a priest before, but because of the reasons stated above, had been pushed out of the noble calling of God. Time and time again, he had gone to the seminar, and had done what all the white boys had done, better than them, and was still rejected with a snare and everything short but a kick to the backside. Somehow, his devotion to God wasn't good enough, his oratory wasn't good enough, and him as a man wasn't enough. Every time, he knew very well why it had been: because he was black, his parents were from the Caribbean, and he didn't fit the Church of England's image of a good shepard for their sheep. The sheep, better known as citizens, weren't big on other ethnicities, and a coloured pastor could drive them away from church, and away from the brain-wash that went on inside such venerable buildings.

So Jeremiah Jesus gave up, tired of wasting his time studying the Bible and the great Classic masters of oratory, given that it was of no use. Instead, he decided it would be much better to make it on his own, to go off into the world, make his money, find a job, one that he could excel at, despite the colour of his skin, or the place of origin of his parents. The first step to make that happen was to go around to the shops, to try and find someone who would employ him, even if it was in the backrooms, or warehouses. No one agreed, so Jeremiah moved on to the farms and factories around Birmingham. There, in the small property of Jacob Steadman, he found what he was looking for: a steady position as farm hand, doing whatever was needed.

The Steadman family was composed of seven people: the father, Jacob, who was married to Lucinda; the eldest daughter, Lucy; and four younger siblings, named Jacob Jr., Alphonse (who went by Alphie), Henrietta and Julius. They had a couple more men on the property, who mostly dealt with the produce the family sold at nearby markets. The Steadmans weren't rich, but they lived comfortably, which allowed them a bit more independence, and an education for their children. The eldest one, a beautiful red-haired girl in her early twenties, was especially gifted, and wrote stories for her younger brothers and sisters, which she also illustrated with all the care in the world. She was, unfortunately, prone to bouts of coughing fits, with no apparent reason, and the fairy-tale sessions were often interrupted by these moments, much to her sadness.

"Hey. You need any help?" the same Lucy came asking, carrying a tin full of water and a plate of food. "You've been at it for hours, eh?"

"It's my job" Jeremiah replied, looking up from the car tyre he was trying to patch up, and seeing that blessed apparition, made even more welcome by the food she was holding. "I will accept some lunch, though"

"Yeah, thought so" she replied, chuckling and handing him the plate and the water. "How's it going with dad's car? That tyre's busted"

"Busted is... an understatement. You feeling better today? I heard you coughing yesterday"

"I uh... I'm better, I think, yeah" Lucy sighed, obviously not one bit better, but refusing to look weak, even in front of the help. "To be honest with you, I don't think I'll ever get any better. But that's just my opinion"

"Have you been to a doctor?" Jeremiah looked up from his plate, still chewing a bit of meat. "Nothing they can do about it?"

"I've been to a couple doctors, and none of them know what the hell is going on. Shit, sorry, shouldn't curse, you're religious" Lucy let out, apparently unaware that it hadn't been offensive, but rather funny, to hear someone so proper speaking like that.

"No problem, I'm not that religious" he assured, observing closely the process of his boss's daughter crouching, and then sitting on the ground. If he was asked, a lady sitting on the ground, talking to the coloured help would be much more scandalous than all the cursing in the world. But he liked how pratical she was, how she didn't let her obvious beauty and good manners get in the way of doing what she wanted to do. "I have a chair somewhere over there, if you want"

"Nah, I'm alright, thanks" was the quick answer, accompanied by a shrug. "I'm sorry if I kept you awake with my coughing"

"You didn't. I couldn't sleep anyway"

"Anything worrying you?" Lucy kindly asked, taking a nearby wrench and playing with it, throwing it in the air a couple of times, and catching it with precision. "Well, anything I can help you with? Even if it's just talking"

"On second thought, maybe it was your coughing" Jeremiah joked, finishing his lunch and taking a big swig of water. "No, it's nothing. I was reading, and I lost track of time"

"I know that feeling. You know what I was reading? That one author you showed me, Jane Austen. Really like her stuff" Lucy informed, dreamily looking into the distance. Truth be told, Jeremiah was terrified of her when she looked like that, terrified of the way it made him want to lunge forward and kiss her. It was unspokenly agreed between the two that whatever the thing between them was, it was friendship, and just that: friendship.

"Glad you like it, I came across some stuff of hers through a friend of mine in town" he replied, clearing his throat, and coming back to reality. "His dad knew her dad, or so he says"

"That's interesting. What about you, what were you reading?"

