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loving-and-dreaming · 2 years ago

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4 times remus calmed you down and 1 time you calmed him down

Remus lupin x reader

You’re a hothead, Remus is your calming boyfriend. Take a look at four times he calms you down and the one time you had to calm him down.

Word Count: 6.6k

Being a part of the marauders you would have thought Remus was as crazy as them. However you would be very wrong. He is the calming force within their group. He is the reason they do not get in trouble, great at sweet talking whoever he needs to whether it be the person they pranked, or Professor Mcgonagall to not suspend them. Whatever it is about him he is just great at claming hotheads down. SO it surprised no one when he himself found a girlfriend who fits right in with his group of hothead friends.

The first time

Maddie comes bursting into y’alls room with tears in her eyes. She trips over her shoes and falls on the floor. The floor is not super messy, but it was the weekend and you were relaxing while she was at a party held by some random Gryffindor. So cleaning was not today's priority, that will be tomorrow's problem. Maddie is sitting on the floor, her back against her bed, knees pulled up to her chest just crying. You get down from your bed and join her on the floor, sitting criss-crossed in front of her. Opening your arms, in case she wanted a hug or space. Clearly she wanted a hug, because as soon as your arms opened up she threw herself at you. She just sat there in your arms crying it could have been minutes or hours, but it didn't matter she needed you. Eventually when she could not cry anymore you attempted to wade through and figure out what had happened.

“What happened? I thought you were going to the party. Did something happen at the party? Do I need to get a professor? What about going to the infirmary?” rattling off the questions, you can't help it. When your best friend comes home from a party crying your mind has jumped to the worst possible case.

“I just thought maybe it was going somewhere. We talked all night, the entire party! He got me drinks, he asked me questions, we even made out, y/n!” Maddie starts to tear up again, but you grab her face and stop her.

“No. Absolutely not. Whoever it is, he is not worth your tears. I am so sorry that it happened, do you think he led you on? Or do you think you might have read too much into it? Either answer is okay, I’m just curious.”

“I am not sure, maybe I read too much into it? But still I also felt really led on. Because that's not where it ends. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back-”

“No. Nope. Please tell me this is not going where I think it is going…” She needs you to be calm and kind, but damn is it a struggle to not let your anger get the best of you.

“Yes! Sirius was not only with another girl, but making out with her. So I left… I came straight here. I didn't mean to interrupt your time alone, I just needed to get out of there.”

“Sirius? You mean Sirius Black? Maddie. You know better. YOu know his reputation. Honey. I love you, and it is no excuse for him being a dick and only thinking with his little head. I am so sorry. What do you need from me? I can get you some chocolate and we can listen to some muggle heartbreak songs and cry our eyes out? Or do we need to go find another hot guy to make out with? Or my personal favorite one, go give him a piece of our minds?”

“No. none of those please. I think I just want to sleep it off. I know it was blown out of proportion, the drinks absolutely did not help. Thank you y/n, I love you and I really needed this talk. Just talking it out really helped. But I think between this and the alcohol I'm ready for bed.” Maddie gets up and makes her way to the bathroom, you can faintly hear her starting her nightly routine.

“Hey Mads! I am going to go for a short walk! I'll be back soon. I might sneak into the kitchen to get us some chocolate cake from dinner!” There is a mumbled response, but you put your shoes on and walk out anyway. Closing the door softly, you make your way to Gryffindor common room. The way you are walking, it is clear there is a purpose and to not mess with you. While in Maddies presence you were calm and cool and collected, now you are a girl on a mission. When walking through the halls you hardly notice the other people scurrying to get back to their rooms without getting caught out past curfew, or the pictures hanging on the wall looking at you like you are crazy. Now you are not a violent person by nature, you talk a big game about beating people, but really the only people you hit or slap are your friends(in joking manners). But you are fuming and have no idea what will happen to the infamous Sirius Black.

Arriving at the Gryffindor common room, you find the door propped open. Not being well known had its perks, you were able to slip in the chaos without being noticed. It looked to be in the middle of the party so you grabbed a drink and looked like you fit right in. Really your purpose for being there was completely different than everyone else. Slowly making your way around the party you spot James. One thing to know about the marauders, is if you see one, the others are not far behind. That proves to be true, when you look around and spot Sirius in a conversation with Peter. Just seeing his face makes your blood boil again, so you make your way over. You stop in front of them and before anyone can ask what is going on you throw your drink in Sirius’ face. Everyone around is too shocked to even react, it is not till you throw the crumbled up cup at his head that he shakes his head. “What the fuck was that for? Who even are you?” he's yelling at you, by now most of the party has looked to see what is going on.

“I really don't care for you to know who I am! However when you piss off the wrong girl and can't keep your tiny dick in your pants this is what happens.” You are getting closer and closer to him, but he is as much of a hothead as you are so he is not going to back down. The problem is neither are you. “I don't know who taught you to think with your tiny, and I mean tiny, head rather than the one we all use. But clearly something is wrong with you. Maybe it is all the STDs you probably have-”

A calming voice stops you in the middle of you berating Sirius, “Whoa love, how about we calm down some and talk about it.” He slowly puts his hands on your shoulders and when he sees you are not going to respond to his touch with violence, he grabs your chin gently and moves your head so you are looking at him and not at Sirius.

“Moony seriously, do not waste your time on this bitch-”

“Can it Sirius, clearly something happened,”

He moves back to looking at you, you might be pissed but you are not blind, this man is beautiful. He reminds you of a dream the way he was able to calm you down. Once he sees that your breathing is not as labored as it was he cups your cheeks with both of his hands, “good job on calming down. Would you like to tell me what happened from the start?” You go to move your head to glare at Sirius again, but his hands keep you in place, “No darling, don't look at that fool, look at me. Tell me what happened.” in the middle of your explanation you somehow ended up in a room with just this random stranger. You later learn his name to be Remus and that he is friends with Sirius, but is nothing like him. Something about his eyes and the feeling of his hands on your face is what was able to reel you back in from being so angry.

The second time

Being embarrassed like that did not sit well with Sirius. So he and James do what they do best. Plan to prank someone and embarrass you just as bad and you embarrassed him. It was simple really. You were to come out of (your common room) and there was a bucket of tar and another bucket of feathers waiting to cover you from head to toe. What Sirius and James didn’t expect was Remus to come and find them.

Remus walks up behind them and starts to question what they are doing “What are y’all doing in front of (your common room) door? Don’t tell me this is another prank. I told y’all you cannot plan those without me. The last time you two did you got a month of detention!”

Without taking his eyes off the buckets that were only being held up by the magic in their wands he responds, “you remember that random girl who threw the drink in my face? The one you stopped from slapping me. Yeah we found out she is in (your house) so we are going to embarrass her like she embarrassed me.”

“Sirius, no.” At this Sirius gives him a look, but still his focus is on the buckets. “She was just looking out for her friend. James does the same for you, heck I do the same for you. This is too far and not okay.” At this Sirius and James both turn around and start to say something until they hear a shriek. It turns out when they turned around to talk, they put their wands down. When the wands go down so do the buckets. Remus has a horrified look on his face, which makes Sirius and James smirk and turn around. However, what they see is not what they were expecting. It is a little boy, a first or second year crying. They do have the decency to look and feel bad, they start to walk up but then they see something that scares even them and freezes them in their spot. It was not a professor, no it was you.

You rushed out when you heard all the commotion. Looking up to find out what happened and who did it. What you see makes your blood boil again. They see you whisper something to the little boy, and then see you stomp your way over. Turning to leave, they are blocked by Remus, “absolutely not. You dug your grave, now lay in it. You need to help that little boy get cleaned up.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Do you get off on pranking and making little kids cry? What is wrong with you two?” You look at Remus and can just tell by the look of disappointment and sympathy he had nothing to do with this prank(which makes sense because when he is involved the pranks are perfect and no one ever gets caught). You grab both Sirius and James by their ears and pull them over to the young boy. Maddie is attempting to calm him down but he is still incredibly upset and covered in tar and feathers. “You apologize now. And then we will go to my bathroom and help him get cleaned up!”

Sirius and James do apologize, and are incredibly sorry. They didn’t mean for it to go this far. It was just meant to be payback on you. But it is clear they are now so high on your shit list it’s not even funny. Maddie brings the boy to y’all’s bathroom while you drag both boys by their ears to follow. Remus is silently following behind. He knows he should interfere, but they kind of deserve what is happening. Once in the bathroom those two are helping the boy get cleaned up, but you? Oh you are fuming and pissed. And what do you do when you are this pissed? You can’t sit still. So you are pacing and lecturing them. “Who in their right mind pranks little kids. Granted I think you pranking anyone is stupid. But our first years? Seriously! We are supposed to protect them. And this is how you treat them. What is wrong with you? You two are deranged. Absolutely mad. -“

James rolls his eyes and whispers under his breath “Oh my gosh you sound like my mom.”

“I’m going to choose to ignore that.” You are interrupted by Remus grabbing your hand. The boys have heard enough, and he can see the you getting more and more agitated.

“Maddie, would you mind staying with the boys and making sure everyone gets cleaned up? I want to talk to y/n” Remus asks in a quiet voice.

“Of course, use our room. I’ll make sure everyone gets cleaned up and taken care of.” Once he gets the okay he softly pulls you out of the bathroom.

“Love. Can you look at me?” He has both of your hands in his hands, rubbing them with his thumbs.

Still frustrated, “I just don’t understand how you can be friends with them. They are awful and are worse than cavemen!”

“Y/N I promise that’s what you see but they are so much better than that. I promise you Sirius is beating himself up because he does take care of the first years. He knows what it’s like to be alone so he makes sure they never feel alone. I can’t defend what they were planning to do to you because it was an asshole move. But they are hotheads and do things without thinking. I understand you are frustrated and probably annoyed, but why don't we take your mind off it? Maddie has got it taken care of.” He looks as sees the book you are currently reading on your nightstand, “how about I read to you? Do you think that will help us relax?”

You look at him sheepishly. Of course you want this handsome boy to read to you in his soothing voice. I mean you are already in your pjs and are already ready for bed, so why not. Looking at him unsure, he gets up, grabs the book and sits at the head of your bed. He pats the spot next to him, it takes you a moment before you move. The next thing he does shocks you to your core, he grabs your shoulders and maneuvers you to where your back is against his chest at an angle so you can see the book too. It takes you a moment to melt into his embrace but eventually you and him are so close, you can't tell where your body ends and his begins. When he is reading to you you can't help but think, ‘is it weird im basically cuddling a dude I don't even know? Is it bad that I'm enjoying it? How does he calm me down like nothing? This is insane, but I'm just going to go with the flow for right now.’ between the beat of his heart, his soothing voice, and the feeling of his arms you pass out.

He can see your chest begin to rise and fall steadily and assumes you are asleep. Sirius, James and Maddie are still working, so he takes this time to relax with the beautiful hothead cuddling up against him. Eventually he falls asleep to the sound of your breathing and the feeling of your body against his.

James, Sirius, Maddie, and the boy they learned his name to be Luke come out and all stop suddenly. They look at the two people fast asleep cuddled on y/n’s bed. Sirius sighs and says, “well looks like she is going to be in our life more often Prongs…” He turns to Maddie, “I am sorry for what happened last weekend. I truly apologize. I hope we can work past it and be great friends, because it looks like we will be hanging out more often.``

The Third Time

Sirius was in fact right. You and Maddie have infiltrated the marauders. Maddie goes where you go, because you refuse to leave her behind, you two are attached at the hip. Remus and you grew closer. The six of you are always together, funnily enough Maddie is now closest to Sirius. How the tables have turned. The reason you even met the marauders is because Siri made her cry and now they are inseparable. But you and Remus, man you and Remus are so close. Most of the time he is sleeping in your room, or y'all are eating off each other's plates (and he doesn’t share his food with anyone). In this process you couldn't help but fall for him. His soft eyes, the why he takes care of you, his calming voice, it was impossible not to. However this is a secret you will take to your grave. Not only have you made four great friends, you can see Maddie fitting in perfectly, you are not going to ruin that because stupid feelings.

Not only are you and Remus attached at the hip outside of class, the one class you share you now sit basically on top of each other. When it came time for the mid year project you were ecstatic that you had Remus, because like you he cares about his school work. It turned out it was a group project however, and you two just partnered up with two other random people, Jesse and Krsitina, in your class. In hindsight, there is not much you can do when your professor demands it be a group project and yall know no one else in that class. But at this moment you can only think of pushing your other partners into the black lake.

It was your idea. It was a fresh day, nice and spring. The flowers are blooming, the lake looks beautiful, and the butterflies are out in full force. You all decided to meet at the library today after lunch, and then would move outside by the lake. Only problem is one of your partners is a no show. Jesse offers to go and look for Kristina. So you and Remus tell him where you will be while he goes and looks for Kristina. Arriving at the perfect spot you set down the blanket and lay out all your books and the plant you will be studying. Waiting for a little bit was okay, but once it is 20 minutes with no sign of Jesse or Kristina you give up.

You stand up, because everyone knows when you are frustrated you can't stay still. Starting to pace, the more you think of it the more agitated you get. You are too busy in your head to see Remus and how worried he is for you. All you can think about while pacing is how this entire project has been just you, Remus, and Jesse. The entire time Kristina has literally done nothing and boy were you frustrated.

“I don't understand. It is insane. It is her project too. But between me, you, and Jesse we have done everything. It is ridiculous. I am done. I don't even want to put her name on the project. What if we just don't? Is that too rude? I mean she hasn't helped with anything. It is such bullshit. I don't want to put her name on it! Maybe that will teach her.”

“Whoa y/n, love. Is that really what you want to do? You know I will support you in anything, and back you up. But once you do that you have completely burned that bridge. Maybe we should just talk with the professor first? See if she has any suggestions?.” He takes your hand and leads you back to the blanket. By now he knows that if you are already pacing you just need to talk outloud to process your feelings. But since you have not started ranting after he spoke he takes it as a sign you are ready to calm down. What you don't know is he has been doing some reading on different ways to calm people down, that is why he does what he does next. “We have been talking, but we haven't taken a moment to just be and listen. Wanna try?”

Okay let's be honest, it sounds cheesy, but for him you would do anything. So with a look on your face you nod and say “I guess.” he sits yall down on the blanket and moves everything. He moves to sit criss crossed on the blanket and pulls you to rest your head in his lap. Between his natural comforting self and the soft grass underneath the blanket, you automatically feel the tension slowly melting away. The next thing he does has you scrunching up your nose, but like we said for him you would do anything at this point. He takes off his tie and ties it around your eyes, he knows if he just told you to close them you would get bored and open them before he was ready for you to.

“Okay y/n bear with me. Your eyes are covered because we take in so much with our eyes and right now we are wanting to focus on what we can hear. Did you know that when you take away one sense, the rest intensify? Well we are gonna test that. Just listen.” He takes the clip out of your hair and you feel him slowly detangling it and running his hands through it. You're listening to all the sounds and at first it is overwhelming. But slowly you focus on one at a time.

The first thing you focus on is the soft lapping of the water. With Remus’ hands in your hair and your eyes covered it feels as if you are floating over the water. You can hear it that clearly.

The next sound you can hear is buzzing. There are lots of bugs and you wish you could say you know the exact type of bug… but alas when bugs are near you are nowhere to be seen. So your knowledge on them is limited. But not seeing them and again with his hands in your hair you envision the bees(yes you envisioned them to be bees because bumblebees are cute) dancing with each other in the wind.

The last notable sound is the humming coming from above you. Not only do you hear it but you can feel it from where your head is resting on his legs and slightly on his tummy. You don't know what he is humming. All you know is your heart beat is slowing down and your face is no longer heated(when you get made you feel like your face is on fire from how mad you get). But no. All of that is gone. When you have remus around what normally takes you hours or even days to calm down, takes less than an hour.

Jesse ended up showing up saying Kristina is nowhere to be found. So the three of you worked on the project. Lets just say you were in a dream-like state the rest of the day, and Jesse was surprised you were not fuming at the fact Kristina was a no show again.

The Fourth Time

To say the entire school was shocked at the lack of label on you and Remus is an understatement. There are bets going on, Sirius and James trying to work in the background to make one of you confess something. The loving gazes are too much, the ditchING everyone else just because the other one mentioned something is ridiculous, the love that could be shared if someone just grew a pair and said something is about to make everyone scream. But here we are, you two hanging out in his room. He was reading on his bed while you were finishing up some class work on his desk.

This is not uncommon for the two of you. Being in each other's presence doing separate things, yet this doesn't mean yall do not do things together. Most nights you two are reading in his bed or yours and pass out there. Or in the great hall eating together, you two have gotten in the habit of both getting different things but then eating off each other's plates. You think it's a great use of time, you get one thing you both want to try and he gets something you both want to try and then you just share. You do this when you go out to hogsmeade as well.

You need to make a quick note to write back to your parents, if you don't write it down you will forget. Well you sure aren't writing it in your notes or textbook, so you do the logical thing. Try to find a piece of scrap paper on Remus’ desk. Finding what you thought was blank paper and write yourself the note. You flip it over in case you need to write something else, that's when you notice the writing. Not trying to be nosey, but you read it because you need to know if you say sorry to Remus for ruining an important paper or just take it. However when skimming it you have to reread it to make sure you were not going crazy… ‘Remus I know you are at Hogwarts on scholarship, why are you wasting your time? We both know that with your furry monstrous condition you have no real future. Why not come home. Your mom misses you anyways. Maybe you can get a job as a local gardener or something. One of those jobs that no one pays attention to? Because son I am telling you now no one is going to want to deal with the monster you are. So it might be best if you stop wasting time with learning and this dream of being a healer and come home. Your mom has not touched your room.’ With each word you take in you get angrier and angrier. Clearly you were showing it on your body because the next thing you know Remus is grabbing it out of your hands.

He sighs because he knows what is coming but tries to avert it anyways, “It’s nothing y/n. Please let's just leave it alone.” you take a moment, still internalizing everything you just read. You cannot believe that his own father is the one he listens to. It all makes sense now, how when you first found out about him being a werewolf he gave you an out. Told you he doesn't blame you if you want to leave. Of course you got upset with that and called him ridiculous. But it all makes sense now. He is hearing those awful words from his family, even when he is away at school. You can only imagine how bad it was before he came to school and how bad it is during the breaks. No wonder he stays here as often as he can or goes home with one of his friends.

Still frozen out of anger you finally reboot and turn to look at him. He has gone back to reading like nothing happened. Like your heart did not just get ripped out of your chest and set on fire. Standing up so fast the chair gets knocked back, you stomp over to him and grab his book out of his hands. Yes you are rougher than you meant but you are livid, if this was a cartoon steam would be coming from your ears. He doesn't even flinch. He does however sit up straighter and give you all of his attention. By now he knows the stages of your anger, at first you are quiet and processing it, next you pace to get the ideas forming more, then you rant or yell, then you come down and typically get sleepy. He gives you time to get your thoughts in order, because he found out very quickly he can only calm you down if he knows what is going on in your head. “Pretty girl, take your time but as soon as you are ready to talk your feelings out I’m here. Take your time.”

