#and i don’t know that i can trust who hugo is choosing and honestly i don’t

[snapbackslide]

being upset at a player for something he said is one thing, but wishing for and celebrating an injury is very disgusting. please heal 🤍

[ashdoesfandomarchieved]

of all i am made of (perhaps you are too)

ao3

Hugo does not believe in soulmates.

To be fair, he doesn’t much believe in anything but the feeling of coin in his pocket and the clever bite of his dagger. What use has he for god and destiny when he carves his own path of lies through time, with a sharp tongue and a cocky smile.

Why should Hugo believe the universe would gift him a soulmate when it already has made it perfectly clear that nothing is free?

Besides soulmates are rarities of the past--legends and folktales on the lips of elders and religious fanatics; the former clinging to superstition from the od era, the latter feeding false promises and hope to the instupid masses.

Soulmates are for hopeless romantics and tiny children. Not for Hugo.

“That does not surprise me,” Nuru says, the beginnings of a smile forming on her face.

She’s lying down in the golden field where they’ve set camp for the night. The contrast of the bright yellow against her dark skin is stunning-particularly in the moonlight, with her dark hair fanning out about her head.

Hugo, who is sitting upright a few paces away and playing with his daggers, frowns.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asks, unsure if he should be feeling defensive or not.

Nuru folds her arms beneath her head, propping herself up enough to make eye contact with him. “Even if you had a soulmate, you wouldn’t know what to do with them,” she scoffs.

He snorts. “ You believe in soulmates?”

“Is that so surprising?”

“Yes, actually. I thought you were the rational one in this party.”

Nuru gives him an expression that indicates how stupid she thinks he is. “I might be the only person who can keep their head in a crisis, but that doesn’t mean I can’t believe in a higher power, Hugo.”

She rolls over, so that she’s laying on her stomach, facing him. “Burning stars fall in my homeland every year. There are stories of a sun princess who’s tears heal the dead. Varian somehow hasn’t strangled you yet. I think you’d better start believing in a god.”

“Or soulmates apparently,” Hugo mutters.

“Or soulmates,” Nuru says. “Would it really be that far-fetched?”

“Do I believe there’s someone out there who shares my dreams? Or has my name written above their heart? Hard pass, Princess.”

“Alright then, how about sharing the same soul?” Nuru asks, folding her hands together and resting her chin on them. “You’re telling me that doesn’t sound at least a little romantic?”

“I don’t have a soul.”

“Now that,” she says, a grin stretching across her face, “that I can believe.”

___

“I think Anya’s my soulmate,” Yong says dreamily, staring at Varian’s redheaded cousin like she hung the fucking moon.

Hugo, despite secretly adoring the round child, rolls his eyes. Hard. “Do you even know what that means?”

“It means we share the same time threads,” Yong replies distractedly.

Varian and Anya are nerding out over something-something Hugo would find interesting or fun to mock them over, but right now, for some reason, he’s more interested in Yong’s adorable-if not misguided-crush on Varian’s little cousin.

“Time threads,” Hugo laughs, cracking his knuckles. Yong winces at the noise, momentarily taking his eyes off the two babbling alchemists. “Alright, color me curious. What are time threads?”

Yong frowns. “You’ve never heard of time threads? Every child in Koto learns about them.”

Ah, must be some religious poppycock only spread in the fire kingdom.

“Well, I’m not a child living in Koto, am I?” Hugo replies lightly. “Spill, little pyro.” He pokes the kid in the shoulder repeatedly until he gets swatted.

“Her lady, Odiyesi, spins a thread for each person,” Yong recites in a sing-song voice. “This thread contains the beginning, the middle, and the end of our lives. If she so chooses, two threads will be intertwined-maybe even beyond the Snip, if she wills it.”

“The Snip?”

“Oh yeah, that’s when you die,” Yong says, side eyeing Hugo.

Hugo ruffles Yong’s hair. “And you think Anya is your thread partner. That’s so cute .”

Yong ducks out from under his hand, scowling. “Why did you ask if you don’t even believe it?” he mumbles, face pink.

“You know what I think?” Hugo asks, pretending like he doesn’t hear Yong. “I think you should go right up to here and tell her all that. Give her a heads up about your eternally bound souls.”

“Your soul is eternally bound to the underworld,” Yong shoots back, with a surprising amount of fire.

Hugo bursts into laughter. “That,” he says, “is the first thing you’ve said all day that makes sense.”

___

“What do you think about soulmates?” Hugo asks mildly. He has a glass of wine in one hand, but he’s barely tasted it. Instead, he stands, staring out the stained glass window and into the courtyard.

Donella, sitting behind her desk, looks up from Varian’s Ulla’s journal-recently procured by Hugo.

The amount of deception and sneaking around he’d gone through to actually get it out of Varian’s line of sight had been painstakingly difficult. And it had been even harder coming up with an excuse to Nuru why he needed to spend the night somewhere other than their current lodgings.

He doesn’t really remember the lie. Just the trust in the Princess’s face when she’d briefly patted him on the shoulder, telling him to be back by sunrise.

Donella closes the journal with a snap, leaning back in her chair. “What a curious question. And from you, no less.”

When Hugo turns around, she’s smiling that sharp smile-the one that makes his stomach plummet with discomfort. Something in him churns at that dangerous expression now, unsure of what he’s suddenly gotten himself into.

He gives a casual shrug, raising his glass to his lips. “Just making idle conversation, I suppose.” The wine tastes terrible. Still, he takes another sip before setting it down on an end table.

“Hmm.” His mentor eyes him skeptically. “What do I think about soulmates?” she muses, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “I suppose the proper answer would be that I hate them.”

He frowns. “So you don’t believe in them?”

“You can’t hate something you don’t believe in, Hugo. Of course I believe in soulmates.” Donella must see the surprise in his expression because she laughs after a brief pause. “I would be hard pressed not to believe in them after seeing it with my own two eyes.”

Hugo blinks, startled. “You met someone with a soulmate?” he asks, disbelieving.

“You could say that.”

“How do-how did you know they were-”

She opens the stolen journal again, long scared fingers deftly flipping back to her reading place. “Because I could feel when she was in pain. Now shut up, Waif, I still have three quarters of this tedious reading to get through and only five more hours to do it.”

___

Even though Eugene has decided to make the conscious effort not to kill Hugo, the guy still shows mild animosity. And by mild, Hugo-of course-means that he drags him around, making him do tedious tasks and scowls whenever he gets close to Varian.

Whatever. It’s not as if Hugo’s going to complain, considering that it’s mostly his fault there was a demon monster briefly unleashed onto Corona that destroyed most of her capital city. As long as Varian isn’t blaming himself, Hugo calls it a win.

So he lets the Prince Consort drag him around the city and put his alchemy to work.

“You don’t have to stay,” Hugo says, at one point, when it becomes apparent that even though Eugene has no idea how alchemy works , he was still going to hover. “I’m not going to cut and run.”

The man had snorted. “Yeah, I already figured that one out for myself,” he’d muttered and then proceeded to not explain what that meant.

So here Hugo is, with an ever present shadow, hovering like he’s a fucking five year old. Hugo honestly doesn’t see what Varian sees in the guy-or Queen Rapunzel for that matter. She looks at the ex-thief like he hung the moon and all the damn stars in the sky.

“It’s because they’re soulmates,” Eugene’s buddy-Lance, Hugo thinks-had said when he caught him staring.

Hugo had scoffed.

Now, bored and overheated after a long day’s work, Hugo watches Eugene frown over some blueprints in the Queen’s study. Hugo’s not exactly sure why he has to be present for this particular part of the renovation project, but he’s too tired to protest.

“Are you and the queen soulmates?” he hears himself asking.

Eugene lifts his head, eyes alight with surprise. He glances back down at the blueprints once, before leaving the table to join Hugo by the open doors leading to the balcony.

“Weird question, coming from you,” he snorts, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms. “But yes. We are.”

Hugo doesn’t know what to make of that. “How do you know?”

The older man hesitates, something like understanding dawning on the man’s face. A small smile crosses lips. “Have you ever met someone that no matter how many times you tried to walk away, you couldn’t?”

Hugo swallows.

