#Not sure if I should tag Fiona

[toaarcan]

Okay, so I got linked a post questioning why people like to undo Fiona Fox's heel turn and make her into a protagonist again, stating that, from their perspective, her being evil and awful was what made her interesting, and insinuated that it's rather sexist to deny her agency in the turn she makes early in Ian Flynn's run.

I'm not gonna directly respond to that post or @ the person who made it, they probably won't even see this, but it made the cogs start turning and I want to go off.

Gonna get the sexism angle out of the way first. I don't buy it. This is a fictional character being written by a dude and her villainous incarnation exists almost entirely as an accessory to her male partner. Even when they're separated, all she's doing is building a team so she can get him back. She's a satellite to Scourge, and her own stated personality and morality are completely removed in order to get her there. She retains zero of the (admittedly thin and underutilised) traits she exhibited before her turn once she turns evil.

Onto the bigger things.

My problem with Fiona's heel turn is that it is an inherently broken story, and it is built on a prior inherently broken story. Ian Flynn's version of Fiona is built on Ken Penders' version of her from the Hell Run, whom is herself incompatible with Karl Bollers' version of her from around the same time.

Of all the characters in Archie, Fiona is the one who suffers the most from Bollers' plans being scrapped and the handover between three different writers. She was left in the lurch with nothing to do until Flynn showed up, and it means that a lot of people view her turn to villainy as a vast improvement over the previous white noise, and that's fair. In many ways, it's a microcosm of the Sonic fandom thinking that Ian Flynn is a writing genius, because their only frame of reference is Ken Penders or Pontaff, and he compares much less favourably to writers who are actually good.

Back on topic, none of those three writers were particularly interested in her as a character. They are far more interested in her as a love interest. For Sonic and kinda-sorta-Tails under Bollers and Penders' pens, and for Scourge under Flynn's, and her own traits are largely ignored in favour of making her a Sally Clone.

Don't believe me? Bollers outright stated in his plans that he brought her in to replace Sally as Sonic's mature and grounded love interest, whom he wanted to write out. Flynn writes her as straight-up the Sally to Scourge's Sonic, and her own traits barely come up. All the ones she had before her turn are gone. Her medical knowledge? Never referenced again. Her connections with the other members of the group? Non-existent. Her history as a treasure hunter? Irrelevant. Everything she has now is just a reflection of Sally.

Flynn's Fiona isn't driven by her anger at Sonic, she challenges him twice and little comes of it, because she's constantly hanging around one of Sonic's actual rivals, who gets the primary focus. Fiona trades barbs with Sally more often, and with more success, because she is framed as Sally's rival on account of dating the evil version of Sally's love interest.

Flynn's Fiona spends the vast majority of her existence glued to Scourge's arm and acting smug. And that's kinda it.

And it doesn't work out well for the other characters involved either.

Scourge absolutely comes off the worst, just because... well, it's rooted in Issue 150. That Flynn based so much of Scourge's early appearances on Issue 150 baffles me to this day, I'd have thought any sane person would distance themselves from that trashfire as much as possible, but nope, Flynn decided to make that sonofabitch load-bearing.

Because the Scourge/Fiona pairing, and thus Fiona's turn, are rooted in Issue 150, there's an inherently creepy aura to the whole thing. It started because Scourge was pretending to be the real Sonic in order to try and score, and she was just one of his potential victims.

The origins of their relationship were only ever told, and not shown, and I think that's because there's no way to write it in a way that doesn't come across as incredibly skeevy.

And going back to Fiona herself for a hot minute here, why does this work on her? Scourge is everything she accuses the real Sonic of being, and her first impression of him is dishonesty. That is a crimson flag, and a character with her specific trauma should be outright repulsed by this.

The heroes aren't looking too hot either. Getting Fiona to the point where she doesn't trust them anymore kinda requires them to act like dumb assholes for a hot minute.

Fiona's backstory not being revealed to the group until Flynn's run requires Sally to be titanically stupid about who gets to join the team that she leads. She is not only the leader of the most famous and effective Freedom Fighter unit on the planet, she is the de facto leader of the Freedom Fighter network as a whole, and the heir to the throne of the nation Eggman spends most of his time trying to conquer. And Flynn is asking us to believe that they don't do background checks. Eggman could hire/build an assassin and send them to "Join the Freedom Fighters", in order to get close to Sally and kill her, and it would actually have a chance of working.

The idea that Fiona could get on the team without Sally knowing who she is and where she came from is, frankly, intensely stupid. Especially when three of the four people who know her backstory already are already in the city and on the same team. Even if Fiona herself didn't spill, Sally should've been able to get at least some of that information from Sonic, Mighty, or Ray.

I honestly and firmly believe that Issue 130-159 were written under the assumption that the FF knew Fiona's deal already, and Flynn made Sally much stupider in order to break the heroes' trust in her.

Also, it's just never made any sense that "I was a small-time thief and I didn't tell you because I was afraid of not being trusted" is so horrible a secret when they have no issues at all trusting Rouge, who did all the same things (but was actually successful), did actually work with Eggman (which Fiona never did), and will eventually be willing to let Blaze's universe die rather than give up a Sol Emerald (Yes, that was also bad writing, but one shit story at a time please), and Shadow, who tried to destroy the world. Why is this a bridge too far for Sally? Oh, because Flynn needs Fiona to be on the rocks with the FF so she can turn evil.

And then there's Sonic himself. Sonic's already looking fairly dodgy before that point. He doesn't end Penders' run smelling of roses. But Flynn manages to make it worse.

We're told in Issue 172 that Fiona tried to find a spark with the real Sonic, but he was boring to her. And then in Issue 179, we find out why: He was never into her to begin with. On his end, their entire relationship, which lasted 17 issues IRL, was actually a harebrained scheme to try and force Tails to move on from his crush on her.

This is, in full honesty, the stupidest plan ever conceived by anyone in any Sonic story, ever. Plans concocted by Scratch and Grounder in AoStH are smarter than this idea. All of them. This is eight consecutive Natural 1s on an Intelligence check. He's making Scott Pilgrim look like a sensitive and mature person.

Hey, Sonic, have a look at your friend Amy and ask yourself whether "My crush is in a relationship with someone else" is actually an effective deterrent to crushing on that person.

Also, the person you are putting in this sham relationship has a history of not trusting you, and has unresolved trauma from the last time you (inadvertently) fucked her over. Maybe consider not using her affections for a harebrained scheme to help your friend, who neither asked for nor appreciated your 'help.'

Literally all Sonic manages to achieve from this plan is making two people angry at him instead of just one.

And that's a giant stumbling block for me, because I look at this story and I don't say "Sonic and Sally fucked up in how they treated Fiona and thus she turned on them," I say "But they wouldn't act like that."

The root cause of Fiona losing her faith in the FF is a "He would not fucking say that" for me, and if I can't retcon it, I'm gonna try and ignore it. It may have happened, but for the purposes of writing further, it does not exist.

The hand of the writer is blatantly fucking obvious in this particular story. Sonic is being an ass and Sally is being an idiot and Fiona's trauma applies only to her anger at Sonic and not to her reaction to Second, Even Shittier Sonic, and Scourge has appreciable qualities besides "Is a Sonic." None of these moving parts work, and said Hand of the Writer is looming so large that I have to fight every urge in me to not justify that Hand by actually making it a "Hand of This Villain with Something to Gain from the Outcome", who is somehow causing all of this OOC behaviour.

If I write a scene where Fiona goes off at Sonic about how he hurt her, then Sonic's response, his first response, is going to be to apologise to her, for all of it. Because yeah, it's really fucking weird that he hasn't already, so that's what he's gonna do.

And then what? If Fiona accepts it, she's not exactly a villain anymore. If she doesn't, then she's become fully one-dimensional. She got what she wanted and she's not accepting it because... reasons.

Furthermore, I have a hard time viewing Fiona's end-of-canon normal as an improvement on her situation from before. Yeah, Scourge accepts her shittier side. Great. He's also an egomaniacal nutbar with genocidal intentions bubbling under the surface, who has cheated on every partner he's ever had, and definitely verbally and probably physically abuses her. The best thing for her is to get the fuck out of there and find someone who won't decide to blow up the planet she's standing on just because he can. And yeah, she could go and live her best life as a villain, but... what is she going to do, what's she going to achieve, and how is that actually going to work? Flynn didn't give her any goals outside of being with Scourge, I don't have a lot to work with here!

If she decides she wants to get even with Sonic, she's going to win that immediately, as I said above. If she wants to beat him physically for it, that's only going to happen if he lets her, because he is much, much too fast for her to even land a hit.

The other thing is, to take an even more external perspective for a minute, I am never going to be in the position of writing for an ongoing comic that is designed to last forever. I will only ever be writing a story that is designed to end. Every villain in anything I write is going to eventually lose permanently, or at least, they'll be planned to do so. And I don't like leaving loose ends. So every last one of those villains is going to end up redeemed, imprisoned, or dead.

I'm a firm agreer with the "Banality of Evil" as a concept. Ain't nobody going to actually be able to live their best life by being a shit. Evil is unfulfilling, and villains do not prosper, because you can't build something great if all you do is destroy things.

And that's why I'm not going to write something where Fiona stays evil and still has a good time of things. It's just not happening. I can have her stay on the path Flynn put her on, which will only ever end badly, break away from that but stay antagonistic and fall because of it, or heal. And of those three, I find the latter the most interesting to explore with her. I already got a dozen villains who will fail and/or die because of the inherent self-destructiveness of their actions, I don't need another.

With characters like this, I'm more interested in healing than I am in stasis.

That's also not to say that Fiona can't be interesting as a hero. Someone with actual, legitimate grievances with the main protagonist, who has every reason to hate them, but finds a way not to? Fascinating stuff. I will loudly and proudly say that pre-evil Fiona is one of the most underutilised characters in Archie, in a way that post-evil Fiona just isn't. I want to know more about the character Bollers was writing after his original plan got scrapped, and before he got shoved out the door by Penders' bullshit. I can't say the same of Flynn's version, she's basic.

And heck, exploring a redemption arc for her can be fun too. Just because she's returned to the light, doesn't mean she's going to automatically get better. Especially if part of it involves seeing Scourge for what he really is, perhaps painfully so. There can still be a bitterness, an anger in her.

I didn't get particular far with it before the burnout hit, and I haven't done anything with my Sonic fic for like five years now, despite often saying that I want to go back to it, but my take on Fiona in that story was mending bridges with her old friends, finding common ground with Bunnie and Amy as former targets of Scourge, discovering a new connection with Sally through both of them escaping from abusive situations, albeit with deep scars in the process (because I had Sally finally acknowledge that her father was abusive), and most importantly, reconnecting with Nic, another character that Archie did dirty. She also has a building new friendship with Emerl, and is heavily involved in the efforts to resolve the mystery of the Gizoid's origin. I built that idea on an extrapolation from her backstory- my version of Fiona is kind of an amateur archaeology buff, she can read ancient languages, and she's familiar with the fall of the Fourth Great Civilisation, so she knows more about Emerl than most others.

And that's not to say that she's wholly good now. There's still a darkness in her, her amount of trauma has only increased and her first instinct is to lash out at the causes of it. Her newfound allies might be opposing that course of action, but that's only causing her to get sneaky about it. Sonic won't train her to fight someone with his abilities? That's fine, she can ask Emerl. And her less-heroic ideals aren't just lip-service either. The Mecha Sally saga changed things, and Sally's own recent heaped serving of trauma has pushed her in a less Lawful Good direction. Fiona's less-pure ideas have a seat at the table now, and I do plan to eventually address some of the bad writing that her villain stint was founded upon.

Of course, there's still a lot that I'd change about the parts I've already published, but that's old writing for you.

TL;DR: Fiona's heel turn and motivations are rooted in a giant case of "They would not fucking say/do that" on the part of Sonic and Sally, and are shaky at best when it comes to Fiona herself and Scourge. I cannot appreciate it as a result, and even Flynn's version is more of an accessory for Scourge than a character, so I don't feel remotely obliged to honour it. I'm also much more interested in healing and I do not tend to have villains prosper in general, because I view evil as inherently self-destructive, and I also write with an ending in mind and don't like leaving loose ends, so "Riding off into the sunset to be evil another day" is not on the table.

For a less serious answer, stapling a new personality onto Fiona is something everybody that ever touched on her in canon did, who am I to break the trend?

[birdiesflying]

Listened to Famine by Sinéad O’Connor again and thought about Fiona, I have a lot of thoughts about her and Irish history but I’m struggling to word them

[alfhildr-the-word-weaver]

Currently watching this very cliche (but still decently enjoyable) Christmas movie and it has this horse girl subplot where the older sister is falling in love with horses, but there are these long, lingering shots where she's looking at this female farmhand working with the horses, and she keeps talking about how great and cool that farmhand is, and I can't decide whether it's actually a burgeoning lesbian subplot or just a heavy accidental implication, but it really does feel soooo close to overtly romantic.

Anyways my hot new ship is these two. Time to build it from the ground up ;)

[yumeka-sxf]

Spy x Family CODE: White - FULL MOVIE SUMMARY [SPOILERS]

Now that I've finally read through the entire novelization of CODE: White, I'm ready to share a full summary of everything that happens - basically spoil the whole movie for those interested 😅

But before I get to the summary, a few notes:

I didn't translate every line from the novelization as that would have taken way too long. I go into more detail for scenes I was particularly interested in (like Twiyor scenes), or scenes that were easy to translate. But I still made sure to mention everything that's important to the story. If I gloss over some parts more than others, it's either because they were difficult to translate, or I didn't think they were that important. But even so, the "summary" still ended up being way longer than I anticipated!

I have not seen the movie myself yet, so everything in the summary below is based on the novelization only (of which there were two versions released, with slight differences between them). Obviously the novelization is an accurate adaptation, but there is a chance that a few things are different between the novelization and the actual movie, and/or the novelization may have left out some dialogue or minor scenes.

And lastly, it goes without saying but BEWARE OF MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW! Not only that, but please be considerate of where you share these spoilers. Remember to properly tag this post if you reblog it and think twice before you share any of this information on other social media. Most people don't want to be spoiled to this degree!

Again MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!

The movie starts with an introduction to the characters – we see Twilight carrying out a mission where he has to disguise himself as someone's wife. Meanwhile, Yor is doing an assassination mission. They both come home at the same time and are greeted by Anya. Bond has a vision of Anya and Loid getting sick from Yor's cooking, so Anya suggests that Loid cook instead.

At Eden, Henderson tells the students about the cooking contest and how the principal will be the judge. Loid is on the roof, reading Henderson's lips. A falcon flies overhead and drops him a note with an F cipher. He goes to meet with Sylvia at one of the WISE hideouts. She informs him that she has another big mission for him, but when he objects that he couldn't take on something so big in the midst of Operation Strix, she hands him a photo of a man and child. She explains that the man is Major Depple of the Army Intelligence Department who has a lot of important people backing him, and since they hadn't made enough progress with Operation Strix, the higher-ups decided to pass it onto him.

As Loid leaves, he bumps into Fiona. Her hat gets blown away with the wind and he reaches to catch it, just as Yor and her coworkers are across the street. From where Yor sees them, it looks like Loid is kissing "the mysterious woman." Loid and Fiona have a fake conversation – he compliments her hat, she says it was made overseas, etc – while they're actually doing their secret "spy talk" (like they did when she first visited him at home). He tells her what's happening with Operation Strix, and she tells him that she had tried to warn him that it shouldn't have been left up to ordinary citizens who don't know anything, and that she should take on the wife role. Meanwhile, Camilla and co. tell Yor about the three signs of cheating: one, an increase in travelling; two, a change in clothing taste (to match the taste of his new lover); and three, suddenly giving gifts (because he feels guilty).

Later that evening, Yor is still feeling anxious about Loid's possible "lover." When Anya gets home, she tells them about the cooking competition. Loid recalls from his data that the principal's favorite is the melemele pastry. If Anya could get a stella from the competition, that could help get him back into Operation Strix. He says that he read in the school newspaper that the melemele in Frejis is supposedly the best, so they should go there and try it for themselves via a family vacation over the weekend. Yor thinks back to the "increase in travelling" sign of cheating that Camilla told her about. Loid tells her that only families are allowed at the Frejis restaurant they're headed to, so she decides to go, though she's still conflicted about whether this is actually a sign of cheating or not.

They have some family time on the train to Frejis, though Loid still makes Anya study. They play cards and get food (Anya has a corn dog, Yor has a sandwich, Loid has a hamburger). After coming back from the bathroom, Anya notices a key by one of the sinks. Bond is with her, and through him she sees a vision of the future – in the vision, she goes to car 8 and opens a trunk with the key while overhearing two men mention that it's a key to a treasure of the Republic.

Back in the train car, Loid brings up Anya's terrible handwriting while Yor mentions that they had practiced handwriting the other day. Loid says that Yor's motherly side is really coming out, which causes Yor to get flustered and makes her think that it's not her skills as a mother he could be dissatisfied with but perhaps her skills as a wife. She gets even more flustered when she notices a couple across the way kissing and starts nervously moving her lips, to which Loid asks if something's wrong. She stammers that her lipstick didn't warm up and is itchy, then says she's going to look for Anya since she's taking a long time.