Starting to pace your thoughts are slowly becoming coherent and not a jumbled mess. “Please for the love of god do not tell me you believe that bullshit. That is the dumbest shit I have ever read. You’re a monster? The man that gets my favorite food so I can eat double of it, or gets something else I want to try so I can try both things. The man that ditches his friends for me when I want to have a quiet night in reading? Oh yeah, such a monster. Oh wait, let's not forget how you help everyone before you even think of helping yourself. OH yeah let's talk about the fact that you always walk on my left side because you know I hate holding hands with my right hand. Or the fact that you let me sleep with it freezing because I like to get all bundled up. Such a monster. That lying piece of shit. You know that right? Absolutely in no way are you a monster. Is that why you gave me an out? I cannot believe this. You! A monster! That is almost comical. What is that dicks address? I need to give him a piece of my mind. And how you won’t to be a good healer? Such bullshit! Remember that time James broke his arm and you fixed it! We didn’t even have to go to the infirmary! You are such an amazing human being and I am glad I get to be your friend. I would love to get to show you how much I love you, but I don't want to ruin our friendship. But gosh if I could just tell you how much I love you. I love you remus so much it hurts-”

All of a sudden you are quiet. It takes you a moment to understand why. Remus has his lips on yours. Like the naturally dominating person he is, he controls the kiss but that is fine by you. Your mind is shut off, which rarely happens. All you can focus on is the way he tastes like hot chocolate and mint. And oh how soft his lips are. And how well they fit with yours. It is like he is your missing puzzle piece. All of a sudden everything is gone but you, him, and y’all’s lips. Eventually he pulls away because air is a must to survive, but after that kiss he feels alive for the first time.

With his hands on your face, “You really love me?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“In the middle of you talking you said you love me and how much you want to tell me but not ruin the friendship… If you didn't mean it we can totally pretend the kiss didn't happen, but I’m not sure about you but that felt like home for me and I'm not going to pretend it didn't.”

“Wait no please, of course I meant what I said, I've been in love with you for as long as I can remember. You are my home so of course that felt like homie for me too. I just didn't even realize I said it out loud. That is not how I imagined this happening, and trust me I have imagined it many different ways.”

“Well I am glad we got that out of the way, I love you too. Can we please just go lay down? Maybe take a nap before dinner?”

“Of course Remus.” You take his hand and lead him to the bed. Both of you get under the covers and snuggle really close together. “I am so sorry about everything I said but I hope you know you are not a monster and if I have to prove to you everyday that you are not I will spend the rest of my life doing-” he kisses you again this time softly and slowly. “What was that for, not that I'm complaining?”

“You were getting upset again and I don't want you to be upset . I like you just like this pretty girl, in my arms, kiss drunk, and calm. I love you y/n.”

The one time you calm remus down

Spending your seventh year Christmas break with Remus is a dream come true. All except where you were. You will never forget that letter, those words imprinted on your brian. You almost said no, but his mom is the sweetest and wants to meet you. ANd who are you to turn down his sweet mother. So after spending a week with your family, you must travel to his family. You both decide to take a muggle train, something you two are comfortable doing.

With his hand in yours, you find your seats and get comfortable. He is reading a book while you look at the world flying past you. Yet your mind is running faster than the train. You need to give yourself a pep talk on how to approach his father. You already told Remus you will be civil, but that is it. That man deserves nothing from Remus or you. His mom is the only reason you agreed, well and the loving brown haired boy next to you lost in his book. You squeeze his hand and he squeezes it back, this is y’all’s silent way to say I love you.

The ride to his hometown gave you time to nap and read with Remus. Your two favorite things to do with him. Within this time two things are going through your mind on repeat: 1. You love Remus and will give him the world, 2. You are doing this for his mom, not his piece of shit dad.

Arriving at his parents' place has you jittery with nerves, but again you just repeat those two things and are hoping for the best. He walks in and you follow. The first thing you notice is the house doesn't feel like a home, no pictures of him as a kid, no family pictures. The house reminds you of a model home. Walking Up the stairs you get to his room to find it the same as the rest of the house. It breaks your heart, but again you tell yourself you are doing this for him and no one else(well his mom too). Yall do not unpack, just set the things down on the bed and go to make some tea. His parents must still be out, because they have not come to see yall.

Making the tea and sitting on the couch you two just spend some time in each other's company. Sometimes you exchange small words and soft conversations, but really between the car ride and muggle train ride you both are sleepy and just wanting to be in each other's presence. The door opens and both of you pick up your heads and go to stand up. His parents notice yall in the living room and immediately come over.

“Oh hi dear! You must be y/n, I've heard so much about you! I am so glad you were able to make it for a little bit. We are so happy to have Remus home and even more happy he has brought you!”

“Hi Mrs. Lupin, it is so nice to meet you as well! You have a beautiful house, thank you for inviting us to stay here.” During this conversation, his dad doesn't mention anything. But from the look on his face he is clearly not happy about something. His mom drags you to the kitchen to show you some of the Christmas decorations they bought for the holiday since all the family will be coming to their house this holiday. There were so many decorations, and seeing as you love this holiday you are more than excited to help her!

But all of that is halted when you hear shouting. Automatically thinking the worst about you and mrs. Lupin goes back into the living room doorway where the boys still are. Both of you missed what must have set him off, but for the first time in your relationship you see Remus shouting. Embarrassingly so it is normally you that is shouting… But you do catch what he says and your heart stops.

“I love her dad. I am so tired of you putting me down. But whatever, I'm used to it. But her? Absolutely not. I draw the line there. She is the best thing to happen to me. She believes in me, she loves me and most importantly she accepts me for who I am. ALL of who I am. So don't come in here and judge us when you don't know her or us as a couple. That is the woman I am going to marry someday and I will not stand by and let you talk about her like that! If that is all you can say or do then I think we will be staying somewhere else until the holiday dinner.” He turns to come and get you but stops when he sees you. You can see it in his face that he is ready to leave.

But you know he would regret it and miss his mom. So you do something you never thought you would have to do. You grab his face with both of your hands and make him look at you, much like he did the very first time he calms you down. Before saying anything you bring his head down to yours and lay your foreheads together. In a hushed voice you say “Yes remus. I will marry you. Obviously when we are older, but when you find the right moment to propose, I will say yes. I love you with my entire being and I would love nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. I know you are the one normally calming me down so I have no idea if I'm doing this right, but my love, I am here for you. I am right here by your side. Whatever you want to do I will do.”

If you ask him, he still does not know exactly what calmed him down, was it your hands on his face? Was it you saying yes to being his wife someday? Was it your foreheads touching? Was it the soft kiss you gave him? He doesn't know all he knows if he loves you with his entire being plus the moon, and even though you might be a hothead and more times than not he is pulling your away ro calming you down he wants you to be his wife and the mother of his children.

#remus lupin x yn #remus lupin #remus lupin fluff #remus lupin x fem!reader #remus lupin imagine #remus lupin x reader #remus lupin fanfiction #remus lupin blurb #remus lupin x you #sirius black #James potter #marauders #marauders fluff #marauders fanfiction #marauders era x reader #marauders x reader #marauders era #marauders imagine

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superblysubpar · 2 years ago

Note

12 days of Xmas request:Friends to lovers.

Snowed in alone w Eddie at either his place or yours. Power goes out, no heat. Spend a couple of hours huddled together like eskimos but come nightfall, it’s unbearably cold. And, well, huddling becomes cuddling, cuddling becomes….“how do you think we’re gonna get warm if you’re trying to take my pants off!”

There is still one spot left in my twelve days event if you’d like to request something - no need for it to be Christmas themed, winter activities/stories are more than welcomed too. The playlist so far is linked at the end of the story. Let me know what you think, any interaction is so appreciated and loved!

Summary: see above ask for summary, I couldn’t help myself and I wrote smut for @boomhauer in an apology for all my joe keery/steve photo blasting lately. I hope you like it! Eddie Munson x you, use of Y/N and petname baby, slight fingering (reader receiving, eddie performing), unprotected PIV intercourse/creampie, coming so fast it'll give you whiplash | This post is NSFW and contains smut so 18+ only

A/N: So sorry this is late, I ended up having a busy weekend and was unable to edit/post from my phone. I hope it was worth the wait! Also, I promise if you don’t like this song, it’s not a creepy fic. It’s just two idiots snuggling in a sleeping bag together that leads to a good time. No coercion I promise. All consensual.

2.5k words

Day 06 | Track 06: “Baby It’s Cold Outside” by Dean Martin

You thought when your aunt offered up their cabin for a winter getaway it sounded like a great idea. A much needed vacation for the group of you older kids. To be away from Hawkins and the young ones and just be kids yourselves again for a little bit.

As you watched the sky turn darker, purple tint falling across everything as the white snow fell in what seemed like heapfuls, it’s only mission in life to attack and annihilate the planet, you started to think it was actually the start of a terrible horror movie.

So far, you were the only one there, your parents dropping you off on their way to their own vacation. You let the curtain fall in front of the window as you searched the cabin, deciding that knowing where extra blankets, candles, and the liquor cabinet was located were all becoming drastically more likely to be of use.

You were pulling on another sweater and wool socks when the phone rang and you ran to it, sliding a little on the cabin’s wood floors, answering it breathlessly, “Hello?”

Static filled the other side and you tried again, “Hello?”

“Oh! Y/N! Thank god!” Robin’s voice was crackling and you pushed the phone closer to your ear like that would help.

“Robs, I can barely hear you-” more static that made you pull back a little.

“Steve and I are stuck in a little town not too far…” static took over her words, trailing in and out of a coherent sentence, “motel. Eddie should…” and then the line went dead.

Eddie should what? Should have been here by now? Was she going to say shouldn’t have and then what?

Your fingers started to itch as you realized the phone was completely dead, no static or dial tone. You looked around and the lamps you had clicked on were all out.

Oh shit. Totally a horror movie.

Glad you had in fact located extra candles, you started to light them as the cabin started to fall into darkness and then you heard a loud bang and froze.

You were alone in a cabin, stuck in a snowstorm with no transportation, and the power went out. You were the idiot who got killed off first and all of your friends would still come up the following day, unsure of what happened and get sucked into the plot of the movie, all running from whoever or whatever got you first.

You grabbed the closest thing to you as you heard the thudding get louder, the door swung open and you lunged towards the figure in the door who was screaming right back at you.

Hands up in the air and large brown eyes blinking at you and you stopped, a box of macaroni noodles suspended in the air as you tried to catch your breath. It was just Eddie.

You threw the box of noodles at him anyways, “Don’t do that! I could have killed you!”

Eddie had his hand over his heart, catching his own breath, but he caught the box with a lopsided grin on his face, “With uncooked pasta?”

You crossed your arms, the sudden chill he let in reminding you that you didn’t have heat anymore and frowned, “Shut up.”

Eddie looked around at the candles and his smile fell, “Fucking hell. Do we not have power?”

You shook your head, “Just went out. Robin called me and-”

“Are they okay? I lost them when we stopped for gas, Steve’s little BMW should not be driving in that shit.”

You nodded and moved your way to the living room, “Yeah from what I could hear, it sounded like they stopped at a motel. So just us tonight I think.”

Eddie smirked as he removed his snow covered outer layers, pushing a duffle bag across the floor.

You looked at the unlit fireplace and asked, “What? What’s so funny?”

Eddie laughed as he hung up his coat, “Oh just Harrington and Buck stuck in a snowstorm in a tiny motel room. I feel like I’d pay money to watch how that all unfolds, arguing over TV channels, sides of the bed, all that,” he came over to the fireplace, “Plus, you know, we’re definitely living the plot of a horror movie.”

You groaned and rubbed at your cold cheeks, “Don’t say that, I was already thinking that before you got here. I’m the first dumb girl to go.”

Eddie started to poke around in the fireplace and chuckled, “Nah, you’re the first girl. You’re the one who makes it out in the end. Movie ends with you covered in the blood of some crazy monster or serial killer that you defeated in some revenge plot for killing your…”

He trailed off and you tried to calm your heart down, because Eddie saying you were the badass who lived in a horror film over everyone may have been a throwaway comment to him, but for you it was the greatest compliment and you were swooning a little.

His tongue was out as he concentrated on lighting the logs when the familiar woosh of the flame catching filled the small cabin and his lips fell into a smug and confident smile, you had to turn away from how cute he was. You grabbed all the extra blankets you could find and dumped them in front of the fireplace. He looked at the blankets, the fireplace and then around at all of the candles before his eyes landed on you. Both of you turning away from the other quickly, him mumbling something about changing.

You tried not to focus on Eddie’s movements as you unrolled your sleeping bag, tucking more blankets into it and over it. As he left and walked down the hall, you took the liberty of unfolding his sleeping bag and went down the hall to change yourself.

Shivering from being away from the fire for only a few minutes, you returned to find Eddie starting to zip into his sleeping bag, a plain sweater and sweatpants, you had never seen him so casual before, like his layers of defense were gone.

You tucked yourself in and no matter how you rearranged the blankets, you were freezing.

You listened as Eddie was doing the same, and you were fairly certain he could hear your teeth chattering.

“Y/N?”

You rolled to see only his big brown eyes blinking at you, the flames of the firelight flickering in them and his nose poked out, a little pink. You shook from your shivering and he closed his eyes before blowing out his breath, “Okay, I’m totally not trying to be a perv, but would you want to share sleeping bags? I feel like it would help.”

You knew he was right, but the thought of you and Eddie sharing a sleeping bag was overwhelming. But as your teeth clinked together you found yourself nodding. He slowly unzipped his and you crawled in, careful to keep your arms from drifting past his elbows and facing him, chests and legs pressed together but both of you rigid against the other’s body.

You pulled your sleeping bag and the blankets around you both and already it was better, the heat from the fire on your forehead and Eddie’s breath on your cheek. You pressed your hands tighter, curling up against his chest and looked up at him through your lashes, whispering, “Is this okay?”

He nodded and cleared his throat, arm wrapping around your waist, “This?”

You nodded and took a deep breath, the scent of Eddie’s soapy laundry detergent filling your nose and making you a little dizzy, nose pressed to his collar.

You inched a little closer, risking the movement of your legs tangling in his a bit, pressing your cheek to his chest and listened to his heart beating rapidly underneath it. You smiled at the thought of him being just as nervous as you and wrapped one of your arms around his waist too, fingers touching the skin on his lower back where his shirt had raised a little.

He sucked in his breath and you started to pull away, “Sorry, too cold or-”

He pulled you closer, “No! I mean,” his cheeks were pink, and he cleared his throat again, “No, just surprised me. It’s good. It’s nice.”

He was babbling and you scooted closer again. Listening to the fire crackle, Eddie’s heartbeat and breathing slowing, you felt your eyelashes fluttering together. You started to move your fingers up and down Eddie’s spine and he hummed a little, arms wrapping around you tighter.

His own fingers were buzzing small circles into your lower back and you shivered, and didn’t argue when Eddie whispered, “Still cold?”

You felt him pull your arm away and before you could protest at the lack of contact, he was rolling you, back to his chest and curling you into him, both of his arms wrapped around you and your legs tangled together.

His breath on your neck and close to your ear as he whispered, “Better?”

You gasped at the heat of his breath on your skin and nuzzled back into him as you nodded. His fingers splayed across your stomach and thigh and you pushed your hips back into him. Your skin was buzzing with electricity, Eddie’s breath in your ear doing something to you that you’d never felt before. You were on the verge of making a needy, whimpering noise when you felt his hardening length pressing into your ass.

You rolled your hips back into him slowly and he nudged against you, fingers continuing to leave a buzzing trail on your stomach and through the layers on your hips. His breath continued to fan up and down your neck. A teasing game you were playing, your hips rocking into him like it could be an accident, him nudging back against you, but the more you kept doing it, you both knew it was on purpose. Bodies slowly pushing closer together and hips rolling against one another. Your heartbeat pounding in your chest and underwear growing wetter as you both slowly grinded into each other.

His nose nudged just under your ear, his lips grazing your skin and your hand laced itself into his, and you arched your back into him, pulling his fingers to your waistband.

You pushed his hand past the layers, thick fingers sliding through your slick easily and you shivered against him, guiding his other hand to your hip and rocking against his fingers moving up and down through your wetness.

You heard him whisper so quietly, that if his mouth hadn’t been directly behind your ear you wouldn’t have heard him, “fuck me, is this really happening?”

You giggled and wrapped your fingers back into his hair, pulling him to your neck harder, his lips traveling up and down it. You moaned as he nipped at your skin before sucking a bruise into you as his fingers pushed into you deeper.

Removing his lips from the new mark and trailing down your jaw, he whispered into your skin, “You know, I think I read somewhere that if you take your clothes off, your bodies can-”

You started to pull down your bottom half layers and you felt his fingers still and you grabbed his wrist, pushing him to keep moving and he started babbling into your neck, “Oh my-fuck, okay, you sure?”

You laughed and pushed yourself into his erection, rolling your hips as his fingers continued to glide through your folds, not sure what else to show him how you wanted this desperately so you said, “Yes, Eddie. Gonna take your pants off now or…?”

He nodded into your neck, shimming his sweats down, and you shivered as he slid between your thighs, both of you a little breathless. He reached up and turned your chin, eyes wide and concerned and you knew he was going to be sweet and ask you if you were sure again.

You rolled your eyes and pressed your lips to his and you felt him relax, sighing into your mouth. He pulled away and brushed the hair from your neck, pushing his tip through your folds and into your entrance slowly.

Eddie pushed deeper, both of you gasping at how your walls clutched him tighter, his fingers splayed across your hip, digging into your skin and dragging you up and down slowly and to your delight, he whined into your ear.

Bodies slowly grinding together, Eddie’s hips rocking up into you, his breath hot on your neck and ear, his hand squeezed your hip once more before trailing up your side till he reached your chest, cupping one of your breasts.

Your eyelids were fluttering closed, the feeling of Eddie sliding in and out of you slowly as his breath buzzed into your skin was sending you into a euphoric state. Eddie pressed more kisses into your neck as his hand traveled back down your stomach.

“Fuck, baby, I’m not gonna last,” he gasped against you and you whined, arching your body away from him, needing more and also already feeling like it was too much.

Eddie’s fingers pulled some of your slick up and to your clit, pressing soft figure eights into it as his hips started to thrust up into you faster, pulling your leg over atop his, spreading you wider for him.

You clutched the blankets, the arousal and tension that had been building for too long threatening to snap, “Eddie, please, fuck!” You didn’t even know what you were begging for, wanting him to slow down and go faster all at once.

He gripped your hip as his other hand worked faster into your swollen bundle of nerves, his thrusts hitting that spongy spot deep inside of you and his breath was hot in your ear as he groaned, “I know, come on, let go for me baby.”