"Do you even need to ask?" he laughed, drinking what was left from the water. "I go back to it a couple times a year, to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. Helps me keep my mind in the right place"

"Fair enough, Jimmy. No shame in that" she responded, using that name that only she was allowed to use. She didn't like the name Jeremiah for some reason, didn't like the way it sounded; but Jimmy sounded good, it suited him. Reading the Bible and losing track of time because of it also suit him, and Lucy was very aware that it was just one of the manners in which he was perfect, in which he made her fall for him.

"You've read the Bible, haven't you?"

"Might have... when I went to Sunday School. Ah, and on Sundays, they always read a bit, don't they? Can't say I remember reading it from start to finish in one go, though" she admitted, tapping her fingers on her lips as she gave the subject some thought. "I prefer novels, You know the ones, where the girls have pretty dresses, and always end up marrying the man of their dreams and living in a mansion"

"That what you want to do?"

"Pfff" Lucy let out, a strange and humorous sound that made Jeremiah laugh along. "I don't really care about dresses, and mansions are too much maintenance. As for the man of my dreams, he knows where I live, he can come get me if he wants" she added, looking down, and then up at him. Another good thing about Lucy was this: she knew what she wanted, and she knew how to get it. The ball was in his court, so to speak, and there was no religion that could provide an answer.

That conversation was the latest of many they had shared, and hints had been coming all along. But it was all in good fun, a bit of light flirting between friends. There had never been anything like that very particular jab, and it wasn't mistakeable for banter. So, it was time to make a decision: to stick to friendship, maintain everything as it was, and resort to reading the Holy Book to drown the noise of his very obvious attraction; or to go ahead and go get the girl he wanted. It was true: he knew where she lived, and knew which room was hers. It had to be the one which still had light coming from underneath the door. She had to be awake, and alone, for them to be able to talk through what they needed to talk through. As softly as he could, he knocked, and the door opened instantly, like she had been waiting. Knowing Lucy, she probably had been, although she would not admit to it.

"Thank God, I was starting to think you hadn't gotten my hint" Lucy scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Took you long enough"

"It wasn't an open invitation, was it? What happens if your parents come around to check on you? And what if they hear us?" Jeremiah asked in return, fully regretting what he had done. It would mean being dismissed on the spot, and he couldn't really afford to go back to his parents' house. "I can't lose my job"

"You won't, don't think about it" she guaranteed, going around Jeremiah and locking the door. "See? They can't come in"

"What does it mean, then? What do you want to do?" he asked, bearing in mind that a decision had to be made, and the sooner the better, before someone caught them.

"Do I need to know? Do you really need an answer to that?" Lucy asked, biting her lip repeatedly, obviously nervous for being put on the spot.

"If I didn't need to know where we stand, I wouldn't have come here, now would I?" Jeremiah asked, losing a bit of his cool. It was in his nature to need everything decided, and defined. The idea of puting them both at risk for nothing was annoying, to say the least. "I came here for nothing, wasn't it, Lucy?"

Her reaction was completely unexpected: instead of pouting, or retaliating, Lucy simply walked up to him, placed her hands on his neck, and pulled him down, kissing him on the lips. For good measure, she took Jeremiah's own palms and placed them on her waist, where he could feel the warmth of her skin through the cotton of the nightgown.

"Would this be considered nothing?" Lucy asked, breaking the kiss but making sure Jeremiah's hands stayed where they were. "Because if so..." she continued, taking his writs, and making his hands move to her thighs, and then up, and up, until the nightgown was over her head and on the floor. "...would this be better?"

For once, Jeremiah was speachless, and torn between looking at her face, or looking down at her body, which was wrong, but pretty damn irresistible. He didn't know whether she was aware of what she had done, but it didn't seem to be a problem when he bent over to kiss her, taking her into his arms without thinking too much about it.

After that night, things only escalated: from sex, to talks of marriage, and to a proposal, done beneath the apple trees on a warm Spring day, complete with the best ring the sparse money Jeremiah could buy. At the same time, he'd started making efforts to find a new job, whereas Lucy had gotten employment at the Birmingham library, in hopes that some day, they could tell her parents about their engagement. Once that was out of the way, they could get married, and move into their own house, living their lives, building a family, having a good existence. Luckily, there had been an opening for Bible Studies teacher, under mysterious circumstances, but that were probably connected with the imprisonment of the deacon. Hence, it was time: Lucy's parents had to know.