“That’s how I know. Now,” he claps Hugo on the shoulder. “If you’ll stop messing around, I need your opinion on whether Yong’s demolition idea or Varian’s solvent solution is going to work best for the lower district’s avalanche problem.”

___

At the end of all things-or perhaps the beginning-Hugo finds Varian on a rooftop.

It’s not hard to find him, as when Varian is brooding, he likes to perch. It’s a habit that the alchemist has either picked up from spending most of his time in a castle with high roofs or perhaps it’s born of chasing his dumb racoon into precarious positions.

Either way, Hugo learns early into his friendship with the darkhaired boy, that when he’s being introspective, he likes to pick a high roof and perch like a fucking woodland creature.

So when Varian goes missing in the middle of Corona’s lantern festival, it takes precious few minutes to find him.

“You are so predictable,” Hugo says, dropping down next to him. Heights don’t usually bother him, but the castle is impressively tall.

The other alchemist doesn’t really seem to mind, however. He lets his legs dangle over the edge, occasionally swinging in the air.

“Or maybe I wanted you to find me,” Varian replies easily. His head--tilted up, toward the stars that are mirrored in the constellations of freckles on his face-is wearing a peaceful expression.

Something in Hugo’s chest clenches tightly at the sight of it. There was a time, not too long ago, where he was convinced he’d never see Varian happy again.

But now, Varian turns his face toward Hugo and offers him a smile. “Or maybe I’m just predictable to you.”

The tightness in Hugo’s chest dissipates. What is left aches for something he can’t have.

“Or that,” Hugo says, instead of doing something stupid like trying to hold Varian’s hand or kiss the stupid expression off his face.

Varian turns back to the stars.

“You know, they say shooting stars fall in the direction of your soulmate.”

Hugo rolls his eyes. “Not you too,” he groans, eliciting laughter from his friend. “I thought out of everyone, you would be on my side here.”

“Aw, don’t believe in soulmates?” Varian teases, grinning boyishly. “Sun and moon, I should have expected that.”

“Yeah?” Hugo raises his eyebrows. “How so?”

“You’re so cynical. And not in the way Cass is-she’s like realistically -cynical. You’re just oh poor me I could never have a soulmate because my soul is made of garbage -”

Hugo clamps a hand over Varian’s mouth, shrieking when he tries to lick him. “I- stop -I don’t have to listen to this slander -”

“-and if you ever did find your soulmate you would be insufferable about it,” Varian goes on, catching Hugo’s wrist when he tries to silence him again. “You would spend the entire time trying to prove to yourself and everyone else that there was no possible way they could be your soulmate and when you couldn’t you would-”

He stops. Blinks at Hugo with realization dawning across his face.

Hugo’s wonders if Varian can feel his pulse racing where the smaller boy’s fingers wrap around his wrist.

“Yeah? What would I do?”

Varian’s lips purse. “I don’t know what you would do. I’d hope you would be smart about it.”

He lets go of Hugo.

Hugo immediately misses his warmth.

“And what would be the smart thing.”

“Well,” Varian draws out the word thoughtfully. He scoots close enough to Hugo that if the taller boy wanted he could wrap and arm around his shoulder. “Well, an excellent start would be telling them.”

“And how would you tell them? If it were you,” Hugo adds quickly, when Varian shoots him a questioning look.

Varian leans back on his hands, head tipped back, exposing his throat to the sky. “I would tell them my heart started beating at the same time as theirs when we touched. That there’s a silver dagger inked on my shoulder that burns when they’re angry and sings when they’re sad-”

“Varian.” Hugo’s heart clenches so hard he briefly wonders if he’s having a heart attack.

“-I would tell them that I dreamed in color the first night we lay side by side in the forest,” Varian goes on, ignoring him. “I would tell them that when we touch I see every color-even the ones that don’t belong here.”

“Varian.”

Hugo’s hand finds his soulmate's.

Varian turns his head to the side slightly, finally meeting Hugo’s eye. With his free hand, he cups the side of Hugo’s neck, tentatively.

“I would tell him that our souls are made of the same thing.” He smiles gently. “It’s just science, Hugo.”

Hugo laughs, pressing his forehead into Varian’s. “How is that the most romantic thing you’ve said yet?”

“Because you’re a closet nerd,” Varian says, right before he leans in.

Underneath a starlit sky, Hugo kisses the boy made of the same stuff as him.

___

[shivawne]

hi meg could u please elaborate on why shiv chooses to marry tom and why she marries him instead of, say, nate ty

something that i think is really important to remember when it comes to shiv as a character, as a person, is that she’s grown up with a terrible blueprint for what relationships are. she grew up surrounded by men like logan. her whole entire adolescence was spent with a backdrop of guys like the rat pack, of employees like frank and karl and jamie and hugo. she saw her brothers follow in their footsteps, hollow themselves out to fit that grotesque corporate shell, become men who ascribe to that sense of stereotypical masculinity, and i think that ultimately resulted in shiv not wanting to be with men like nate, or any man who remotely resembles her brothers or her father. who can blame her? who would want to date a man that reminded her of her childhood, and how the men she was constantly around as a kid were men she was supposed to be inferior to, just because of her gender? she dated men like that in her youth, and it was one of them that caused the major depressive episode that she had fallen into by the time she met tom.

she met tom at a bad time in her life, and he made her laugh and he made her forget about her troubles for a while, and it’s because he’s so absolutely nothing like the men that she grew up with. with him, she was able to lower her guard and talk honestly about how she felt without feeling inferior. one look at shiv throughout the show and you can see that, even post-depressive episode, the only person she really feels comfortable breaking down in front of is tom in tern haven. for a woman like shiv, who detests vulnerability and showing her emotions, that tells me that there is genuine and sincere love and trust there, even if she is scared of it too. that’s part of why she holds him at such arm’s length, why she’s cruel to him so effortlessly, why she cheats on him. she tries so hard all the time not to let him enter a space where she’s out of control, which is what would probably make him happiest, but it scares the shit out of her.

but i also think a lot about how brian cox once said that logan loves his children but is disappointed in them, and i think that’s one of the ways shiv emulates her father. i think she sees love as being something that has to be mixed with disappointment, and that definitely applies to tomshiv. shiv is wholly aware that in most (if not all) quantifiable ways, tom is Beneath Her. everyone in the show points it out, and shiv herself sees it, that she’s better than him in terms of status, intelligence, poise, and so on. she’s deeply, dangerously competitive, and so she will always be disappointed and embarrassed by him. but at the same time, if he was to change himself to the point where she wouldn’t be embarrassed and disappointed in him, she wouldn’t love him anymore. it offers up a really interesting and really aggravating paradox, because the reasons that shiv loves tom are the exact same reasons that she wants and needs him to be the very thing that she resents – a man entrenched in all things waystar royco.

sarah said in an interview once that the tomshiv relationship is like the chicken and the egg; that knowing tom loves her, makes her loves him. shiv has great difficulty understanding any kind of love that isn’t transactional, that doesn’t have strings attached. marrying a man like nate would’ve been easier, maybe, in theory; but i don’t think she would’ve ever gotten to a point where marriage was on the cards with them. it was really only with a man like tom that she would’ve truly considered it as an option.

[honeyxmonkey]

Terrible Taste

Or, Cass thinks Varian has really bad taste in guys and Arianna and Frederic are overprotective parents... again.

-----

"Varian, you know I love you and I'm all for you liking boys, but..." Cass let the words die on her tongue as Varian unexpectedly laughed.

"I have terrible taste. I know." He smiled fondly at Hugo who was relentlessly teasing Catalina a few meters away. "God, but I love him."

Cass smirked at the lovestruck expression on Varian's face. She'd only seen him like that once and that was nearly six years ago when he had that crush on her. She leaned on his shoulder as much as she could without knocking him over.

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why do you love him?" She glanced over at Hugo for a moment before turning her attention back to Varian. "As far as I was told, he did some pretty nasty stuff to you."

Varian's gaze shifted to the ground. "It's... it's complicated."

"Love often is."

He snorted and rolled his eyes. "And what would you know about love miss, 'I'm a lonely adventurer'?"

"More than you, that's for sure. I have enough sense to not go after the first handsome rogue who gives me heart eyes."