His voice in your ear was the tipping point of no return, his thrusts started to stutter as you screamed out his name, his lips and nose nudging down your neck as his finger continued to swirl and press into you softly. Your orgasm crashing into you both at the same time, tightening around him as you cried out and his hot ropes of cum painted your walls. Both of you were breathless, panting against one another.

Eddie kissed your neck and laughed a little, “Now is definitely when the killer comes in.”

You smacked his hip, “Eddie!”

You felt his smile against your neck as his arms wrapped around you tighter, despite you being as close as you could be still, and he whispered, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

His lips brushed down to your collar, fingers tracing soft circles on your bare hip and his nose nudged at your shirt, whispering, “I really did read something about keeping warm without clothes on,” his lips brushed up to your ear again and he squeezed his arm around your waist as he whispered, “It’s only going to get colder outside, baby.”

Twelve Days of Christmas Playlist:

#eddie munson #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson smut #eddie munson fic #eddie munson one shot #stranger things fanfiction #twelve days of christmas

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mulders-too-large-shirt · 2 months ago

Text

s4 episode 3 thoughts

ahh, this one sounds interesting… let us see.

HATER ALERT: i actually felt almost no interest during this episode… until the very end. the monster was scary, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, and when our agents are separated doing different tasks, we lose that emotional heart of the show. i did feel attached to our new friend mr. duff, but from seeing how these episodes go, i knew what was going to happen to him. the ending was great- i love when they save each other! but the other parts were kinda just… eh. and the stuff they introduced that was supposed to build up to the bigger plot also didn’t interest me. i was like okay, so we just get another one of these deep throat fellows. i hate to say it, but i was kind of bored!!!

despite this announcement, let us return to the liveblogging

good to be reunited, i say after 2 days having not seen an episode. might have to quit my job when i finish this show because there will be nothing else to carry me through lmaooo i NEED to look forward to scully and mulder time AND THEN scully and mulder discussion time directly after!!!!

we are on a plane. ah yes, the flute my mutual phoebe speaks of is playing. shoutout to @azure-firecracker. i see some people in cool outfits and a child playing with what looks like a yellow barney doll? not one of barney’s friends… it looks like barney himself, but yellow. interesting.

oh! this fellow is reading french! it’s a paper about repairing some infrastructure! i like that i can read a few words :)

ACK! a creature with white painted skin and a red human eye is watching our francophone friend! oh boy, i paused right as this eye filled my screen and it was deeply unpleasant.

so francophone friend is trying to use the airplane bathroom but i am spooked because that thing is somewhere… and he looks up and SCREAMS!!!!!

now the plane has arrived… but where is our dude who went to the bathroom? an entirely different guy is climbing up from the ground. and his eyes look like they are bleeding????

so where is OG francophone dude???? BLEAH! he is dead and now HIS face is painted all white!!!

so did we get some body swap stuff going on….?

oh gosh this is creepy…. something about that skin paint and red eye combo is freaking me tf out…

HUH??? intro time has been interrupted by new words in the title sequence!!! they read “deceive inveigle obfuscate”… had to look up “inveigle” but it means to persuade… what are we dealing with here??

i can’t figure out what the pattern is for why some special episodes have different title sequences…. oh i bet the OG fans were trying to CRACK the code back in the day

(author's note: i think the titles change when we learn stuff about the various deep throats? plural. you'll see why i specify plural later on)

back at the headquarters. scully is coming into skinner’s office. she is in a very nice white suit! she remarks that there isn’t much traffic at this hour… she showed up at 5:17 AM?!?! she needs a RAISE!!

she is introduced to a dr. bruin from the philly CDC. well this sounds like it is going to be a scary matter if it involves disease. she shakes this guy’s hand but doesn’t say anything. can’t tell if it’s a silent read or not…

so four young men have gone missing in philly recently, all Black. and there are no leads… until last night! owen sanders, reported missing, was found dead near a construction site. but he wasn’t killed!!! disease....?

so he shows her a photo of a dude painted white and is like “i thought he was black” and the doctor is like yeah he was. but maybe a new disease caused depigmentation. so we should get a microscope.

(that was funny to me because he was very clearly a Black man just painted white with actual paint... writers, do not think such tricks could fool medical doctor dana scully)

so i am not to believe that these guys were NOT actually painted, but rather they lost their pigmentation? okay, okay, noted. i am suspending my disbelief

skinner says they hoped someone with a background like scully could make a quick analysis. this is also funny because i feel they should have maybe gone to a specialist in skin conditions that could possibly cause such effects...? but for plot reasons it Must be her. i mean she IS kinda the best, so maybe she can figure it out. by 7:30 am she is doing an autopsy.

OH! she says the bleaching of the irises suggest a cellular reaction… bleh. sounds very nasty.

“hey, i heard you were down here slicing and dicing”, says mulder, entering the room and sabotaging her nice little recording session

(mulder makes a michael jackson joke that feels wrong) (also he is popping sunflower seeds in the morgue)

he is very suspicious… not believing it is a real disease…

“mulder, not everything is a labyrinth of dark conspiracy” <- LMAO i’ve reblogged that moment before but now i really get to see it!!

“and not everybody is planning to deceive, inveigle, and obfuscate” <- she said the words omg…. (he watches and pops a sunflower seed)

what a lovely vocabulary she has, the better to look at him disapprovingly with

he wants to join the case and she looks off sort of by the camera and looks SO done lmaoooo

cutscene to another man, mr. aboah, who conspicuously seems to be missing some pigment on his back. and in a way that does not look like paint.

someone is knocking at his door. oh! it’s marcus duff, his immigration counselor, who has arrived to talk about naturalization. mr. aboah welcomes him into his room, but the lights are off and it is very hard to see, i note. duff agrees it is very dark! and brings this fact up! so he turns one light on, and they sit to do paperwork.

duff says aboah looks ill… but he denies it. so duff says he knows how lonely it is to be newly arrived to the US, and that he can help aboah bring over his whole family. long silence... suspiciously long silence… then a thank you.

mulder is going to the lab and there he sees agent pendrell! LMAOOOO he wants to wait for scully but mulder says she has a date just to mess with him… THEN SAYS IT’S WITH A DEAD MAN BECAUSE SHE IS DOING AN AUTOPSY LMAOOOO

damn, everyone knows how down bad this dude is.... that is soooo funny and also pathetic. unfortunately i do lowkey loathe this pendrell fellow. like stay away from her yk?

so, what did they find in the autopsy… a seed of a rare flower indigenous to certain parts of west africa!

(cutscene to mulder on the phone, holding the seed) “it contains a cerebropathic glycoside. does that mean anything to you?” <- i love when he asks her medical questions because he doesn’t know wtf any of that stuff means... it makes my heart grow three sizes to see him deferential

and she knows what it means!! it’s a depressant. she is still in the morgue, now covered in lots of blood all over her coat

oh! she found something that could explain his lack of pigmentation… “his pituitary gland was necrotized”, which is a funny thing to say even if it actually has a very important meaning! the pituitary gland controls hormones... and melanin!

“i have identified the effect, i am still looking for the cause” <- i love her so terribly, and her rigid but in a lovely way line of thinking... this is a very important specification!

“where are you, mulder?” “off to water the seeds of doubt. bye bye” omg he actually said bye. that has to be a first. also where is his ass going…

there’s something different about the way his hair is brushed in front of his face today and hmmppppgh he looks. handsome.

he is off to the UN building again… and we see ms. covarrubias, from before??? was he lowkey stalking her….?

yes! yes he was, and approaches her in the dark! this is deeply weird behavior, even for him... also why does he think she can help with this case. he’s onto something… but what?

she flat out denies knowing about this case. but he doesn’t buy it.

WAIT. i see what is going on here… is she going to be deep throat 3.0?!?!?!

damn... we’re nearly at a deep throat a season at this pace...

not sure i like that tbh. like are we gonna just keep getting and losing deep throats. it's getting a little old. also, whatever happened to that one senator who would leak stuff to mulder? was that just a two episode and never mention it again kind of thing?

hmm.

okay, back to philadelphia i think. yes, this is confirmed by the eagles hat this guy has on. OH! he was hit in the head with something. it looks a thorn, and it digs deep in his head and got all bloody, bleh! he is losing his vision after this, and stumbled onto the bench behind him. everything is deeply trippy from his point of view, and the bus driver leaves angrily, thinking he is on drugs, which was very rude.

but as the bus driver pulls away, we see aboah on the other side of the street!!! who is losing even more melanin in his skin as time goes on!!! and also has one eye all pink now!!!

(intense chanting over a drum beat)

next day, scully is with the bus driver from before, asking about what went down. he claims he asked the dude if he needed help, which is very much not true.

and mulder arrives! alfred kittel, 17 years old, went missing last night. this is not good.

mulder’s convinced it has to do with another rare seed, and he pulls out some file that deep throat 3.0 must have given him. and it’s a photo of our francophone friend from the very beginning of the episode, who was also found dead and without pigment!

“it says here the cause of death was undetermined” “yeah, undetermined scully, but not necessarily unknown” <- so what does that mean… like they just didn't investigate because they were scared to learn the truth? hmm.

some police are knocking at aboah’s door the next day, asking him about the missing person’s case- notable, one Black officer is talking about how weird of a name aboah is. i see this attempt on commentary, and acknowledge it, but it feels... odd.

and despite denying having any informationon the missing man's whereabouts, who is in aboah's office but kittel, the kid who was hit with a seed last night, missed his bus, and was reported missing! he is quietly gasping, watching the TV, and oh…. he is losing pigment in his eye and skin as well!!! WHAT IS GOING ON

aboah opens his mouth really really wide and…. PULLS SOMETHING OUT OF HIS THROAT??? what was that!?? what was that.

hey. what was that...

mulder and scully are now visiting mr. duff, the guy who was helping out mr. aboah with his naturalization process. they’re asking him to cross reference his list of clients with a list of people from that flight where our francophone friend sadly was killed, and mr. duff thinks they’re trying to catch illegal immigrants, unto scully busts out the word “public health crisis” and then things kick into gear.

mulder checks aboah’s place, but no luck. she’s going on about how it’s her duty to find and solve this disease as a doctor ( <3 ) and he recognizes aboah in a crowd of construction workers… but when mulder approaches he sprints!!! little did he know of mulder’s trackstar skills.

scully thinks he jumped through the fence, but mulder finds him… in some sort of hole???

so it’s MRI time for aboah, to figure out we is going on. the doctor is saying he looks asymptomatic, but mulder is pouting in the window, so scully asks to run a few more tests. and apparently aboah can’t communicate with them due to the language barrier… so they called mr. duff, who is very angry that his client has been arrested.

mulder says “we only arrested him because he ran when we tried to question him, and i want to know why he ran”...

(CRINGE! CRINGE! INSENSITIVE WHITE MAN ALERT!)

...which causes mr. duff to respond with “sir, if you had ever been beaten by the police, or had your home burned to the ground for no other reason than being born, then maybe you would understand why he ran” oh! mulder cringe moment intensifies, even after this heartfelt explanation from mr. duff, as he INSISTS aboah ran because he’s hiding something

“where are you going?” “to find someone who i know plotted to deceive, inveigle, and obfuscate” (silly words said very angrily)

so he’s at the burkina faso embassy. talking to the man who mulder thinks requested to stop the investigation into the first man’s death. this is a bold accusation... but not one the man seems to deny.

he says that his people, the Bambara, are farmers, and he grew up hearing stories of the Teliko, spirits of the air. they hide in small holes- which could be how aboah got in that pipe, i suppose- and oh no, the doctor back at the hospital is looking for mr. aboah while our unnamed embassy man is explaining how the teliko emerge at night!

the man from the embassy talks about his experience with an air spirit as a child, and how his father saved him from one. but then, they found his cousin dead and entirely white, like the dead men. which is why he knew it was real.

(zoom in on aboah in a tiny drawer of a food delivery cart) OH! the eyeballs peeking out are CREEPY

next morning, they’re looking at x rays. scully says aboah has something lodged in his throat… like that thing we saw him take out before!! and even more disturbing… look at the saggital section, just below the hypothalamus! NO PITUITARY GLAND!

GASP! this is impossible! (i love the medial jargon)

mulder emerges into the room just as they say this to point out that aboah has disappeared!

mr. duff is heading back to his car, but aboah is on the prowl. mr. duff is very happy to see him, and gives him a ride home. NOOO DON’T LET SOMETHING BAD HAPPEN TO THIS GENTLEMAN!!

NOOO! mulder is investigating the food cart when scully reports that mr. duff’s car was found abandoned…. with the keys still in the ignition. do not hurt him.

WHAT? cutscene to aboah holding this BIG NEEDLE thing over duff while one of his eyes is very pale…. where is that needle going…. OMFG HIS NOSE I CAN’T LOOK…

the police arrive just after some crunching noises were heard and then also some snuffling in the pipes as aboah escapes into them. but luckily, duff is alive.

mulder is proposing that he is basically a vampire for melanin?

wait, hold on, what is going on about now? “the lost tribe- a clan of sub-Saharan albinos linked by their common congenital deficit who’ve adapted over generations by…” “what, by stealing other people’s hormones?”

well, scully, i must say i had a very similar reaction to his hypothesis!

so why wouldn’t it be an isolated case? she asks. a very good question! because of what someone told mulder last night… “so you’re basing this theory on a folktale?” “it’s just another way of describing the same truth, right? i mean, all new truths begin as heresies and end as superstitions. we fear the unknown, so we reduce it to the germs that are most familiar to us, whether that’s a folktale or a disease or conspiracy”

well... that is an opinion you can have, i guess?

scully with the counterpoint: why leave his own country to come here and do the killings? his smarts ass reply: free cable…. or liberty n whatnot idk

mulder pulls over to a demolition site, which he thinks might be connected to one of the other bodies, so he just. busts a hole in there and walks in. fully knowing that it is a demolition site with active asbestos. okay!!! get that mesothelioma suit king

creepy music as they explore… and hear clanging in the dark…. mulder is gonna climb a ladder now.

BLEH, THE SCARY EYES ARE WATCHING!!!!

AND NO!!! mulder is hit by one of the seeds!!!! he is calling out for scully as he trips into another dimension. NO!!!! he has fallen down!!!

scully rescue time….? now she must climb the ladder…. and sees him toppled onto the ground!!!

she hears some clanking about and climbs into a vent… which had to be awful to film… the teliko is above her!!!!!!

more vent crawling…. AND OMG!!! the dude from before, alfred kittle, is in there, and now very very very white and dead!! rip king :(

but she finds mulder in there, alive. he can only groan softly. aww poor meow meow. but something rapidly approaches….

JEEZ.. IT'S ABOAH/THE AIR SPIRIT, AND HE’S CRAWLING ON ALL FOURS AND BARRELLING TOWARDS HER WITH SHINY SCARY EYES LIKE A CAT WAAAH

scully whips out her gun and fires two shots… and aboah (do i call him aboah? IS he still the man named aboah? was he ever? or was he just a spirit?) anyway he seems to have disappeared?

(mulder still groaning) “it’s okay, mulder. i’m here. okay?” <- oh…… a rescue scene…. oh be still my heart…. i was not expecting to feel so Tender

so she beats the vent open, and finds the other bodies of the missing men in there. then she pulls his body out of the vent, apologizing to him for yanking on his legs to get him out, which was quite sweet, before slumping him up against one of the bodies to call 911.

OH! scully badge number reveal! JTT0331613. so WRITE THAT DOWN, SUPER FANS. but as she calls, the creature slash aboah returns behind her…

mulder is groaning and trying to let her know… and she gets the hint, whips around with her gun, and shoots!

phenomenal communication between them with no more than faint moaning from mulder. truly highlights their connection.

this time, it appears there is no escape from the bullets for the teliko, as she sits with mulder among all of the bodies

oh! scully is wrapping up the episode and she has these round glasses on and my heart is skipping a few beats!! this is field journal entry 74.

good news! mr. duff survived!! and aboah is being charged for murder, but aboah is dying as they speak and may not live long enough to stand trial. and she’s confident science can explain the whole thing… “but what science may never be able to explain is our ineffable fear of the alien among us, a fear which often drives us not to search for understanding, but to deceive, inveigle, and obfuscate, to obscure the truth not only from others, but from ourselves” (and fade to black)

well! my initial thoughts…

it seems this episode existed only to introduce us to deep throat 3.0. that seemed to be the only greater overarching plot point there. which is fine, we rarely get any contributions to the overall plot in these monster of the week episodes, but… this one just didn’t do it for me.

idk, i was kind of bored?? the only times i felt things were when mr. duff was very kind, the spookiness of the creepy faces, cringe at mulder’s insensitivity, and when scully saved him at the end. that was it for me. oh, and ick at pendrell. that was it. everything else was just kinda there.

when they’re separated…idk, it just doesn’t hit the same. but i did like seeing more into medical scully! and her dogged determination slash sworn life goal being to find answers and help people! so that was good. but... idk, the concept was really interesting, i just feel like the ball was fumbled in terms of execution, and i can’t even really pinpoint why.

here are some possible theories as to why i felt this episode was unsatisfactory: we didn't really KNOW anything about our monster of the week. he had no real compelling motivation or backstory or anything. he just showed up, like the fat vampire from season 3, who also stood out to me as a bland monster of the week. in terms of if he was a person at one point or always a vicious air spirit- who knows? the logic wasn't explained.

mulder's racial insensitivity gave me hives which is reason enough on its own for me to dislike the episode. mr. duff was like "maybe aboah was running because of the way this country treats Black people", which is an entirely valid point, and then mulder was all NUH-UH HE'S EVIL and THAT is why he is running. and then... that being what actually happens also rings kinda hollow. that sort of profiling that mulder just did isn't what gets people treated so terribly or abused at the hands of law enforcement in the first place. but i'm supposed to think mulder just Knows this through his magical judgement. hmm.

the succession of deep throats is also getting a bit old for me. i enjoyed one and two, but now it's feeling like a regeneration thing. what makes deep throat 1.0 and x's deaths compelling if we just get a new one every single time?

so: maybe i am a hater. and that is okay. in a way, we are lucky to have episodes that are just sort of mid. because i have been raised in a world of 6 hour long episodes being 1 season. i have grown up in a world designed solely for streaming, and that compactness forfeits the luxury of the exploration of world building or playing with genre that the 24 episode per season format from this era allows. so in this piece of what i believe is just a kind of boring episode, i am realizing how lucky i am that such a thing exists now that they are no longer being made.

#yeah i think that's about it #i liked scully gently talking to a tripping mulder but #if anyone loves this episode i'm sorry please take no offense i did my best to articulate my criticisms!!!!!#as always please tell me what you think. maybe i am alone in hating it. maybe i'm different and brave.#or maybe i am stunningly average. either way i request you tell me.#that's about it from me i think. i hear my family approaching. must go #juni's x files liveblog #the x files #txf

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maximoffcarter · 8 months ago

Text

5...4...3...2...1.