"Mom and dad, me and Ji... I mean, me and Jeremiah have something we need to tell you" Lucy started, getting her mother's attention, while her father kept on reading the newspaper. "We're engaged to be married"

"You're what? To... to each other?" mrs. Steadman asked, absolutely caught off guard.

"Yeah" her daughter responded, showing her mother the engagement ring.

"No"

"What?"

"I said no" mr. Steadman chimed in, lowering the paper, and looking at his daughter with the utmost disgust. "You are not marrying a coloured man, let alone a poor one"

"Excuse me, sir, but I don't think the colour of my skin has anything to do with this subject. I love your daughter, I am prepared to offer her the best life I possibly can" Jeremiah protested, forcing Lucy to take his arm, to pacify him a little.

"Look son, I have no problem with the colour of your skin, but I am not letting my daughter marry you" Jacob replied, as if he was simply commenting on the weather outside. "You have no idea how people will treat her if she marries you"

"I'm not unaware of that, dad, I know how stupid people are; I don't care about any of that, I'm prepared to deal with whatever is thrown at me. Jeremiah asked me to marry him, I said yes, and that's that. You can be by my side on my wedding day, or not. That's your call" Lucy stated, beggining to feel the burn of anger on her throat. "He's the man I want, he's the man I love, and that's that on that"

"Out" Jacob simply stated, his eyes as clear as day, pointing to the door. He didn't even raise his voice, but the message as loud: he wanted the both of them out of his house, and he wanted them to go without missing a second. As for his wife, she just lowered her head and went back to sewing, pursing her lips but saying nothing. It seemed like the only one affected by that demand was Lucy, whose eyes filled with tears, and fists clenched. "I said out, didn't you hear me? Out of my sight, both of you. And don't you dare come back"

Matter of fact, they didn't. Lucy packed her clothes and some books she'd bought with her own money, wrote a letter to her siblings explaining why she had to leave, and was out of her childhood home before dinner time. As for her fiancé, a completely distraught Jeremiah, there was not much to be said: the guilt he felt in his heart was so overwhelming he wanted to simultaneously punch Jacob Steadman and hug Lucy, to cry on her shoulder. It was her spirit that never waivered, it was her that got him out of the property her parents owned, and it was her who found them a room to rent while they saved up for an apartment or house of their own. Their landlord, Arthur Shelby, was a strange man, but his wife, named Elizabeth, was an angel, who looked after the young couple with as much care as she did her own child, a lanky, sickly-looking boy named after his father.

As for their wedding, there was not much to be said: there was the priest, the bride, the groom, and two witnesses, namely Elizabeth Shelby and her husband, who signed the paper with a disgruntled look on his face. It wasn't much of a party, but then again it didn't need to be, as Lucy and Jeremiah didn't have the means to provide one. The bride had a bouquet of wildflowers, and a simple everyday dress, but her groom was so in love it didn't matter. To Jeremiah, she was an angel, something from high heavens.

"... I now pronounce you husband and wife. Mr. Jesus, you may kiss your bride" the pastor announced, causing both Jeremiah and Lucy to smile at each other, before chastly kissing to the sound of Elizabeth Shelby's subdued clapping, echoing off the walls of the empty church.

"Congratulations, I wish you nothing but happiness, truly" Elizabeth wished, hugging Lucy tightly and patting Jeremiah's shoulder. As for her husband, he was already outside, smoking a cigarette and probably trying to make a pass at any woman who passed by. "Now would be the time to leave your bouquet at the altar and make a wish. I'll wait outside"

"Oh, I forgot" Lucy let out, turning to the altar and trying to think of a wish. "You have anything you want to wish for?" she asked Jeremiah, who in all honesty, was just happy to be alive and married to the girl he loved.

"Not really, I'll leave the wish to you" he replied, accompanying her back to the altar, where a figure of Jesus Christ on the cross looked over them.

"Well, I wish for..." she started, a sweet smile on her features. "I wish for a happy and healthy baby. And since my husband doesn't want to make his own wish, I'll take his and ask for some te ability to carry my child safely"

"That's a good wish" Jeremiah replied, wrapping his arm around her waist. "Both of them are, really. Can't wait to have a little one with you"

"Me either. You reckon it will take long to... should we be talking about this in church, though?" Lucy laughed, putting down the simply bouquet of flowers and taking Jeremiah's hand as they exited the temple. "I feel bad now, for talking about baby-making at church"

"God doesn't care, don't worry" Jeremiah assured, as they walked over to the Shelbies, who were waiting for them. "Can't wait, though"

In the end, it did take a fair bit for a baby to make its appearance in their life. Elizabeth Shelby had four children by the time Lucy Jesus managed to carry a pregnancy to term. Her disappointments had taken its toll on the girl, who became more and more fragile as time went by. Her coughing became constant, and her body slowly started giving in. However, Lucy had gathered every bit of strength she had, and, in 1905, Isaiah was born. He was healthy, beautiful, and strong, much stronger than his mother. In due time, the little boy had to say goodbye to his father, who departed for war, and then, to his mother, who couldn't survive another miscarriage. Elizabeth Shelby and Polly Gray, her sister-in-law, raised the Jesus boy, who grew up playing with the Shelby boys, and who would, in time, become one of them.