Meanwhile, Anya and Bond find the luggage compartment and locate the trunk from Bond's vision. When Anya goes to grab it, Bond tries to stop her. At first she thinks that she shouldn't just do whatever she wants with other people's stuff, but then she remembers that the men in the vision said it was a treasure of the Republic, a treasure that could possibly help achieve world peace. She opens the trunk and is disappointed to find just a chocolate in it. But when she hears the two men, Domitri and Luca, open the door, she gets startled and accidently knocks the chocolate out of the trunk. It bounces off of Bond's nose, and when she tries to grab it, it falls into her mouth. She hides when Luca and Domitri come in to look for the trunk.

They describe the ship sticker on it, and when they find that it's been opened and the chocolate stolen, they say they're going to kill whoever took it so the secret won't get out. When Anya accidently makes a noise, the men take notice. Domitri takes a flower out of his pocket and points it towards the dim light in the car, saying that his "flower fortune telling" will tell him who's hiding. They then notice Anya escaping into car 7 and give chase. They lock her in car 6, but when she starts screaming for Papa and Mama, Yor breaks open the locked door. She asks Anya who the two men are and Anya says that they're chocolate thieves who were being mean to her. Yor beats them up (after telling Anya to cover her eyes) just as the train arrives at Frejis station (Anya seems to feel bad that she sicced Yor on them when she was the actual chocolate thief). When they get off the train, Loid says that they should start heading to their destination (as Yor starts building a snowman). After they get their luggage and leave, Luca and Domitri emerge from the car they were in and say they need to contact the colonel.

The shop that has the melemele is called "Restaurant Rubble and Bonds." Since pets aren't allowed in the restaurant, they leave Bond outside when they go inside to eat. After ordering food along with the melemele, the waitress tells them that they're getting the last melemele. Bond watches them from the window, but then a waitress comes over and feeds him the special pet plate, which he happily eats. As the Forgers are eating, Loid tells Anya that she shouldn't eat with her hands, and that using a knife and fork are proper manners. Yor watches and notices the turtleneck sweater Loid is wearing, which makes her realize it's something that he never wears. She then thinks of Camilla's second sign of cheating, a change in clothing taste. The chef comes over and tells them how the war in Frejis was mostly fought in the sky, and the aircraft displayed at the front of the station belonged to a two-man team famous for shooting down planes during the war.

There's a brief scene where Yuri overhears his coworkers at the SSS talking about Frejis, and he of course wants to go since he knows Yor is there now. But the boss won't let him, so he makes a bit of a scene.

Back at the restaurant, the chef continues to talk about the war and how he lost everything at that time. His decision behind making a restaurant catering to families was so people could experience the homemade food that he remembered his mom used to make. Loid can't help but relate the chef's backstory to his own. The melemele is finally ready and brought to the table.

Just as Anya is about to dig in, Colonel Snidel and some other soldiers enter the restaurant. The waitress and chef try to tell them that only families are allowed, but Snidel says that the military have authority in this area, even when it comes to food, and could close down the restaurant if they wanted to. They order the melemele, and when they're told that there isn't any left, one of the soldiers takes the melemele from Anya. Loid politely tells the soldiers that his daughter was really looking forward to eating it and if they could possibly order a different dessert. Snidel asks if they're tourists that came here to eat the melemele. Loid replies that they travel around trying delicious food. Snidel challenges Loid to a competition – if Loid wins, he'll give them back the melemele. The competition involves trying the three cakes that were placed on the table and correctly naming every type of sugar in them. Even though Loid correctly names them, Snidel also mentions the exact number of grams, making his answers the most accurate. Everyone's bummed that Loid lost, but he says that they could try coming back again. However, the chef tells them that they won't have more until Monday, which is when the Forgers have to be back in Berlint for the cooking competition. Yor asks the chef that if they provide their own ingredients, would he make it for them, and he agrees.

The Forgers go to the Frejis marketplace to get the ingredients from the list that the chef provided. Having already memorized the list, Loid moves at super speed to every shop and quickly finds most of the ingredients. When he goes looking for the orange syrup, a man from a cosmetic shop asks if he'll buy one of the many lipsticks there for his wife. He picks one out, mentioning how back on the train Yor had said that her lipstick wasn't working out and if this one is a nice color. She's embarrassed at first, but then agrees that it's a nice color and accepts…but then she's reminded of Camilla's last sign of cheating: suddenly giving a gift (meanwhile Loid is just thinking how putting on the happy couple appearance is part of the mission). With all three signs of cheating having taken place, Yor says that she's going to the bathroom and dejectedly walks away. Loid wonders if she's just tired from the trip and if she'll be okay. Anya then calls Loid over to a shooting game booth that has the orange syrup as one of the prizes. After attempting the game and failing, Anya reads the booth owner's mind and realizes it's rigged. Loid gets suspicious as well and is able to masterfully shoot down the orange syrup while also exposing the owner's scam.

Loid is ready to look for the last ingredient, but then Anya runs off to ride the mini train. Yor rejoins them, having put on the lipstick while she was in the bathroom. Loid says it suits her and asks if she'd like to get a drink somewhere. They go to a café booth where Loid orders coffee. But Yor, thinking how she needs to confirm the whole cheating thing with Loid and can't open up without the help of alcohol, orders several cups of heated wine. She finally gets drunk enough to ask Loid if he has a lover.

From the train, Anya looks over to see Yor grab Loid's scarf and pull him to the ground. Anya freaks out about "Papa and Mama flirting." They're both on the ground now, with Yor hovering over Loid before she finally passes out. She wakes up on a bench, where Loid asks if she's okay. She apologizes for what she did, but thinks that Loid will definitely want a divorce after what happened. When Anya reads her mind, she thinks of what Becky told her about divorces and how they cause families to fall apart. She then hears the ferris wheel attendant calling for people to ride, saying that it'll be a happy, "flirty" experience. Anya tells Loid and Yor that she wants to ride the ferris wheel, but then ushers them onto the gondola without joining them, much to their surprise. She tells them to get "flirty," to Loid's dismay. Yor tells Bond to look after Anya.

Yor realizes that she must look really bleak right now and it's making Anya worry. Loid asks if she's okay and she again apologizes for her behavior earlier. Loid replies that she's been acting weird for a while, causing Yor to finally admit that she saw him with his "lover"…someone with a large hat. Tears start welling in her eyes, so she covers her face with her hands to hide them. Realizing that the person she's referring to was Fiona, Loid explains that she wasn't a lover, just someone who needed directions to the art museum. Feeling embarrassed about her mistake, Yor looks away from Loid and out the window. She sees Anya and Bond below, the former waving happily at her. Yor waves back before mentioning if Loid could want a divorce, to which he light-heartily replies "no way." Yor says that she's lacking in a lot of ways, not just as a mother but as Loid's wife. Loid then takes her hands in his, looks straight into her eyes and reminds her of the promise he made via their marriage proposal.

He says the marriage vows again before stating that he has no intention of breaking his promise. As Loid gets closer to her, Yor's face reddens and her heart races until she finally breaks – she smacks Loid on the cheek, sending him flying out of the gondola (which had reached the ground). But he adjusts himself in midair and lands gracefully on his feet. Yor grabs their belongings from the gondola and hurries out. Upon seeing Loid's swollen cheek, Anya panics that Papa and Mama were fighting and the Forger family is over. Loid and Yor object to this, with Loid saying that they weren't fighting. Anya then says that they were flirting, but they object to that as well, faces red with embarrassment. Anya just grins at them.

The clock tower bell chimes, signaling 5 o' clock. When Loid muses that it got so late already, Yor apologizes that it was due to her passing out from drinking too much. Loid asks if she and Anya will go back to the hotel while he gets the remaining ingredient, cherry liquor. He thinks to himself how it's something rare that would not likely be sold at a store, so he'd have to get it through illegal means, which means that Yor and Anya can't accompany him.

Snidel gets out of his military vehicle in front of a flying battleship. He's greeted by several soldiers who tell him that route negotiations with the Arbo Republic have ended and adjustments to Type F have been completed. Snidel suddenly shoots and kills one of the operations leaders, claiming he's a traitor who leaked military information to WISE. Luca and Domitri then arrive and inform him that the microfilm was eaten.

Meanwhile, Sylvia meets with a bunch of WISE agents at their Berlint hideout. She tells them that they lost contact with their Frejis agent, suspecting that Snidel has taken action. She says that if the microfilm reaches the Arbo Republic, it could lead to an all-out war between the East and West. She doesn't think their agent had gotten the microfilm, but she knows Twilight is currently in Frejis, so he may be their only hope. She orders a couple of the male agents to meet with Twilight at Frejis and get the microfilm. However, Fiona interrupts and requests that Sylvia leave the mission to her instead. Sylvia objects, but Fiona is already leaving the room and on her way, thinking over and over to herself "A mission with senpai, a mission with senpai, a mission with senpai…"

Back at Frejis, Loid looks everywhere for the cherry liquor – he sneaks into a moonshine factory and even the wine cellar of a wealthy man, but still can't find it. He calls Franky at his tabacco shop in Berlint, inadvertently interrupting Franky's flirting with a pretty girl. He asks Franky if he can get the cherry liquor and that he needs it by tomorrow morning. Franky says he'll try but it would take him half a day to even get to Frejis, but Loid had already hung up.

At the hotel, Yor unpacks while Anya admires the hotel amenities ("Hotel TV!" "Hotel toilet!" "Hotel bed!") She then takes her toys out of her bag – among them are crayons, a sketchbook, a rubber duckie, and a toy gun. She pretends to shoot Bond with the gun, then points the gun at Yor and asks if she's the "boss." At first Yor is uneasy about partaking in Anya's game, but then she gives in and pretends to be the boss who wants the treasure. This makes Anya even more fired up and she says "Let's battle, polite lady boss!" The three of them continue playing.

Loid returns to the hotel and finds Anya's drawings of the ferris wheel and shooting game booth on the table. Anya's sleeping on the sofa while Yor puts a blanket over her. Loid says that he's going out again because he found the liquor at a neighboring town. Since it's a bit far, he's taking a car that he's borrowing from the hotel. Anya wakes up and calls Loid a liar since he said he would be back soon but came back so late. He apologizes, but then she reads his mind as he thinks about the fact that if Anya doesn't get a stella soon, Operation Strix and their family will be over. Anya says she wants to come along with Loid, but when he turns her down, she sadly goes back to the bedroom with Bond. When Loid starts to leave, asking Yor to take care of Anya, Yor asks him how many seats there are in the car he borrowed. He answers five. She then asks if they can all go together, since it's a family trip.

In the bedroom, Anya hugs Bond while thinking about the sad state of the family. Bond suddenly has a vison of the cherry liquor behind the cash register of a store at the plaza. At first Anya wants to tell Loid about it, but then she thinks that her secret would be revealed if she did (Loid would say "How did you know that? You can read minds? And Bond can see the future?") After realizing she can't tell him about it, she looks towards the window...

Meanwhile, Yor tells Loid how happy it made Yuri to be with her all day for special occasions like birthdays and family outings, and that it's the same with Anya. Loid thinks back to how happy Anya was when they were doing things together on the trip, such as playing trump, playing in the snow, and eating at the restaurant. He picks up the toy gun on the table and thinks back to how grateful Anya was for being able to play "spy" at the old castle. As he returns the gun to the table, Yor tells him how Anya was looking forward to so many things on this family trip, like eating sweets and playing together. She says she understands Anya's feelings since she's made Yuri feel lonely before. She tells Loid that Anya was really looking forward to being with him and how lonely it is to be separated from your family. She asks again if they could all go together to get the liquor at the next town, even though it's passed Anya's bedtime. When he starts thinking of the possible harm of bringing Anya with him, he pushes those thoughts aside and agrees with Yor.

Suddenly, room service knocks at the door. When Yor says that she didn't order any, Loid looks through the peep hole and sees Fiona disguised as a maid. He then says that he forgot to order a large bathrobe and steps outside. In the hotel corridor, he asks Fiona why she's here. She repeats "room service" while actually saying "it's a mission" in spy talk. Loid says that she can talk normally since it's just the two of them, and asks if she could be quick since he's also on a mission. She starts blabbering internally about how she's alone with him – LOVE!

Back in the room, Yor hears a noise from the bedroom, and when she goes to look, the window is open and both Anya and Bond are gone. Meanwhile, Fiona explains the mission about the microfilm to Loid. When she mentions Colonel Snidel, Loid thinks back to his encounter with Snidel and the military back at the restaurant. Yor suddenly comes out of the room and tells Loid that Anya ran away through the window. She had left a note behind, but when Loid goes to read it, the handwriting is extremely messy – he can make out the word "sorry" (misspelled).

Anya and Bond arrive at the shop in the plaza from Bond's vision. She buys the bottle of liquor and happily walks with Bond back to the hotel, thinking that now the Forger family will be okay. At the same time, the military is looking for girls that match Anya's description, using a picture that Luca drew of her. Bond starts barking when he notices Luca and Domitri pull up in a car behind Anya. Anya and Bond try to run away, but Luca pulls Anya into the car. Bond bites Luca's arm but gets pushed away. As they drive off with Anya in the car, they run over a can in the road that hits Bond in the head. Bond howls sadly as he watches the car disappear. Back at the battleship, Snidel says that it will depart as soon as they get the microfilm.

Loid and Yor run through town calling for Anya. They find Bond collapsed on the side of the road. Loid asks if he's okay and if Anya was with him. Bond barks and tries to gesture about what happened, but Loid and Yor can't understand him. However, Loid notices something in Bond's mouth – Luca's armband that he had bitten off. Loid recognizes it and is in disbelief that Anya got caught up in the military.

Then Fiona, still disguised as the hotel maid, pulls up in a car nearby and calls to Loid saying that he dropped something. In "spy talk" however, she says that he should prioritize getting the microfilm over Operation Strix. Loid thinks for a minute, then says loudly (so Yor can hear) "Ma'am, I would like to ask a favor…"

Meanwhile, Anya is brought before Snidel. Upon seeing him, she shouts that he's the guy who ate her dessert. He says that more important than the melemele, she ate their chocolate. She then states that he's the boss of those thieves. Luca and Domitri reprimand her for not using polite speech in front of the colonel. Snidel asks if she's been to the toilet since. Anya reads his mind as he thinks about how they hid the microfilm in the chocolate, and it's better to wait until she poops it out before killing her. Anya then realizes that the chocolate she ate on the train had the "treasure" inside, and if she poops, she'll be killed. Anya then nervously says that she's so cute that poop has never come out of her body, but then admits that she's lying upon seeing Snidel's cold gaze. Snidel instructs Luca and Domitri to take Anya with them and inform him if she poops. Anya begins holding her butt and starts shaking in fear. Domitri asks if she has to go, but she says she's just cold. She knows she mustn't poop or she'll be killed, but the more she thinks about it, the more she has to go!

Back at the Frejis plaza in front of the station, Loid boards the old fighter plane that was parked there. He's able to operate the communication device and listen in on signals from Snidel's flying battleship. He manages to catch some of Luca and Domitri's conversation with Anya, including them saying that she's in this mess because she ate the microfilm. Upon realizing that Anya ate the microfilm, he breaks into a cold sweat, but quickly regains his composure as he gets off the plane and meets with Yor, who was waiting worriedly outside. He tells her that he thinks Anya is with the military, since he heard from the radio signals that they seem to have taken custody of a girl around five years old. Yor asks why Anya would be with the military. Loid knows that he didn't have any time to come up with an explanation, so he cuts the power cable on the plane and climbs back into the cockpit. As the propellers begin spinning, he asks Yor to stand back and tells her that he'll return soon. Yor thinks back to the two men who attacked Anya on the train and realizes that they might have been from the military, but she can't tell Loid about that or he'd know that she beat them up. She recalls what she said to Loid earlier: that they should all go together because it's a family trip. As the plane leaves, Yor jumps onto it and forces open the door at the bottom. Loid continues to pilot the plane into the Frejis sky, unaware that Yor is also on board.

Back at the WISE hideout, Sylvia thinks to herself that "the fate of the world depends on getting that microfilm…we're counting on you, Twilight."

Back at the battleship, Anya is trying hard to resist the urge to go to the bathroom. She moves her body back and forth to try and hold off the urge, which only makes Luca ask if she has to go. She says no and that she's just doing a dance she learned at school.

Meanwhile, Fiona infiltrates the Frejis air traffic control so she can communicate with Loid on the plane. She tells him the location of Snidel's battleship. Loid compliments her on being able to get the information so quickly, causing her to say that she's ready to be his lifelong partner anytime and asks again if he'd let her have the wife role for Operation Strix…but the communication line had already been cut.

Back at the battleship, Anya is still doing her "dance" to resist the urge to poop, but she's practically at her limit (Luca and Domitri had also prepared a duck-shaped potty for her). She's sweating, tearing up, and her stomach is rumbling. When she feels her consciousness wavering, a bright light suddenly fills her eyes. She finds herself standing in a beautiful meadow filled with colorful flowers and poop shaped clouds overhead. She hears a voice and looks up to see a divine-looking old man surrounded by light. He has a poop shaped crown and he's holding a staff with a poop shaped top. He tells her that he's the god of poop.

He says, "You've fought well, warrior Anya. You've tried your best to protect world peace but...enough is enough." He puts his hand on her shoulder. She can feel his compassion flowing through his palms. "Relax your butt and rest, warrior Anya. Let's go to the peaceful garden of the toilet!" Anya tries to fly through the sky like the poop god, but ends up falling into the ocean. However, she's saved by waves of toilet paper that lift her towards a temple lined with statues of the poop god. A toilet is enshrined in front of the statues. The poop god gives a shout, and the toilet paper carrying Anya turns into a giant duck potty. The poop god waves his staff and the duck speeds out of the water, heading towards the bathroom above the alter. The lid of the toilet opens with another shout from the poop god and the duck moves faster. Finally the duck bursts into a ball of light and Anya falls, laughing, into the shining toilet.