Pairings: Casey Novak x Alex Cabot

Warnings: Panic attack, mentions of anxiety.

Summary: Alex knew what an anxiety attack was, and she learned to deal with them alone. But now, she had Casey.

A/n: A soft (bit angsty?) Calex fic where Alex has a panic attack. Our cute buddle of anxiety. Thanks to the anon for requesting this! I pretended that Casey was never suspended and our fave lesbians started working together since before hehe. Keep the requests coming you guys! Enjoy and leave your comments, reblogs, hearts, whatever you'd like, will be very much appreciated🫶🏻

*not my gif*

A panic attack is a brief episode of intense anxiety, which causes physical sensations of fear. That was the definition that was stuck in Alex’s mind since she can remember. She looked it up in a dictionary one time in college after feeling like passing out after an important exam. She had heard a girl mentioning it, that she’s had panic attacks before, but she never experienced one. But she figured hers had just been anxiety and stress related, so she never thought about it again. Years later, she saw one of the victims having a panic attack right before she was going to testify, and she didn’t know what to do, but thankfully, Olivia had been there. She saw how Olivia knelt down with her and tried to talk her through it, and then when the girl finally focused her eyes back on Olivia, she started asking questions for the girl to focus on her surroundings. They were very similar to anxiety attacks, and now she wondered if she had ever had one, but she would know, she knew anxiety attacks perfectly. She kept in mind that she needed to learn how to be there for the victims, learn techniques or anything in case this happened while she was alone with them, because she knew this was not going to be the last time that she saw one.

Years later, she had managed to help one or two victims go through what she recognized as an anxiety attack, and this had also been to her favor since she had been able to recognize and end her own. Years of being alone, she had to learn how to control her own anxiety, because sometimes pills didn’t really work and plus insomnia, it wasn’t the best feeling in the world. In so many cases, defence attorneys had tried to use either insomnia or anxiety as they excuse for murder, rape, or any other crime, and Alex joked about how she had both and she was still somehow sane, but the reality is that she didn’t wish neither of them to anyone, not even her worst enemy. She suffered long nights of sleepless nights, crying, heavy breathing, headaches, sweating, etc. Normally, when she knew an anxiety attack was coming, she felt dizzy and her head started hurting badly, so she either locked herself in her office or when she was alone in her apartment, she made sure she was in her bed or sometimes even in the bathroom in case she needed to splash some water in her face. She had learned to deal with it. To deal with the daily pills.

When Casey and Alex got together, it had been before she had to leave for Witness Protection, she had met Casey while they were both waiting in courtroom for arraignments, Casey was waiting for Mary and Alex was just waiting for her case to be next, so they sat down and talked for a bit. Then they met for some drinks, they shared college stories finding out that they could’ve met any time, but fate had been a bitch back then until now. The second night they went for drinks, Casey went back to Alex’s and that’s when their hookups started; when Alex’s anxiety decreased. They’d see each other every other night, whenever they were free, sometimes when they just had a small break or when they needed each other. But then Alex had to die. She had broken the rules and she had called Casey to let her know she was alive, she couldn’t bare the thought of leaving Casey and make her think that she was dead, it was enough that they had taken her life from her, she wouldn’t be able to live with the thought that Casey believed she was gone.

Her anxiety increased drastically. A whole year on her own, avoiding meeting anyone new or talking to anyone because she feared that anyone would want to kill her or do something to her and that was the worst she had ever felt. Then she was back with Casey, even if it was for a week only, she had felt some sort of relief; being back in Casey’s arms, feeling her warmth, her presence, her scent, just having her there by her side. And then back to her nightmare, for 2 more years. At some point she thought this was her life now, running away, hiding forever, her anxiety killing her day by day, but when she was finally told that she could go back to New York, that she was out of risk, things seemed to be a bit better. Once she was back to New York, Hammond thought the first thing Alex would do was go back to get her job back, or at least be able to be part of the DA’s office in some level, but no. Her first stop was Casey’s apartment.

She had been so nervous going back there after 2 years, she thought maybe that Casey had gotten over her, after all, they had never said anything about being exclusive or they put a label on what they were when Alex was still in New York before the whole nightmare, but deep inside, she wished that Casey would still want her, or at least be willing to accept Alex back in her life. She would accept anything, as long as she had Casey back in her life. Alex knocked on the door softly, waiting patiently for Casey. As she heard footsteps approaching the door, she feared that it was someone else and not Casey, feeling a tight pressure on her chest as she closed her eyes. But then, she heard that voice that had become music to her ears, she opened her eyes and there she was.

“Alex.” Casey breathed out, a smile on her face. “You’re back.”

Alex smiled softly as she felt tears rolling down her cheeks. “I am.”

Casey didn’t waste more time and placed her hands on Alex’s neck, bringing her close to her and closing the gap between them. And right there, that pressure Alex felt on her chest, was long gone as she placed her hands on Casey’s waist and pulled her impossibly closer to her, kissing her back. Her mind still annoyed her a bit as the stood in Casey’s doorway kissing, anyone could see them, but also she didn’t care one bit. She was back with Casey. Casey was happy to see her. She had missed this feeling; she missed feeling safe. They finally pulled away and chuckled like two teenagers as they stared into each other’s eyes, both women feeling like it was just a dream and they’d soon wake up to find it was not real. But it was very real.

Alex smiled as she pulled away slightly. “You look so beautiful.” She chuckled softly.

“So do you.” Casey smiled as she stroked her cheeks. “You haven’t changed.”

Alex shrugged. “One or two wrinkles.”

Casey rolled her eyes. She then smiled at Alex, her hands dropping to Alex’s. “Come on in?”

“I’d love to.” Alex smiled as she let Casey pull her inside.

Casey closed the door and then turned to look at Alex. “You’re…here to stay…right?”

Alex smiled softly, her whole body feeling warm as she nodded. “Yes. I’m never leaving again. I mean-“ she shrugged. “Unless you…you don’t want me here, then I-“

Casey grabbed her by her waist and pulled her against her body, kissing her lips softly. “You really think I’ll let you go again? You’re out of your mind if you think I’ll do that.” She grinned.

“I’d have to sue you if you do.” Alex smirked as she pulled her back for another kiss.

********************

A whole year had passed since Alex was back in New York, she still took some time to adjust once again, feeling so weird to be back, feeling like she had never been here when this had been the place she had known her whole life. But with the help of Casey, things seemed a bit better. A month or so later, she was offered to be back to the DA’s office, coming to an agreement that she would be sharing cases with Casey, and honestly, that was the best offer they could’ve told Casey because she as loaded with cases, and having Alex there with her, it was definitely a win. Alex started slow once she went back to the office; a whole new office, a whole new rhythm at work, new faces, there were just a lot of new things. At first it felt overwhelming, but Casey made sure to be there at every step of the way so Alex wouldn’t feel like she was lone.

Casey knew about her anxiety, Alex had been honest about it since they met. At first hesitant, thinking maybe Casey would feel like it was too much for her and she’d want to run away from it, but Casey stayed, she always stayed. Casey made sure to be there on her first return to court, and hell, was she happy that Casey had been there, she had felt so safe, she could definitely say that Casey was her lucky charm. But after that, she felt like she was back in her element, and everything seemed to be okay, everything was back to normal, she felt like she had gotten her life back.

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago when they got this big case that ended up including around 5 murders and two rapes, Casey had been busy in another case, so Alex had been the one to take it. Everything was going smoothly, the squad had found enough evidence for them to get somewhere and build a strong case, but just like every good start, there has to be bump, and that’s when things started to look a bit rocky, and the stress and pressure started. At first, it felt very familiar, this stress and pressure that she experienced every single day, bad news after bad news coming from the squad and ruining her case. It was the first time in a while that she had stayed in the office late at night, alone. Normally she stayed with Casey or even Olivia and Amanda, but today, she was completely alone. At first it seemed okay, she got some work done and let Olivia know that she needed more and to please call her if they found anything new.

She went back home, letting Casey know that she was on her way, and she’d order some food for them once she knew Casey was on her way back home too. Just as Alex closed the door of the apartment, she groaned because she had a hard time locking it, feeling her hands going numb for a moment, dropping her briefcase and her coat to the floor, not even caring. She walked to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, sighing heavily as she started unbuttoning her shirt. She tried to focus on what was happening to her, but her head was spinning around and with each step she took, she felt herself sweating more and more. Was she having an anxiety attack? No. It couldn’t be. She was a bit stressed but other than that, she had been feeling okay all day, or…fine. Maybe she needed her pills, but it had been a while since she’s felt like this. For a moment she got to focus on what she was doing, so she had the glass of water and drank it all, but then it’s when it started to get worse.

She felt her heartbeat raising, and she started to hyperventilate pretty quickly. She was confused as to what was happening, she had never felt like this. She tried to think back on how her anxiety attacks worked, but they were so different, it was stupid because she knew anxiety attacks could present differently, but hers were always the same, she recognized them. This was not an anxiety attack…this was a panic attack. Before she knew it, she was able to get to the couch, trying to sit down but instead of the couch, she landed on the floor. She tried to take off her blouse, almost ripping her as she felt like she couldn’t breathe, and tears starting rolling down her cheeks. She didn’t know how long she was there for, she felt like it had been an eternity, and then she felt a pair of hands on her. She looked up to find Casey kneeling right in front of her, she could see her lips moving but she couldn’t make up the words. She felt dizzy, she kept hyperventilating, and the tears wouldn’t stop coming.

Next thing she knew, she felt something cold on her hands and her neck and for a moment she panicked because she thought she had started sweating cold, but for a moment she came back to her senses to find out that Casey had put some ice cubes on her hands on was running one behind her neck. Alex stared at her, breathing heavily, her chest going up and down as she tried to talk to Casey.

“C-Case-“

“I’m here. Can you hear me?” Alex nodded softly as she kept breathing heavily. “Okay. We’re gonna try something, okay? I need you to look around and try to focus on 5 things around the room. Anything.”

At first Alex was confused but she started looking around the room; the TV was one, the lamp that she had bought 2 weeks ago just because she liked it and thought it was perfect for their living room, all the books that they had put together making Casey joke about them having a library of law, the vase that Casey had said so many times that she didn’t like but still accepted it because Alex loved it, and finally her eyes landed on the picture frame that Casey had gotten on Valentine’s day, a day in central park, just the two of them.

Casey watched as Alex’s eyes moved around the room and focused on each thing, she gave her a moment before she nodded. “Okay, now, baby. I need you to tell me 4 sounds that you can hear right now.”

Alex looked back at Casey and closed her eyes for a moment. “Uh…outside…the…the traffic.” She shook her head. “Annoying.”

Casey nodded, holding back her chuckle. “Anything else?”

“The uh…the fridge. It makes…it m-makes a weird sound.”

“Yes, it does sometimes. What else?”

Alex groaned a bit as she tried to find anything else. “The neighbors. Their steps. I-It’s like they…they never stop w-walking around.”

Casey nodded as she smiled a bit. “One more thing, Lex.”

Alex opened her eyes to look at Casey. “Your voice.”

Casey smiled softly. “Yes, I’m talking. That’s great baby. Now.” She got her briefcase from the couch and opened it trying to get whatever she had inside, emptying it on the floor beside them. “I need you to find three objects and feel them.”

Alex looked down at the floor and started to grab whatever she could find. She first grabbed a clip, Casey always kept some just in case, but they ended up all over her briefcase. Then she grabbed her pen, it was Casey’s favorite pen. Alex bought 10 different ones, but she had preferred Alex’s and she said it was her favorite because it was Alex’s favorite, so she gave it to her. And the third thing was a ball. She furrowed her brows and looked up at Casey.

Casey shrugged. “I forgot to put it in my other bag.” Alex huffed a chuckle, making Casey chuckle too. “Okay, we’re almost done. Can you tell me two things that you can smell?”

Alex smiled softly. “Your perfume. I love it. And uh…Cinnabon rolls?”

Casey nodded as she smiled. “Yes. And last thing…” she grabbed a candy that she had on the small table and unwrapped it for Alex. “Tell me how this tastes.”

Alex grabbed the candy and put it in her mouth, sighing softly at the taste of peppermint. “It’s peppermint. My favorite.” She smiled softly.

Casey nodded as she smiled. “Yes. Your favorite.” She placed her hand on Alex’s cheek and stroked it softly. “Welcome back.”

Alex stared into Casey’s eyes and then noticed that she had stopped trembling and hyperventilating. She took a deep breath and then breathed out, smiling softly. “How did you…”

“I’ve been reading about it. Anxiety and panic attacks. It can work for both. I think there was a different one but…this is the one I could come up with.”

“And the ice?”

Casey grabbed a small towel she had brought with her when she had gone for the ice, drying Alex’s hands and then moving her hair to the side to dry the back of her neck, kissing the side of her head softly. “The ice works to bring you back to your senses. Your body reacts.” Casey smiled.

Alex tilted her head as she smiled. “I think you picked the wrong career.”

Casey rolled her eyes playfully. “I’m sure Huang could recommend a good school for me, so I start my studies. Fuck law.” She placed her hand again on Alex’s cheek and stroked it tenderly.

Alex laughed softly, leaning into Casey’s hand, smiling as Casey kissed her forehead softly. “Thank you.” She whispered softly afterwards.

“You have nothing to thank me. I’ve got you.” Casey whispered against her forehead, kissing it again.

“I don’t know what happened.”

Casey sighed softly. “Liv told me you’ve been pretty stressed about this case. Maybe it built up without you noticing. You’ve been sleeping less, I’ve noticed.”

Alex nodded. “Could be that.” She sighed as she looked up at Casey again. “This was not an anxiety attack.”

“I know.” Casey smiled softly.

“I don’t know what I would do without you.” Alex smiled.

Casey scrunched her nose. “You’d definitely be bored for life, and you’d be miserable without me.”

Alex slapped her arm playfully laughing softly. “You’re a comedian too?”

“Some nights.” Casey shrugged as she smiled. “Are you okay?”

Alex took a deep breath and smiled as she nodded. “I am. I’m feeling much better.”

“Good. Do you want to try to get up?” Alex nodded softly and Casey proceeded to stand up, offering her hands to Alex to help her get up. Once she was sure Alex could stand on her own, she ran her hands through Alex’s hair, pushing it out of her face. “Hi.”

Alex smiled softly. “Hi.” She leaned in and kissed her lips softly. “I’m definitely feeling better.”

“Good.” Casey smiled. “How about we take a shower and then we order some food? I did bring dessert.”

Alex nodded softly. “I like the sound of that.”

Casey kissed her lips one more time before she grabbed Alex’s hand and walked with her to their bedroom. Alex had never experienced a panic attack before, and she knew that she had to talk about it sooner or later, but Casey was so patient with her, she had been so calm and sweet. Casey was everything that Alex could’ve asked for and more, and she knew that she was not alone. Casey would always be there by her side.

#casey novak #alex cabot #alexandra cabot #casey novak x alex cabot #svu #svu fic #law and order svu #calex

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pascaloverx · 19 days ago

Text

To Begin Again

CHAPTER TWENTY

Summary: You're a new teacher at a large and influential school. It's a risky step for you, as you've been running from your ex for almost two years. But when Dumbledore asks you to take on a class at the renowned Hogwarts, you can't refuse. However, your life as a newly arrived teacher won't be easy. Especially when the other teachers don't seem eager to make friends. Or rather, two teachers in particular: Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

Author's Note: Welcome, dear readers. Please leave your comments if you enjoy fanfiction. This fanfic takes place almost in the real world (with the addition of werewolves) and is not a wizarding fanfic. There will be some differences and changes in things from the Harry Potter story or other fanfics in the HP universe, but I promise to do my best writing this fanfic. Dear readers, I'm back. With a significant time jump, Harry, Draco, and others who were once children are now teenagers, almost adults. More mature themes will be portrayed in this fanfic. Come and see how Y/N navigates her new life as a maternal figure for Draco while trying to help Sirius and Harry move forward with their lives. Enjoy the read!

PART TWO

The next morning, you were the first to wake. You slipped out of your room and headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast in peace. First, you scrambled the eggs while the coffee brewed, and the bacon sizzled in the fryer. As the bread toasted, you began setting the table, focusing on arranging everything just right. Then, you heard someone coming down the stairs but continued with the table setting. Suddenly, you felt someone standing close behind you, almost leaning over to see what you were doing.

“So, is this the pampered life you’ve given Draco? And yet you have the nerve to criticize how I’ve cared for Harry,” Sirius murmurs, practically embracing you from behind, his voice soft in your ear, sending a shiver down your spine.

"You mean I pointed out how neglectful you were with him, don’t you?" you reply, nudging Sirius with your elbow, drawing a small groan from him before he moves to grab the toast from the toaster. He also retrieves the orange juice and milk from the fridge, setting them on the table.

"Do you think Harry will ever forgive me?" he asks, his voice dropping to an unexpectedly serious tone as the two of you finish setting the table. You meet his gaze, pausing thoughtfully as you weigh the right words to say.

"I believe he has a good heart—better than yours, without question," you reply, aiming for an understanding tone. "He just needs you to stop being the reckless godfather and start becoming the father figure he can truly rely on." Sirius's expression shifts, a glimmer of hope appearing in his eyes as if he can see a path to regaining Harry’s trust.

"And that's how you ended up in this situation, where Draco calls you 'stepmother'? By being the mother figure he needed?" Sirius asks genuinely, his gaze searching yours.

You let out a deep sigh before replying. "When we went to the United States, I had no idea how to be what Draco needed. I tried being the teacher he admired so much, but our relationship was more than that. I tried being the 'fun aunt' instead—until he ended up suspended for two weeks for punching a classmate who called him an 'orphan.' When he got home after that, I realized he needed to understand boundaries and respect them."

You pause, then continue, "So we had a long talk. I told him he'd be starting therapy, that we'd find a way for him to feel supported. During those sessions, he admitted he didn’t want to forget his mother, but he needed me to fill the void her absence had left. After that, I became his stepmother."

"Must have been challenging for you both, given that your father..." Sirius starts, but you quickly place a firm hand over his mouth, cutting him off. "If you even think of mentioning what my father did, I’ll end you," you whisper, leaning in to make your threat seem more convincing. But Sirius only looks at you with curiosity rather than fear, a faint smirk playing at the edge of his lips.

Just then, the sound of raised voices echoes down the staircase. Instinctively, you push Sirius into a corner between the living room and the kitchen, hidden from view but within earshot of Draco and Harry’s bickering.

"How can you just act as if nothing happened between us?" Harry asks, his voice low and tense, clearly trying to keep the conversation private. You maintain your grip on Sirius to prevent him from interrupting as you observe the two boys approaching the breakfast table, each taking their place at opposite ends.

"How am I supposed to act, genius?" Draco shoots back, beginning to assemble his breakfast plate. It's evident that both boys are on edge. Sirius glances toward the exit, eager to leave the concealed spot, but you hold him back firmly.