Varian's response was to push her arm off his shoulder. "That isn't what happened. There's alot more to the story, Cass."

"I'd love to hear it."

"No."

"Fine." She started to walk away before turning to say one last thing. "By the way, I'm not so sure I approve of this relationship."

"Good thing you're not the person who needs to approve."

"And who would that be?"

"Right now?" Varian shifted awkwardly on his feet. "The royal family and my dad."

"Why do Arianna and Frederic need to approve? Last I checked they're not your parents. Rapunzel and Eugene I can understand, but why them?"

"Uh..." Varian laughed nervously. "They kind of... unofficially adopted me when Rapunzel made me a part of the Royal Household. So, they take that job very seriously."

Cass suddenly laughed, the pure awkwardness of the situation was hilarious to her. "Okay, good luck then. You're going to need it."

-----

"I don't like him." Frederic decided, crossing his arms.

Varian sighed, dropping his head on the table. "Can't we go five minutes without somebody judging my boyfriend? Please? You guys don't even know him."

"Varian, dear," Arianna gently leaned forward. "We just don't trust him. I mean, after everything that happened how can you trust him?"

"I'm sitting right here." Hugo reminded them. Their words hadn't particularly bothered him until now. She was right. How could Varian simply trust him, forgive him, after all that he's done?

Varian's head suddenly shot up, but he didn't look upset. As a matter of fact, he actually had that calm and collected sense of grace he got when he was being diplomatic. If Hugo was being honest, it was kind of scary. A little bit hot, but mostly scary.

"Intresting question your Grace," Varian made eye contact with Arianna, a cool flame burning in his eyes. "How could you possibly trust someone who's wronged you in the past despite their apologies and obvious regret of their misdeeds?"

Apparently they knew something he didn't because Arianna immediately backed off with a small nod of her head.

The table became silent for all of five minutes before Eugene let out a small laugh.

"Jeez kid, you should be a politician. That was great."

Varian fixed him with a steady, but light glare. "You're not off the hook either, Eugene. I know you've been following us around ever since we got back."

"He's been what?"

Varian ignored Hugo and kept his attention on his older brother. "I honestly expected more from you. It's like you don't trust me."

Eugene awkwardly looked away from Varian. "It's not that I don't trust you. I don't trust him. I mean we don't even know him-"

Varian suddenly stood, slamming his hands down on the table. His chair skirting a little ways back with the force he used.

"That's right you don't know him! That means you have no right to judge his character. None of you understand- hell, none of you know what we've been through because you weren't there!"

"Varian, please calm down-"

"No Rapunzel." His glare cut into each and every person at the table, save for the one he was trying to defend. "I expected you to atleast trust me."

"How can we with this when you've kept it a secret for over a year?" Frederic asked, looking like he'd won the argument.

Apparently he was still salty that Varian and Hugo had been keeping their relationship a secret for the entire year since they'd been back from their little adventure.

"Because I knew this is how you all would react!" Varian growled out. He turned sharply away, running a hand angrily through his hair as he stalked out the door.

Awkward silence settled over the table. Hugo sighed, rubbing the palms of his hands over his eyes tiredly before standing up too to go after Varian.

"Varian-" His words were cut off when Eugene grabbed his wrist. He glared at him. "Let go."

"You need to give him a moment to cool down."

"I said let go, Rider." Hugo growled out. "I'm not the one Varian's mad at."

He roughly pulled his arm out of Eugene's grip and quickly went through the door Varian had gone through.

-----

"Varian!"

Hugo's voice shook him from his angry walk. He turned to see his boyfriend running down the hall towards him. He stopped a few inches away.

"Var, it's okay." Hugo pulled him into a hug, gently rubbing his back. "I don't care what they think."

Varian took in a shaky breath, on the verge of tears. "I care. It's not just you, it's us. This is my family and I want them to like you. I want them to approve of us, but they can only see what they've been told. I thought they were better than this."

Hugo laughed a little. "Goggles, they only act so overprotective and judgemental because they love you. They don't want to see you get hurt and I'm completely on their side with this. Well, most of it anyways."

Varian stifled a small laugh of his own. "I just... I wish they saw you how I see you."

Hugo kissed the top of his head. "And how do you see me?"

Varian smiled against his chest before looking up at him, hands reaching up to cup his cheek. "Smart, brave..." he seem to get lost in his eyes. His fingers brushed across his cheek. "Changed for the better."

Hugo smiled too and kissed the inside of his wrist. He noticed a few tear glistening in Varian's eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Varian laughed, dropping his head for a moment before looking at him again. "I'm just... sometimes I'm still surprised you chose me."

Hugo kissed him, softly, gently, lovingly. It was short but sweet and with that kiss all of Varian's worries melted away.

"I would choose you everytime." He whispered, bumping his nose against Varian's. "I'm going to choose you everytime, Varian. I love you."

Maybe right then, his family wouldn't approve of their relationship but that hardly mattered. They would. In time, they would see that all Hugo wanted was for Varian to be happy and safe. For now, Varian was content with standing in the middle of an empty hallway with the man he loved. God, he really did love him.

"I love you too."

-----

So... I was bored and decided to make this. Hope yall enjoyed this.

[thepandapopo]

A Step Through Time - Chapter 1: Visitor

Me: Don’t do it

Brain: 

Me: Don’t do it.

Brain:

Me: We haven’t even finished the other one yet-

Brain: HERE’S A SYLVIX IDEA THAT YOU NEED TO WRITE SINCE IT’S PREVENTED YOU FROM DOING ANY MEANINGFUL WORK ALL DAY.

Me: FUCK.

Pairings: Sylvain x Felix ; minor Claude x F!Byleth

Warnings: mentions of masturbation/sex; typical Felix swearing.

Synopsis:

When Felix agreed to go back into the past to make sure certain events during the war actually happen, he expected that he would be the only time traveler at the monastery for those three moons. What he did not expect was for his 6 year old daughter to send herself to the past 4 weeks after himself because she missed him.

or

The one where the post time-skip gang meets an older Felix Fraldarius from the future who tells them he’s there to help for a few battles for reasons he can’t explain and everyone’s dying to figure out who the hell he’s married to - wait, what the fuck he has a daughter?

Some notes:

Verdant Wind / Azure Moon route mash up. Basically the Golden Deer Route but then at the Battle of Gronder (Ch: Blood of the Eagle and Lion), Dimitri joins up with Claude.

Dedue is back. Dimitri isn’t crazy anymore. Rodrigue is unfortunately dead.

All characters are recruited (including Black Eagle students)

Next Chapter (coming soon!)

XxXxXxXxXxX

It takes roughly two weeks for the Resistance Army to fully wrap their heads around the fact that there are not one, but two Felix Hugo Fraldarius’s at the monastery.

It takes them another week on top of that to come to terms that the newest Felix to join their army is from the future. 12 years, to be exact.

The day that Future Felix - that’s what they’ve dubbed him and he thinks it’s ridiculous; who has time to say that mouthful? - arrives knocking on the monastery gates, the entire place goes into an uproar. Claude and Byleth aren’t entirely sure whether or not this is just some dark magicks that the Empire has cooked up in a sad attempt at espionage, or if something has gone so horribly wrong in the future that they send their prickliest general back in time to whip them into shape.

Claude insists on tying him up which Felix grudgingly accepts, because of course this all seems a little far fetched - no one has ever heard of time travel magic...at this point in time anyways. And like everything else Felix does, it just makes them even more suspicious of him because the Felix they know would be hissing and spitting at them with all the fury of an angry wyvern if they even tried to touch him, much less restrain him.

Funnily enough, it’s his past self that manages to convince them that he’s the real deal.

“This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.” Younger Felix crosses his arms and glares at his future self, as if his stare alone could dispel any illusionary magic with its withering intensity.

It’s a bit weird to be on the listening end of his scathing remarks rather than saying them. But technically he is saying them... or at least the past him is, so really is it any different?

“Well, unless you have a better idea, I think this is the best we’ve got for now.” Claude shrugs and runs a hand through his tousled hair for the millionth time that day. “If he really is you, then he should know a secret you’ve never told anyone, and you can confirm it.”