Back in reality, Anya finds herself on a bed in a room on the battleship. After hearing her mutter to herself about "what's the god of poop?" Luca excitedly asks if she's ready to poop and puts the duck potty on the bed. As soon as Anya looks at the duck, she comes to her sense and says, "no, I'm good." While Anya stays with Domitri, Luca reports to Snidel that Anya still hasn't pooped yet. Snidel tells him to cut open her stomach. Luca is taken aback by this and tries to protest, but after Snidel presses him, he reluctantly agrees to do it.

Meanwhile, Domitri is trying an exorcism ritual to get Anya to poop – he makes her lay on the bed with a banana, corn, and a pineapple along with coffee beans between them, all the while singing a song about "yellow three." When Luca returns, he asks Domitri what he's doing. Domitri replies that according to his coffee fortune telling, "yellow three" is lucky. Luca then tells him Snidel's orders and asks if Domitri would do it. Since neither of them want to, they decide via rock-paper-scissors, and Domitri wins. Anya reads Luca's mind about how he's going to cut open her stomach while Domitri holds her down. She starts shaking and thinks of Papa and Mama.

Meanwhile, Loid flies the plane close to the battleship and contacts them on the radio. He says that his plane is in a state of emergency due to a fuel system failure and would like to request an emergency landing on the battleship. When one of the soldiers tells Snidel that an unknown aircraft is requesting permission to board, Snidel demands that they shoot it down. Loid steers the plane out of the way of the sudden hail of bullets while Yor, still hiding in the back, hangs on as the plane starts shaking violently.

Back on the battleship, Domitri holds Anya while she screams for Papa and Mama. Luca approaches with a knife.

Back outside, Loid desperately steers the plane to avoid the gunfire from the battleship, including homing missiles. In the back compartment, Yor isn't able to see what's going on, so she thinks to herself that Loid's driving is…rough. Loid manages to dodge the missiles, but one of them explodes next to him, causing the fragments to fall on the plane and damage the left wing. He knows that crashing is inevitable, so he steers the plane towards the battleship. The impact of the plane crashing into the battleship shakes the room where Domitri, Luca, and Anya are in. They all lose their footing and fall, causing Domitri to let go of Anya. She then runs away and through the hallway while they give chase.

Loid jumps out of the cockpit with his bag of spy tools and onto the battleship as the plane crashes. He thinks to himself that he first needs to confirm where Anya is and heads through a narrow passageway. Meanwhile Yor makes her way out of the back part of the plane only to be greeted by a huge gust of wind. She's surprised to be on the outer part of a battleship. She peeks inside the cockpit to look for Loid, but he's not there. She remembers that Loid said Anya was with the military, so she must be on the battleship somewhere. The opening to the bottom of the battleship is too narrow, so she decides to go via the top, breaking into a fast sprint.

The soldiers find the plane wreckage and Snidel gives orders to search for survivors. When one of the soldiers tells him that there's a woman running along the outer part of the battleship, he thinks he's joking. But then he looks at the monitors and sees Yor for himself. He commands that they kill her, since she decided to come aboard using that plane, that makes her an enemy. The turrets at the top of the ship begin firing at Yor, but she swiftly dodges them. One of the soldiers readies a grenade, but she takes off her coat and throws it at him, causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards. When the soldier falls through the deck onto the catwalk, the grenade falls from his hand. Yor gets away just as the grenade explodes, causing the area around the hatch where the soldiers were firing to burst into flames. The soldier watching from the monitor shouts "Explosion on deck 3A!" When she encounters the soldiers, Yor politely says that she came to pick up her husband and daughter, but the soldiers were already unconscious from the explosion. She heads further into the ship. The fire continues to spread through the battleship. Snidel commands the soldiers to go put out the fire, and when asked what to do about the woman, he says to send out Type F.

Meanwhile, Anya is still running away from Luca and Domitri (while still holding her butt). She manages to elude them by slipping into a room without them noticing. She listens by the door, and when she hears that they went off to look for her elsewhere, she breathes a sigh of relief. As she turns around, she notices a toilet in the back of the room. Tears start welling in her eyes…after a long and painful battle, she finally won.

Loid hides in a small room while soldiers are running through the corridors. He wonders to himself what the explosion was and if the plane crash could have possibly damaged the ship's hull. He peeks through a gap in the door and notices an officer who appears to be a captain based on the number of stars on his badge.

After giving orders to the soldiers, the captain walks towards the door. Loid pulls him in, knocks him out, and gags him. He then steps out of the room, now disguised as the captain, wearing his clothes and donning a mask with his face.

The sound of sirens are blaring through the battleship. Yor notices the soldiers desperately trying to put out the fire and apologizes to them. She again says that she came to get her husband and daughter and asks if there's anyone who knows where they are. One of the soldiers looks up and shouts "It's that woman!" The soldiers begin firing at her, but she jumps out of the way, grabs a nearby fire extinguisher and throws it at them, knocking them down like bowling pins. She's confused as to why they're shooting at her, then thinks that they could be part of the bad guy group that attacked Anya on the train. She picks up two knives that the now unconscious soldiers dropped. She then thinks of Anya being in trouble, without anyone protecting her, and her face becomes clouded with anxiety as she tightly grips the knife in her hand.

Meanwhile, Anya happily bursts out of the bathroom with a refreshed look on her face, toilet paper rolling down her feet…only to bump right into Luca and Domitri. Domitri stands proudly with toilet paper around his feet, boasting about his toilet paper fortune telling. Anya's face goes pale. Snidel is informed by one of the soldiers that the child has been secured, and he commands that they bring her to him.

As she continues looking for Loid and Anya, Yor arrives at the entrance to the air cell and pries open the heavy door. She's met with a blast of hot air. The fire has spread all over the spacious room. As she goes further in, she feels a murderous intent behind her. As soon as she starts to look over her shoulder, gatling guns begin firing at her. She jumps out of the way as bullets are showered on her. She goes further down in the air cell just as a gigantic figure appears, slowly moving towards her with heavy footsteps. She politely asks who he is, but Type F doesn't answer. He reaches towards her but Yor kicks him to the ground, only to have more bullets fired at her that she subsequently dodges. She pulls out the knife and pounces on him, managing to knock off his helmet. She asks him to stop attacking but instead he presses his forehead against the knife, making a very inhuman metallic sound, breaking the knife. The arms of his cloak, that had been engulfed in flames, burn off to reveal that he wasn't holding gatling guns, but his arms themselves are guns. The rest of his cloak burns off, revealing a body made entirely of weapons. After he calls Yor an "intruder," she readies the other knife, realizing she has no choice but to fight him.

Meanwhile Loid, still disguised as the captain, gives orders to the soldiers to help them put out the fire. When one of the soldiers asks where the hostage is, Loid questions him and he explains that she's a child about five years old and that officer Domitri took her to the bridge.

At the bridge, Anya is tied and gagged in front of Snidel. Snidel is upset that they missed getting her poop, but Luca says that it could still be in the sewage tanks. Snidel says that it could also still be in her body, which makes Anya even more afraid. Snidel tells them to keep her in the room downstairs and he'll "take care of her" once all the chaos on the battleship is over, while also ominously adding that he brought an extra big knife to enjoy kebobs. He then orders them to go into the sewage tanks and find the microfilm or else he'll cut them like kebobs too.

After leaving Anya in the room, Luca and Domitri grumble about how they're in such a mess because of some greedy kid, and Luca groans that he's still sore from being bitten by the stupid dog. Suddenly Loid, still disguised as the captain, gets the jump on them and knocks them out. He wonders why Anya isn't here since this should be the only bridge on the ship. He enters the room where Snidel is and says that he's going to report on the status of the firefighting operations, but Snidel dismisses him, saying that he's busy now.

In the room below, Anya can read Loid's mind but she can't move or talk due to being tied up and gagged. She realizes that she's tied to a telephone pipe that leads to the room above, so she slams her head against the pipe to get Loid's attention. Just as Loid is deciding to back off so as not to make Snidel suspicious, he hears the banging in the pipe and notices a hatch right below it. He realizes that Anya must be under there, so he pulls off one of the buttons on his uniform and pretends he's going to pick it up when it rolls near the hatch. However, Snidel says "wait, captain" and asks him when he began to smell like...a city. Snidel then immediately shoots at Loid, who manages to dodge, but the bullet grazes the face mask that he's wearing. Snidel continues to fire at Loid, who hides behind a console in the room. Snidel asks if he's the traveler from Rubble and Bonds and says that he shouldn't underestimate the nose of a gourmet like himself. Realizing he's been found out, Loid tears off the captain's mask. Snidel and the other soldiers begin exchanging gunfire with Loid.

Back in the air cell, Type F continues to shoot at Yor, his gatling gun arm having now turned into a grenade launcher. She narrowly dodges his attacks and grabs a fire extinguisher set (with an axe) from the wall. They end up crashing down through the floor, with Yor slamming the axe onto his chest as hard as she can. However, this only reveals a firearm magazine in his chest hatch. The magazine sends bullets into the gatling gun. He aims at Yor again but she jumps away in time. As they stare each other down in the flame filled room, she wonders what she can do against an enemy who can't be damaged by knives or axes.

Meanwhile, Loid continues to exchange gunfire with Snidel and his soldiers. Snidel opens an attaché case with a gas mask and grenade that he calls "Type G." Anya reads Snidel's mind about the grenade being a poison gas grenade that he's been developing and wants to test out. She starts panicking, trying desperately to break free from her binds so she can warn Loid about the poison gas. An image of Loid covered in wounds as he tries to save her flashes in her mind as she thinks "It's Anya's turn to save you!"

Snidel pulls out the pin from the Type G and throws it over to the console where Loid is hiding…just as Anya breaks free. As the rope suddenly breaks, she falls and rolls across the floor, hitting her head against a console in the back of the room. A green light illuminates on the console. Suddenly, the windows in the bridge open and gas starts getting blown all over, much to the confusion of Snidel and the soldiers. Loid uses this opportunity to make a move.

As the gas eventually leaves the room through the open windows, Snidel's men are shocked at what they see through the dissipating gas – their leader Snidel wrestling with…another Snidel! One Snidel tells them to shoot the imposter while the other says that he's the real one. Loid (disguised as Snidel) thinks to himself that since Snidel is the only one with a good nose, he just has to fool the others. Snidel brandishes his knife and threatens to tear off Loid's "imposter skin" and turn it into pork scratching. But Loid gets the upper hand and manages to grab Snidel and cause him to lose his balance, saying that his "imposter" skin isn't so flimsy that it could be cut off by the likes of Snidel. He wraps his left arm around Snidel's neck and tightens his grip, causing Snidel to drop the knife in his hand.

The soldiers are still confused about which is the real one as Snidel's body falls to the floor. Loid says "Do you think I'd lose to a fake," fooling the soldiers into thinking he's the real one. He tells them that they're to head to the Arbo Republic as soon as possible and that they're abandoning the ship. He commands them to use the land route instead. Carrying the body of the real Snidel, the soldiers leave with shouts of "all personnel abandon ship!" When he's finally alone, Loid takes off his Snidel disguise.

Meanwhile, Type F's right arm is overheating but he tells Yor it's no use waiting until he runs out of bullets. Even though his chest plate was torn off earlier, all Yor has left is a broken knife…until she feels around in her pocket and pulls out the lipstick that Loid had bought her. She lowers the knife and tells Type F "this is your last warning, please stand aside. I only came here to get my husband and daughter." But Type F just says that they should all perish together along with the future of the East and West. He then readies another round of bullets. Yor dodges and makes a wide circle around him, dragging the lipstick along the floor. She slashes at his chest with the knife, causing the knife to break. As he jeers that a knife won't work on him, he looks confused for the first time when he notices a line drawn around him with the lipstick, leading up to his chest. She says that she heard that lipstick is half oil. He tries to shoot at her again but it's too late…the flames along the railing run down the lines of lipstick, igniting the weapons embedded in his body, causing him to explode. After confirming that he's been destroyed, Yor continues on her way.

Back on the bridge, Loid opens the hatch to the door where Anya is and jumps down. She's overjoyed to see him as he asks if she's okay. She clings to him and buries her face in his chest. Just then, something falls out of her pochette – the cherry liquor. She tells him it's what Papa was looking for and he realizes that's why she ran away from the hotel. Upon realizing this, he can't help but smile, and Anya smiles too when she reads the thoughts he won't say. Just then they hear a loud explosion. Loid holds onto Anya as the ship shakes from the explosion. "Anyway, we better get out of here" he says.

Meanwhile, Yor opens the hatch at the top of the air cell and makes her way to the outer part of the airship where she sees Loid and Anya. They're both surprised to see her. "Mama!" Anya says as she runs to Yor, who gently hugs her while asking if they're both alright.

Loid asks the same of Yor while also asking why she's here. After hesitating a bit, she admits that she came on Loid's plane and that since it was an "outing," that they should have gone together. She then asks if the people on the airship are actually the military. Loid pauses since he can't tell her the real explanation, but then Anya speaks up about how she ate their important chocolate on the train and that's why they were after her. Loid thinks to himself about how they must have hid the microfilm in the chocolate, but he can't tell that to Yor. So he says that chocolate theft is rampant in cold regions because people believe it will keep them warm...they'd even steal from a military ship. Yor believes him and comments that there's a lot of scary people in the world. They both scold Anya for what she did: Loid asks what the heck she was doing eating that by accident (while in his mind he's glad that she's safe) and Yor says that she shouldn't do whatever she wants with something that belongs to someone else. Anya guiltily says "sorry" and they both can't help but smile at her. They hear more explosions and Loid says that they need to get off the ship. Anya points towards the window and they realize that the ship is heading right towards the city of Frejis. Loid begins operating the device on the console. Yor asks if he knows how to operate it and he says that he knows how from when he did it as part time work when he was a student. Yor is impressed, but Anya knows he's lying.

Down in Frejis, people notice the large, burning battleship descending towards the town and begin running all over in a panic. On the battleship bridge, the ceiling blows off, causing an extremely strong wind to blow. Loid realizes that the propulsion system and lifting platforms are dead, and wonders if it's even possible to make a safe landing or even change course. Behind him, Yor and Anya are holding onto each other while the latter shouts "You can do it, Papa!" Loid says not to worry since the rudder is still intact. However, when he grips it, he can hardly get it to move and the ship is still losing altitude. Debris from the broken ceiling rains down on his head, causing him to lose his balance. Just then, he feels something on his right hand…Yor's hand. And on his left hand, Anya's. "Please let me help, too" says Yor, "Anya too!" says Anya. Working together, the three of them are able to move the rudder little by little.

The Frejis clock tower looms before them but they're able to steer the ship so that it narrowly avoids colliding and only grazes the side of the clock tower. The ship continues to lose altitude, heading towards the surface of a large frozen lake. Yor hugs Anya close to protect her as the ship shakes violent from the impact of the landing. The battered ship glides along the surface of the water at high speed, whipping up a cloud of steam. The frozen water crashes onto the ship, putting out the fire. On a hill not too far away from Frejis, Bond and Fiona stand near Fiona's car and watch with bated breath as the battleship crashes into the lake. "Senpai…" "Borf, borf, borf!"

Back at the ship, the Forges escape from the collapsed bridge and onto the roof. They look in wonder at the pretty scene before them of the glittering ice particles shining against the city lights like diamond dust. Suddenly, water that had collected on the deck roof pours onto them like a waterfall, leaving them soaked. They're perplexed for a moment before Anya bursts out laughing with a "waku waku splash!" Then Yor also laughs. As he watches the two of them laughing, Loid smiles softly.

Suddenly Anya sneezes and Loid notices something in her mouth. Loid realizes it's the microfilm, smaller than a fingernail. He wonders if it had somehow gotten stuck in her teeth. When Yor asks what it is, he clutches the microfilm in his hand and replies with a smile, "it's a return ticket."

The next morning at Berlint, Yuri listens to the news at his desk at the SSS: "The flying battleship that landed in Lake Frejis last night appears to have been an accident during a training flight. The committee has announced that it has already begun interviewing the manufacturer and the military." He remembers that Frejis is where Yor said she was taking a trip to and he wonders if she's okay. His lieutenant then opens the door and requests some documents. Yuri asks why the SSS has to be the ones to clean up this incident, and the lieutenant replies that if the people found out that the military was behind it, that would be troublesome. After the lieutenant leaves, Yuri muses to himself how it seems that WISE intervened in the incident though there's no solid information. He wonders how they could have possibly done it, then thinks "it must have been him…Twilight."

At the WISE hideout, Sylvia reads the newspaper headline which states that there were no survivors of the battleship incident. She compliments Loid, saying that even though the SSS put out the fire so to speak, he managed to not leave a trace of the Forgers' involvement. Loid replies that yes, the Forgers were just enjoying a normal family vacation. He takes out a wine bottle from his bag. Sylvia peels off the label, revealing the microfilm. She then tells him that he's back in charge of Operation Strix, much to Loid's surprise. She hands him a photo of Depple at night with a strange woman and says that his affair was exposed and he was disowned by the father of his wife. Loid smiles slightly when he notices that the woman with Depple in the photo is a WISE agent – in other words, he had fallen into their trap.