"I know you're angry about what I said—that you don't know how to love someone. But can't we just move on, like we used to?" Harry speaks softly as he inches closer to Draco. Both have set their plates down on the table and are locked in a tense gaze. It's difficult for you to eavesdrop while keeping Sirius from interrupting, but you do your best to listen in.

"Are you suggesting we go back to the days when we hated each other and I used to hit you? Honestly, I could consider it, but I need to eat first," Draco replies casually as he inches closer to Harry, who appears to be flirting back.

"I'm suggesting we return to the way things were before our last argument; we were always talking, and you mentioned how much you wished we could be closer, don't you remember?" Harry says, wrapping his arms around Draco's waist and whispering something in his ear. Draco gazes at Harry, as if on the verge of exploding; his usual bravado seems to wane slightly.

"Of course, let's keep going. That way, when your idiot godfather finishes ruining his life and yours, you'll take it out on me. No way. Not in a million years. If you're looking for someone to wet your lips, find someone else," Draco retorts, regaining his usual confidence while still in Harry's embrace. At that moment, he leans closer to Harry, their faces nearly touching as if about to share a kiss.

"Are you sure you want me to find someone else?" Harry asks, planting a quick kiss on Draco, who is completely captivated by him. At that moment, you can hardly see anything else. Sirius is too preoccupied, nearly grinding against you, to be shocked by the fact that Draco and Harry are romantically interested in each other. Although, when Draco insulted him earlier, you had to restrain Sirius from reacting.

"Could you stop using this moment to try to seduce me?" you say, shooting an annoyed glance at Sirius, who lets out a muffled laugh. Your voice must remain low to avoid alerting Draco and Harry to your presence.

"You put us in this tiny spot, and I'm the one trying to seduce you?" Sirius says, leaning in unusually close. However, you notice that Harry and Draco have fallen silent, prompting you to act before they discover your hiding place. Without hesitation, you pull Sirius's face closer and initiate a kiss. It was meant to be a calm, emotionless kiss, but Sirius firmly grips your waist, deepening the kiss unexpectedly.

"What are you two doing?" Harry asks as he and Draco stumble upon the small hiding spot where you and Sirius are. "Well, Potter, you wear glasses; can't you see that your godfather can't keep his hands off my stepmother?" Draco replies, his tone disapproving, clearly annoyed by the situation.

Relieved they hadn't caught on to your spying, you felt little need to act regretful about kissing Sirius. Nonetheless, you stepped away from him and moved toward the breakfast table, with the three following close behind. "Look, you’re both grown; adults have… needs and impulses. What matters is that it's none of your business," you say, brushing off the topic, though a bit flustered. "Now, I'll be heading to Hogwarts today to enroll both of you in the summer program. Anyone care to join me?" You attempt to change the subject, hoping to ease the awkwardness lingering in the air.

"I’d like to accompany you, if that’s alright," Harry says, deliberately avoiding any mention of what he just witnessed.

"And we're supposed to pretend we didn’t just catch you sneaking around with that brute, Sirius Black?" Draco exclaims, almost shouting. You look at him with a silent reprimand, and he quickly realizes he may have crossed a line.

"I fail to see why you're acting as if I did anything your stepmother didn’t appreciate," Sirius adds smugly, casting a victorious glance at Draco, who immediately rolls his eyes in response.

"Enough. I want everyone silent." You look firmly between them, your tone leaving no room for argument. "Draco, please set aside your disdain for Sirius and try to get along with him. Since Harry will be coming with me to Hogwarts, you’ll accompany Sirius into town to handle his probation meeting and buy both your uniform and Harry's. And yes, that’s an order—non-negotiable." Draco and Sirius both bristle with indignation, while Harry can’t help but smile at the scene.

"I am not going with him!" Sirius and Draco declare in unison, causing Harry to burst into laughter. You step forward, gaze sharp and authoritative, letting the weight of your words settle between them. "Oh, you most certainly will," you reply, voice firm as steel. "Or both of you can find new accommodations—on the street."

Draco and Sirius both exchange a glance, clearly agitated, but they fall silent under your unyielding stare. After a moment, Draco rolls his eyes and mutters, "Fine. But if he says one thing I don’t like…" He doesn’t finish, giving Sirius a pointed look. Sirius, equally unamused, huffs, crossing his arms.

Sirius narrows his eyes at Draco. "I dare you to finish that sentence, spoiled brat," he growls, trying to intimidate him. Draco glances away, almost instinctively moving behind Harry, who steps in with a smirk. "Take it easy, godfather. Draco’s only half as annoying as you, after all," Harry teases, both defending and ribbing Draco. At first, Draco looks pleased, but his expression quickly shifts to one of irritation. Sirius also makes a face, clearly unamused by Harry’s defense of Draco.

You sigh, cutting through their bickering. "If you children are quite finished, I’ll be upstairs getting ready. Harry, do the same. As for you two—Draco, Sirius—there’s no saving either of you. Spend time together or don’t; it’s hardly my concern.” Finishing your coffee, you turn and head to your room, leaving them to sort themselves out.

You don’t take long to get ready, though your mind drifts to the kiss with Sirius and the realization that Harry and Draco have romantic feelings for each other. As you head downstairs, you find Harry already dressed, waiting patiently on the sofa. Sirius, too, is ready but looks visibly impatient as he waits for Draco, who seems to be taking his time in front of the mirror.

"At this rate, we’ll grow old waiting for him," Sirius mutters, rolling his eyes. Harry gives a slight smirk, and you manage a calm, collected expression, though internally, you’re bracing for whatever might unfold between them today.

"You’re already old enough, Sirius!" Draco shouts as he joins the group, laughing at his own joke. Sirius shoots him a look that, if looks could kill, would have left Draco in the dust. You give Draco a light tap on the arm, prompting him to mumble an apology, which only makes Harry tease him further.

"Didn’t think I'd ever see the day Draco Malfoy apologized," Harry grins, crossing his arms.

Draco huffs, shooting him a mock glare. “Don’t get used to it.” You roll your eyes at their banter, feeling like you’re managing a group of overgrown children, yet you can't help the amused smile that slips through.

“Say goodbye to each other while Sirius and I go get the cars. Draco, don’t forget to lock the door,” you instruct, leading Sirius by the arm and giving the boys a moment of privacy.

“I don’t think it’s wise to leave those two alone,” Sirius whispers as you gently push him along.

“They’ll be fine,” you reply, casting a glance back at the boys, who are already engrossed in their playful bickering. “They need to work things out, and besides, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“You convinced me. So, if I understood correctly, besides a kiss, you’re giving me a car?” Sirius laughs, stepping in front of you to block your path, clearly intent on provoking you.

“The car is actually Draco’s. He’ll probably want to drive. But you’re the adult… or maybe not, considering how you two act like you’re the same age,” you say, your gaze narrowing as you step closer. “So let me be clear—if he doesn’t come back in one piece, I’ll end you.”

He lowers his head to meet your eyes, smirking. “And if I don’t come back in one piece… promise to take care of me?” he murmurs, teasingly close. Without missing a beat, you step on his foot, forcing him to stumble back as you head toward your own car. “In your dreams.”

You head to separate cars in the spacious garage, but Sirius keeps giving you a flirtatious look, as if he believes his kiss might actually make you reconsider your decision about taking guardianship of Harry. It leaves you a bit unsettled, uncertain of his intentions. After a few minutes, Harry and Draco appear, their faces flushed and visibly irritated, and you catch sight of Draco already locked in a heated debate with Sirius over who gets to drive the car. On the drive to Hogwarts, Harry hums a few Arctic Monkeys tunes, eventually landing on "Suck It and See." The lyrics catch your attention, subtly hinting that Harry may be more drawn to Draco’s sharp, sometimes cruel demeanor than you initially thought. The revelation lingers in your mind, and before long, the familiar sight of Hogwarts looms on the horizon.

"Miss, can I go find Hermione and Ron while you handle the paperwork?" Harry asks, looking at you with pleading eyes, almost like a puppy.

"Of course, dear," you reply with a gentle smile. "But don’t plan on wandering too long; I won’t be here all day." As you both step out of the car, Harry pulls you into a quick hug before darting off toward the school, leaving you to your task.

You make your way to the main office, paperwork in hand. The familiar halls of Hogwarts feel both welcoming and a bit surreal as you navigate them with purpose. Once you reach the secretary’s desk, you lay out the necessary documents, prepared to finalize the details of Harry and Draco's summer studies.

As you finally catch sight of a figure approaching—sun-tanned and looking renewed—you immediately recognize Remus. He must have just returned from wherever he was with his fiancée, you assume. Alert, you turn to the secretary and politely ask if the paperwork will take much longer. The kindly woman reassures you that it’s nearly complete, mentioning something about how lovely the weather is today. You nod along absentmindedly, all the while planning an escape route; facing Remus after everything that’s happened would be unbearable.

At last, she hands you the completed paperwork, and you confirm that both Draco and Harry are now set for summer studies. With a quick thank-you, you make your way to a room on the lower floor, hoping you managed to avoid being noticed. Minutes pass, and just as you begin to feel safe enough to leave, Lupin strides into the room at the exact moment you’re opening the door. You lose your footing in the sudden collision, stumbling as he steps in.

For heaven's sake, why on earth did you have to come in here?" you snap, barely resisting the urge to slam the door in Remus's face. He chuckles, as though he finds the whole thing amusing. "Yes, laugh at my misery. That’s just what I needed," you mutter, brushing yourself off as you stand, letting out a frustrated huff.

Remus steps fully into the room, his smile fading as he extends a hand to help you up. Naturally, you refuse. At times, you’re reminded of Draco in moments like this, and it almost unsettles you. "And what exactly have I done to irritate you this much?" Remus asks, watching you struggle slightly as you get to your feet, an amused curiosity in his gaze.

“Just by existing, Remus. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do,” you say, swiftly leaving the room and heading toward the school’s entrance, deciding that waiting for Harry in the car is the best plan. But Remus isn’t easily shaken. He follows closely, matching your quick pace. Just as you reach the car, he grabs your arm, stopping you before you can open the door.

"I feel we need to talk. I want to understand what I've done to upset you so much. Perhaps we could grab a coffee together…" he suggests gently.

You turn to him, brushing his hand off your arm. "Well then, explain to me how abandoning your eternal love for Sirius and Harry was part of moving on. Because the last time we spoke, you wrote to me saying you had moved on and didn’t want anything to do with your past. I foolishly shared information about werewolves that I gathered, and you didn’t even bother to acknowledge it. I can understand being discarded, but Harry and Sirius were your family." You confront him, your body inching closer as you throw everything back in his face. He looks utterly lost, caught off guard by your words.

"Hey, wait a minute. I don’t know anything about any letter. I only saw the message you sent to my phone telling me to forget you. You don’t want to discuss that, do you? And what information about werewolves did you manage to gather?" Lupin asks, once again grabbing your arm as you try to pull away.

"Go to hell, Remus. Honestly, has your engagement eaten your brain? Don’t try to deceive me. But since you've forgotten, I found a group of werewolves in the United States. It’s a small group, but they knew a lot. There’s a special tea that helps control transformations and a kind of panic room that’s great for passing the time during transformations. If you’re interested, find the letter you ignored and read it. Now get out of my way, or I’ll walk right over you." You’re furious but manage to respond to him, though you can’t understand why you’re so close.

"I didn’t ignore you, Y/N," Lupin says, sounding sincere, the scoundrel. He then releases your arm, and you glare at him with anger.

"I didn’t ask for your company, Remus," you reply sharply, continuing to stride toward where Harry might be. Remus follows closely, the tension between you palpable.

"Well, you’re stuck with me now," he counters, irritation creeping into his voice.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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witchofthesouls · 1 year ago

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So, uh, this little memory just suddenly popped up out of no where and I figured it would serve as good(?) ‘world-building’ material.

So, when I was in my private all-girls Catholic high school (that’s how you know it’s going to be a good story) girls would soak their tampons with vodka to get drunk. Some where more successful than others, but some where also less fortunate when their near fatal encounter of alcohol poisoning and nasty-ass vaginal infections where known throughout school.

My question is; do cybertronians have a similar method of madness like the vodka tampons?

And my second question; did Cybertronian’s have their own version of an all girls catholic school? And if they do, what kind of crazy shit went on there?

I can tell you so much about the crazy shit that went on there; the illegal gambling ring, the bi-curious and lesbi-curious girls who were convinced that they liked/loved another girl and stalked the poor girl, some of the shady male teachers, the secret LGBTQ+ club (which was actually kind of wholesome and I was apart of), the bullying (sweet Jesus was there a lot of bullying and harassment), some nuns were Grade A+ assholes who would wack our hands with rulers and have affairs with some of the male teachers, and there’s was a…uh,…secret orgy/cunnilingus club too.

It was the nineties, what would you expect?

Oh wow. I heard of things in private, religious schools from a friend, but hot damn that's wild!

I did go to a religious university. They had a weekly chapel where classes were suspended and all students were required to attend. I did start a tiny alcohol ring in the dorms. Nothing nefarious or crazy binging, just enough in plastic bottles to use in cooking or sipping for a secret meat meal in the rooms. I came from a time when weed was still illegal, but damn I never thought it would prepare me for smuggling meats into a strictly vegetarian campus.

So going back to the questions:

Cybertronians do have alcoholic goodies for popular sex play. Unlike humans, their reproductive system is a closed loop circulatory-wise, and they don't need to worry about poisoning themselves. But for an experience similar to humans doing stupid things for that drunk-high is the equivalent of a wine enema into their afts. That's because their "asshole" is actually a medical port that has components connected to their pelvis structures; meaning, they can get off really well with that alcoholic enema. Yeah, you don't need to be an expert in alien biology to understand that pouring drugs into a hole that's connected to your nervous system can be a stupid bad idea.

Get ready for a lot of worldbuilding:

Education on Cybertronian is severely restricted to caste due to edicts based on Functionism where frame dictates function in society. Some city-states like Vos and Tarn get away with public schooling by citing it as a necessity component of their citizenship and to the benefit of Cybertron as a whole. Vos stylizes their system as a military academy since Seekers are typically slotted into such hierarchies and citizens are drafted into the Air Force during wartime; whereas Tarn is famous for its factories and mines. Sparkling armature is too fragile for the unstable environment, so keeps the workforce much more docile that the bits too big for the holds are kept away and provides leverage as a union-busting technique. Accidents happen.

There are the old traditions of apprenticeships and mentorships for mecha that catch the attention of a well-established professional. Each decade, the number dwindles as more fees are added such practices, such as "alt-mode exemption for education" and "Form Ed-98A-3432d: Exemption to mentor a student two castes below."

Higher education typically functions as private entities with very high-stakes testing. If a student fails to pass progress exams to move to the next module, then it's game over. There's no retakes or repeats or any sort of second chance. They're permanently expelled from completing education within the city-state.

Because of this, coercion is a common phenomenon, especially to snap up specific connections or talented individuals under the school's domains or their related patrons. Skill was the means of trade among the faculty and students as well as the ability to cultivate it. Money could be both everything and nothing within these facilities; it was as meaningful as the parties in agreement made it. This was a strange world compared to what was outside the walls as it blended all the castes and frames and cultures and reduced it to what a person could bring to a table via their own hands or their future. Make no mistake, it wasn't a utopia. It was a cutthroat arena with deep tensions that were mitigated by the faculty and student council as they all battle to polish diamonds from the rough, force people into cohorts, and seal alliances. If done right, a low-caste sponsered can be taken care of for the rest of their lives or die back on the streets with nothing.

Ratchet managed to get away with his old clinic doing illegal free services by utilizing this strange culture. The relationships he cultivated with his old mentor's ties into their own university as well as Ratchet’s own ties via teaching will cover his tracks and provide some funding as long as he takes in "chosen" medical apprentices to train in such conditions and documents the long-term effects of poverty at those sunless levels. Ratchet was only able to trace a few of his benefactors in his project, Senator Shockwave and Counciler Alpha Trion.

Because it was a different world with so much on and off the books, the really secretive clubs would be the "heretics" with worship to certain Primes, Titans, or Unicron, sex clubs that cater to xeno-related kinks, and those with dysmorphic frames, either by force or assigned (cold construction, lab-grown sentio metallico, or noncon frame overhaul), trying to find themselves without anything set on legal paperwork.

(Knockout took advantage of that.)