Byleth nods from her place next to the Alliance leader, “We can’t wait until Lysithea and the others find an answer in the library. It could take weeks before they can confirm that any of this is possible through magic.”

More like years, Felix thinks to himself. In his timeline, time travel magic is still a completely new thing. In fact, the only people who know anything about it are a select few that Dimitri, Byleth, Claude and Linheartd trust with their lives. The only reason he’s here now is because the green haired mage had somehow stumbled upon a rift in the flow of time while conducting some experiments. Fearing that this small bump could have dire repercussions to the past, it was decided that they would send someone back to Harpstring moon of that year to help along the events that were yet to unfold.

Between the people who knew and who were available, it ended up coming down to Felix or Sylvain. 

Unanimously, they all voted for Felix. (”Hey! I’m totally trustworthy!” “We know that, Sylvain, but with your reputation for having a silver tongue, none of them will believe you.”)

And now here he was 12 years in the past, tied up to a chair in the Knights hall in front of the fireplace, patience running dangerously thin at the bickering that has been going on for hours.

“Fine,” his younger self grouses with a scowl fierce enough to make a grown man cower. “But he’s writing it down and none of you are allowed to stand close enough to read it.”

It’s a smart idea, really. And if Felix knows himself, then he knows that the quickest way to get to the end of this whole fiasco is to write down a secret his younger counterpart is too embarrassed to admit out loud.

Thankfully, Felix has plenty of those from that time.

From before things become official with Sylvain.

From before he becomes Felix Hugo Fraldarius-Gautier.

A mercifully short moment later, his hands are free and he’s rubbing at the tender muscles where the rope bit into his skin.

A small inkwell, quill, and piece of parchment are placed in front of him by a silent but wary Dedue and Felix nods in thanks before his younger self more or less shoves everyone back a good distance so they cannot read his secrets.

It is silent other than the occasional pop and crackle from the low fire. Hard, piercing Amber meets warm liquid Amber, neither willing to look away, one gaze filled with distrust and jaded bitterness, while the other watches with silent empathy and understanding.

Blame it on his husband’s bad influence, but Felix can’t help the growing desire to tease his younger self. (Which he knows is absolutely hypocritical because he hates being teased but Sylvain was right when he said it is just so easy.)

“How much do you want me to reveal?” Felix dips the tip of the quill in ink and pauses, the tip hovering over the parchment ready to spill secrets only the two of them know.

“...I’ll tell you when to stop.”

It’s a free pass to go wild, is what Felix hears.

There are so many things that he could write. Ranging from the priceless family heirloom he accidentally broke and hid when he was child all the way to some of his more embarrassing training mishaps - one of which involved him falling and stabbing himself on his own goddamn sword -  but despite all of the memories that flash through his head, one in particular stands out the most.

For the second time that day, Felix curses his husband and his perverse influence before scrawling out:

Bedside table. Second drawer. Third notch - press hard to release the fake bottom.

Images of a very familiar flask of oil that has seen many restless nights flash across Felix’s mind. And if the red flush on his younger self’s face is anything to go by, he would bet everything he owned that he was also thinking the same thing.

A beat of silence. “Not enough?”

Felix is honestly a little impressed. He was sure that his secret sex drawer would be enough to mortify his younger self into believing him.

Fine then. He could bring out the heavy artillery.

The first time we realize we are in love with Sylvain is when we are 15 and figure out that the burning rage we feel every time he talks about his latest girlfriend is actually jealousy.

He pauses for a moment to look up at younger Felix. Receiving no response, he continues writing.

The first time we realize how absolutely fucked we are is the morning after the training session where Sylvain takes off his shirt and we dream about -

Ink splatters on the table and over his gloves as the parchment is unceremoniously wrenched away from him and immediately tossed into the fire.

“He’s real” are the only words the new Duke of Fraldarius manages to sputter out between the fingers hiding his burning face. The poor boy looks like he wants to spontaneously combust and also let the floor swallow him whole.

Felix almost feels bad. Almost.

----

The days following can only be described as incredibly odd as Felix wanders the familiar - yet different - grounds of Garreg Mach. He helps where he can with the chores and spends the remaining time either at the Training Grounds like usual, or just simply chatting with his friends of old.

A few times a week he will accompany the troops and assist them in their various missions eliminating bandits or Demonic beasts that have wandered too close to their base. Though he is older now, Felix has never slacked off in his training regimen, not even after the war ends, and his current skill and mastery of swords and Reason are more than enough to deal with these minor nuisances.

All in all, Felix is enjoying himself.

...Except for how much everyone keeps pestering him to reveal things about the future.

“Ooooh, do Claude and the professor finally hook up?” Hilda is leaning across the dining hall table with the biggest shit eating grin on her face, the sausage breakfast in front of her completely forgotten in favor of even juicier gossip.

Felix sighs for the umpteenth time that morning and cuts into his own plate with a bit more force than intended. “Hilda. For the last time, I can’t tell you anything specific in case it fucks up the future.”

“But you’ve already told Annette that she goes on to teach at the School of Sorcery and Mercedes opens up an orphanage!”

“Yes, and that’s because I want to make sure those things actually happen.”

“So what, you don’t want Mr. Leader Man and the Professor to finally knock boots?!”

To his right, Dimitri chokes on his toast at the mental image Hilda conjures.

Much to his relief (or dismay), Dorothea chooses this time to slide into the seat to his left along with Petra.

“Are we interrogating Future Felix again?” The Songstress doesn’t even bother hiding her mischievous glee as she eyes Felix the same way a predator would prey.

“No, we are not.” He glares at the former opera star, cursing the fact that his friends have already figured out that the years have more or less mellowed out his bark and that he has a LOT more patience before he actually bites.

“Aww, come on. It’s basically a breakfast tradition now! Nothing like a side of future gossip with my tea to get me going in the mornings.” Dorothea winks at him before a flash of flaming red near the food line catches both her and Felix’s attention.

“Hey Sylvain! Felix! Come sit with us.” She waves them over and nudges Petra to scoot over to make room.

“Is there anything you guys want to know about the future?” the pink haired Great Knight asks as soon as the pair are seated.

“Oh tons,” Sylvain winks as he picks up his fork and twirls it loosely in his hands. “But the real question is if Future Fe over there will actually answer them.”

Felix lets out a humorless snort. As if he would.

He makes a point to actively avoid his younger self as much as possible because he isn’t sure if it will affect his timeline in any way. Unfortunately, that also means that he has to avoid Sylvain.

Seriously, how did he never realize that they were basically joined at the hip? Where one went, the other was never very far.

It was a fucking miracle that no one had figured out his lifelong crush on Sylvain considering how much time they spent in each other’s company.

But then again, considering everyone’s surprise at how many of them ended up paired off after the war... maybe they were all just that blind. Or stupid.

Thank the Goddess they were all blind and stupid.

Felix manages to fend off most of their prying inquiries, snapping only a few times at Hilda and Dorothea who don’t know when to stop, but everything truly goes to hell in a handbasket when Mercedes comes by asking the group if there is any equipment or armor that needs cleaning since she’s on duty this week.

“Oh, yes actually.” Felix seizes this opportunity and begins pulling off his gloves to hand to the Bishop. “I need the ink stains removed from my gloves. I never managed to find time to properly clean them since the first night I arrived.” 

He isn’t aware that he has done anything wrong until the table goes silent and everyone is staring at him, or rather his hand, with a mixture of disbelief, shock, pleasant smugness, and overall general bewilderment.

“What are you all...” His question trails off when he realizes that his wedding ring - the one that he always wears under his gloves - is now out in the open, the plain obsidian band glittering innocently in the morning sunlight filtering through the windows.

“You’re... married?!”

Oh fuck.

----

“So who’s the lucky girl?”

You like Annie. Don’t murder Annie.

Felix swings his training sword against the practice dummy and lands a clean diagonal hit.

“Ohhh, I bet it’s some noble girl from the Kingdom.”

You like Thea’s opera shows. If you kill her now, you won’t be able to see them after the war.

Stab. Feint. Slash.

“No, Felix doesn’t care for dainty noble girls who don’t know how to fight...”

Thank the Goddess Ingrid is still reliable as ever.

“Maybe it’s a guy?”

Nevermind. Ingrid is the devil.