Afterwards, Loid meets up with Yor, Anya, and Bond at the park by a fountain. Yor asks how his patient was and he replies that it wasn't a big deal considering they called him out of nowhere. Anya asks Loid why there's no fish in the water and he flatly replies because it's a fountain. She then calls to Yor, taking her hand and leading her to the fountain. As Loid watches them happily talk about something, and Bond following along and enjoying himself, Loid lets out a sigh, but his expression is surprisingly soft. He thinks that even though he's able to continue Operation Strix, he can't let his guard down and needs to keep focusing on acquiring stellas. Anya reads his mind and is overjoyed that the Forger family isn't finished. Loid says that they should go home now since Anya has to "train" to make the melemele for the cooking competition tomorrow. Even though they weren't able to eat a real melemele, they at least have the ingredients for one. Anya asks to hold Loid and Yor's hand as she happily chants that she's going to make a yummy pastry. When Yor says that she'll help too, Loid and Anya politely turn her down. They then head home together.

At the Eden classroom, the students are preparing their cooking ingredients. Becky says that she's going to make an orange layer cake that she learned from training with her pastry chef. She asks Anya what she's going to make. When Anya replies "melemele," Damian overhears and comments that it's an old pastry. Anya tells him that if she makes something good, she wants him to have it too. Damian's face reddens as he shouts that he'd never eat anything she makes. With a shocked face, she asks if he really hates it that much. This makes Damian's face redden even more as he shouts that he'd vomit if he ate her food. He runs off with Ewen and Emile following. Becky comments that he's the worst while Anya thinks that the friendship scheme is a failure. Just then, Anya and Becky turn towards the direction of an explosion sound.

Later that day, Anya shows Loid and Yor a note from school saying that the school kitchen broke down so the competition was postponed and the judge was changed to the vice principal due to scheduling conflicts. Anya laments that since it's not the principal, the melemele won't work. Loid thinks for a moment and says that he remembers reading in the school newspaper that the vice principal is crazy about the berry pudding from the southern region. He asks if they should go, and both Yor and Anya agree. Loid opens a map and points out the southern region. He says it's warm there so they shouldn't need a lot of luggage. Anya is excited about going to the ocean and wonders what playing cards she should bring while Loid thinks it would be a good opportunity for her to learn how to swim. Upon hearing all the talking, Bond comes over from where he was sleeping and gives a happy "Borf!"

Meanwhile at Frejis station, Franky trembles in the cold and shouts "Hey Loid, I bought the cherry liquor!!!"

-----

Afterword: Congratulations if you've read this far! When I first started this project, I honestly didn't think I would write this much for a "summary" 😅 I thought it would just be a few paragraphs tops. But as I translated, I was like "oh, this is interesting, I should write it down!" And I just kept going with that and didn't want to stop! Some may wonder why I would want to spoil myself to this degree, but for me, reading about the movie (in a language I'm not fluent in) is still no replacement for actually seeing it for myself - the novelization doesn't convey every line of dialogue, character action/expression, voices, etc. But now that I know what to expect, I can get myself hyped for the scenes I'm looking forward to seeing while also not getting my hopes up for something I won't see. I don't care to do this for most things, but I'm the opposite when it comes to my hyperfixations like SxF! I'm also not going to give my thoughts on the movie until I see it for myself. But I will say that based on the novelization, even though I thought a few things could be better, overall I think it will be a ton of fun and can't wait to see everything in full animated glory!

Again, please remember to be cautious about where you share spoilers and to properly tag posts on social media. And if you end up sharing large portions of this summary elsewhere, a shoutout to my blog would be nice...I spent many hours working on this!

[daffi-990]

Throwback Thursday

Tagged by @dangerpronebuddie & @tizniz

Sharing the first fanfic I wrote. The one that started it all.

Remember To Remember Me | 31K

Something is wrong.

“Buck”, Eddie says his name slowly, like he’s a deer that could easily be startled, “do you remember Monday night, after I got home from working a shift without you?”

“We had a few beers and you told me about that crazy call.”

“Yes. And do you remember what happened afterwards?”

“Uh — no? Should I?”

The ice in his veins spreads and soon his whole body feels frozen, like a bucket of icy water has just been dumped all over him.

“Oh shit, did I drink too much on an empty stomach again? That always leaves me way drunker than I should be and I can’t remember shit the next day.”

Buck doesn’t remember.

He doesn’t remember .

Eddie’s entire world crashes down around him. He feels like his body has stopped working. He doesn’t know if he’s breathing but he’s pretty sure his heart has stopped.

Buck’s memories of them can’t be gone.

OR

Buck and Eddie finally get together only for lightning to strike a few days later, leaving Buck with no memories of them ever becoming a couple.

No pressure tagging:

@hippolotamus @spotsandsocks @diazsdimples @diazheartsbuckley @spagheddiediaz @queerdiazs @exhuastedpigeon @eddiebabygirldiaz @elvensorceress @lover-of-mine @lonelychicago @bekkachaos @missmagooglie @monsterrae1 @honestlydarkprincess @beyourownanchor6 @fiona-fififi @glorious-spoon @giddyupbuck @kitteneddiediaz @smilingbuckley @thewolvesof1998 @wildlife4life @wikiangela @watchyourbuck @theotherbuckley and as always, anyone else who sees this and wants to share something -> consider this your official tag 🏷️

[lizzyiii]

His Darling (1)

pairing | loki x fem!reader

taglist | to be added to this taglist just add your username to this DOC

word count | 3.5k words

summary | loki and mobius track down a runaway TVA analyst who disappeared from the timeline. to their surprise, they find you thriving as a famous singer, living a life of glamour far removed from the TVA.

tags | nothing much really, only the start of the plot, big y/n moment (she sings)

a/n | excited for this, not proofread, don't blame me because where I'm posting it's 1am. And yes I gave her that y/n moment of singing a song. And I made her sing Fiona Apple, and that should already sum up the type of person I am

likes, comments, reblogs are much appreciated ✨

ᴍᴀsᴛᴇʀʟɪsᴛ - ɴᴇxᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ

“She’s an analyst.”

Loki glanced at Mobius, eyebrow raised. “And how do you think an analyst is supposed to help us?” His tone was dripping with skepticism.

Mobius gave a small shrug as they stepped out of the time portal, landing in the middle of bustling New York, 2020. The city pulsed with life, bright lights reflecting off skyscrapers, cars honking, people crossing streets with hurried purpose. “She’s kind of a genius,” Mobius replied, more serious now. “You know the type—quiet, observant, can be a real know-it-all... because, well, she actually does know it all.”

Loki snorted, his eyes sweeping across the towering skyline, his posture stiffening with unease. The last time he had set foot in this city, it was in ruins, crumbling under his attempt to claim Earth. The streets had been filled with fear, not the careless buzz of normal life.

“New York looks so... different,” Loki muttered, his eyes narrowing as if trying to piece together the memory of destruction with the vibrant city before him. “Last time I was here, the streets were burning, and the people were running for their lives.”

Mobius smirked, rolling his eyes. “Well, it’s been eight years. You can’t expect to stay relevant forever.”

Loki stopped in his tracks and shot Mobius a deadly look. “I am a god,” he said with cold indignation. “I should be relevant forever.”

“Sure, sure,” Mobius replied casually, unfazed by Loki’s godly self-importance. “But right now, we’re not here to reminisce about your failed conquest. We’ve got bigger problems. And trust me, we need her.”

Loki turned to Mobius, brow furrowed, his curiosity not yet satisfied. “So, this genius analyst—why isn’t she still with the TVA?”

Mobius breathed in sharply, a hint of frustration creeping into his tone. “Defector. Like Brad. She ran, disappeared off the grid. And, honestly? She’s in a lot of trouble. Her mere existence in this timeline is enough to get her pruned.”

Loki raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Then how do we find her?” He waved a hand in an exaggerated, indignant gesture. “You’re usually so good at tracking people down.”

Mobius sighed, putting his hands on his hips, clearly irritated by the situation. “Look, the tempad gives us a place and time, but not exact coordinates.” His voice held an edge, as if he’d explained this a thousand times already.

Loki tilted his head, a smirk playing at his lips. “I thought the TVA prided itself on precision.”

Mobius ignored the jab, turning to scan the street, searching for anything out of place in the midst of New York’s busy streets. Then, suddenly, he stopped, his eyes widening as his gaze locked onto something down the street. His jaw nearly hit the floor. “Well… damn.”

Loki blinked, turning toward Mobius, a note of confusion in his voice. “What?”

Mobius raised a finger, gesturing down the street at a massive digital billboard on the side of a building. The image flickered into view, revealing a stunning woman in a sparkling babydoll outfit, glowing under stage lights. Your presence was captivating, the kind of star power that demanded attention. The name Darling flashed in bright letters beneath you.

Loki stared up at the billboard, a grin curling at the corner of his mouth. “The observant and quiet type?” he said dryly, his tone laced with amusement as his eyes lingered on the larger-than-life image of the glamorous singer.

Mobius groaned, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “Yeah, well, clearly she’s… adapted.” He let out a resigned sigh. “Guess the whole ‘fading into obscurity’ plan didn’t exactly work out for her.”

Loki’s gaze remained fixed on the screen, a glint of intrigue flashing in his eyes. “I think I’m going to like this one,” he murmured, more to himself than to Mobius. There was something about her—a spark that piqued his curiosity, and perhaps a kindred spirit in her ability to reinvent herself.

Mobius glanced at him, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. “Whatever you’re thinking, just remember: we need her help, not whatever chaos you’ve got brewing in that trickster brain of yours.”

Loki gave him an innocent look, his hands spread wide. “Chaos? Me? You wound me, Mobius. I’m a professional.”

Mobius snorted. “Yeah, right.”

Unfortunately, even with Loki’s magic and Mobius’ thorough knowledge of TVA technology, tracking you down wasn’t as simple as they’d hoped.

Your new life came with walls—managers, agents, bodyguards, and all the trappings of fame that made it hard to get close. The woman who once analyzed timelines with quiet precision had traded that for flashing lights and screaming fans.

After exhausting other options, Loki’s frustration finally spilled over. “You know,” he said, his voice brimming with faux exasperation, “if all else fails, there is one surefire way to get in.”

Mobius raised an eyebrow, sensing the mischief already brewing. “And what’s that?”

With a sly grin, Loki snapped his fingers. In an instant, two front-row tickets to your latest concert in New York appeared in his hand. “Why bother with sneaking around when we can just… attend?”

Mobius stared at the tickets, clearly unimpressed. “Fake tickets? Really?”

Loki looked at him, completely serious. “They’re not fake. I conjured them. It’s entirely different.”

The stadium was packed to the brim, thousands of screaming Midgardians filling the air with an overwhelming noise that grated against Loki's sensibilities. The heat, the sweat, the sheer volume—it disgusted him. Yet, this was the only way to get close to you, the elusive analyst turned superstar.

Mobius had suggested they simply wait in your dressing room until you finished, but Loki insisted on attending the concert. He wasn’t sure why—perhaps it was curiosity, or something more subtle, something instinctual.

Smoke began to pour from the stage, the lights dimming as the crowd hushed in anticipation. Then, through the haze, you emerged. Your figure draped in a short, flowing white dress, hair blowing in an unseen breeze, you looked like a star pulled down from the night sky.

A shimmer followed your every movement, like you were made of light itself. The audience roared your name as the soft, haunting melody of a piano filled the stadium.

“I’ve waited many years

Every print I left upon the track

Has led me here…”

Your voice, when you sang, was both familiar and entirely new to Loki. It carried an otherworldly quality, something that tugged at his memory. The crowd, once deafening, fell silent the moment you opened your mouth. Every Midgardian in the room was hanging on your every word, mesmerized. Loki found himself momentarily struck by the power you wielded—not with magic, but with her voice.

“And next year, it’ll be clear

This was only leading me to that

And by that time, I hope that...

You love me

You love me…”

As you sang, your voice grew stronger, more impassioned. The entire stadium seemed to pulse with your energy, as if you had taken control of the very air they breathed. Loki’s discomfort deepened as the words grew more personal, more intimate.

The intensity of the performance was almost too much. He shifted uneasily, glancing at Mobius, who was just as captivated but far less disturbed.

“And I know none of this

Will matter in the long run

But I know a sound

Is still a sound around no one…”

The words echoed in Loki’s mind, digging at something he couldn’t quite place. You were different—more powerful than he had expected. He had thought you a quiet, observant analyst, not this radiant force.

“And while I’m in this body

I want somebody to want

And I want, what I want, and I want

You to love me…”

Your voice rose, reaching new heights as the music swelled around you. You commanded the stage with an effortless grace, but Loki couldn’t shake the feeling that you had seen him. That those words, those raw, aching words, had been a message only he could understand.

“And I know that you do

In the dark, I know that you do

And I know, that you know that you’ve got

The potential to pick me up

And I want you to use it

Blast the music

Bang it, bite it, bruise it…”

Then, in a moment that made Loki’s heart falter, your eyes—so impossibly sharp, even from a distance—locked with his. He froze. Something nagged at him, an odd, distant recognition that he couldn’t explain.

“Whenever you want to begin, begin

We don’t have to go back to where we’ve been

I am the woman who wants you to win…”

Loki remained frozen, his eyes locked on yours. The world around him seemed to blur, and for a brief, ridiculous second, he wondered if the words you sang were meant just for him. He hadn’t expected this, hadn’t expected you to hold such sway, not over the masses, and certainly not over him.

“And I’ve been

Waiting, waiting for

You to love me…”

As the final note echoed through the stadium, the crowd erupted into wild applause, a sea of hands raised in adulation. But Loki barely heard it. His heart pounded in his chest, his mind still lingering on the brief moment when your eyes had met his across the throng of fans.

Something about it gnawed at him, an unsettling sense that he was missing something crucial—something buried deep within his memories or within you.

And then, just as suddenly, you smiled.

The seriousness and heartache that had filled your voice moments ago vanished, replaced by a carefree expression as you basked in the screams of your adoring fans. Your laugh was light, almost as if the raw vulnerability you had shown was just another mask, discarded as easily as it had been worn. The shift was so seamless that Loki almost questioned if the heartache he had sensed was real at all.

“Interesting,” Loki muttered under his breath, narrowing his eyes as you waved to the crowd.

Mobius, standing beside him, nudged Loki with his elbow. “Wow. She's adapted a lot,” he said, echoing his earlier words, though even he seemed a little awed by how thoroughly you had embraced this new life.

“She seems familiar,” Loki said quietly, almost to himself. The nagging familiarity he had felt when you sang, the connection he couldn’t yet define—it was all too deliberate.

Mobius sighed. “Let’s just try and get her to help us without causing a scene."

Loki flashed him an annoyed glance, but the truth was, Mobius was right. His curiosity was dangerously piqued. This wasn’t just a mission anymore. Something about you was pulling him in, and Loki wasn’t the type to leave a mystery unsolved.

The rest of your performance passed in a blur, though none of the immaculate songs seemed to affect Loki as deeply as the first. When the final number ended and the crowd’s applause thundered through the arena, Loki and Mobius wasted no time slipping out of their seats.

Mobius had insisted they wait in your dressing room for dramatic effect—which Loki found ironic, given that Mobius always had the audacity to call him the dramatic one.

They bickered all the way to backstage, their voices rising as they argued over the plan. Loki had just started to raise his voice when the door to your dressing room swung open, and you stepped inside.

Instantly, both men fell silent.

You didn’t jump or react with fear, as might have been expected when faced with two strangers in your dressing room. Instead, your eyes briefly flitted over them, before your expression twisted into one of irritation.

“Two men waiting for a girl in her dressing room," you murmured sarcastically, crossing your arms, "that’s not horrifying at all.”

Loki’s lips quirked slightly at the corner, amused by your reaction. Before he could speak, Mobius stepped in, raising a hand in greeting. “Hey there,” he said, with a smile that was meant to be reassuring but probably came off as awkward.

You raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, offering Mobius a fake smile. “Mobius, I wondered when you’d find me.” Your tone was sharp, laced with sarcasm, and it sliced through the air like a blade. Loki couldn’t help but be amused by it.

Mobius shrugged with a casual nonchalance. “We would’ve gotten to you sooner or later, D—” He paused, gesturing to your eccentric decorated dressing room. “Or should I call you Darling now?”

A smirk tugged at the corner of your mouth as you tilted your head. “It’s better than D-28,” you shot back, your voice dripping with sarcasm. Then your eyes shifted to Loki, studying him curiously. “Who’s your friend?”

Loki, not one to pass up an opportunity to make an entrance, stepped forward with a wolfish grin. “Co-worker, madam,” he said smoothly, his voice oozing charm. “‘Friend’ is generous. I am Loki, the God of Mischief.”

Your eyebrows raised, and for a brief moment, a flicker of surprise passed through your eyes. Without saying a word, you reached for your cellphone, swiftly typing something as both men looked on, confused.

Before either could ask what you were doing, you lifted the phone and held it up to Loki’s face. The screen displayed a photo—a screenshot from when Loki had once tried to conquer New York, helmet and all. You squinted slightly at the screen, then back at him.

“Oh, bless,” you murmured, sarcasm in your voice, “you are the God of Mischief.” You gave an exaggerated nod, clearly unimpressed by his title.

Loki blinked, momentarily thrown off balance by your casual dismissal, while Mobius stifled a snort.