#ask #transformers #transformers prime #tfp #ratchet #cybertronian culture #cybertronian biology #maccadam #my thoughts #my writing #i like to think knock out was a flyer and switched to a car #all based on that comment from starscream about “self-respecting Decepticons” and purposely choosing

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disregardcanon · 1 year ago

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thinking about a npmd characters yellowjackets au and oh boy it's fun

okay so the premise is, the hatchetfield high school nighthawk football team is going to nationals. i'm pretty sure that doesn't exist for american high school football but we're suspending disbelief.

solomon lauter is trying to build up goodwill with the community for this election cycle, so not only does he charter a private plane for the football team, he makes his daughter go with. HE doesn't have time to go to seattle and it's not like most people will see him there anyway, but if he puts his daughter on the plane with them and says oh look my daughter is so kind and supportive! she's taking time away from HER own schoolwork and HER own life to support our fighting nighthawks! what a kind and involved citizen she is!

and then of course he pressures her teachers to just. let her off the hook for activities in classes that week. because she's such a kiiinnnddd person who's supporting the football team.

richie, of course, is essential for an excursion such as this. he's zeke the fighting nighthawk! he's on that plane. ruth has some overlap with misty quigley that i find interesting, so we're making her the equipment manager. this is half to get her on the plane and half because i think she'd use that as an excuse to be a pervert. like oooohhh i'm so sorry! i didn't think there would be boys CHANGING in here right now! myyyy mistake.

max and the football team and brenda and the cheer squad are all there. now however do we get our dearest spankoffski on that plane? (ruth says that she needs help with equipment management duties and pete's already the salutorian of the class... so she's able to sell him just missing this second to last week of school alright to the teachers. he doesn't really WANT to, but steph, who he's been bonding with since she got him to help her cheat and then actually helped her study... asks him to. because she says she's going to be bored out of her mind without someone to hang out with... and he's only HUMAN, okay?)

now how do we get grace temperance chastity on a plane full of horny teenagers for an activity that she doesn't do? why making her the president of the FCA (fellowship of christian athletes) of course! she is the self-assigned chaperone of such an important and potentially very horny and drug-ridden activity in such a den of sin (seattle). SHE is the only thing standing between the students of hatchetfield high and total anarchy. as valedictorian (peter, if you just applied yourself and maybe went to chuuurrrcchhh you might have beaten me! grace will you just shut up-) she is not worried about her grades in this penultimate week of school. oh BOY was she wrong.

they of course crash in the canadian rockies. the coaches die, and we're left with absolute fucking anarchy. everyone save our favorite quintet listen to max for awhile as he dictates the ways that heeee, max jagerman, think things should be run. it's bad! it doesn't work! they're gonna fucking die!!!!!!!

jagerman is more worried about how to keep his power and where steph keeps disappearing to than figuring out how to stay alive in case of... not getting rescued.

ruth has GAD and is just freaking the fuck out in the corner, richie is doing the same, and pete is trying to figure out. how the fuck to survive in case of no rescue coming. steph's on team I Think We Should Prepare, Jesus Christ! and grace enjoys survival situations so she's over here. she also thinks that the act of god might be that they're stuck out here and have to build a new jerusalem (tehehe)

the combined powers of steph's charisma and kindness, pete's problem-solving, and grace's intensity and sureness in herself, they convince the rest of the group that they found a safer spot... a lake, where they might find water and food and not die here by the plane while waiting for a rescue that might not come.

the rest of the group listens, showing the first crack in max jagerman's power, and he has a very ugly blowup but eventually follows.

he IS going to die out there. he IS going to be the first to die out there. and they are going to eat him :) but it's also max jagerman who's in the narrative role of jackie. so he's gonna haunt this fucking narrative! OHHHHH YEAAAAAAHHHHHHH

other tidbits: max deciding to for real pursue grace is mainly about trying to break her power base because he's pissed she's the one everyone's listening to now, but he also... does think that's hot. :3

grace IS going full girl-prophet. lottie tempered her girl-prophet ways in season 2 because she realized that things were going wrong... grace thinks she's god's anointed so she is not going to do that. not at all.

stephanie HAS got a gun. a hunting she will go. a hunting she will take pete. (we're out here starving in the woods and you think that pete and i shouldn't... sleep together? with fucking CONDOMS!?!?! what is your prOBLEM? he's a loser and you're COOL! we're not in fucking high school, max! grow! up!) they're getting some of that Narrative Conflict With The Superstitions that defines natalie's character.

ruth WOULD find the porno mags she WOULD show everyone and when grace tries to confiscate them for Jesus Reasons ruth would find one to squirrel away just for herself. i am also assigning ruth butcher because i think she could handle the guts, and also.. i'm sorry the idea of ruth throwing girls' nights with jagerman's corpse in the freezing cold meat shed just works in my brain.

i'm gonna give richie van's How Do We Make Sense of All These Times I Almost Died and this ABSOLUTE Bullshit!??!! plot line, along with assigning him group morale and Person Who Tells the Stories.

when it gets to the card pull grace WILL be rigging it to get rid of "dirty dudes". jason gets got first. and grace keeps giving lautski and ruth cryptic warnings about cleaning up their sexual act or else and they're just like hahaha i'm in danger...

somehow grace thinks that this is all compatible with her christianity! i love her <3

#npmd #hatchetfield #yellowjackets #npmd aus #lautski #grace chastity #stephanie lauter #peter spankoffski #max jagerman #richie lipschitz #ruth fleming

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starshifter · 6 months ago

Text

my hopes the wind done scattered

malevolent. john/arthur, king in yellow/arthur. 8.3k

Ao3 Link if you'd prefer to read it there

I am currently sick and also I haven't posted anything here in like...fuck eight years? But I finished writing this yesterday and I am releasing it on the world now. It's as cooked as my balloon brain. Let's fucking go

---

The walls loomed up around him, dark and extending up until they vanished completely from sight. Arthur hunched further back against the wall behind him. Across from him, an indistinct humanoid shape watched him.

The bucket sat between them.

Water splashed inside it and Arthur lurched forward. He needed it. If he didn’t get it first, he knew that he wouldn’t get any at all.

Bent over the large basin, he brandished the shard of sharpened bone towards the lurking figure to warn it off. He would fight it. He wouldn’t let it get him.

He reached into the basin and his hand hit the bottom of a dry bucket.

Then the shadow was on him. His legs shattered under him as its hands closed around his neck.

He felt like he was suspended in jello. Moving his limbs was an inordinate amount of effort, but he would die if he didn’t.

He strained harder and then the shadow was pinned under him. Triumphant, he pressed his thumbs into its eyes and began to laugh as it screamed—

Arthur looked up from his well-lit desk at the knock on their office door. “Come in,” he called as he gathered the papers in front of him into a neat pile. A shadow shifted behind the frosted glass on the door and there was silence for a long moment.

The knock came again.

Frowning, Arthur got up and went over to the door. “It’s unlocked, Parker. You don’t have to—” he started to say as he opened the door.

Darkness greeted him. A void stretched out from the doorway, a blackness utterly untouchable by the dim electric light. Faint whispers caught in his ears that he could almost understand. If he could just hear them a little clearer...

He tipped forward, compelled by their words, and something shifted.

He froze.

He couldn’t see a thing past his door frame, but somehow he knew that something was there — lurking in the dark.

Watching.

Waiting.

His breath caught in his chest and his heart pounded as he stumbled back. He needed to get away. He needed to—

There was a flash of color in the void. A whirl of yellow.

“Arthur!” John’s voice called faintly, as if from far away.

“John,” he whispered. Then again, louder, “John!”

He plunged forward into the void.

Something huge and unfathomable closed around him.

Arthur gasped awake.

He stared up into darkness from where he lay and, for a disoriented moment, thought he was still in that void. The past few days returned to him abruptly. He was trapped in a cabin, surrounded by snow with two broken legs, and still completely and utterly blind. John was lost to the King and he was starving to death in the middle of who the fuck knew where.

It had been a dream.

He closed his eyes, not that it made any fucking difference, and reached down to pull the blanket over his head.

It wasn’t there.

“What?”

He propped himself up on his elbows — and at the very least he had all his limbs back, for all the good that did him — and the surface he was lying on tilted slightly underneath him.

He froze.

Something was very, very wrong.

For one thing, it was warm — almost hot, in fact. The cabin he had been trapped in had been cold even with the fire lit. And the surface he was on… It didn’t feel like the cot he had fallen asleep on. It didn’t feel like a mattress at all. In fact, it wasn’t even a flat surface. It almost cupped him, with his head on an incline that scooped gently downwards until it rose back up under his legs, his knees curving gently over another bump.

He carefully rubbed his hand against the material. It was smooth, cool to the touch, and velvety soft with a bit of give to it. Except velvet had never felt so alive before.

“Oh god,” he whispered and sat up.

Immediately, the surface shifted again as it closed around him.

It was a hand, a massive hand, but like no other hand Arthur had ever known. It seemed to be made entirely of fingers, the palm non-existent, but the fingers had no joints. They curled smoothly without bending as they wrapped around him like living prison bars.

“Fuck,” he yelled and started struggling in earnest to get out. The pressure around him increased and he quickly found himself immobilized around the upper torso, only his legs able to kick freely.

“Have you figured out where you are yet, Arthur Lester?” a deep, reverberating voice asked. It was a voice he could never forget.

“No,” Arthur choked out through the sudden surge of nauseating horror. “No, no!” He thrashed violently, straining as hard as he could against the hold around him.

“Calm down, Arthur,” the King in Yellow said in that slimy, manipulative way of his and sheer rage flushed the terror out of his veins.

“Release me! Release me right this second or I swear I will find a way to kill you.” Arthur dug the heels of his feet as hard as he could into the hand holding him.

“If you insist,” the King said, uncaring.

His stomach swooped violently with a sensation not dissimilar to an elevator suddenly ascending, only this was much faster than any elevator he had been on. The wind whistled past him for a split second as he was lifted. To some sort of platform, perhaps?

The fingers unwrapped from around him and he shoved himself up to sitting, intending next to get to his feet.

He never got the chance. The hand holding him tipped to the side and he was falling.

He didn’t even have time to scream before he crashed messily into a soft surface.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he gasped out. Fingers cupped around him again, though they didn’t close him in the way they had before.

Nauseous, furious, and terrified; Arthur grabbed at the finger closest to him and clung to it with all his strength. He’d been lifted up. There was no way of knowing how high up in the air he was right now. If the King decided to drop him for real instead of tossing him between hands like some kind of fucking baseball, it might just kill him.

A deep, menacing laugh rumbled around him. “Would you still like to be released?”

“Fuck you,” Arthur spat at him and he hated how breathless he sounded. He took a deep breath, forced himself to stop trembling, and tried to think. He couldn’t let the King manipulate him again. “Isn’t this a breach of your deal? I was supposed to go home, which you couldn’t manage either, by the way. That was not Arkham.”

“It was Earth. Humans are capable of traveling between their little cities.”

“Not with two broken legs!” Arthur yelled. Then he paused. His legs had been broken in that cabin. He’d set them himself before passing out from the pain of it.

They were completely fine now though. Even the make-shift splints had vanished. The King had healed him? Why? What did he gain by giving Arthur back his mobility?

“What do you want from me,” he spat at the King.

“You wanted what you called “John” back, didn’t you?” the King asked him.

Arthur went still. “… What?”

Had he heard that correctly? Was the King really offering…?

No. No, this was a trick of some kind. Or some kind of fucked up game he was playing. Arthur wasn’t going to fall for that.

“What are you saying?” he inquired guardedly.

“Exactly what I said. You didn’t wish to be parted from your friend.” He said it matter-of-factly, as if he knew Arthur better than he did himself.

It pissed him off.

“You didn’t care about that before. Why are you bringing it up now? I don’t believe for a second that you’ll just give me John back out of the kindness in your heart. If you even have one of those,” he couldn’t resist spitting out at the end.

The King didn’t sound bothered in the least by his righteous anger. “It changes, actually.”

“What?” Arthur asked, completely taken off guard.

“Hearts. The number of them changes. Right now, I have three.”

“How—” Arthur started to ask before he realized he was being directed off topic again. “No, I don’t care about that. Why aren’t you answering my questions?”

The hand cupping him shifted slightly, the fingers curling in towards him. Arthur tightened his grip on the finger he held. He might be doll-sized to this creature, but he wouldn’t let himself be tossed about like a toy.

“You didn’t answer mine. Did you want “John” back?”

“Of course I fucking want John back!” The words burst out of him before he could stop it. “I want John and I want to go back home!”

“But you wanted him out of your head. You wanted to give him his own body,” the King pressed, as if that had any bearing on Arthur’s answer.

“It’s none of your business what we wanted to do. What do you fucking want?”

“I want you to answer my fucking questions when I ask them,” the King finally raised his voice back and it shook with a sound that could only be described as electric static. The sound thrilled Arthur as much as it terrified him.

Mortal terror wasn’t enough to stop him now. “Well, too bad! I answered one of yours, so now you can answer one of mine! What do you really fucking want from me?”

The fingers closed around him and squeezed. The air wheezed out of him at the sudden pressure and he released his grip in a panic to try to shove the fingers away before they crushed him.

“I will give you one offer. You can either go back to your precious Arkham alone or you can have your “John” back and in his own body here in the Dreamlands.” Arthur opened his mouth to tell the King to go fuck himself, he would have both even if it killed him, and the King cut him off before he could get the words out. “Think very carefully before you answer or you will get neither. My patience for your insolence grows thin.”

And Arthur’s anger faltered. For a moment, the only thing he could think of was lying in the Prison Pits, John silent in the face of his ill temper, and staring up into darkness as he lay slowly wasting away in his own filth. It flushed a deep shame through him as soon as he realized that the subservience the King had worked to instill in him had taken, at least on some level.

But it also served as a wake up call. He was being an idiot. He knew exactly the sort of person he was dealing with and charging forward in a blind temper could only end poorly.

He would never go back to those Pits. He’d already died once to avoid going back to those Pits and he would die again if that’s what it took. But maybe he could avoid reaching that point at all. The King clearly wanted something from him. He needed to figure out what was going on and then find a way to turn it in his favor.

He’d beaten the King once when he climbed out of those Pits. He could do it again.

He needed to play along. At least for now.

There was no way he could trust a word that came out of the King in Yellow’s lying mouth. He knew he wouldn’t get John or a way out of the Dreamlands no matter which he picked, but all he needed to do right now was answer the question.

It was an easy question too. It wasn’t even a choice which he would pick.

“John. I choose John.”

John wouldn't leave him here. John would help him find a way for them to both escape, just as they’d always done before.

The King let out a pleased sounding rumble. “Very good, Arthur.”

The strange elevator like sensation came back, but this time he was being moved sideways. He was pressed up against the softest cloth he had felt in his entire life. Silken wasn’t a fine enough word for it. Silk was far too coarse in comparison. This material felt as if someone had plucked the gentle starlight down from the heavens and woven it into the ideal of fabrics that could only be found in dreams. Even the velvet-soft skin he was cradled in felt rough and unfinished in comparison.

There was an off-putting noise akin to the wind, if the wind could be described as solid, that was accompanied by a faint echo of whispers. Then it changed into something sideways to the sound of a multitude of shuffling bare feet and a flag rippling in the breeze. It made the hair on the back of Arthur’s neck prickle up.

John hadn’t described the King in much detail, but Arthur was starting to think that may have been a kindness. There was something very wrong with the way he moved, like nothing that had ever graced the Earth.

“Let’s get you settled in,” the King said simply as they moved.

“Settled where?” he asked sharply.

“A room, of course. This is your home now. I would hate for you to feel unwelcome,” the King crooned, clearly trying to put him at ease. It only made his hackles go up. He knew when he was being lied to and that tone of voice was nothing but falsehoods laid over a monster’s visage.

A guest. Ha. What a laugh.

He was just as much a prisoner now as he was before, no matter how nicely the King tried to dress it up for this go around. What in the world did he want from him? He’d already taken everything Arthur had left.

But… Wait. He was thinking about this incorrectly. The chance that the King wanted something from him specifically wasn’t likely. No, the only reason the King had ever cared about him was because of his connection to John. And now the King had kidnapped him back to the Dreamlands and was asking him about John.

Was this… Was this because John was fighting back? Was the King looking for leverage over him? Fuck, had Arthur doomed them both by agreeing to stay?

But would the outcome have changed if he said he wanted to go back home? The King wouldn’t have sent him back if he had meant to keep him from the start.

So the choice had been false like he first thought. It had been another clever manipulation because he knew just enough about Arthur to know which option he would pick and was hoping he could pull the wool over his eyes by making him feel like he had a choice. It had been a clever ruse to create some good will.

Well, Arthur was on to him. He wouldn’t find an easy mark here.

The sensation of movement and that brain twisting noise came to a stop. He was lifted away from that dreamlike fabric and tipped gently onto his feet on some sort of solid surface. The soft scent of flowers unlike any he had smelled before washed over him. Underneath their perfume, there was the faint scent of what he could only describe as clean water. It drew him forward a thoughtless step before he stopped.

He had no idea what lay before him. This was the King’s domain. There was an equal chance that some kind of paradise lay before him as that it was some kind of illusory trap that would send him into another monster’s lair.

“You are at the doorway of a lavish room,” the King began, in the same cadence that John had always used to describe what they saw. The sheer longing that ripped through him at the sound made his breath hitch painfully.

“The walls and floor are made of polished, dark stone with veins of violet crystal. It stretches out nearly fifty feet from one side of the circular room to the opposite. Golden tapestries hang from the walls between sconces lit with crystals full of trapped starlight. Right now, the room is lit with a gentle blue light in reflection of the sun outside. It will soon cycle through to red.

“Various pieces of furniture are scattered about the room. There are lounges, desks, bookshelves, and other soft looking surfaces to rest on. A large, circular bed lies set into the floor off to your far right. To your left, there is a large pool set with mosaicked tiles that depict the Hyades. Each of the glass stars glows with their own light. The water steams softly and soft towels and plates with fruit and flatbread lie along the pool’s rim.”

Arthur’s stomach clenched painfully at the mention of food. God, he didn’t even know how long it had been since he last ate. Time was strange in the cabin he dragged himself to. He kept passing in and out of consciousness and he couldn’t see the light outside to estimate the time. All he had to tell time was the number of times he awoke freezing and had to relight the fire.

“In the center of the room is an open circle set with the heart of another mosaic that stretches beyond the initial circle like golden rivers through the rest of the room. Along its edges are a variety of instruments, including a piano.”

It felt like a slap in the face. Arthur’s nails dug into his palms painfully. A piano. What a sick joke. “You don’t have to describe it. I’ll figure it out myself.”

“Very well. I’ll leave some of my Dancers with you. If you require anything, tell them and they’ll see it done.”

“I don’t need their help.”

“Then don’t ask anything of them.”

So they were his new prison wardens then.

There was a rustle of fabric from the King’s direction as he prepared to take his leave.

“What about John?” burst out of him without any further thought.

The King neatly sidestepped the question. “For now, you should bathe.”

Arthur wasn’t letting it go that easily. “And then what? You’ll produce John like some kind of party trick? Or is he contingent on good behavior? Do exactly what I say and you can have your friend back? You promised me John! Let me speak to him! I’d rather have him here than these Dancers.”

“I don’t need to produce “John,”” the King growled. And there is was. Arthur had known it was a lie and he still somehow felt his hopes shatter. He opened his mouth, to say what, he didn’t even know, but the King beat him to it. ““John” is already here.”

“He clearly isn’t!”

“Arthur…” the King said, disappointed and condescending. “You’re smarter than this. I know you understand what I mean.”

And damn it all, it only took Arthur a moment to catch on. “No. No, you are nothing like John. John is a good person. I know he’s still fighting you in there.”

Anger crept into the King’s voice. “And what do you know about me? Do you even know my name, Arthur Lester? Or will you keep calling me John until your final days?”

“I don’t need to know your name to know you’re a right prick. Even a fragment of your own soul wants nothing to do with you,” he spat back.

Silence rang between them for a long moment. An otherworldly growl like the screech of a slipping record echoed through Arthur’s bones and he froze completely still. He couldn’t even breath as the sound bounced back off the room’s walls.

“You forget yourself,” the King snarled, that horrific echo of the unknowable hammering the words directly into Arthur’s brain. “Maybe I should jog your memory.”

The scent of filth and despair flooded his senses and Arthur knew immediately where he was.

“No!” his voice cracked as he threw himself forward to claw at the hard-packed dirt walls. “Fuck! No, let me out! I won’t fucking go back! I won’t!”

Not the Pits.

Anything but the Pits.

The visceral scent and sensation of the walls under his nails abruptly vanished. He stumbled forward and collapsed to his knees. Shaken, he reached forward and patted his hands along the floor. It was hard, polished stone, not hard-packed dirt. Nothing like the floor of the Pit. Tears welled up in his eyes with the strength of his relief. He wasn’t there. He was still out.

He wasn’t there.

A sob ripped its way out of him.

“Arthur, I…” The King sounded so fucking much like John sometimes. It drew another helpless sob out of him.

Arthur couldn’t do this anymore. All he wanted was to go home. But how could he go back without John? He’d seen what waited for him on Earth without John. It was emptiness. He’d been dying alone and blind in a cabin in the middle of nowhere surrounded by snow. He couldn’t even pick a direction to drag himself in without risking death from exposure because he had no fucking clue if he was moving towards civilization or heading deeper into the wilderness.