Duck. Side step into a zig zag pattern approach. Upwards slash.

“It’s... forgive me if I am overstepping, but I am happy that you have found happiness in the future, Felix.”

Don’t kill your king. Regicide is a crime.

Retreat backwards. Dash in for the final blow.

“Yeah! Congrats Felix on finally getting laid!”

It’s only when Felix snaps his training sword in half at the blue haired warrior’s comment that his sword training session turns into a brawl training session.

----

The Fraldarius Duke has never been more relieved to receive a call to action than when Byleth rushes in not long after Future Felix gives Caspar a shiny new black eye.

“Bandits. In the sealed forest. Civilian involved. Gates, now.” is all the warning they get before she is sweeping out the training room doors, no doubt going to retrieve her own equipment.

After 5 years of being at war, they are all seasoned soldiers and as such, it doesn’t take them very long before they are rushing towards the site of the battle.

They have foregone the usual battalions in favor of only deploying their former classmates, allowing them to move much quicker through the dense vegetation.

Up ahead, they can hear low voices talking and what sounds like muffled sobbing. Byleth signals them to slow down and get into position - it’s one of their usual strategies: approach undetected, surround the enemy, and then close in to eliminate.

It isn't until they get close enough to hear the sobbing more clearly that Felix feels his heart leap up his throat.

He knows that sound. He’s heard it a million times over the past 6 years at all times of the day.

Please Goddess, he prays as he creeps closer with more urgency, ignoring Claude’s alarmed look, let me be wrong.

Of course he isn’t.

Raw panic seizes his chest as he recognizes the little girl with an ornate sword strapped to her back cornered under the jagged overhang of a large rock, her long wavy hair a crimson beacon amongst a sea of green and brown, and Felix is running before he can even formulate a plan.

“Come on, little girl... just give us the sword and we’ll let you go,”

“N-no! Papa gave m-me this sword!”

“Well then I hope you’re ready to die-”

Electricity crackles through the air and his body falls to the ground before he can finish his threat.

“Sophie!”

Large, watery honey gold eyes lock onto his and suddenly the battlefield narrows. For one agonizingly long heartbeat, Felix watches the little delicate, red nose he loves so much scrunch up, and he can already hear the tearful wail that comes next.

“PAPA!”

Then, all hell breaks loose.

---

There were very few of them that could say they had the privilege of watching the Felix from the future fight prior to the current battle. Felix - the younger Felix of this timeline - is not one of them.

However, as he watches his older self weave through the bandits like liquid steel, mercilessly cutting them down with cold rage, he cannot help but compare it to his current skill level.

He wonders how many more battles he will have to go through before he reaches that level of deadly grace.

“Watch your left!” Sylvain shouts at him from somewhere to his right and Felix grunts as he parries a hard downward strike of an axe.

His feet flow through footwork long ingrained in his mind and in the next moment, he has slipped past the bandit’s strike range and shoves his sword through his chest.

A clean, quick kill.

Felix is actually rather grateful for the distraction of a battle. But despite the battle cries and sounds of metal on metal clashing around him, he still cannot silence the one thought he’s sure is going through everyone’s mind.

He has a daughter.

He has a daughter in the future. A freaking daughter.

A little girl whose hair is unmistakably the same obnoxiously beautiful colour as those of the Gautier lineage.

Who in the actual fuck does he marry?!

The question rings in his head over and over again as he fells enemy after enemy, and by the end of the battle, he still has not found reprieve from the shock that he is grappling with in his mind.

Felix is not aware that he is unconsciously searching for familiar golden brown eyes before the knot in his chest dissolves when he spots Sylvain cleaning his lance off to the side.

But just as quickly as that knot disappears, another one takes its place.

Because as much as he loves Sylvain with all his heart, there’s no way that even if by some miracle they get married in the future that they can have a child together.

Which means that either Felix has married a distant cousin of Sylvain’s or Sylvain has a daughter that Felix somehow ends up taking care of.

And since Felix knows that he would never be able to love or marry anyone other than his childhood best friend...

...that leaves him with a very bitter pill to swallow.

----

“Papa!”

Sophie is wearing her favourite teal dress with the little swords embroidered on the hem, and even though it is now caked entirely in mud, Felix cannot bring himself to care as he falls to his knees and cradles his daughter tightly to his chest.

“Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?” Calloused fingers fruitlessly brush away the steady stream of tears on Sophie’s blotchy cheeks, the salt water clearing some of the mud away as Felix scans for any injuries.

She shakes her head twice and continues to sob into his chest and he continues to hold her while stroking her hair gently in gentle, calming caresses. Even after this whole fiasco, Sophie’s long waves somehow look as beautiful as ever and a distant part of Felix’s brain wonders if it’s just some inherited Gautier genetic to always looks good no matter what.

“Felix! Goddess, who is that? Is she okay?” Ashe runs up to him, Mercedes and Ingrid not far behind him with equal looks of concern in their expressions.

Felix shakes his head, “I’ll answer questions later. Mercie, can you take a look over her right now and make sure she has no injuries? she says she’s okay but she’s probably still high on adrenaline.”

It is the first time in Mercedes’ life that she has seen Felix look this concerned for another person’s well being and she’s already reaching out with warm white magic even as she nods, but as soon as her hand makes contact, Sophie flinches further into Felix as if burned.

“Sophie. Sophie, it’s alright. You’re safe now. I’ve got you. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” 

It takes a little bit more coaxing before she pulls away far enough to look at him.

“Hey,” Felix nudges her temple gently with his nose. “It’s alright. You remember Auntie Mercie, don’t you? Auntie Mercie would never hurt you. She just wants to make sure you’re not hurt, okay?”

If Mercedes has any reaction to being called Auntie, Felix is thankful that she does not outwardly show it.

“It’s okay, Sophie.” The healer flashes her a soft smile. “I promise this won’t hurt a bit!”

It’s only when Mercedes manages to start her healing spell that Felix lets the tension and fear seep out of his body.

There are so many questions clamoring around in his head, like how in the world is she here in the past and where the hell is his husband who is supposed to be watching her in his absence, but all of that will have to wait until they return to the monastery.

And, if the matching strangled, heart-broken looks on his younger self and Sylvain are anything to go off of, he’s also going to have to reveal a little more than planned if he wants to make sure that he still gets to marry the love of his life.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Sorry that the ending seems a bit rushed. I’ve been working on this for 5 hours now and I just want to post it and go to bed (it’s 3AM). I promise I’ll come back to make some edits later!

Next Chapter

Masterlist

[kryativelogos]

tl;dr : Scarlemagne Deserves at Least SOME of our UwUs (spoilers for S2)

I just finished watching Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts’ second season and gosh, Hugo is such an interesting character to consider. Like wow, they really exposed this guy (and Lio), hard. This post will break down his past, why he ended up going bananas (haha- get it?), and potential routes for this character in a future season. WARNING: Long-ass post ahead... again

The mysterious Scarlemagne is first introduced in S1 as this Victorian/Elizabethan-era (sorry, I don’t really know my history beyond SIX) loving, piano-playing mandrill who was controlling humans and trying to basically take over the world. In the first season, we only see him as a bit crazy and with no reason behind his want for world domination, as most villains do. We get hints of a history between Kipo’s dad and a-once-known-as Hugo, but aside from that, we know next to nothing about our main antagonist. In terms of S1′s Scarlemagne, I saw him as calculative and clever, he had a backup plan and was teetering between a composed civilian and instinctual animal. Because of all the foreshadowing, I was glad to find an episode in season two (2) that delved into Hugo’s story with Lio (specifically Ep8, although throughout the season there are clips of the two’s history together).

In S2, we find out that Scarlemagne was once one of the last non-mutated animals in the world named Hugo. Lio and his wife, Song, were his caretakers and experimented on him to discover and isolate the gene that caused the animals to mutate. As Hugo grew up, he learned how to read and play the piano by Lio and Song. The couple loved Hugo as if he were their son and honestly, they really wanted what was best for him.