“Look, we need your help,” Mobius said, his tone shifting to something more serious.

You flashed him a sickly sweet smile, but the word that followed was as sharp as a blade. “No.”

With that, you gracefully moved past both men, settling onto the edge of your vanity dresser, crossing your legs in a posture that spoke of complete indifference. “I’m done with the TVA and its fascist, tyrannical ways. I’m thriving now,” you gestured vaguely toward the door, as if the world beyond it was yours to command. “I don't need the TVA anymore."

Mobius sighed, pushing himself off the vanity he had been leaning against, and tried again. “If you don’t help us, I’ll have to arrest you for crimes against the timeline,” he threatened lightly, though his heart didn’t seem fully in it.

You didn’t miss a beat. “Oh please, Mobius,” you cut in, rolling your eyes with an exaggerated sigh. Loki, watching intently, suppressed a smirk at the back-and-forth, clearly entertained.

“Your voice is making my ears ache,” you added, voice dripping with sarcasm as you turned your attention back to fixing your hair in the mirror, dismissing him with a wave of your hand.

Mobius, for his part, just exhaled deeply, clearly used to this kind of treatment. “Look, Darling,” he continued “you might not care about the TVA anymore, but the timeline is falling apart. And if that happens, all of this—” he waved a hand toward the opulent room around you, “goes with it. Including your adoring fans.”

You raised an eyebrow, glancing at Mobius from the corner of your eye, your silence speaking louder than words. Finally, you crossed your arms and sighed, “I’m listening.”

Mobius turned to Loki with a subtle grin, “You wanna take this one?”

Loki eagerly stepped forward, eyes gleaming as he began. “So, long story short, my friend and I killed the man who controlled the TVA—”

“The Timekeepers?” you interjected, your tone skeptical.

Loki tilted his head. “Actually, the Timekeepers were just a front—robots, to be precise. The real man behind the curtain was someone called He Who Remains.” His voice grew more serious. “And now, He Who Remains is dead. With him gone, the TVA is crumbling. Branched timelines are spinning out of control, threatening to overload the Temporal Loom and tear everything apart.”

You nodded slowly, processing this. “That... sounds like quite the problem.”

“It is,” Loki confirmed dryly. “A rather large one.”

Your eyes narrowed slightly as you leaned back against the vanity. “And where exactly do I fit into this mess?”

Loki glanced at Mobius, who shrugged in that familiar, laid-back way of his. “We need smart people,” Mobius said simply.

You stared at them both, unimpressed. “That’s not really specific, now is it?”

Mobius sighed, rubbing his temple. “Look, we know you’ve got a mind like no other. You were one of the best analysts at the TVA, and now… well, we need that genius of yours if we’re going to save all of time from imploding.”

Loki nodded in agreement. “You’re not just smart. You see things others miss. We need someone who can help us solve the unsolvable.”

For a moment, you were silent, your eyes shifting between the two men. Then you sighed again, this time more dramatically. “Fine. But if I agree to help, I have conditions.”

Mobius raised an eyebrow. “Conditions?”

You gave them both a sly smile. “You didn’t think I’d come cheap, did you?”

Loki's lips curved into a small, amused smirk at your response. He appreciated the spark of resistance in you. "Of course, you'd have conditions," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Nothing’s ever simple with a woman."

You shrugged casually, but your eyes stayed sharp. "I'm not one to give my services for free, god or no god." You emphasized the word ‘god’ mockingly, eyes narrowing as you met Loki’s gaze head-on.

Mobius, sensing the tension, jumped in quickly, hands raised in a placating gesture. "Alright, alright. Let’s hear the conditions. What are you asking for?”

You leaned forward slightly, still perched on the vanity, and crossed your arms. "First off, no dragging me back to the TVA full-time. I left for a reason, and I’m not about to become a prisoner there again. I help you with your little time problem, and after that, I’m free to go."

Mobius nodded slowly, mulling it over. “Fair enough. What else?”

Your eyes flickered toward Loki, your lips curving into a half-smile. "Second, no condescending lectures from anyone," you said pointedly. "I work on my terms, no micromanaging. I’m not one of your TVA minions anymore."

Loki raised an eyebrow, slightly intrigued by your audacity. "Agreed," he said smoothly, though his smirk never left his face. "I rather enjoy a challenge."

Mobius gave him a side glance but returned his attention to you. "Alright, you’ve got yourself a deal," he said. "But we don’t have a lot of time. Things are… messy back at the TVA. We need to move fast."

You stood up from your seat, finally looking a bit more serious as you glanced between the two of them. "Well then, gentlemen," you said, brushing your hair back. "If you need a genius to save time itself, you came to the right place."

Loki’s eyes trailed after you, studying every subtle movement with a mix of curiosity and something else—an itch of familiarity that tugged at his thoughts.

He didn’t know why, but there was something about you, something that gnawed at the edges of his mind, as though he had met you before, though he couldn’t place where or when.

"Shall we?" Loki asked, his voice smooth but with a hint of impatience.

You gave him a sickly-sweet smile, your sarcasm evident as you gestured to your outfit, still glimmering from your performance. "Might I at least have the decency to change?"

Loki blinked, slightly taken aback, "Yes, of course," he said quickly, just as Mobius muttered, “Yeah, sure.”

And yet, both men stood firmly in place, neither making any move to leave. You raised an eyebrow, glancing between them before dramatically gesturing around the room, "You do realize this is my dressing room, right?"

It took a moment for the realization to dawn on both their faces, their expressions shifting into awkwardness. Loki cleared his throat, looking momentarily sheepish, while Mobius chuckled nervously. "Ah… right," Mobius said with an apologetic shrug.

"My apologies," Loki added, his usual confidence cracking just slightly, before he quickly turned on his heel to exit, Mobius following close behind.

Loki and Mobius awkwardly shuffled out of your dressing room, the moment playing out with a surprising level of clumsiness for the God of Mischief and a TVA agent. The door clicked shut behind them, leaving you alone for a moment.

You sighed, shaking your head as you moved to the mirror, wiping off the remnants of stage makeup. The bright lights reflected your tired expression, but there was something more under that—an underlying spark of excitement or dread, it was hard to tell.

Since this season is all in the span of one day this is her outfit

(Darling is only her stage name)

Darling's Performance Wardrobe

(yes this is all Lana Del Reys outfits)

Hope You Enjoyed 💚💛

[elvensorceress]

tease tidbit tuesday

tagged by @rainbow-nerdss @hippolotamus @wildlife4life @spotsandsocks @diazsdimples @tizniz @fiona-fififi @daffi-990 @monsterrae1 @wikiangela @exhuastedpigeon @bidisasterbuckdiaz tags for anyone else who wants to share something or who might be interested in more of this 💕 @eddiebabygirldiaz @frenziedblaze @alec-1016 @watchyourbuck @zouisalmightie @bekkachaos @theotherbuckley @the-likesofus @emilybahu @jesuiscenseedormir @ebdaydreamer @lemonzestywrites @shortsighted-owl @chaosandwolves @wh0re-behavi0r @messyhairdiaz more of this 💕

Tommy squeezes Buck’s thigh and looks at him very intently. “I’m going to suggest something, and if you have any doubts at all, I want you to tell me no. Okay?”

“Uh, okay?” What sort of suggestions and what could Buck possibly doubt?

Tommy glances at the vacated seat across from them and in the direction of the bathrooms before looking back to Buck. He looks so cautious and careful. Like the night they first kissed. “If you wanted to, if you’re open to it, we could… make him an offer.” 

Buck blinks. “An offer?”

“To spend the night with us.” 

To— oh god. Any god. Every god. All the gods. “Like— you mean. Y-you mean?”

“Doesn’t have to be like that,” Tommy shakes his head. “It could be. But not if you’d worry about being left out or about you and me or how I feel about you. Okay? I wouldn’t want you to feel insecure or jealous. You’re important to me and I don’t want you to doubt that. I just— I think having him there, however we have him with us, might make you feel better. Might make him feel better, too.” 

It might. It might make Buck feel better. It probably would. Yeah. Definitely. Because the idea of Eddie going home alone tonight to an empty house— because Buck knows Chris is staying with one of his friends tonight— the idea of Eddie being alone with too many tormented, angry, wound up thoughts, Buck absolutely hates that. 

They could invite Eddie back with them. 

They could invite Eddie back with them.

Except— “Eddie’s not— I-I mean. Eddie is— he’s straight.” 

Tommy snorts a laugh and smiles at Buck like Buck is somehow being dumb. “Eddie’s not straight.”

Buck does nothing but turn into a human turning signal, blinking, blinking, endlessly blinking. “Uh, yeah he is?” It doesn’t sound sure. It should because— “Did he tell you something? Did he come out to you? Did something happen? Why would he tell you and not me?”

Tommy’s eyes widen slightly and he does that calming rubbing thing on Buck’s thigh again. “Baby, he didn’t say anything to me. He didn’t have to. And maybe I’m wrong? But I really doubt it.”

“But,” Buck says and it can’t be true. It’s not true. Buck knows Eddie. If Buck knows nothing else, he knows Eddie. “He had a wife. And two girlfriends. Nothing else.”

Tommy raises his eyebrow and gives him a strange look. “And you’d only ever been with women before I kissed you. How is it different?”

Because. It is? Eddie isn’t— he can’t be. 

Could he be?

Is Eddie into men? Could that be something that’s been missing for him, too? Could someone kiss him and turn his whole world into technicolor Land of Oz because he’s never considered his feelings might be legit attraction to men? Maybe he has all sorts of feelings but has never been able to fully understand what they are and what they mean? Maybe it is something Eddie needs, too? 

Is Eddie into men? Is he into men? Is he? 

Eddie returns and sits down across from them and looks like there are drops of water, probably cool water, on his face and neck. He picks up his phone that he’d left lying on the table and doesn’t even look up to acknowledge them. 

He hasn’t actually looked at them all night. Not for more than a split second, accidental glancing at the sun sort of thing. 

Holy shit. Maybe that’s the thing. Maybe Eddie is into men and didn’t know it before because why wouldn’t he be into Tommy?

[spotsandsocks]

20 questions for fic writers ✍️

Tagged by @fortheloveofbuddie thank you 💜

How many works do you have on ao3?

92

What’s your total ao3 word count?

950,226 3 years of writing this August. What should I do to celebrate when I hit 1 million words?!

What fandoms do you write for?

9-1-1

Top five fics by kudos

If You Break It (3,207 words) They say the Truth will set you free (2,346 words) Could Have Should Have Would Have (3,251 words) Looking from the outside(2,453 words) Just Ask (1,717 words)

Do you respond to comments?

Absolutely!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

A Boy Like That more sad than angsty but a happy ending for buddie

Holding Me Up just a short little coda to 7x 1 but sad ish

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Both these are fluffy and end with a big 😍😍

Of Mice and Men and Sweater Number 23

Do you get hate on fics?

not so far thank goodness I’d be sad 😔

Do you write smut?

You bettcha 😏 and here are a few if you fancy

Tied To You From The Start takes a while to get there then ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Your heart or mine? Yours every time vampire buck gets hungry ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

127 Seconds ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥soft and hot - after a call goes bad things happen

Give and Take ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 and the sequel

Craziest crossover:

do dragons count? To Fly The Skies

Let me stay by your fire (for nothing warms me like you do) just added this knight/blacksmith au cos I wanted to - not many have noticed it - there are bees and smut

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as i know

Have you ever had a fic translated?

dont think so

Have you ever co-written a fic?

nope, I’m not sure I’d be any good at it

All time favorite ship?

take a guess....

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

There’s a chimney plays matchmaker one I think might not make it

What are your writing strengths?

Plot twists?? Think I keep them all fairly in character. You tell me???

What are your writing weaknesses?

Don’t use very descriptive language I know that!

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

not a huge fan 😞 sorry

First fandom you ever wrote in?

9-1-1 (only one)

Favorite fic you’ve written?

I’ll be honest- I’m very proud of these two. Book length, twisty, fun and packed with plot.

The Lost and The Found

Good Knight Sweet Prince

Tagging anyone who’d like to share just say spots tagged you cos I did ☺️

No pressure tagging @loserdiaz @monsterrae1 @hoodie-buck @thekristen999 @exhuastedpigeon @tizniz @daffi-990 @diazsdimples @bi-buckrights @bekkachaos @the-likesofus @steadfastsaturnsrings @watchyourbuck @loveyouanyway @underwaterninja13 @evanbi-ckley @repressedqueen @shortsighted-owl @ronordmann @hippolotamus @spaceprincessem @bidisasterevankinard @wikiangela @stagefoureddiediaz @thewolvesof1998 @wildlife4life @giddyupbuck @weewootruck @honestlydarkprincess @rogerzsteven @elvensorceress @eddiebabygirldiaz @theplaceyoustillrememberdreaming @inell @shipperqueen6 @saybiwithme @bewilderedbuckley @actualalligator @pirrusstuff @jesuisici33 @rainbow-nerdss @disasterbuck @theotherbuckley @fiona-fififi

[fictionalcharactersaremypassion]

Here's part 2 of Caught. Just a warning that this does feature some homophobic language (the f slur a few times and Terry's nasty views on gay people as a whole)

I wrote it to show Colin's internal struggle. He loves his brother, doesn't care that he's gay but still lives with the knowledge of how Terry thinks and what he'd do. I also forgot to mention (I said it on ao3) that this takes place in s1 and Terry is in prison

Also I hope Fiona doesn't sound too OOC. In this universe since she's dating a Milkovich herself, she wouldn't really care all that much that Ian is doing the same thing with Mickey

@callivich

@zutaralesbian (I didn't know if you'd want to be tagged or not but I saw in your tags when you reblogged the first part that it was an interesting premise)

Anyway, here's chapter 2:

****

Colin stood with his back to the front door for nearly a minute. While he promised Fiona he’d go talk to Mickey, he wasn’t really sure how to do that. Milkovich’s didn’t do heart-to-heart talks. They didn’t even apologize, just moved on, pretending it never happened. 

And what the fuck is he even supposed to say? Did Mickey need more reassurance? He already said he didn’t give a shit, should be enough damn assurance. 

He rubbed the side of his nose. Goddamn it, he wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t care but this was out of his expertise. Finding out his brother was a fag was just mind blowing. He’d never peg Mick as one of them. Weren’t they supposed to be weak and shit? Terry always said you could tell who was a fag and who wasn’t. But Colin wouldn’t have been able to tell if Gallagher or Mickey were by just looking at them. 

He was so fucking confused. 

“He needs to know you aren’t going to kick his ass over it.” 

He wouldn’t, and that’s what made the situation all the more complicated. He should hate Mickey on the spot, to think of him as nothing more than vermin. That’s what Terry said.

And well, Colin used to agree. Until he stopped giving a fuck. He didn’t know when that happened, when he would have willingly participated in a good ol’ fag bash to being indifferent so long as it didn’t involve him. 

He’d brush off Terry’s rants about them, not bothering to speak up because he knew it’d only earn him his dad’s wrath. But now, knowing Mickey was hearing all of this, living a life no one else knew about, made his stomach twist uncomfortably. 

He’d be expected to go in there and beat the living shit out of him. Kick him out and let him live on the streets. His little brother that he used to help feed and entice him to walk by dangling cigarette butts and other things a child that young shouldn't be touching. 

“Make sure he’s okay,” Fiona’s voice came back to him. 

Colin blew out a puff of air, going right towards Mickey’s bedroom without knocking. 

He found his youngest brother shoving clothes into a duffle bag, making him stop in his tracks. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” 

“What’s it look like, dipshit?” Mickey shot back defensively. His hand was itching to grab the handgun that was laying on his dresser. “I’m getting out of here.” 

“Why?” Colin demanded. 

“Don’t act fucking stupid. It’s what you want,” Mickey was incredibly tense, like he was expecting a fight to break out. 

“When the fuck did I tell you to leave?” Colin shoved him. Mickey took this as a sign to fight; he pushed with all his might so his older brother’s back would land against the wall with a thud. 

Fuck that. Colin hurled himself on top of Mickey, knocking him to the floor so he was effectively pinned. He tried to fight against it, but Colin had his hands pressed into the boy’s shoulders. 

“What is your problem?” He demanded. Mickey wasn’t responding, he was doing whatever he could to get away. “Fucking hell-Mickey! Answer me or I swear to fucking God I’m going to knock your teeth out!” 

His shout had stirred Mandy, who shrieked at them to shut the fuck up. 

Below him, Mickey was breathing heavily, staring up with wide, panicked eyes. 

He was supposed to look his brother in the eyes and beat him within an inch of his life, to make him think twice about fucking other guys. 

“Calm down,” Colin probably should have known that wasn’t going to do much but give him a fucking break. He was new to this. “I don’t know what your fucking problem is but I said I didn’t give a shit about you liking dick.”

“Like I believe a damn word of that,” Mickey snapped. 

“What the fuck do you want me to say, dickhead?” Frustration leaked into Colin’s voice. “You want me to hold your damn hand or somethin’?” 

“Fuck you!” Mickey tried to kneed him in the balls. If it weren’t for Colin being stronger than his brother, he would’ve been nursing some black and blue balls. “You’re just gonna go and tell Dad anyway!” 

“What?” Colin stared down at him. “Why the fuck would I do that?” 

This seemed to make his brother freeze, staring back up at him warily. 

Jesus. Mickey really thought Colin was going to tell him like he got some sick enjoyment out of knowing what would end up happening to him if their psychotic father knew. 