The second part of this (focused on Isaiah) is on AO3

[ask-lucky-boy]

"I'm glad you understand how I feel then!" He beams. "Or at least, that you're willing to reflect on the possibilities. Most people just dismiss the fight between hope and despair and would rather not choose either. Ah, I have to admit it's me who can't wrap my head around that mentality, so I suppose it's to be expected that they wouldn't understand mine either." It was a bit of a disappointing thought to be honest, but most people lived completely normal and boring lives, so how could he expect them to have extraordinary points of view?

The thought causes him to sigh a little, but he quickly brushes it off and places his attention back at their conversation. "Haha, you're right about Hajime. Seeing his hope overcome despair is my favorite thing to witness! I'm so incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to see it shine so many times! Ah, I wish I could share it with you! During our killing game, when he found out the truth about his past, about Hope's Peak, when we woke up from the Neo World Program, when our friends seemed like they couldn't go on anymore, when people all around him seemed to be turning to despair one after the other-!" He's steadily becoming more and more excited, almost off from his seat by this point. "He's constantly being thrown into despairing situations and the way he overcomes them all is the best thing in the world! Haha, it's difficult to describe it when you haven't seen it yourself, but nothing in this world could beat the beauty of it! Ah, that being said..." He blinks a few times, forcing himself to focus on her questions rather than getting himself lost in his love for Hajime again. "I've found that it's... hard for me to cause him any despair on purpose. I love to see him come out stronger in the end, but... it does hurt to see him suffering before that, especially if I was the cause of it, ahaha, so I suppose you could say I tend to avoid that. Pathetic, isn't it? I call myself a servant of hope but not even I am immune to my own selfish desires." He lets out a light chuckle, at this point it was impossible to deny he had a especially soft spot for Hajime, so why bother trying?

"Now, if you're curious about that stupid mistake of mine, I don't mind talking about it, though it is quite embarrassing." That becomes clear when his smile turns sheepish again. "Ahaha, at one point I attempted to become the Ultimate Hope by murdering all my classmates." Calling that embarrassing was certainly... one way to describe it. "I'd just found out they'd become Remnants of Despair, so I thought getting rid of all of them would make me some kind of hero, or a childish delusion like that. Haha, like I said, it was very stupid. Back then I still didn't see how useful the Remnants of Despair could be, or how beautiful the hope that was born from them could be! Luckily, my plan failed, or rather, I was defeated by my classmates' stronger hopes, so it all worked out in the end."

"So finally, if you take all of that into consideration, you'll realize that Remnants don't have any intention of helping hope, they don't know they're fighting for the losing team, for the side of evil. Of course, their role is extremely important, because every hero needs a villain to fight against, right? Hope needs that too, and I'm happy to fulfill that role if it's necessary, but that doesn't mean that's what I always do. Haha, I guess you could call me a double agent of sorts. If it helps hope, I'll do it! Whether that means making things easier or harder, that's always changing. Remnants, meanwhile, are devoted to despair and would never dream of letting hope win, so that's where their fault lies."

He finishes, a satisfied smile resting on his face as he carefully studies Miyako's reaction. It was refreshing to have someone that was willing to lend an ear to be honest, he didn't have many opportunities like this. "If you're still confused about what sets us apart, I completely understand, I'm used to being lumped together with people in despair and, while it does sting a little, I get why people would see it that way, so I don't mind at all. If anyone wants to view me as an evil person, I'll gladly accept that if that will give them something to fight against."

[Incoming call from Nagito.] "Hello, this is Nagito Komaeda, am I reaching to Miyako Sasaki?" @ask-lucky-boy

A cheery voice answers the phone, answering without a moment’s hesitation. “Nagito! Hello, it’s so good to hear from you again. Ah, it’s Miyako, by the way, my staff doesn’t work on weekends so it’s just me. How have you been?”

@ask-lucky-boy