However, it was unclear how long Lio and Song had mutated Hugo and how long he was used as a milking machine by Dr. Emilia. These two scenes were strictly a montage to the audience and that’s why I believe we need to cut him some slack (just like how Kipo did in this season). If we’re going off of Hugo’s point of view, we need to consider that he was in a box for his entire life before escaping to the surface. Since we don’t know how long it was before Dr. Emilia discovered Hugo, I can only assume that there was simply enough time for him to learn/read about the old ages when monarchs were still a thing. He may have a larger vocabulary, but socially, I believe his mental age has got to be no more than 14 years old. I say this because his behavior during his time with Lio and Song (such as when he was playing the piano before he got caught) was still respectful, open to learning about the surface before it came crumbling down, and he was caring - especially with the unborn Kipo. That means he wasn’t introduced to distress until after Dr. Emilia had found him.

Even after Dr. Emilia started abusing him, he was still visited by Lio (as seen in the montage - Song was most likely busy with managing her own mutations and Kipo) but these visits were limited. Meaning that Lio was no longer teaching, and more there to provide accompaniment and comfort. Therefore, if he was still mentally at 14, he certainly did not grow to experience any sense of negative emotions aside from Dr. Emilia; even then, he shut out most of those emotions and kindly did this for Dr. Emilia for the sake of Kipo and her family - his family. So without learning that humans could be “bad” or had mixed emotions aside from loving - thanks to Lio and Song - Hugo grew up incredibly ignorant of the “outside world” and believing that humans had his best interest at heart. This is apparent when he defends humans once up on the surface and generally shy/awkward when he meets the goth apes. Again, this is because of his literally sheltered childhood where he lacked the social interactions he needed to develop as he grew up.

So because of all this, when Hugo notices not only that Lio left him behind, but didn’t look for him, didn’t trust him to hold Kipo, and even gave her his own blanket, the anger and all of these pent up negative emotions come rushing back tenfold. In terms of character, I think the way he received the news was very appropriate for the show. He didn’t know how else to think. So going off of the one book he was obsessed over and just trying to cope with the betrayal, Hugo goes off to make sure nobody ever feels left out again by forcefully uniting all of the mutes and turning the tables on the humans that he once trusted. Hugo took advantage of what he was given to try to make means of what he was feeling in his heart. I mean throughout the last two episodes you can see Kipo really getting through to him, but I believe that he was/is so full of grief and anger that he pushes away that lost feeling of being loved as a defense mechanism so he could never get hurt again.

In the final episode of season two (2) Scarlemagne was carted away with the TimberCats and was genuinely astonished that Kipo would willingly sacrifice her sanity to save mutes. This is a foil to when Lio left Hugo behind. Leading up to this point, Scarlemagne had pegged all humans to always think of themselves before anyone else, so when he finds out a human would go out of their way to help a mute, aka someone like him, he doesn’t know how to compute. I think in a future season the show could really work on a redemption arc with this character. Scarlemagne is still socially ignorant - he doesn’t understand what complex emotions are, and if Kipo was already starting to open up his heart this season, I don’t see why she won’t continue to try to help him in a future season. My only hope is that Kipo won’t take what her dad said to heart, that Scarlemagne will never change, and that she’ll continue to be as stubborn as ever to help those in need.

The other route I can possibly see happening is Scarlemagne turning into a mega mute, as in, no longer humanoid and going complete animal. This would be an interesting route to take since we do see a progression of him going slightly more insane by the end of the season. We have to also consider that the formulas given to Hugo were the same given to Kipo and Song, who both turned into mega mutes that lost their sanity. If this were the case, however, I feel like two consequences would occur: (1) any character development for this character from that moment on, would be wasted (2) progression of the plot may become stale given that there is no longer a clever antagonist and solely an enemy that needs to be taken down, which can be a hit or miss with the audience and the show becomes more or less one-dimensional. So in my opinion, a redemption arc, though cliche, would be a much better route to take, although I wouldn’t mind seeing how the plot changes if they choose to do something like the latter.

What do you guys think? I’m always up for discussion - and as always this was just a fun post, so please don’t judge me based on this! Thanks~

[leonthecardboardunicorn]

Man of Your Dreams, Chapter 3

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"So, one more time, are you sure that it wasn't actually Lacan who attacked you?"

"I'm sure," Willem repeated for the thousandth time. We had all gathered at his house again to go over everything once more, although I did leave some details out.

'I don't really need to tell them about the crying part,' I thought. 'Not that they'd believe me if I told them everything..'

"Maybe it was some kind of shapeshifter?" Lucious suggested. "I believe I've read about them in books.."

"Who cares what it is?" Zeus yelled. "All we need to do is find them and beat them up, and then we can get Willem's magic back!"

"I doubt it would be that simple," Hiro said with a sigh.

"If we could defeat them, I believe we could get my magic back. But we would still need to know who they were."

"And anybody who has Willem's power would be formidable.."

I looked up from the discussions as I noticed a tapping at the door. When I opened it, a Magic Note flew in.

'Who is this from?'

My heart was in my throat as I walked up to Alfonse's clinic. 'Is he really here?'

Alfonse was waiting for me at the doors. "Thanks for coming so quick. He just showed up when I was coming up to meet you and started asking for you."

Sure enough, Felix was waiting inside the clinic for us. A thousand questions raced through my mind as I faced him. "Why did you come here?"

"I wished to speak to you," he said plainly. "And this seemed the easiest way to find you without alerting one of the messengers of time. A fight with either of them would be unnecessary."

Alfonse came to stand at my side, whispering to me. "I'll stay here as long as you need me." My heart warmed at his words.

"If you want to talk to me, Alfonse is staying with me."

"That's fine," he said without hesitation. "I simply wished to avoid an unneeded fight."

I eased a little, though my heart was still racing. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

He spoke carefully. "I have a duty to my people; I cannot allow our magic to fall into the wrong hands. But it wouldn't be.. prudent for me to do this by myself. Since you are the guardian of the Goddess Crystal, you seemed like the wisest choice to help me."

I admit, I was staring a bit, but it wasn't every day that the former leader of the Dragonkins asked me to protect him. "You want my protection?"

"Call it what you like," he said, avoiding my gaze. "But I can't imagine it would be better for you if my magic- or were to get into someone else's hands." He had a point there.

Either way, we'd need to go after the magic thief, and it would only get worse if they stole Felix's magic too. And, truth be told, the idea of not knowing what he was up to was honestly.. worrying.

'But this choice doesn't just affect me.' I glanced over at Alfonse; I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was.

I looked back to him, raising my chin. "I'll need to speak to the others first."

He met my eyes steadily. "Then call them."

By the time we arrived at Willem's house, Hugo and Vain had joined the group. I could see them go tense as they saw Felix approaching.

"We got your magic note," Hugo told me, "but I still can't believe that Felix is actually here with you.." From Vain's look, I could tell that he was feeling the same.

"I don't like this situation anymore than you do," Felix said coolly. "But it seems that we have a common goal now."

The others were quiet as Felix explained once more why he had come to me, although I could see disbelief in their eyes.

"Yeah, I'm not buying it," Vain said plainly, crossing his arms. "Just a few weeks ago, you were trying to destroy the world, and now you want to become our buddy? What would you want with a bunch of humans anyway?"

"From what I've seen of you in battle, I know that your group has some formidable warriors among you. If we could work together.."

"In other words, you want us as your bodyguards," Vain sneered. "I'm not sure I trust someone else with your powers, but I sure as heck don't trust you with them. For all we know, whoever's doing this could handle your powers way better than you could."

"Vain-"

"I'm sorry, Liz, but I'm with him- whoever you are," Caesar spoke up first. "As long as he's alive, the future is still in danger. Who knows if we're only getting set up to be tricked? For all we know, we'll trust him and he'll go and try to get you to unseal the castle again!"

"Unsealing the castle was never my intention-"

The others started to speak up, but there was something that was still something that was bugging me. "Wait." My gaze fell to Hugo, and that's when it hit me. "Just answer me this: if nothing has truly changed.. then why did Hugo have his vision?" Hugo's eyes widened.

"That vision.."

I turned to Vain, choosing my words carefully. "I understand your hesitance. You've been fighting this battle for a long time. But you said it yourself, the future has changed, even though Felix is still here. Something has changed. And something.. something else is coming, and I have a feeling we're all going to need to work together to survive. You don't have to be best buddies, but isn't it worth it to listen?"