And he didn’t- a horrible feeling crawled up Colin’s back with the realization that while Mickey had seemingly reacted well out there, he must have been fucking terrified about what was going to happen once they were alone. 

He didn’t know. Didn’t think about this at all. Other than a few obligatory dick jokes at Mick’s expense, Colin didn’t think this was going to be an issue. 

“God, Mickey,” Colin sat back, taking his hands off his brother. “I’m not-I won’t tell Dad about this.” 

He peeled himself off Mickey, standing up. His brother slowly did the same, eyeing him suspiciously. 

“Why?” He said. 

Colin raised his eyebrows. “Do you want me to tell him?” 

“No, you asshole,” Mickey said, looking like he was gearing up for another fight. 

“Okay, then. What’s the problem?” 

“But...” Mickey looked younger all of a sudden. The anger was gone, now he just seemed confused. “I’m a fag.” 

Colin shrugged. “Yeah. But you’re still my brother.” 

At this, Mickey’s gaze turned gobsmacked, rendering him speechless. 

“We both know what Terry would do,” Colin said, voice quiet. “I ain’t doin’ that to you.” 

Mickey blinked, arms limply hanging by his sides. He stared at Colin for what felt like a long time, nodding slowly. 

“Just be careful, okay? If you’re gonna suck some dick, do it where Terry won’t find you.” 

He didn’t want to think about Terry ever finding out. But one thing’s for sure, he’d fucking kill the bastard if he had to before he ever let him touch Mickey. 

“Yeah,” Mickey sounded a bit dazed. “Okay.” 

Colin contemplated his next thought, clicking his tongue. “I ain’t gonna make you tell Ig or Mandy, but they ain’t gonna care either.” 

“I ain’t tellin’ them,” Mickey was shaking his head. 

“Okay,” Colin shrugged. 

Silence permeated the air. 

They’d spent too much time in touchy-feely territory, so Colin decided to break it up. “So,” he said casually, “Ian, huh?” 

“Don’t fucking start,” Mickey said warningly. 

Colin couldn’t help but smirk at the blush on his brother’s cheeks.  “Didn’t know you liked redheads.” 

This just embarrassed Mickey further, much to his amusement. “Don’t you have a fucking date to get ready for?” 

“Fiona will understand,” he reasoned. Mickey scowled. “So, you gonna unpack your shit and quit actin’ so dramatic?” 

“Whatever,” Mickey grumbled, but he did just that, pulling his clothes out to stuff back into his dresser drawers. 

“I meant what I said, you know,” Colin said, watching Mickey slow his movements. “I don’t care. You’re my brother no matter if you like dick or not. That ain’t changin’.” 

Mickey’s eyes flickered to him. “Thanks,” he said, shifting his footing. 

“I just got one question,” Colin said seriously. 

“What?” 

Colin couldn’t keep up the serious facade any longer, and let a grin bloom over his face. “Who sticks it in who?” 

---

“So, a Milkovich, huh?” 

The Gallagher house was quiet. Surprisingly, none of the other kids were up yet so no one else knew about Fiona or Ian’s whereabouts last night. She’d rather keep it that way, at least concerning herself. No need to tell them anything right now. 

After having changed into fresh clothes, taking care of her hair and brushing her teeth, Fiona went back downstairs to wait. Ian changed too, but he was going to go back to bed once he got a cup of juice to quench his thirst. 

They sat across from each other, neither one speaking at first. Fiona observed the way her brother ducked his head a little, a flush taking over his face that made his freckles stand out more than they already did. 

“Yeah,” his eyes dropped down to his cup, hands wrapped around it. 

“How’d that happen?” Fiona said with curiosity. She never would have thought Mickey Milkovich of all people was secretly gay, and to be dating her brother on top of it. 

Ian raked his teeth over his lower lip, contemplating. “He was shopping from Kash and Grab,” he said. “Linda gave Kash a gun to keep him from doing it again but he took that too. So I went to the Milkovich house to get it back.” 

Fiona was dumbfounded. Not many people had the balls to go to that house after all the rumors that circled around the SouthSide about them. 

“Okay, and then what happened?” 

Taking a deep breath, ian said, “I went in his room and kind poked him with a tire iron-” 

“What the fuck?” 

“He tried to fight me,” Ian recounted, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Jesus, I’m surprised that’s all he tried to do,” she shook her head. “Then what happened?” 

Given the sheepish smile and the way he wouldn’t look her in the eyes, Fiona is fairly sure she won’t like the answer. “We fucked.” 

“You fought and you fucked?” She said incredulously. 

“Yeah...” 

There was so much she wanted to say, but it was probably hypocritical considering she had her own Milkovich. Instead, she tucked a curl behind her ear, choosing her next word carefully. “Does anyone else know?” 

“No,” Ian said, looking pleadingly at her. “And you can’t tell anyone.” 

“I won’t,” she promised, taking a glance at the clock on the microwave. 

Still had around ten minutes ‘till she had to leave. 

“You're not upset,” Ian began, causing her to look his way, “are you?” 

The question kinda threw her off. “Upset about what?” 

“Me and Mickey,” he said quietly. 

“Ian, you know I don't have a problem with you being gay.” 

“No,” he shook his head, “not that. I mean because he's a Milkovich.” 

“I can't really say anything, can I?” She shrugged. “It’s surprisin’ but if you're happy that's all that matters. Besides, anyone can see Mickey clearly feels the same.” 

This information made Ian beam. He'd never really had any crushes  before like Lip did, at least any that he told her about. There was his whole obsession with Justin Timberlake, though, when he managed to get his hands on a CD and for a long while they all had to endure that music. 

“What about you and Colin?” Ian said, “How’d that happen?” 

“Would you believe I was drunk off my ass?” Fiona rolled her eyes. “Went to a new bar after a shitty shift. He was there too, didn’t even recognize him at first.” 

“And you...fucked?” Ian clarified. 

“Yeah,” she said simply. “Made out before that for a while before I realized who he was.” 

She’d initially not known what to think once some of the haze in her head cleared up a bit, staring into the bright eyes of Colin Milkovich. She’d heard all the rumors, of course, who hadn’t? She knew what a screwed up mess his family was, but it wasn’t like she had it any better with Frank and Monica. 

So Fiona said fuck it and went for it. The two of them had sex in the single stall bathroom for what she believed would be the first and only time. 

Only, it hadn’t been. 

The two of them found more ways to be around each other, coming into each other’s presence unnecessarily, which led to them to fuck on a non regular basis. 

Ian nodded, taking it all in. 

“Just promise me something,” she said once the silence started to settle. 

He sat up a little straighter. “What’s that?” 

“Promise me you’ll be safe?” She said seriously. “Their dad isn’t like Frank. He’s much worse and he’ll fuck you up and get a bunch of his buddies to do the same. If you want to be with Mickey, fine, but you need to be smart about it.” 

“I will,” he said immediately. “Don’t worry, Fi. We’ll be careful Mickey’s scared about it too.” 

“He told you that?” 

“Didn’t have to,” Ian said grimly. She let out a heavy sigh.  

It shouldn’t be like this. She shouldn't have to worry about her brother or his boyfriend getting jumped or worse. But as long as people like Terry Milkovich roamed the streets, neither one of them would be safe.

Her brother’s voice brought her out of her musings. 

“I didn't expect Colin to be okay with it.” 

“With Mickey being gay?” She said. 

He nodded. “I know Mandy's not like that but from what Mickey said, his brother and cousins all follow his dad's lead.” 

“He's not his dad,” Fiona knew that for a fact. “Neither is Iggy. They just can't let Terry know that.” 

“Jesus,” Ian muttered. He looked at her, like he was able to say something else. “Do you think Mickey's okay? I think he was a bit freaked out that you and Colin know.” 

“He's probably fine,” Fiona said. At least, she thought so. Whether Colin would handle this appropriately was debatable. When Ian yawned, she smiled fondly. “Get some sleep, Sweetface. You still got work later.” 

“Okay,” he got up to rinse his cup, dragging himself up the stairs. “Night, Fi.” 

“Night,” she watched him disappear around the corner. 

[heymacy]

it's weekly tag game wednesday thursday! i was tagged (and/or mentioned) by so many sweethearts, namely @jrooc, @creepkinginc, @doshiart, @mybrainismelted, @deedala,

@gardenerian, @blue-disco-lights, @spookygingerr, @thepupperino, @stocious,

@vintagelacerosette, & @palepinkgoat 💛 I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH (and if i missed anyone bc of the glitch i am so, so sorry!!!)

how did you get into the fandom? a friend of mine on twitter DM’d me a gallavich compilation video in mid-2020 and said “i think you might really like this show” — i’d tried watching it before in 2018 but only made it to 1x06 which is a CRIME. can you imagine if i’d kept going? insanity. anyway. the worms got me, i made a new tumblr in october 2020, and the rest is history ✨

how long have you been here? 3.75 years and counting

what’s the first fandom channel you found? (Youtube, Reddit, Tumblr, Insta, Twitter, FB, other?) YouTube, then tumblr

what’s your favourite now? tumblr now and forever

which mutual have you known the longest in the fandom? @7x10mickey — hi lizzie! ily lizzie!

which tumblerino’s did you have your first fandom crush(es) on and wanted to get to know? funny you should ask! my very first fandom crush was the beautiful, talented, spectacular @gardenerian. i was mesmerized by their gifs and their playlists and wanted to be their friend so i messaged them requesting a gif set based on a song from the show. cut to 3.5 years later and i’m packing a suitcase to visit them for the second time in a month. life is funny like that!

first Gallavich fan fic you read (or that blew you away that you remember) The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Ian Gallagher by @goodkwuestion. read it in like 3 days flat. one of the best pieces of literature, fanfiction or other, that i’ve ever read

first fan art that blew your mind? i don’t remember exactly which one but it was definitely one by @steorie — one of the first artists i followed in the fandom!

fanfic trope that you were sure wasn’t for you but now you low key (or high key) love? echoing @deedala (who also knows how deep it goes) and saying SPORTS AU!!!!!! boy oh boy. i am IN THE TRENCHES

what surprised you most about this fandom? how kind and considerate everyone is. i’ve never been a part of a community that is so welcoming and warm and it makes me all fuzzy (positive)

moment in the show (or YT vids if you’re one of those) that you fell in hyperfixation with Gallavich? the club kiss (though i was fixated after 1x07 i will not lie to y’all)

ian or mickey? i’m saying both and you can’t stop me!!!!

which Gallagher or Milkovich are you? fiona. hot mess, waffle knit henley tees, dreams of owning a laundromat, comes from a chaotic family, eldest daughter syndrome, always ugly crying for one reason or another

tags below the cut!

@too-schoolforcool, @mmmichyyy, @transmickey, @sam-loves-seb, @darlingian,

@deathclassic, @energievie, @michellemisfit, @sleepyfacetoughguy, @sleepyheadgallavich,

@crossmydna, @tanktopgallavich, @sickness-health-all-that-shit, @the-rat-wins, @transmurderbug,

@lee-ow, @callivich, @kiinard, @sluttymickey, @thisdivorce,

@xninetiestrendx, @y0itsbri, @captainjowl, @arrowflier, @astaraels,

@ardent-fox, @wehangout, @gallapiech, @roryonic, @mickittotheman,

@jademickian, @solitarycreaturesthey, @spacerockwriting, & @rayrayor

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Daughter of the Rain and Snow

Concept: Around ten years after the events of Crooked Kingdom, 25-year-old Captain Inej Ghafa frees Maya Olsen from a pleasure house in Ketterdam. Maya is looking for revenge against the man who put her in her position, a man who she knows nothing about except his name: Kaz Brekker.

Tags: @wraith--2 @lunarthecorvus @just2bubbly @real-fragments7 @cartoon-clifford @origami-butterfly @lady-a-stuff @thelibraryofalexandriastillburns @inej-ghafa-deserves-the-world @thatdelusionalnerd

If anyone wants to be added let me know :)

Content Warnings: in more general terms I want to remind people to be aware of the nature of Kaz and Inej's experiences and relationship since even if I'm not directly addressing these things they tend to be implicit in any writing about them, but specifically to this chapter there's ptsd references

AO3 link: Daughter of the Rain and Snow - Chapter 100 - She_posts_nerdy_stuff - Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo [Archive of Our Own]

Chapter 99 - Inej

Inej didn’t know how long she had slept for, leaning on Kaz with the curtains open and the sun still leaking through the window, because she wasn’t sure exactly when she’d fallen asleep, but it was afternoon when she awoke, her head clouded but less painful, the ache in her side dull and distant. Distant enough, anyway. Kaz was still there, still awake, still holding her. It must have been at least three hours, she thought.

“Kept myself busy,” he said, when she asked how he hadn’t lost his mind for boredom, “Started reading this,”

He showed her the book she’d left on the nightstand, the one she'd borrowed from Jesper.

“It’s not bad,” he said, “But there must be another twist coming, because I’d worked out who the father was by chapter three,”

Inej smiled. 

“Don’t tell Jesper that,”

She stood and stretched, still stiff but grateful for every ache in her muscles that meant she could still feel them, was still breathing, was still alive. 

“What time are we leaving tomorrow?”

“Six bells,”

Inej paused.

“We leave the house at six bells or the boat departs at six bells?”

“We leave the house. Our ferry departs at seven bells, the Wraith should be here by nine. I need to stop at the Slat to pick up the forged travel documents, and to tell Anika and Pim what time to get Rollins to the docks,”

Inej still wasn’t sure she liked this plan very much. She nodded.

“They bring him to Ravka,” she said, “Then when they return they pick up Maya. Fiona will need to be on the boat back to Ravka again, but I’ll need a Corporalnik on the team staying in Ketterdam to finish the Tulip Mill job. Do you think Evan would do it?”

“Possibly,” Kaz mused, “But it might depend how much time he can afford to spare. Or how much time Feliks will give him,”

Inej nodded. Kaz knew something she didn’t, and she wasn’t sure why he wasn’t telling her. Some kind of secret of Evan’s, she supposed. It shouldn’t matter.

“Can we put Maya in a Dregs safehouse until the Wraith returns?” she asked, pulling a clean tunic from the chest of drawers.

“I suppose,” said Kaz, “I can easily spare someone to watch her for a few weeks,”

Inej shook her head.

“It’s not just watching her; even if she’s better than I am she’s going to be ill, she’ll probably hallucinate - and she needs support anyway. Maybe I should ask Fiona to stay…”

Inej thought of Maya collapsing at the shelter, whispering Celina’s name. She did not voice that to Kaz.

Maybe not Fiona, then. But someone.

“I’ll speak to Nina,”

Kaz raised an eyebrow.

“She’s not coming to Ravka?”

Both of them had assumed Nina would follow them on the Wraith. Inej had actually assumed Nina would come on the ferry with them, but at some point it had all been organised and Nina was staying behind.

“Are you sure you don’t need me to come?” Nina had asked, hand closed over Inej’s, not long after Inej had first woken up after her hallucination.

Nina had never actually offered to come, only made the assumption that Inej would expect her to. Are you sure you don’t need me to come? Need. Not want. Inej frowned. Nina had been slightly off all week, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was she wasn’t telling her. She would not force her to say anything she didn’t want to.

“I need you to help look after the girls for me,” she’d murmured, resting her head on Nina’s shoulder, “And to look after Jesper and Wylan,”

Nina leant her head on Inej’s.

“I’ll write to you every day,”

“You’d better,”

Nina had laughed, softly.

“I promise,” she murmured, “Kaz packed you a bag, but if there’s anything particular you want I can go and get it,”

“Have you seen the scarf Aimee made for me? I think it’s downstairs,”

Nina squeezed Inej’s shoulder, then stood up.

“I’ll go find it,”

Now Inej shook her head, shrugging a little.

“I asked her to help Jesper and Wylan with the girls,” she said, “But maybe she can stay with Maya instead, I don’t… I’ll talk to her,”

It was all too complicated for Inej to keep track of. She sat in the living room and explained what she could to Aimee and Kiada, then spent most of the day’s remainder curled on one of the sofas and talking quietly to whomever wandered in and out. Both Jesper and Wylan sat with her for a while at some point; each at different times and she knew they didn’t want to leave Clemmie alone. She asked them both the same question.

“How is she?”

“Hard to say,” murmured Wylan.

“Terrible,” said Jesper, “But what else are we supposed to expect?” 

Kaz stayed with her most of the day. He was quiet, most of the time, but spoke softly to Aimee and Kiada - and Inej could probably have kept perfect track of time by counting how many times he’d asked how she was feeling. Every ten minutes, like clockwork. 

“I’m thirsty,” she told him, and before she could continue he replied:

“Oh, good. I was starting to wonder if ‘fine’ was the only word in your vocabulary,”

Inej squeezed his hand and made to stand up.

“I’m going to get a cup of tea,”

“No you’re not,”

He pulled gently on her arm and she let him sit her back down, leaning her up to him as he stood and his lips briefly pressed against her forehead. He turned to the girls and offered them a drink - they both declined - and then walked slowly from the room. And so he was not there, when Nina came and said that she thought Maya was dying.

“It’s far worse than we thought,” Nina murmured, “She’s completely delirious. If we don’t-”

Inej lay a hand on Nina’s arm to quiet her, and glanced at Aimee and Kiada. Nina nodded.