“What do you fucking want from me?” His voice sounded so fucking small as it bounced off the walls of this fancy new prison.

He’d never wanted to hear John’s voice more than when he’d woken up on the floor of that fucking cabin.

But John hadn’t been there. John was here. John was a prisoner of the King still.

Arthur couldn’t leave him here alone.

He’d given his life up for John once. He could do it again. He didn’t have anything else waiting for him back home.

He dragged the tattered shreds of his resolve back around him and stood up. John needed him. He couldn’t fall to pieces now.

He wouldn’t let the King win again.

“Right now I want you to settle in. Take a bath, eat something, sleep. We can talk after that.” Arthur didn’t even have the energy left to get properly angry at how fucking gentle the King sounded now. The little flare that sputtered up died down almost as quickly as it appeared.

“Fine.” If the King was going to offer him respite, then Arthur would take full advantage of it. He would need it later if he wanted to escape with John.

“Then I will see you later,” the King told him. An unholy screech of electric reverberation and whispers clawed its way into Arthur’s brain and he brought his hands up to his ears with a pained exclamation. It did nothing to block out the noise.

Then there was a sudden sense of absence. He knew down to his bones that the King had departed.

After taking a second to pull himself back together, he stretched a hand out and shuffled to the left until he encountered a wall. Dragging his hand along it, he moved forward, carefully testing the ground with each step forward.

It was obvious when he reached the pool. The gentle caress of steam curled over his skin and the sweet, clean scent of water drifted up with it. He felt out with a foot until he found the lip of the pool. Eagerly, he reached for the tattered remains of his tie, before stopping.

The King had said he left some of his servants here.

He cleared his throat politely. “I would like to bathe privately now. If any Dancers in the room could either leave the room or turn away, that would be greatly appreciated.”

The rustle of cloth came from a few feet away from him and Arthur nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Jesus Christ,” he gasped. He’d had no clue they were so close. A new wave of annoyance hit him. The King couldn’t have included the locations of his fucking Dancers in his description of the room?

There was the sound of soft shoes moving away from him and then silence.

“I— Thank you,” he said shortly — hoping the sound had been their full compliance and not merely them moving back while continuing to stare — and started stripping out of his clothes. Though perhaps rags would be a better description of them. Mud, sweat, and blood was liberally encrusted into the fabric and the less said about the smell the better.

He tested the water with his foot carefully. Gentle, soothing, heat had him fumbling forward to get into the pool as quickly as possible. He splashed in and a groan ripped out of his throat. God, he hadn’t felt so good in… He didn’t even know anymore. It felt like it had been decades.

He took a second to just stand there, the water up to the bottom of his ribs, and soak in the heat. Then he ducked down and submerged himself fully in the water.

Suspended there in the water, time seemed to stop. There was nothing but heat and darkness and the sensation of being weightless. He folded himself down until he touched the bottom of the pool and there he sat.

His lungs began to burn with the need for air and, for a second, he considered just staying where he was. A visceral wave of disgust and horror followed hard on the heels of the thought and he shot back up to the surface of the pool.

He couldn’t.

He wouldn’t end it like that. Even the King in Yellow didn’t deserve to come back and find a corpse where there had been a living person.

The phantom sensation of the knife plunging into his throat burned at him and Arthur choked around it.

Jesus fucking Christ. He’d actually done that. He’d slit his own throat and it had…

It hadn’t been the relief he had thought it would be.

His stomach cramped hard and he dry-heaved. God. Fucking Christ. He didn’t want to think about this. He fumbled back over to the side of the pool and started feeling along the edges of it for some kind of soap.

His fingers encountered a metal platter of some sort and when he felt over it, he found what felt almost like… grapes? No, they were far too large for grapes and their otherwise oval shape ended in points rather than rounded edges. But their skin was smooth and cool like a grape’s. Maybe this was some alien fruit from the Dreamlands. He’d encountered so many oddities here. What were some strange fruits in comparison?

He left them where he found them for now. The thought of food made his stomach churn uncomfortably.

A little further on, he found a glass bottle of some sort. He pulled the stopper out and sniffed it cautiously. It was spicy and intoxicating and far too strong, but it had that soapy edge to its smell that indicated it was what he was looking for.

It wasn’t his preference, but clean was clean and he would use far more offensive scents if he had to. He tipped some into his palm and worked it into a lather before rubbing himself down.

As he worked it through his overgrown bush of a beard, he found himself wishing he had a razor. What he wouldn’t give to get a nice, clean shave right now.

He paused there, soap dripping slowly down his temple. Perhaps…

He cleared his throat loudly. “Excuse me, would there happen to be a razor I could use?”

There was the soft tap of shoes moving out of earshot and then a long stretch of silence. Perhaps there hadn’t been any razors in the room. Or perhaps the Dancer had run off to ask the King if it was okay to let him shave. Whatever. He would finish his bath regardless of getting a shave or not.

Not too long later, as he was rising his hair our for a second time, the soft tapping of shoes approached until it was directly in front of him. Hesitantly, he held up a hand and something cool and metallic was pressed into it. Feeling it out, he found that he had been given a straight razor. “Ah, thank you.”

There was a small titter of laughter before the dancer moved back. Feeling strangely self-conscious now, Arthur finished cleaning himself up quickly.

He hesitated when he’d finished. The idea of getting out of the warm water was incredibly unappealing. Would it hurt to stay in the pool a little bit longer? There was food along the rim of it. He could soak a while longer as he ate. His stomach had settled while he performed his ablutions and now was letting him know in no uncertain terms that it wanted attention too.

Mind made up, he felt along the edge of the pool until he encountered the metal platter again. He plucked up one of the strange fruits and turned it over in his hand. There would be no benefit in poisoning him now, so it was likely safe to eat.

He popped it in his mouth. Tart, sweet juice burst over his tongue like a sunburst. His stomach roared at him and, before he knew it, he had demolished most of the bunch.

His fingers brushed along another item next to the fruits and he realized it was the flatbread. Delighted, he tore a chunk off and ate that too. It was freshly baked, soft and warm on his tongue, and it vanished almost as quickly as the fruits had.

He proceeded to clear the rest of the platter and even found a goblet full of what might have been some kind of strange mulled wine next to it. He didn’t know and right now he didn’t particularly care.

Uncomfortably full and warm, a massive yawn escaped him. He bent forward over where his elbows braced him on the pool’s edge and debated the merits of falling asleep right where he was. It was incredibly tempting, but he didn’t feel like dealing with the humiliation when he would inevitably have to be fished out of the pool.

Reluctantly, he dragged himself out of the water. The towels were just as soft as he had been promised and he happily wrapped himself up in one.

God, he felt like a new person entirely. The difference such simple pleasures made in one’s life was frankly unbelievable. He could hardly believe he was in the same Dreamlands that he had spent the last three months suffering through. It felt like he would wake up back in the Pits at any second.

Maybe he would. He was at the King’s mercy here.

The rapid patter of shoes came directly up to both sides of him and Arthur flinched back at their sudden proximity, slipping on the wet tile and nearly falling before he caught himself. “Jesus Christ. Don’t do that.”

There was a rustle of fabric from his right and then incomprehensibly soft, smooth fabric was pressed against the back of his hand that hadn’t gone down to make sure his towel didn’t slip.

Curious, he accepted it and ran it through his hands. It was folded up, but when he shook it out, he realized it was some kind of robe. “Is this for me to change into?”

There was another whisper of cloth from the right.

“Are you… not able to speak?” He tried to remember how John had described the Dancers when they had encountered them before, but the details were largely overshadowed by what came after. Another pointed whisper of cloth followed. “Right, of course, how about… Tap my arm once for yes and twice for no.”

There came two soft taps against his arm. The hand, if it had been a hand, had not felt like skin, but rather more like the flat of a ceramic blade that was body-warm in temperature. It was decidedly off-putting.

He shifted back a step and pulled the garment up against his chest. It seemed fitting that the King would leave him with strange servants unable to answer his questions.

The Dancer to his left reached forward and tugged lightly at the fabric in his hands.

“I can dress myself, thank you,” Arthur told her sharply and unfolded the garment to do just that. It took him a second to work out where his head and arms went, but soon enough he had the robes on over top of his towel. Feeling somewhat foolish, he then let the towel drop.

Pettily, he left it where it fell. The King could just deal with him making a mess of his guest room.

He made his way back over to the wall and let his hand trail along it as he started towards the other side of the room where the King had said the bed was. The Dancers trailed in his wake. It was more than a little unnerving.

“I can walk across a room just fine on my own. You don’t need to hover. Go do whatever it is you normally do.” It was unlikely they would leave, but Arthur could settle for them giving him some space.

Their footsteps stopped for a moment before they moved off deeper into the room. It wasn’t long before the sound of them was lost in the vastness of the space. Somehow, not knowing where they were or what they were doing was worse than having them dogging at his heels, but Arthur refused to call them back.

The walk stretched on and he encountered nothing aside from the tapestries and a few bookshelves on the wall. A few times he felt the smooth marble-like floors under his bare feet shift into the mosaic tiles the King had described, but other than that he encountered nothing.

The room was big yes, but surely he should have reached the other side of it by now. It occurred to him that he had no idea whether the bed was up against the wall or not. He could have already walked past it and was now circling back around to the pool. Alternatively, it could be a few steps in front of him.

He didn’t know and he hated how helpless it left him feeling.

He stopped walking and took a deep breath. At some point he would need to map out the entire room, perhaps shuffle a few items around in it to serve as guidance posts, but right now he was exhausted. He just wanted to sleep. He could find the bed on his own, but he didn’t know how long it would take.

His free hand bunched up in the robe before he straightened it back out and smoothed the fabric down.

“Excuse me, could one of you point me in the direction of the bed?” he called out towards the center of the room.

There was silence for a moment and then one set of footsteps approached. A pair of heavy hands landed on his shoulders.

He flinched back automatically, his hands coming up to defend himself before he stopped. The grip vanished immediately. He took another deep breath before he put his hands back down. He would not apologize for a perfectly reasonable reaction. Not to one of the King’s own.

There was silence for a beat of time and then the hands came back, alighting on his shoulders as delicately as butterfly wings. Slowly, he was nudged about two-thirds of the way around from the wall.

Warmth flushed into his face as he realized that he had indeed overshot the bed. “Ah. Thank you.”

The Dancer retreated again with a flutter. There was a soft tittering sound almost like laughter from deeper in the room. Arthur’s face went even warmer as he clenched his jaw and marched forward.

He hated this. Even more, he hated how much this bothered him. What did it matter if the King’s heralds laughed at the poor blind man? If they underestimated him, it would just make his future escape easier.

He wanted John back so much it felt like being stabbed.

The bed announced its sudden presence by way of changing the hard stone into plush fabric. Arthur yelped and tripped forward. He caught himself with his hands against pillowy cotton that sank down almost an inch with his weight. Laughter rang out from deeper in the room.

“Would the two of you shut up,” he snapped. Hadn’t they said they couldn’t speak? What was this then?

Angrily, he shuffled forward on his knees, feeling around for the edge of the blankets and a pillow. The bed continued to stretch onwards and, before he knew it, he had abandoned his quest to settle down in order to find out just how big the bed was.

The answer was unaccountably massive. Arthur was relatively certain that he could have stretched himself out twice and barely touched the edges of the bed. It was far beyond lavish, it was unreasonably ostentatious. He felt ridiculous just being in its vicinity.

Still, it was soft and he’d earned something nice after everything he’d been through. He draped one of the light sheets over himself — it was warm enough in the room that it was more than enough to keep him comfortable — and dragged one of the many plush pillows under his head.

A long breath escaped him as he relaxed back into the most comfortable bed of his life. He was out in moments.

He drifted slowly out of sleep. It was warm and comfortable and he never wanted to get up. He turned over, intending to settle down and go back to sleep, and something stroked over his arm.

Arthur shot up out of bed with a strangled yell. For a moment, he struggled with the blanket, then he was free. He shoved the thing on his arm off as he frantically scooted away.

He stopped, confused, as his hand met nothing but cloth. “What…”

Cautiously, he patted around for the thing he had felt moving, and his hand closed around a bolt of impossibly soft fabric. A shaky laugh escaped from him. It hadn’t been something trying to kill him after all. It was just some fabric he’d been tangled with.

Then the bolt of fabric wrapped around his hand and tugged him forward.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Arthur gasped and frantically tried to claw it off of him.

A deep, unearthly laugh reverberated around the room. Dread pooled in his stomach and he froze where he was. The King had returned.

He shoved the fear down as far as he could, but he couldn’t help the way his hands continued to tremble at the shock.

“Did you have a good nap?” the King asked him, fond and teasing and sounding far too much like John.

Arthur bristled. He tugged his arm firmly against the grip around it — and what was it? It felt just like cloth, if soft enough that cloth didn’t feel like an adequate word to describe it, but it moved like it was alive — and it curled further up his arm in response. Frustrated, he let his arm go lax instead of giving the King the satisfaction of continuing to struggle hopelessly.

“Are you finally going to answer my question?” he shot back.

“I suppose I should,” the King said, sounding bored by the idea of it. “Very well. You are here because I would like you to be.”

What a non-answer. There were so many ways a statement like that could be meant. “And why exactly would you like that? Because the last I checked, you hated me.”

“Hatred is a strong word for what I felt. Annoyance would be closer. Perhaps frustration. You were like a fly buzzing in my ear and refusing to leave.”

“A fly the almighty King couldn’t even manage to swat,” Arthur said sarcastically, feeling strangely stung by the flippant dismissal. “Yes, I can see why you might call that frustrating. Now stop dodging the question. Why am I here? Truly.”

“I think I swatted you just fine,” the King said smugly.

“Not the point,” he hissed.

The King sighed and there was a shuffling of cloth and the faint hint of whispers carried on an otherworldly wind. The cloth around his hand squeezed once and twisted further up his arm. “I know you had your expectations of what returning John to me would entail and that he shared them, but returning to my whole, unbroken self has had a rather different outcome.”

There was a sudden ringing in his ears as he processed what the King had said.

“No,” Arthur breathed out in horror and then continued, louder, “No, John promised he’d fight you! He wouldn’t give in that fast!”

“Would you just fucking listen to me?” the King hissed at him. “I did— He did fight. Every fucking step of the way. And ultimately it was a draw. I chose to become whole again rather than remain broken, but I am not the same King in Yellow that I was before. I am changed. You changed me. I don’t know if I want to kill you for it or reward you, but it is done and it cannot be undone. You, Arthur Lester, have changed a piece of the fabric of the universe.”

Hope surged up in Arthur. “Then… you’re saying John is still there?”

“Fuck, is that all you care about? Yes, “John” is still here. I remember every step we walked together and every emotion you evoked in me.”

The idea of the King having all of John’s memories was sickening. Those had belonged to John, not a monster like the King. He had no right to them. This had to be fixed. He couldn’t give up on John now that there was a glimpse of hope on the horizon.

“And you don’t want to be changed, right?” he cajoled the King. “So what if you gave him back? Undo the change, so to say.”

“Did you listen to a single fucking word I said? The change is done. I am John and John is me. I might as well rip an arm off and hand that over to you. It would accomplish about the same as ripping another piece of my soul out and stuffing it in your head, you greedy, selfish human!” The King’s voice rose into a brain-rending shout and Arthur froze in place.

“Do you have any idea what that was like for me?” The King continued in a multi-toned mixture of a spitting electricity and a growl of the wind that made every hair on Arthur’s body stand up straight. The fabric around his arm curled agitatedly, sometimes tight enough to be painful and sometimes loose enough that he might have been able to pull free. He didn’t attempt to.

“I was a prisoner! I had nothing but a pair of eyes, a hand, and a foot. I couldn’t speak to anyone, I couldn’t control our actions, I couldn’t even make a single fucking decision except for what I chose to tell you! I should kill you for daring to hold me prisoner!”

As abruptly as the King’s anger surged, it ebbed back down. His voice was firm and deep with a hint of whispers behind it as he finished. “I won’t stuff myself back into you anymore than you will walk back into the Prison Pits.”

“That’s—” Arthur started to say, a lump forming in his throat.

“But maybe that’s not what you want,” the King continued while Arthur tried to breath through the sudden wave of nausea. “Maybe, you just want a harmless little pet to guide your every action.” It was John’s voice, curling comfortably inside his head the way it always had. “A dying branch turned into a crutch for the helpless, blind man and damn what it means for the tree you took the crutch from.”

“Get out of my head!” he screamed. He jerked his arm back hard and the fabric finally fell away.

Arthur panted harshly in the heavy silence that fell over them. He could feel the King’s heavy regard pressing down on him like the stones of the cave under the lighthouse. He wrapped his arms around himself, half to keep them out of the King’s grip and half to reassure himself that he could still move.

After a couple moments to collect himself, he spoke again. “If there is any truth to what you just said, then you never do that again. Never. Do you understand me?”

He waited until he got a response.

“I understand,” the King said tightly after several long beats.

“Good.”

A charged silence fell over them.

Arthur’s felt like his emotions were being pulled in so many directions at once he was about to collapse in pieces. John was gone? For good? Oh god. He was—

He switched tracks. Had he really been imprisoning John? But John had wanted to stay with him! He wasn’t anything like the King and his cursed Pits.

But John also wasn’t really gone and still wanted him around, hence bringing him back to the Dreamlands? Hadn’t he been just as desperate to leave this place and return to Arkham as Arthur? Then the desire to stay here was the King?

It didn’t seem possible for his friend to be the same monster that had left him to rot in the Pits. He couldn't accept that. John was different. He knew it in his soul.

Was this all an elaborate ruse by the King to torment him as some kind of revenge? Arthur didn’t know if he could survive finding out that John was truly gone and this was just the King playing with him. But it felt so much like talking to John…

Arthur didn’t know. He felt like he didn’t know anything anymore. The rug was well and truly pulled out from under him.

But… Arthur had rebuilt himself from lower points than this. He had lost everything before. There was no excuse for falling to pieces now when there might still be something left.

It was likely a fool’s hope, and would come back to stab him through the heart, but he had to believe that John was still in there somewhere.

Unwinding his grip on himself, he wrapped his hands together, closing his right hand over his wooden pinkie. As John had said: there were miles still to go.

It was time to pick the pieces back up and carry on.

He could do this. He just needed to treat this like he had any other problem that needed to be worked through.

Arthur knew he was a damn good detective and very good at reading people. And, right now, he felt like he was being told the truth. Maybe not the entire truth, but very close to it. He could work with that.

“If I,” he swallowed heavily to force the lump down and tried again. “If I was your jailer, then why did you bring me back? Wouldn’t you have preferred to leave me to die on Earth?”

“Because you are also my friend, Arthur. I found that…” He fell silent.

“You found what?” Arthur prompted gently.

“I found that I missed you. As strange as that seems. I did not wish to leave you on Earth, especially when I knew I had injured you.”