For what it's worth.." Willem had been quiet throughout all of our discussions, and only now did he speak up. "I believe that he has changed as well. When he saw that I was injured, I saw something of him that I thought I'd never seen again. Some flicker of who he used to be. I don't know if this will mean much coming from me, but.. I want to believe in him as well."

Silence. I could feel all eyes were on me, but I didn't break Vain's gaze. Finally, he looked away. "You are the one he asked for help, little bunny. In this case, I will follow what you do."

"As will I. It is my duty to protect you, Goddess, so I will follow you," Hugo told me gently, and my heart warmed. The others were quiet.

"I agree with them!" Alfonse said cheerily. "I'm sure that we can all work together."

"Thank you."

"Unsealing the castle was never my intention," Felix said quietly. "Not anymore, anyway. It would be useless to try anything now that you have access to the Goddess Crystal." I admit, that was a bit of a surprise.

“Then what is your plan?" Vain asked. Felix was quiet, avoiding their gaze.

"I.. I don't know. But I refuse to let things end here."

We talked over things for a bit longer, making plans. "You can stay in the village for the night," Hugo said at last. "We'll take turns staying with you."

"You can stay with me for tonight," I volunteered. I flushed a little at how quickly I said it, but the others agreed. Perhaps seeing him with me would ease their trust a little.

Hugo stopped me as he was walking out. "Call me if you need anything," he said quietly. I nodded. Hugo only lived a couple of houses down; it would be easy enough to get him.

As the others left, Felix went over to Willem. "How are your wounds?" he asked quietly.

Willem gently smiled. "I'm all healed up just fine," he said. "Except for.. well, you know."

“I'm going to get your magic back, I promise you," Felix said. "I don't know how just yet, but.. we'll find a way."

"Thank you. That means a lot."

That night, Felix stayed with me. And as much as I was trying to be cool and go about my business, it was hard to focus when I knew my former enemy was sitting in my living room.

'It's all right, it's all right. It's just.. the former leader of the Dragonkin staying in my house. Well, I have all of this energy,' I thought. 'Maybe baking something will help calm my nerves.' But as I started to get my stuff together..

"What are you doing?" I nearly jumped a foot in the air as I heard his voice; I looked to see Felix standing in the doorway of my kitchen.

“I thought I'd make some cookies,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“I..” He looked nervous, glancing away. “There was.. light in here.”

“Light?”

“I don't do well in the dark,” he said quietly. “It was one thing to deal with it during the games, when I was focused on getting Nightmare back. But in there..”

Oh. Of course. After everything he'd been through, of course he wouldn't like the dark. “Well, baking always helps calm my nerves,” I said, trying to be casual. “If you'd like, I could use some help.” I felt silly as soon as I said it. Why would he want anything to do with helping me bake?

But to my surprise, he said, “What are you making?”

I was taken aback. “You'd help me? I thought you wouldn't like cooking.”

“I have experience with it, but.. it's been a long time since I've tried,” he answered. That was.. a shock. It was hard to imagine someone like Felix enjoying food, let alone baking it. “Before the war, we worked alongside the humans to create delicious foods. The Baker family was known far and wide for it..”

“Baker family..” It took me a minute to realize what he meant. “Wait, is that-”

“My family name, yes,” he answered. Felix Baker. Such a small piece of information, but strange all the same. Strange that he would trust me with it.

I regathered my composure. Perhaps this could be good. Perhaps I could learn more about him. “Well, Felix Baker,” I said playfully, “I'm making cookies. Would you like to help me?”

As we worked, my mind was still abuzz with a thousand questions. And, well, since he was here.. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

As soon as I started to ask, I found myself at a loss for words. On one hand, it seemed rude to ask, but I had to know. "If we can help you save your magic, what are you planning to do?" He went silent, looking away again. "You said that you're not going to try unsealing the castle again, but.."

“I-I don't know," he said at last as he looked up at me.

That was a surprise. For someone who always seemed to have a plan, he had nothing? "What have you been doing up until now?"

"Trying to recover from my wounds," he said plainly. "First from the battle with Willem, then from the attack. I've just been.. wandering, trying to figure things out." I had expected a lot of plans from him, but.. I wasn't expecting him not to have a plan at all. "I don't know what I'm going to do from here, but..” He finally met my eyes. “Willem and I are the last of the Dragonkin. I refuse to roll over and let my people fade away."

I didn't know what to say, but I had a feeling I understood Felix a lot better.

"There, all done!" I couldn't help but smile as I pulled the cookies out of the oven. Felix eyed them apprehensively.

"I haven't tried baking in thousands of years. I'm not sure how well these are going to turn out."

"I'm sure they'll turn out just fine with your help!" I told him. His eyes widened as he took a bite.

"These are delicious!" And I couldn't help but giggle as I noticed something.

"Are you wagging your tail?" That was surprisingly cute!

His face went bright red. "Shut up!"

I couldn't help but laugh. We may not have had complete trust yet, but.. it felt like a start.

I couldn't help but wonder at this side he was showing me. He seemed so different from the man we had faced so many times.

But then again.. After so many tries, after so many hopeless futures, we had reversed that terrible future by swaying one Dragonkin leader to our side. Who knows what we could do if he was be our side too?

Klaus: Even with everything she said, I still don't know if I trust Felix..

Alfonse: Wow, those cookies sound delicious! I wish I could have gotten some!

Klaus: ...Is that what's really important here?

Alfonse: But don't you want Liz's cookies too? You're always talking about how you never get them.

Klaus: Alfonse-

Alfonse: The way everyone always fights over them reminds me of when we were little~ You and I would always fight over the last-

Klaus: Alfonse!

Alfonse: Whoops! Looks like I said too much! It's just so fun to tease you~

Klaus: *sigh* Next time, 'Party in the Night'.

Alfonse: Do you want to get some cookies now?

[lindsayslife]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid Rating: 4/5 Genre: Historical Fiction Length: 388 pages

Caution: spoilers

“The root of most of my problems is that I need to be secure enough in who I am to tell anyone who doesn’t like it to go fuck themselves.”

Synopsis

I finished this book a few nights ago and have since been enthralled with my latest read. But this book was very amusing so it definitely deserves a review! I read this for a facebook book club for June.

Monique is an amateur writer at Vivant. Her boss calls her into her office hesitating to explain that Evelyn Hugo - a movie star since the 1960s - agreed to do an article for Viviant only if Monique would interview her and write it. They were both shocked - why wouldn’t Evelyn prefer a more experience writer? Why would she choose Monique by name?

Monique went to her house and was greeted by Evelyn’s charming housekeeper named Grace. When Evelyn and Monique were going over the terms for the article, Evelyn stated she actually wanted Monique to write a biography for her - finally a tell all of Evelyn’s life. She allowed Monique to publish it and sell it after Evelyn passed. Monique was dumbfounded - how would she tell her company that Evelyn didn’t actually want to do an article with them? Would she lose her job? But this is an opportunity of a lifetime, to be able to write a book that the whole world would be interested in.

The book follows Monique’s & Evelyn’s sessions where Evelyn reveals her whole life from the very beginning. From growing up in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC to becoming an actress in Hollywood to all 7 of her husbands and lovers. After their meetings you see Monique change for the better - standing up to her boss, ex-husband, and to Evelyn to get what she wants. At the end, you find out why exactly Evelyn chose Monique as a writer (aside from enjoying her articles).

Thoughts

This book was like the dirtiest gossip you want to here but you don’t want to be apart of - so reading it as a book was the perfect medium to get in-the-know. Evelyn’s life was absolutely insane.

Discussion Questions:

1. Each husband’s section opens with an illustrative moniker (for example, "Poor Ernie Diaz," "Goddamn Don Adler," "Agreeable Robert Jamison"). Discuss the meaning and significance of some of these descriptions. How do they set the tone for the section that follows? Did you read these characterizations as coming from Evelyn, Monique, an omniscient narrator, or someone else?

I read them coming from Evelyn but thinking back it probably came from Monique when she wrote Evelyn’s biography. They give the reader a “taste” on what the men are like & how they treated Evelyn.