“She’s barely conscious,” Nina said in Ravkan, “She’s awake but she’s not… here, I don’t know - it’s like she’s dreaming,”

“Evan said she had eight months,” Inej replied, matching Nina’s language choice. She shook her head, “How-?”

“A Corpoalnik can’t tell what’s happening in her brain,” said Nina, “It’s too complex - that’s why he couldn’t stop the hallucinations. The poison isn’t only affecting her body it’s affecting her memory, her -”

“What are you telling me, Nina?”

“I’m saying she needs to go. Now”

Inej breathed. 

“She can’t come with us,” she said, “I can’t put her on the Wraith with Alby. We cannot get her to Ravka for at least another two weeks-”

“If she sets off now she might not survive the journey,” Nina bit her lip, “She needs to get there as soon as possible, can’t the Wraith take her first and come back for Alby?”

Inej pressed her fingers to her eyelids.

It would be taking a risk to leave Alby at the Slat for that long. And would they even be able to help Maya without him? If Kaz was right about needing to know what poison he’d used, probably not. Saints, this felt like a terrible plan.

“The Wraith will have to take them both,” she whispered, opening her eyes, “But I’ll already be gone before they get here, will you be able to get her to the docks? I’ll leave a message for Specht so he knows the new plan,”

Nina nodded.

This felt like a disaster waiting to happen. But it also felt like the only viable option.

*

The sun was almost dawning when Inej reluctantly let Kaz drag her out of bed. 

“I left you to sleep as long as possible,” he whispered, “But we need to go,”

Inej groaned softly; Kaz wass pushing the loose hair off her face and she turned slightly so that he was cupping her cheek as she slowly opened her eyes. He wasn’t wearing his gloves.

“I’m tired,”

He shook his head.

“Of all the times to finally accept that you need to rest,” he told her, taking her arm and pulling her to sit up, “Now is just about the worst one you could have chosen,”

“What time is it?”

“Five bells. Ina Harte’s clothes are on the chair; we’re leaving in an hour,”

He pressed the back of her hand to his lips, and then he was gone. Inej had thought the names were only for the travel documents - why did she have to wear specific clothes? Had she forgotten part of the plan? That felt dangerous. It felt frightening.

She had tried to explain everything to Maya last night, so she would be ready or at least understand what was going on, but she wasn’t sure it had made a difference to anything. Maya spent most of the time looking at her without seeing that she was there, staring straight through her with blank eyes. When she did notice Inej was talking to her, she either panicked or shut down. It took a long conversation to not say very much.

Inej stretched and then collected the clothes Kaz had left for her, and realised why he’d chosen them. She had not forgotten the plan. She had forgotten that the Hartes were middle class - and Kaz was insistent on them looking believable.

At least it was a fairly simple dress, as such things went - this was Kerch, after all. The clothes were not nearly as frivolous as Inej had thought of the higher Ravkan classes. But it was not as comfortable as her trousers and quilted vest, nor did it have nearly as many places to carry her knives. It also wasn’t as subtle. She drew the line at putting a fluffy white feather in her little hat. That was just unnecessary. 

The scarf from Aimee did not really match the outfit. Inej didn't care; nothing could have stopped her from wearing it.

Kaz had already collected the forged travel documents and Inej stood by the front door reading hers with a frown; the description said Ina’s hair was shorter than hers, but other than that was accurate enough to pass. Considering that Mikhael and Ina were complete fabrications, Inej wasn’t sure why they couldn’t have descriptions that matched themselves perfectly, but Kaz had shaken his head and pointed to the dates.

“No-one actually looks the exact same as their description,” he said, “That would be more suspicious. And your hair could have easily grown since the last renewal,”

“What about yours?”

“What about it?”

“It doesn’t say you have a scar,” she ran her finger down the faint white line on Kaz’s face, a remnant that had been slowly fading for the last ten years, “Just hoping they wouldn’t notice?”

Kaz smiled, caught her hand in his, pressed it to his heart.

They hadn’t woken the girls - she’d said goodbye to them last night and it was unnecessary to interrupt their sleep, but Inej still felt strange just walking out on them. They would be safe here. She knew that. But it made her nervous. Jesper and Wylan appeared in the hallway at the almost the same time, and before anyone had a chance to begin their goodbyes Jesper burst out laughing.

“What are you wearing?”

“Careful Fahey,” Inej winked, swishing the wide skirt of dress, “The pockets are still big enough to carry my brass knuckles,”

She released Nina’s arm to move into the hug Jesper was offering her, his long arms folding over her back so tightly he might never let go. 

“Be safe,” 

“I’ll try,”

She drew away slowly, gripping his hand in hers. His eyes were slightly misty as she squeezed his fingers and whispered:

“Thank you,”

“Oh, well, you know,” Jesper winked, “It’s what I do,”

He shuffled a little. Wylan hovered for a moment before Inej took his hand and pulled him close.

“I’ll see you soon,” she murmured, “And if I’m delayed you’d better not have that wedding without me,”

He laughed.

“Never,”

Nina walked them to the docks, listening to Inej repeat the plan for bringing Maya later. Inej was beginning to suspect that Nina was just humouring her, but she didn’t care because she needed to make sure that she’d done everything she could. She walked with her arm hook through Nina’s, leaning on her slightly, watching Kaz’s walking stick strike the cobbles in front of her. He’d exchanged his crow’s head cane for a less conspicuous option, and she wondered if there had been enough space in his trunk to pack his usual one for when they arrived. It looked like it might just be big enough, but it was hard to tell without actually lying them next to each other. 

The air grew colder as they approached the water and Inej tugged on her sleeve slightly. She was wondering how much Kaz had spent on these last minute tickets, and what their cabin was going to be like. She was wondering if there would be separate beds, in case he needed it. A week in close quarters was a long time. A week on a boat with nowhere to run to whilst Inej could start collapsing or losing her mind at any moment was going to be infinitely longer. She should have suggested other options. Kaz wouldn’t have taken them. 

“Write every day,” Inej said, clutching Nina’s hand, "Just constantly. I want an hour by hour run down of your life,”

Nina smiled.

“Minute by minute,” she pulled Inej close and kissed her on the cheek, “It’s going to be okay. You- it’s all going to be okay,”

Inej nodded. She was trying not to cry.

She pressed her forehead against Nina’s.

“Ne Zalost,” she whispered, laughing softly.

Nina smiled.

“Ne Zalost,”

[random-thot-generator]

Love Thy Frenemy + Ch. 4

(Frenemies/Tenderness AU)

FOUR: Like Heartbreaking New Friends

SIMON ‘GHOST’RILEY X FRENEMY FEM READER

Summary: You and ‘Riley’ are learning to navigate this tenuous new friendship, but he’s not going to make it easy for either of you.

Warnings/Tags: Profanity, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Simon is struggling, So is Reader, No Y/N

(Notes: It’s three months after the last chapter, and Simon is sandbagging and self-sabotaging as only the big man can do, but we love him anyway. This is a shorter chapter, because I had to cut the original in half. Should have another chapter up as soon as give the next part a rewrite. Hope you enjoy.) ...  [Image via GIPHY]

Word Count: 1919

Chapter: 4

-

“We tiptoed around each other like heartbreaking new friends.”

― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

You're watching the clock. It's nearing the end of your shift and you're more than ready to go home. You'd had another row with Riley the day before and your sleep was miserable last night because of it. All you want to do right now is to lie down in a dark room and take a bloody nap.

The arguing is something that has become commonplace between the two of you. He's hot and cold, pulling you close only to push you away again, but he never takes it to the extent he did that first time. He's learned his limit with you, it seems.

Even when he's angry enough to leave, he never goes far and returns to you usually after a sleepless night for the both of you. He still tries to be angry and seethes, but he's not fooling anyone; he's a spent storm, his thunder and lightning reduced to a few low grumblings and flickering eyes. Once his storm has run its course, he resets to zero, and the process starts all over again.

When Riley ‘resets’, he usually shows up with your favorite scones or some trinket he's picked up while deployed. It's his way of apologizing now. He refuses to verbally apologize to you anymore. Apparently, you forfeited that right when you let him back into the pub that night. It seems as if he's never going to forgive you for opening that door for him. More than three months on, and he's still going out of his way to test your mettle as his friend.

He pretends to be an uncomplicated man; he is anything but. He is a high-walled fortress that's riddled with pitfalls and funhouse mirrors. You have to tread lightly with him. While you're certain he would never physically lash out at you for overstepping, he will slash you with his sharp tongue without a second thought. You've learned the hard way that his bite is worse than his bark. You've got the scars on your ego to prove it.

Still, you don't give up. You’re determined to prove him wrong. So, you’ve toughened up. You’ve grown a thicker skin, and now you watch him gnaw at you in frustration because he can’t stay away. You know this, because it’s the same for you; you can’t stay away, either. So, you just keep running at each other. It’s like a convoluted game of chicken.

You glanced back up at the clock and watched another minute tick by. You were so bloody tired...

Fiona showed up for the evening shift early, and you'd never been so happy to see someone in your life. That is, until she mentioned Riley.

"He was in a bloody mood last night," she commented darkly, tying on her apron. "Poutin' all evenin’, he was.”  She waited a beat before asking, "So, what’d ya do to set ‘im off this time?" she teased, raising her brows.

You snorted. "Oh, it was terrible, what I did! I wished him a happy anniversary."

"Wot?" she laughed, frowning in confusion. “Anniversary?”

"I meant it as a joke. It was a year ago that I loaned him that first book." You peered out the window, frowning, noting the lowering, dark clouds. "We've been friends for a year. He tried to argue that it hadn’t been that long. It was just... really stupid."

Fi snorted a derisive sound. "Are ya sure yer friends?" she quipped, nudging your arm. "The way the two of ya go at it sometimes, I worry he's goin' teh pinch yer fool head off."

You groaned when you saw a few raindrops splatter against the window. Great. You'd be walking home in the rain, from the looks of it. What a perfect way to end your shite day. You gave an absent shake of your head. "You won't ever have to worry about that," you murmured, distracted, grimacing when rain drops began to pelt the pavement outside. "Riley wouldn’t lay a finger on me. I don’t think he likes touching me. Avoids it like the plague."

You didn't notice Fiona's confused expression. She opened her mouth to say something, but you glanced up at the clock, then grabbed your bag from beneath the bar. “I’m gonna go ahead and leave before the rain gets too bad. Text me later, yeah?”

“Sure, love. Be careful,” she murmured, still a little mystified by your statement.

You left through the kitchen exit, borrowing one of the rain slickers and an umbrella from the collection kept by the door. Head down, umbrella lowered, you turned in the direction of home and set out.

Simon didn’t even recognize you when he passed by and pulled up at the curb in front of the pub. Jumping out of his truck, he hurried to the door and swept inside, startling Fiona and Ollie who were still setting up for the evening. He looked between the two of them and then glanced around. “Where is she?” he grumbled, not bothering to elaborate. They both knew who he was talking about.

“She just left. Didn’t ya see her?” Fi replied.

Simon’s hands curled into fists at his sides. “No.” He whirled around and swept back out without so much as a goodbye.

Ollie huffed a laugh and shook his head. Fiona stared after him, then turned her head to her boss. “D’ya know what Dee told meh a’fore she left? She said Riley doesn’t like touchin' her. Says he avoids it like the plague.” She quirked her brow up and grinned.

Ollie scoffed. “Fer such a bright lass, she’s dumb as a box o’ rocks sometimes,” he said, shaking his head. “The only thing that eejit’s avoidin’ is the inevitable.”

Simon found you trudging along about a block away from the Dog, umbrella held low enough to hide your face. Driving ahead of you, he pulled over to the curb and rolled down the window, waiting. When you came up beside him, he barked out, “Oi! What are ya doin’?”

You startled and stepped sideways, raising the umbrella to stare at him. “Bloody hell, Riley! You scared the daylights out of me!”

He grunted. “I have that effect on people. Ya didn’t answer my question. What are ya doin’?”

“Unnh... I’m going home. Why?”

Simon dithered between two choices: ask you to let him take you home or tell you he was taking you home. He knew how you would react to each. He made his choice without a second thought.

“Get in the truck.”

Your little scowl was instant. You hated being told what to do. “No.”

He huffed a low bark of laughter. “Turn down a free ride ‘cause yer still pissed at me? Didn’t take ya for the petty type, doll.”

Your scowl deepened. “Quit calling me doll. I’m not your stupid toy.”

His brows twitched together for just an instant, but then smoothed back out. “Quit bein’ such a bloody brat about it. Anyone with a lick o’ common sense would already be sittin’ in the damn truck.” He said it like a thinly-veiled dare.

Smug bastard.

A debate raged in your brain. You wanted to tell him to fuck off but knew how childish, how ‘bratty’ that would sound. He’d give you hell for it. Growling under your breath, you stomped around and got into the truck.

Simon rolled the window up and waited for you to get settled. He let you huff and puff yourself out, that mean little scowl still bunching your brows together as you fussed around with your bag and umbrella. When you drew your seatbelt across your lap and latched it, he put the truck back into gear and pulled back out onto the street.

He glanced over at you, noting the dark smudges under your eyes, the tired expression in them. He felt pretty much the same. He hadn’t slept for shite the night before, cursing himself and you for the stupid argument the two of you had. You just wouldn’t back down and he couldn’t. Not when you looked that good, with your ire and your color up, eyes bright and focused.

On him.

It seemed like he lived to rile you up these days. He was addicted to it, to that fire, that bloody sass, your sharp little tongue. You devolved into a snarky little brat when he pissed you off, and it drove him bloody mad.

“Need t’make a stop?”

You shook your head, letting it loll on the headrest. It was hard to stay mad at a man that owned a truck with seat warmers. “’M fine. Just along for the ride,” you murmured, closing your eyes. You snuggled deeper into the seat and sighed.

It was hard for him to stay focused on the road with you looking like that. You looked so damn pretty that way, completely trusting of him, eyes closed, your body relaxed. Even your scowl had evened out, your brow now smooth and uncreased, all the anger and stress dissipated. His fingers twitched, wanting to reach out and wrap around that spot just above your knee. He wanted to curl his fingers into the soft flesh there, tuck them into the bend of your knee, caress it with his thumb...

He blinked when headlights flashed, drawing him out of his thoughts. Scowling, he doubled his efforts to refocus on the road. He threw an angry glance your way. Every sodding time he got around you, he ended up like this. His eyes slid back to you of their volition before he forced them back on the road, gritting his teeth. He needed a bloody distraction.

“Yer a shite date, Dee. This why yer home every night watchin’ the telly?”

He was expecting your eyes to snap open with anger sparking in them. He was expecting that mean little scowl and a hissed insult. He didn’t get any of that. Instead, your brows furrowed up over your closed eyes, and you gave a gentle scoff, flopping your arms in your lap. “Ugh... please, Ri. I’m so tired.”

And just like that, the flame inside him was tamped down, his head cooling as his chest warmed. The way you said it, not angry, just so bloody tired.

Back in control and feeling contrite, he let the tension fall out of his shoulders and settled more comfortably into his seat with a sigh. “Yeah. Alright... Dee,” he rumbled out, soft and low. “Jus’ rest.”

You both rode in silence for a long minute, and then you reached over and took his hand. He flinched, but you didn’t pull away, hanging on with a gentle hold. “I don’t mind you calling me doll, Riley. I just don’t like everyone calling me that. It’s not for them, ya know?”

Simon swallowed past the lump in his throat. It wasn’t for them. It was for him. Just him.

He squeezed your hand. “Yeah. I get it, doll.”

You nodded and closed your eyes again, letting your hand slip back to your lap. It wasn’t long before your breaths evened out and deepened.

Simon drove around Banfield for another hour, just to let you sleep.

-

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[beth--b]

All Fall Down

Pairing: Geralt/Jaskier

Characters: Jaskier, Geralt of Rivia, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon

Prompt: Exhaustion

Tags: Exhaustion, jaskier whump, post season 2, post relationship but also pre relationship

Word count: 1355

Chapters: 1/1

Completed: yes

Summary: After the fight with Deathless Mother Jaskier is exhausted but ignores his own needs until he can't ignore them anymore.

Link: read it on ao3 here

@jaskierwhumpweek

Jaskier felt like he could sleep for a fucking year.

He had never been so utterly exhausted, so thoroughly wrung out in his life.

The sleepless nights helping elves as the Sandpiper, the fucking torture, going to prison, and let's not forget the Deathless Mother and Ciri's possession. The terrible loss of so many Witchers from a place that should have been safe, from their home.

Yet, he knew he could not rest, not yet.

There was work to be done and he needed to pull his weight. The Keep had already been half ruined even before hell had been unleashed upon them, now the main hall of the Keep was almost destroyed.

So he pushed aside the way his limbs felt so heavy he could hardly hold himself up, the way his eyes burned even when closed, and set about helping wherever he could.

He found himself helping Lambert move broken furniture, helping Coen collect medallions from the fallen witchers. He found himself on hands and knees scrubbing blood from the floor. Until finally, he found himself face to face with a Cintran Princess, turned Witcher trainee who was looking as though she would burst into tears at the slightest provocation.

" Ciri?" Jaskier asked after a few moments silence, "Ciri are you alright? Actually, of course you aren't. Stupid question to ask you at a time like this. I know there is no way that you could possibly be alright my dear, but is there anything I can do to help you?"

Ciri looked down at her hands, twisting her fingers together in what must have been a nervous habit. Finally she seemed to steel herself and faced him once more.

"Could you sing for me?"

Jaskier gave the girl a tired smile and nodded.