He didn’t sound like the King. He sounded like John. Was it possible… Could John have defeated the King? Could he have absorbed the King rather than the other way around?

“John,” he questioned, the entirety of his tremulous hope contained in that single name.

“I suppose that is one of my names now,” he said with a hint of humor. “It’s been quite a while since I took a new one. Perhaps it was time.”

Arthur reached up in the direction John’s voice had been coming from. Hope and a kind of ecstasy he hadn’t know before swelled inside him. “Your hand. Give me your hand.”

Something warm pushed against his hand and Arthur closed both his hands around it. He would guess it was just a fingertip, but it was close enough. “I suppose I can’t quite shake your hand, but it’s still so good to finally properly meet you, John.”

“And I you, Arthur,” John rumbled back. His hand pulled away and Arthur felt strangely disappointed by the loss of contact.

Then John’s hand closed around him and he was lifted so gently he hardly even felt the movement of it.

Arthur still felt his stomach swoop and he clutched at the fingers around him for an anchor. “I’m not a doll. Don’t just go picking me up,” he objected.

“Of course not, Arthur. I simply wish to see you better. You are quite far down. I think I may get a crick in my neck talking to you.” John’s voice shook with suppressed amusement.

“Shut up. You’re the one who is far too big.”

“I prefer the term glorious.”

A finger pressed down on his head for a second and then lifted just enough to stroke over his hair. It was strange, but not entirely unwelcome. John had his own body. How novel. He released his grip with one hand and stroked over John’s finger in turn. How wonderful it was to be able to do something so mundane as touch his friend.

A laugh that was half hysteria and half honest joy bubbled up out of Arthur. This was utterly insane, but when had insanity stopped him before?

John was here. They would figure out the rest together, just like they always had.

#malevolent #jarthur #private eyes #just fucking take it #i finished a thing and i will not let a little fever stop me from posting #i will contribute to a fandom rather than just lurk for once #did i have a tagging system on the blog?#i think it did but it is lost now #my writing #the one problem with cross posting is i like to link them to each other but i cant fucking do that until theyre posted #so sorry if you try to click the ao3 link before the ao3 link fucking exists

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inconsistentcharacterizationcomp · 1 year ago

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The developers keep calling Wheatley stupid and insisting that he's the dumbest moron in existence, but like ????

"Oh, just open the door! [to self] That's too aggressive. [loud again] Hello, friend! Why not open the door? [to self] Hm. Could be Spanish, could be Spanish. [loud again] Hola, amigo! Abre la puerta! Donde esta--no. Um..." Not fluent but knows a little bit of Spanish.

"Simple word. 'Apple'. Just say 'Apple'. Classic. Very simple. Ay. Double Pee-Ell-Ee." He can spell.

"I found some bird eggs up here. Just dropped 'em into the door mechanism. Shut it right down." Created a diversion to distract GLaDOS so he could talk to Chell.

"Hey, buddy! Ahm speaken' in an accent that is beyOnd 'er range of hearing." People think this is stupid but 1. He was planning on breaking Chell out in Test Chamber 23 but GLaDOS was planning to kill Chell after Test Chamber 21 so he had to enact the escape plan early. And 2, he had to improvise using a technique that he's likely heard of but never got the chance to learn how to do himself, which is AI voice modulation. And it's an actual thing, it's not just some weird thing he came up with out of nowhere. In an unused line, GLaDOS says this: "I can hear him. I've modulated my voice, however, so he can't hear me. What are you up to?" Like it's an actual THING cores can do, he just doesn't know how to do it because he's inexperienced.

"Quick word about the future plans that I've got in store: We are going to shut down her turret production line, alright? Turn off her neurotoxin, and then confront her." He literally came up with the plan to disarm GLaDOS.

GLaDOS: "The irony is that you were almost at the last test. Here it is. Why don't you just do it? Trust me, it's an easier way out than whatever asinine plan your friend came up with."

Wheatley: "Oh, what? How stupid does she think we are?" A real moron would have easily fallen for this trap.

"Brilliant you made it through! Well done! Follow me, we've still got work to do. At least she can't touch us back here." Knew to guide Chell someplace specifically where GLaDOS wouldn't be able to reach them.

"Here's an interesting story. You might like this. I almost got a job down here in Manufacturing. But, uh, guess who the foreman went with? Only an exact duplicate of himself. Nepotism." 'Nepotism' is quite a big word for a "moron" to have in his vocabulary.

"There's no turret in it... Maybe the system stores a backup image? Oh, hang on. What if we gave it something ELSE to scan? We could get one of the crap turrets. We could put it in the scanner and see what happens. Yes! Go and catch one of the crap turrets, and bring it back!" If Wheatley is supposedly the 'dumbest moron who ever lived' then what does that say about the player who can't figure out this puzzle and needs Wheatley to solve it for them?

"Wait. Just thought of something? How am I going to get in? You know, being bloody massive and everything. Wait! I know! You get into the lift, okay? Then I'll eject myself out of my new body into the lift just as you pass by me! Brilliant. It's perfect. Except for all the glass hitting us when I smash through the lift, that's a bit of a problem. Also, once I eject myself out of the core the lift might stop. Then we'd be trapped in a lift full of broken glass suspended fifty feet off the ground." What kind of moron thinks about the logistics like this?

"Look at the word 'test', on the wall there. That's brand new." Once again, Wheatley can spell. He isn't illiterate.

"To clarify, I was being a little bit facetious about wanting to get rid of monitors. They're actually really quite useful. So I do want them around. So if you could just avoid smashing them." "Facetious" is also a pretty big word for a supposed "Moron" to be honest.

"Yeah... Made this test myself. Out of some smaller tests. That I found. Lying around. Jammed 'em all together. Buttons. Got funnels. Bottomless pits are involved. It's got it all, it's got it all, it's absolute dynamite." The fact that he did this while having the test somehow still be solvable is actually incredible.

Wheatley: "SURPRISE! We're doing it NOW!"

GLaDOS: "Okay, credit where it's due: for a little idiot built specifically to come up with stupid, unworkable plans, that was a pretty well laid trap..." Even GLaDOS had to give him credit for that one.

"Also, I took the liberty of watching the tapes of you killing her, and I'm not going to make the same mistakes. Four part plan is this: One: No portal surfaces. Two: Start the neurotoxin immediately. Three: Bomb-proof shields for me. Leading directly into number Four: Bombs. For throwing at you. [...] PART FIVE! BOOBYTRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!" No seriously, what kind of a moron does this?

Like my guy isn't a genius, sure, but he isn't "The dumbest moron who ever lived" he's just some awkward guy with a short attention span who probably has ADHD. Like he's literally just as smart as your average person but the game apparently wants to gaslight you into thinking that he's way dumber than he actually is.

#propaganda #wheatley #wheatley propaganda

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pencil-peach · 10 months ago

Text

G Witch Onscreen Text: Episode 21

Welcome to part 22 of my attempt to transcribe and discuss all the onscreen text in G Witch, as well as discuss and analyze the series episode by episode. We've come to Episode 21: What We Can Do Now

<< To relive The End of Hope, click here to return to Episode 20 Or, you can return to the Masterpost

We'll figure it out together.

In the opening, we see Guston make a call, asking for something to be moved to the Benerit Group head office front. We learn later that this "something" is the Gundam Calibarn, which was confiscated by the Space Assembly League during the Vanadis Incident. (We'll discuss Calibarn in a bit, when it's being mentioned later.)

The first establishing shot we get of Asticassia's campus in this episode (Left) is the same as the establishing shot we got of it in Episode 1 (Right), that being a panning shot moving up right along its curve. Seeing the comparison side by side really puts into perspective the sheer magnitude of Norea's rampage.

This brief conversation between Suletta and Secelia before the OP is really sweet. At first glance, it's a bit difficult to parse what exactly about Suletta has changed. It's not a major change of her character that's occurred. She's always been kind, and Season 1 Suletta most certainly would have also done her best to help with the recovery. But the change comes in WHY she's doing it. When Secelia asks, her response is simply, "Because I can move around." Beforehand, she lived her whole life by her mother's motto: "If you run, you gain one. Move forward, gain two."

And she repeats that motto over and over, applying it to as many situations as possible. But when Secelia asks her now, she doesn't say it. She says something else. A motto that she's come up with for herself. Not one given to her.

This screen pops up when Kenanji is presenting the info on Thorn to Rajan. There's no new information here, it's the same information Prospera pulls up before she destroys the Lfrith Models.

The Pilot is listed as UNKNOWN, however, meaning that Prospera and Godoy managed to discover that information while Dominicus and Cathedra could not. (Although, maybe they couldn't find anything about the Pilot because they uh, eviscerated her into nothing. Looks at Kenanji.)

TEXT: All Front News Network DELLING REMBRAN'S DAUGHTER, MIORINE REMBRAN, IS THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE BENERIT GROUP - MIORINE REMBRAN quickly suppressed two insurrections on Earth and in space.

It seems Miorine is now President of the Benerit Group. Elan was right, putting down the protestors on Earth won over the Spacian votes of the Benerit Group, securing her the election.

Since the election results have been declared, we could, with some confidence, place Episode 21 as being at least 10 days after episode 19-20, as the Earthian Negotiator tells Miorine that they'll "suspend all protests activities for 10 days...until the results of [her] election are clear." (I'll make a timeline of the show at some point lol)

Delling Rembran's rise to power was sparked by an indiscriminate slaughter of Earthians for the sake of his ideals. The Benerit Group was built upon and perpetuates itself through a cycle of sin and violence. Where Miorine went wrong was believing she could set the group in a new direction from within that cycle.

During the conversation with the Earthian Negotiators, she asks if they would trust her if she became the group's president. When asked if that's her intention, she responds, "I understand now that it's what I really need." But in accepting that what she needs is the Benerit Group's power, even if it's for altruistic means, she has no choice but to inherit the horrific violence by which the group attained and maintains that power.

Episode 19 is, in a way, a reflection of the Prologue.

Prior to the event that solidified their rise to power, both Rembrans were in attendance of a meeting determining the direction of the future. Both Rembrans' claims are dismissed by the attendants, but both persist in intervening, firmly believing that their ideals are for the betterment of humanity.

Miorine (About removing Earthians from space): "That's a demand I flatly reject...I don't claim to understand how enraged you Earthians feel...but even so, I seek dialogue." Delling: "So that humanity can remain in peace, we must wield the hammer of witches."

But whereas Delling sought a violent solution to achieve his ambition, Miorine is dedicated to a nonviolent solution. Delling is going down a dark path, whereas Miorine's plan for the future is a brighter one. (Notice the coloring of the two meeting rooms. The MS Dev Council's meeting room is dark blue, where as the Earthian Negotiation room is a light yellow. The colors are an inversion of the other.)

Despite Miorine trying to correct her father's mistakes though, both scenarios end the same way:

With the deaths of innocent people. With Vanadis, Delling began a cycle. A cycle of violence and death. And from that cycle he built the Benerit Group. And even after he himself has been removed, that cycle continues to spin. Miorine tried to inherit the cycle and correct it, believing that what needed to be changed was the direction it spun in, but it's not something you can fix. It is immutable. Delling's actions led directly to Prospera's desire for vengeance, which led to the incident at Quinharbor. It will continue to spin until it is broken.

Shaddiq and Miorine both had the right ideals, and they both tried to reach them in their own ways.

Shaddiq correctly understood that the system itself was unjust, and that it needed to be broken, but he tried to break it by making use of the same violence that instituted it in the first place.

Miorine also understood that the system was unjust, but believed that it simply needed to be set in a new direction, and tried to attain power within the system to change it from the inside.

Shaddiq chose violent methods, Miorine chose nonviolent methods, but both attempts simply led to more violence.

Some other minor things about their conversation is that there are some allusions to their last major conversation in Episode 9. Miorine calls him a fool in both conversations, and says the same thing both times, that being "ばかね" (Bakane) Both scenes also have a shot focusing on Miorine's eyes, looking downward.

During the scene where Suletta and Chuchu are handing out tomatoes, they're handing them out to their respective bullies. Suletta gives some to the girls who picked on her in Episode 1 (With the exception of the blonde girl, who's parents unenrolled her from the school shortly after the Rumble Ring attack)

And Chuchu gives some to the two girls who coated her and Suletta's mobile suits with the masking spray in Episode 4.

Suletta being full of love aside, I like how the Earth House students aren't very hostile when talking about Miorine. They still consider her a friend. Do you think Suletta wasn't eating any of the tomatoes she'd harvested after Miorine left.

When Guston approaches Suletta, he holds up his ID Badge: TEXT: SPACE ASSEMBLY LEAGUE INVESTIGATION DIVISION GUSTON PARCHE ID number: 0329-047-E-033

There's a couple of paragraphs underneath it but unfortunately it's so small as to be illegible.

TEXT (Right) THE SPACE ASSEMBLY LEAGUE HAS DECIDED TO FORCIBLY INTERVENE AGAINST THE BENERIT GROUP. AT THE SAME TIME, IT IS PARTNERING WITH THE PEIL COMPANY. THIS IS BEING SEEN AS AN ATTEMPT TO MINIMIZE THE DISRUPTION CAUSED BY ITS INTERVENTION.

Moving back to Miorine and the Benerit Gang, we see they're watching a livestream of the Space Assembly League, in which the Peil Company has jumped ship and sided with the League, calling for the forced intervention of the Group.

What's most interesting about their testimony is that they mention Quiet Zero by name. (Left) The Peil Witches have a habit of knowing more than they should,

such as in Episode 7 where it's revealed they know about the Schwarzette (Left), and in Episode 12 where they email 5lan detailed information about the Plant Quetta attack mere minutes after it ended, even mentioning the Dawn of Fold by name. (Right)

In Episode 5, Godoy tells Prospera, "Peil Technologies is making its move," to which Prospera responds, "It's sooner than we expected." The Peil Witches are professional moles, to the point that even Prospera was keeping an active eye on them specifically in order to work around their schemes.

It's easy to assume that Peil might have found out about Quiet Zero after the GUND-ARM merger with Shin-Sei, but I think it's just as likely that they've known about it for far longer than that, but didn't view it as any sort of tangible threat so they didn't act on it.

I've actually seen a lot of people be confused as to why Suletta suddenly knows everything about her and Eri's past and Prospera's plan, so just to clarify, it happened during her and Eri's conversation at the end of Episode 18, specifically when Eri blasts her with Permet. (During the sequence a series of images from the Prologue flash before the final memory plays, representing Eri showing her everything.)

That means that Suletta had known about everything during the entire period of time between Episode 19-21, but just didn't tell anybody about it. Which, yknow, makes sense, it's a bit of a difficult thing to just bring up randomly.

Here we get our first official introduction to Calibarn. We learn here that it was confiscated during the Vanadis Incident by the Space Assembly League, who'd seemingly been keeping it hidden away since then.

So, I don't think Guston literally means they confiscated it DURING the actual event at Vanadis, as the League weren't personally involved in the attack. It was Delling and a small platoon of Dominicus (which was operating under the MS Dev Council at the time) acting alone. And, more importantly, Folkvangr was bombed immediately after the massacre ended. If Calibarn was there, it would have been destroyed.

Calibarn's HG Gunpla Kit sheds some light in this regard thanks to its description in the manual:

"The Vanadis Institute developed countless prototype units in addition to Lfrith before the establishment of GUND FORMAT technology. Of these units, the Calibarn took the most strikingly different direction from that of Lfrith. Unlike the Lfrith, which could be operated with minimal impact on the human body within a certain permet score, Calibarn prioritized mobile suit performance to seek the utmost limits of GUND-ARM capabilities and adopted extreme measures that did not guarantee the pilot's life protection at all. After losing to Lfrith in the development competition, it is said that all records of the Calibarn were destroyed, and it was made off limits and sealed away. Although it aimed to become the mainstream of GUND-ARMs, the Calibarn could very well have been considered the most cursed of all Gundams from the public sentiments."

So, after it was decided to pursue the Lfrith model for Gundam development, the Calibarn's development documentation was destroyed and it was sealed off somewhere, presumably some Ochs Earth development site, and shortly after Vanadis, when the company was being forcibly dissolved and investigated, the Space Assembly League uncovered the Calibarn and confiscated it for themselves, without telling the outside world what it had found.

You might ask why Vanadis just sealed it off instead of destroying it, but remember, in Episode 7, Miorine estimates that disposing of the Pharact and the Development Team that made it would incur a loss of 120 billion. Mobile Suits (especially Gundams) are expensive to produce and expensive to destroy. It was probably just financially easier to hide it somewhere and pretend it didn't exist.

It's also probably why the League sat on it too. Without the development documents, they couldn't really reproduce it, and even if they could, the Calibarn is basically a giant human meat grinder. It's essentially inoperable by any normal person, and wasn't truly designed to be operated in the first place.

Anyway, just some interesting Calibarn things.

As Suletta resolves to pilot the Calibarn, she says "Even if I don't gain anything, I have to do what I can."

When she says this, she picks up a bright red tomato (Left). This is a followup to her and Miorine's argument back in Episode 16, in which Suletta is being reflected in an unripe, rotting tomato, symbolizing her lack of a personal identity outside of her Mother's influence. (Right)

Now, she's matured as an individual, and become fully actualized, living for her own sake and the sake of those she cares about.

A look at the League Ship's System UI When Quiet Zero is detected, the alert message reads: ALERT Unregistered PMET codes detected

Quiet Zero's introduction is truly harrowing. An entire FLEET was melted through like paper. There is no world where this thing is anything other than a apocalyptic superweapon. Eat your heart out Delling Rembran.

Anyway, the song that plays during this scene is "Quiet Zero" from the OST.

youtube

Another big personal favorite of mine, give it a listen!

Between Chuchu, Miorine, and Petra, Suletta just has a habit of befriending (and marrying) Meangirls. Good for her honestly. But it's really sweet just how protective Chuchu has become over Suletta. I like to imagine they spent a lot of time together in Season 2.

Common 5lan W.

It's easy to get annoyed at Lauda here, (which is because he is being annoying,) but if you think about it you can understand his rationale, as flawed as it is. Before, he blamed Suletta for everything in his life going wrong, but after Guel came back and defeated her, things...didn't go back to normal like he thought they would. Guel hasn't told him about what happened to him on Earth, he didn't tell him what happened to their Father, he hasn't even been telling him about what the hell is going on in his life in general, anymore. So from his perspective he just abandoned him.

After nearly losing Petra too, he can only rationalize it by blaming the common denominator: Miorine. He's wrong, and not seeing the bigger picture, but he CAN'T see the bigger picture because his Brother isn't telling him anything about it. He's confused and angry and lashing out. Normal little brother behavior. But I think if we can forgive Prospera's triple digit body count we can forgive Lauda for being kind of annoying.

And with that, the pieces are finally moving into place. The end is near.

>> Click here to go to Episode 22 Or go to the Masterpost.

#g witch #gundam the witch from mercury

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