"Of course. How about we head to your room and I'll sing you a song or two to help you sleep?"

"Thank you, I'm not sure I can sleep after…well, after all that, but thank you."

She led Jaskier further into the keep until she opened a door to a small, freezing cold room.

Jaskier looked appalled at the freezing room and shook his head in mute horror.

"This is your room?" he finally asked, the words hard to get out from sheer disbelief.

Ciri just nodded.

"Right, we are going to find GeraIt." 

Jaskier set off back towards the hall where he had last seen Geralt. By the time they found him, Jaskier was feeling his exhaustion deep within his very bones, his vision beginning to go hazy around the edges. But he was determined that Ciri would not spend another night in that freezing closet of a room.

"Geralt we need to talk about Ciri's sleeping arrangements," the bard said, coming to a stop before the white haired witcher.

"Not really the time Jaskier," Geralt replied as he hefted more broken stones into his arms to be moved to a pile with other rubble and debris from the fight.

Jaskier followed Geralt, determined to help Ciri in any way he could.

"No Geralt, that girl has been through enough, please do not tell me you think her room is acceptable?"

Geralt sighed and turned to face Jaskier knowing the bard wouldn't let this go if he didn't. 

"Ciri is sleeping where all trainee Witcher's have stayed, Jaskier. It's what she wanted."

Jaskier ran a hand down his face, his exhaustion forgotten momentarily in exasperation. 

"My dear, she may wish to be a Witcher now but she was a princess up until recently. A very fucking traumatised one at that. The poor child needs a room that is not half filled with snow. How she hasn't fucking frozen to death I don't even know. Now tell me where she can sleep?"

Geralt looked guilty for a moment as though he realised he should have done better. He simply nodded once then turned on his heel and left the room, Jaskier and Ciri following.

Jaskier wasn't really aware as he followed Geralt down various passageways, lost in exhaustion he only came back to himself when Geralt stopped to open a door to a bedroom. 

The room was cold, because of course it was, but the windows were intact and there was a small hearth. Geralt set about lighting a fire while Jaskier helped Ciri into the small bed, the girl looked ready to fall asleep on her feet.

Once Ciri was settled Jaskier tucked her in and promised her a song the next day. 

Ciri nodded sleepily, murmured a thank you and closed her eyes.

With Ciri as good as asleep, both men left the room quietly.

Back out in the hall Jaskier's own lack of sleep caught up with him, the bard stumbling as he tried to set off back down the hall.

Strong arms caught him around the waist, stopping him from falling face first to the stone floor.

"Jaskier, you alright?" GeraIt's voice rumbled in his ear.

Jaskier tried to answer but he couldn't seem to find the words, his ears were ringing and his vision had gone fuzzy. He faintly registered Geralt's startled cry of 'fuck' before everything went dark.

When Jaskier woke he was not in the room he had commandeered when he arrived at Kaer Morhen. No, this room felt far more lived in. He was covered in warm furs, there was a fire crackling in the small hearth and there were a few personal items around the room, a few books and some very familiar swords hanging on the wall. He was in Geralt's room.

Just as he reached this conclusion the Witcher in question opened the door. He had a tray in his arms with what appeared to be a mug of tea and a bowl of porridge.

"Geralt? What happened?"

Instead of answering, Geralt just sat the tray on the bed within easy reach of the bard then moved to sit in front of the fire.

He watched in silence as Jaskier drank his tea and ate his breakfast. When Jaskier was done Geralt retrieved the tray, placing it near the door before coming to sit beside Jaskier on the bed.

"What happened is that you pushed yourself so far past your limits that you passed out. You were out for the rest of the day and night," Geralt paused as though he was debating whether or not to say something more. Finally he seemed to reach a decision, reaching out for the bard's hand and giving it a light squeeze. "You scared the shit out of me Jask, please don't do that again."

"Sorry my dear, there had just been so much going on…it's been a long few days. Months really if I'm honest. Smuggling elves, torture and prison followed by a crazy night of possession and monsters really takes it out of a man," Jaskier explained, fighting back a yawn despite the apparently long sleep he had just woken on.

"Wait, torture and smuggling elves? What the fuck?"

Jaskier looked at Geralt in confusion, "Didn't Yennefer tell you I was in Oxenfurt?"

"Yes but she just said you were in trouble, I found you in a prison cell Jaskier and assumed that was the trouble."

"Ah well that makes me feel a little better actually. I did think you might have wanted to know about what happened with the whole torture thing but you never asked and quite frankly I didn't want to think about it," Jaskier looked at their still joined hands and tried not to think about his time with the fire mage, barely suppressing a shudder.

"I won't push but you can talk to me when you're ready. I know I fucked up after the dragon hunt but I don't want to lose you again."

"Thank you Geralt, maybe not now but soon. Now I'm still tired and you look wrecked. Will you join me for a little while?"

Geralt nodded and climbed under the covers, wrapping his arms around the bard. They had a lot to talk about but for now they would just enjoy being in each other's company once more.

[daffi-990]

Fuck it Friday 👨‍🚒

Tagged by the beautiful and kind @tizniz 💕 (and tagged by so many others this week. I read all your snippets and appreciate you all so much for tagging me xx)

Soooooo … I wrote this ages ago, probably when I was maybe only 3 or 4 chapters into Rival Firefighters 🚒, and I’m happy to finally be able to share it cos I’m finally up to the chapter it’s going to be in!

That’s right -> I finished Chapter Eight today and have officially moved onto Chapter Nine! 😭🙌🏻

So here’s a snippet directly from the notes app of my phone (that will soon be moving over to google docs because we’re at chapter nine baby!!!)

Prev snippet here.

“What’s up, Buck?”

Buck shifts his weight from one foot to the other nervously. “Uh, say hypothetically two firefighters from the same station were to start dating? What uh- would one of them have to transfer or something? Like what would happen?”

“Well for starters they’d have to fill out some paperwork.” Bobby explains. “Just declaration of relationship stuff. Then while the paperwork gets processed and reviewed by HR, they’d be required to work seperate shifts, if they didn’t already.” He leans back in his chair. “Once the paperwork has been processed, it’s ultimately up to the Captain of the station on what happens. If they feel the couple in question can continue to work together without their relationship getting in the way, then things can carry on like normal.”

“And uh- if the Captain feels like they can’t work together anymore?” Buck looks up nervously.

“I don’t think you need to worry about that, Buck.” Bobby says gently, “Hypothetically of course.” He gives Buck a knowing smile.

Buck exhales in relief, hands coming up to rub at his eyes and drag down his face before dropping back into his lap.

“Thanks, Bobby”

“Anytime. Should I be getting some paperwork ready soon?”

“I’m not- I’m not sure. Haven’t even talked to him about uh, how I feel yet. Who knows if he feels the same.”

“Buck,” Bobby’s voice is kind yet amused, like he knows something Buck doesn’t, “I’ll get started on the paperwork.”

Oh.

Oh. 

No pressure tagging: @diazsdimples @spotsandsocks @hippolotamus @wikiangela @wildlife4life @watchyourbuck @athenagranted @fortheloveofbuddie @thewolvesof1998 @exhuastedpigeon @elvensorceress @eddiebabygirldiaz @epicbuddieficrecs @evanbegins @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @spagheddiediaz @rainbow-nerdss @rewritetheending @devirnis @disasterbuckdiaz @theotherbuckley @try-set-me-on-fire @steadfastsaturnsrings @puppyboybuckley @princessfbi @prettyboybuckley @fiona-fififi @giddyupbuck @honestlydarkprincess @homerforsure @hoodie-buck @jeeyuns @jesuisici33 @missmagooglie @mellaithwen @monsterrae1 @malewifediaz @lover-of-mine @ladydorian05 @loserdiaz @captain-hen @bekkachaos @nmcggg and anyone else who wants to share something ❤️

[freewayshark]

Wip Wednesday

It’s been a minute, huh? My ability and desire to write has mostly flown the coop as of late + I’ve been having life stuff, but I did write this little piece of something that may or may not ever go anywhere but I miss sharing something, so.

Tagged today by @rewritetheending @sibylsleaves and @transboybuckley but a lot of people over the last few weeks, so thank you.

When Eddie Diaz is twenty-six years old, he packs up his son and the life they’ve squeezed out in the gaps of his parents’ iron grip and moves them to Los Angeles.

But that’s not where their story starts.

Their story starts when Eddie is eighteen, and he wakes from a dream with a baby on his chest.

He knows immediately what he’s done. The dream itself is still fresh in his mind, one where he loves and is loved unconditionally, where he has something that’s just for him. Where there are parts of him that are good, and made of sunshine, and loved instantly by anyone he meets.

And he knows the baby boy sleeping on his chest is made up of all those wants and desires as sure as he knows he’s the one who made him.

He should be ashamed. He hasn’t dreamt anything by accident since he was a child. Certainly not something living.

But he looks down at the baby—his baby—and he feels nothing but love.

“Christopher,” he whispers without any thought, but it’s right.

I have very little idea who’s writing lately because I’m not spending a lot of time here but tagging: @fiona-fififi @panbuckley @transbuck @gayhoediaz @heartbeatdiaz @911onabc @elvensorceress

[elvensorceress]

fuck it friday ⚡️

tagged by @alyxmastershipper @sibylsleaves @monsterrae1 @cowboy-buddie @fiona-fififi @spotsandsocks @buddierights @wikiangela @heartbeatdiaz @prince-buck-diaz @panbuckley @ebdaydreamer

tagging @shortsighted-owl @hippolotamus @bigassdiaz @ronordmann @wh0re-behavi0r @messyhairdiaz @rogerzsteven @spaceprincessem @911onabc @bekkachaos @shitouttabuck @mysteriouslyyounggalaxy @eddiesbicowboy @transboybuckley @the-likesofus @jobairdxx @wildlife4life @babytrapperdiaz @thisyearsloveisnow @chaosandwolves @littlebitofdiaz @buck-eddie @gentoodiaz @fleurdebeton 💕💕💕 If you have anything you want to share or talk about or post 🤗💜

More Catching Lightning ⚡️ this directly follows this scene I posted which I have since edited and reposted because ajsdfdkljs it just wasn’t right yet don’t look at me. Have a good long chunk because I haven’t been around much and I miss you all 😘 

CW for some discussion of suicidal ideation (the boys have issues. we’re working on it 😵‍💫)

Eddie’s heart died. How do either of them feel anything after that? 

Isolating yourself, feeling like you don’t belong and can’t relate anymore, withdrawing and detaching yourself from loved ones, preoccupying yourself with death, losing your sense of self and purpose, your life losing meaning when you only feel guilty for surviving… all classic responses to this kind of trauma. And why Frank has a very busy, very full schedule.

Buck half shrugs, half nods. “We talk about it sometimes. Me and Natalia. We talk about death. Because that’s what she does. Helps people come to terms with dying. But I’m not facing down my death right now. It already happened. End of life care is about comfort, pain management, fulfilling mental and emotional needs, whatever spiritual needs someone has. You make amends as much as you can. You say goodbye. You tell people you— you tell people you love them. You make sure they know that you love them. You come to terms with being done and that there are things you never accomplished or got to have. Stuff like that. What I went through is different. I don’t know how much it helps. To talk with her. She doesn’t get death like what I went through.”

Eddie gives him a sideways look. “Is that why you were interested in her? Because she helps people who are dying?” 

“No. Partly. Maybe. I don’t know. Sort of. I figured it couldn’t hurt. She was curious about it and I could talk about what happened and it didn’t make her look at me weird. She thought it was cool.” 

So tales of Buck’s many almost-deaths were attempting to recapture magic. Wonderful. 

“But I don’t know what to think anymore. It feels like something should have come out of it. It feels like I shouldn’t be the same. I should have answers. I should know what the fuck I’m doing. I should be able to choose things and pick a new couch I’m comfortable with. I-I should be able to find meaning in my life. I should know how to be happy. I should know what happiness is for me. I died. I can say I’m going to make every day count and I’m going live my life to the fullest and I’m lucky and thankful to be alive. But what does it even mean? What is happiness? What do I do now? I don’t know what to do. Why don’t I get a moment of clarity? Why does nothing make sense? Why am I still lost and confused and stuck? Why don’t I get any answers?”

“You’re expecting death to give you answers?” That’s— even for Buck that’s bad. All of this is. 

“I don’t know. I keep thinking about Lev and how he said he figured it all out right before he died. But he didn’t come back. Maybe he wouldn’t remember anything if he had.” Buck lifts and drops his hands in utter hopelessness. “I just. I know I was waiting. I wasn’t going to rush into anything. But it made me feel normal. It made me feel something like myself. It’s just fun and lighthearted and I don’t have to worry about anything or—”

“Or feel anything? Because feeling anything is too much?”

“What if it is?” 

“In that case, you get to be me this time instead of Ana. That’s how that works. You tell yourself everything is nice, no pressure, you’re having fun, it’s not serious. It’s easy because nothing means anything. Until she’s invested and you aren’t because you can’t feel anything. And maybe you try and you think you can fake it or that it won’t matter as long as you’re convincing. But you’ll never love her and you know it. And you just end up hurting her.” 

Buck looks at him, studies him for a long moment, and Eddie isn’t sure if he’s analyzing his own life or if he’s contemplating Eddie’s. Maybe both, because Buck doesn’t really respond. He only says, “I feel like I’m trying to swim and I’m treading water and I keep getting hit with these waves that pull me under and then I don’t know which direction is up or if I’m supposed to drown. But every day I’m alive, it feels like it wasn’t supposed to happen. It feels like I shouldn’t be here. I can say it’s a gift. Life. I think it is, and I’m thankful I still have one. But I don’t know what to feel. Or who I am anymore.”

A fracture goes right down the middle of Eddie’s heart and he wishes he could just hold him and protect him and offer any comfort that might help. He wants to reach out. He wants to reach out and touch him, find him solid and alive under his own hands. Where Eddie can pour comfort and healing into all his wounds. But he can’t. They can’t ever touch anymore. Eddie can’t fix him. Eddie can’t even help him. Too much feels severed. What does he say? What can ever help? 

Maybe a safe place where Buck easily falls asleep and a cup of filtered water and hope that there’s something after pain and death and confusion. And a night where they were never apart. 

He never wants to be apart. 

“Everything feels different when you get that close to death and come back from it,” Eddie says, as carefully, lovingly as he did the night Buck hid out with them because it was sanctuary. It was a refuge and he could be at peace. He could be somewhere that is always offered as a home for him. Buck is always part of their home. “Nothing feels real. You don’t know what is real and what isn’t. You don’t know if you’re dying again or if your brain just decided it would be fun to make you panic. Everyone else moves and keeps moving forward, but you can get stuck in that moment where you almost died. It’s all you can think of, it’s all you can feel.” 

Blood and pain and lightning and burning and the agony of separation. It’s always there. It’s wedged between them. And he can’t reach. He can never reach. He tries and Buck is too far away. He tries and he’s not strong enough to lift him by the single thread miraculously binding them together. 

Eddie breathes deeply and it still feels like everything in his chest is broken. “I wish I could tell you how to climb out of that. I never handled it well. Sometimes, all you can do is survive and keep surviving. But you can’t avoid it. And cutting yourself away from people you love and who love you will only make it a thousand times worse.” 

Buck folds his hands together like he doesn’t know what to do with them. He blinks like his eyes are stinging and welling up. “My parents told me I was born to save someone. And when I was in a coma, in that world where everything was fucked up, they actually loved me. I almost wanted to stay just for that. Because here, they had me to save my brother. They had me to save him and I didn’t save him. And here, I’m a firefighter. And I love being a firefighter because I get to help people, I love helping people, taking care of them. But I keep feeling like I’m only here for that. Because of that. And I want to be here for me, not because I’m trying to live for someone else. I want to live for me because I want to live. I want to feel like I’m worth living for. I want my life to be worth living just because it’s mine. I know that’s what I should feel. I want to feel like I should be alive. But I don’t really feel like that right now.” 

Eddie’s heart just shatters all over again. He knows all too well what that is like. Far too well. He wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Not even a certain soulless, selfish, demon reporter. 

“It is worth it, Evan,” he says because that lonely, unloved little boy needs to hear it. “Your life is very worth it. Not because you save other people. They might have had you to save someone, but that is not why your life is worth living. You are worth it just because you exist. You don’t have to do anything or be anything. And I know it’s really hard to feel like it sometimes. That’s why I worry. And why I get angry and hate when you hurt yourself. I hate when you act like you don’t matter. I know feeling like you don’t deserve to be alive. That is exactly how I had a breakdown. It’s exactly how I almost killed myself last year. I wanted to.”

Buck’s face contorts and tears spill down his cheeks. “Eddie.” 

“I didn’t. I wouldn’t. I just—” he stops and pushes away wetness from his own eyes. “I felt it.” 

Buck reaches for him but stops himself before they touch. His breath hitches and he tries to wipe at his face. But more tears fall. 

Eddie offers his hands, open palms in the space between them. Just in case. 

Buck takes them and sinks to his knees on the floor in front of Eddie like he might collapse and sob on Eddie’s lap. Eddie catches him instead and curls down around him, holding Buck’s head to his chest. 

Buck clings to him maybe out of fear. But maybe he never wants to let go. His hands clench in Eddie’s uniform and he holds on with what has to be all of his strength. It’s hard, constricting, binding, and Eddie never wants him to let go.

It makes Eddie’s heart flutter like it’s alive after all.