2. Of the seven husbands, who was your favorite, and why? Who surprised you the most?

My favorite was Harry BY FAR - even though he was gay I loved that they were best friends and they got to also live with their real significant others during that time. I’m glad Evelyn had a child with a man she truly loves rather than one of the other guys.

3. Monique notes that hearing Evelyn Hugo’s life story has inspired her to carry herself differently than she would have before. In what ways does Monique grow over the course of the novel? Discuss whether Evelyn also changes by the end of her time with Monique, and if so, what spurs this evolution.

4. On page 147, Monique says, "I have to 'Evelyn Hugo' Evelyn Hugo." What does it mean to "Evelyn Hugo"? Can you think of a time when you might be tempted to "Evelyn Hugo"?

To “Evelyn Hugo” is to stand up for yourself and get what you want. Monique had to do this multiple times throughout the book during interviewing Evelyn Hugo - with her boss, ex-husband, Evelyn. I would say I tried to do this when I didn’t get into my top choice podiatry school - so I contacted them, sent over more information, and tried to persuade them to give me an interview. It didn’t work out but it took a lot of guts to even try.

5. Did you trust Evelyn to be a reliable narrator as you were reading? Why, or why not? Did your opinion on this change at all by the conclusion, and if so, why?

Throughout the book I trusted Evelyn to be a reliable narrator while I read. She came clean in the end so I think it proves it even more that she is reliable. I don’t understand what her motive would be to even want to write a biography if she wasn’t going to be truthful.

6. What role do the news, tabloid, and blog articles interspersed throughout the book serve in the narrative? What, if anything, do we learn about Evelyn’s relationship to the outside world from them?

I think it drove home the point that tabloids are just what writers think the audience want to hear - and it may be wayyy far from the truth. Throughout the book you could also see Evelyn manipulating the tabloids to what she wanted them to say. I think you can see that the outside world is another game for Evelyn to play.

7. At several points in the novel, such as pages 82–83 and 175–82, Evelyn tells her story through the second person, "you." How does this kind of narration affect the reading experience? Why do you think she chooses these memories to recount in this way?

I think these points are low points in Evelyn’s life where she wants to disassociate herself from it. I couldn’t find the first chunk but page 175-82 was when she had a “quickie” wedding with Mick and slept with him. She did this in order to manipulate the media away from her and Celia. She really didn’t want to sleep with someone other than Celia and she knew she would hurt Celia in this process so by talking in second person she tries to disassociate from the situation.

8. How do you think Evelyn’s understanding and awareness of sexuality were shaped by her relationship with Billy—the boy who works at the five-and-dime store? How does her sensibility evolve from this initial encounter? As she grows older, to what extent is Evelyn’s attitude toward sex is influenced by those around her?

Billy would fondle Evelyn’s developing boobs for fun and this ingrained in Evelyn that her worth is only her body - and that’s all men will ever “love” her for. Her sensibility evolved from this by not letting men do this to her for free - she used her body to get what she wanted throughout her career. Eventually, Evelyn just got exhausted and all she wanted to do is have sex with the one person it actually meant something with. She stopped caring about what sex could get her, and started caring about things like love.

9. On page 54, Evelyn uses the saying "all’s well that ends well" as part of her explanation for not regretting her actions. Do you think Evelyn truly believes this? Using examples from later in her life, discuss why or why not. How do you think this idea relates to the similar but more negatively associated phrase "the ends justify the means"?

Honestly, I don’t think Evelyn ever regretted her actions, even in the end. The only instance I could think of her regretting was the Mick incident but even then, it got reporters off her back with Celia (but it meant she lost Celia for a few years). In the end I think she only regretted the time spent away from Celia. But to go off of “all’s well that ends well” - the last 10 years of Celia’s life that they got to spend in Spain was wonderful, especially with Evelyn’s daughter maturing into a bright young woman as well.

10. Evelyn offers some firm words of wisdom throughout her recounting of her life, such as "Be wary of men with something to prove" (p. 77), "Never let anyone make you feel ordinary" (p. 208), and "It is OK to grovel for something you really want" (p.192). What is your favorite piece of advice from Evelyn? Were there any assertions you strongly disagreed with?

My favorite piece of advice was what I quoted in the beginning of this review - “The root of most of my problems is that I need to be secure enough in who I am to tell anyone who doesn’t like it to go fuck themselves.” I am a firm believer that if people don’t like me, I don’t care. I am who I am and I’m not here to try to please anyone by changing myself.

11. Several times, Evelyn mentions having cosmetic surgery. What was your reaction to this? How do these decisions jibe with the value system and ethical code that she seems to live by? Why do you think Evelyn continues to dye her hair at the end of her life?

Cosmetic surgery is a huge part of many peoples lives - especially famous people. I don’t think it really has a direct correlation with her value system. She may continue to dye her hair because she never knows when someone may snap a picture of her or maybe she just feels better about herself by looking good.

12. Review the scenes on pages 199 and 348, in which Evelyn relays memories of conversing in Spanish after years without speaking it. Discuss the role language plays in her understanding of who she is. In what ways does her relationship to her Cuban identity parallel her experiences with her sexuality, and in what ways does it differ?

When Evelyn got famous, she was essentially stripped from her Cuban heritage. It parallels because in the beginning of her career she didn’t really care about either of them - her Cuban identity or her sexuality. But in the end, when her sexual relationship with Celia was blossoming and they were living in Spain, she was using Spanish to help her whole family that moved there. It differs because she didn’t use her Cuban identity to help her get what she wanted - she hid it from the world, while she used her sexuality for her advantage.

13. If you could meet and interview one celebrity at the end of their life, who would it be? What would you ask them?

I would interview Seung Ri from Big Bang and ask him about the recent scandals - why he would do that, if all they were saying was true, etc.

[diveronarpg]

Congratulations, DOM! You’ve been accepted for the role of HELENUS. Admin Jen: You have no idea how overjoyed we were to finally receive an application for Helenus, and Dom, you completely blew our expectations out of the water! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about what drew you towards Hugo; your passion really shone through and to see that it wasn’t directed solely towards him but towards so many other characters, it left me so thrilled to see all that your portrayal has to offer -- and it surely didn’t disappoint. The interview was fantastic, but I have to admit, it was the plots that had me sold on your Hugo. They were so intricate and well thought-out and I was living for the duality you explored in Hugo’s relationships with Roman and Halcyon. Trust me when I say that I cannot wait to see it all come to life on the dash! Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

Out of Character

Alias |  Dom

Age | 20

Preferred Pronouns | she/her/hers babey!

Activity Level | I mean, I go to college, and I may need a 20 min allowance to freak out over responses, but I’m consistent and enthusiastic.

Timezone | EST

In Character

Character | Helenus / Hugo Kim

What drew you to this character? | Honestly it was the relationship between him and Halcyon, who I know is Hippolyta from a Midsummer’s Night Dream, but struck me - within the context of Troilus and Cressida - reminded me the Greek’s relationship with Helen. This kind of fascination by people towards another person they confuse with the sublime is kind of incredible, and always misunderstanding, and generally tragic. Like Pierre, with Natasha, in War & Peace. I think Anne Carson does the most justice towards characters like Helen by acknowledging them as a characters that cannot be acknowledged - she is too large for those around her, and too large for the text itself (and its author) to understand her completely. For all her brightness, she is shrouded by accidental but inevitable misreading. I’d like to work with that misreading, and I think it would be fun to play with being confused like that.

That being said, I’m also interested in his relationship with Roman Montague. Who if Hippolyta is a sun to Helenus, then Romeo must be a warm spot at home. There exists a potential for a type of softness between them that I think could catalyze a really interesting stronghold for both of them.

I’ve read Troilus and Cressida of course, and all I remember of Helenus was his dual occupation as a priest in a soldier’s camp. He’s barely mentioned or active in the text - He has one line I think, against Troilus in their debate about returning Helen or not, and one off-hand description of him by Panderus in a line-up of men Cressida asks about. He’s not a soldier, and is not expected to fight, nor does Paris (?) arm him I think. The text is never kind to him. It reminds us time and time again that Helenus is not a soldier, and because of that, a coward. I don’t think anyone was supposed to be sympathetic to him until I read your adaptation of him. The line Troilus snipes at him with: “You are but dreams and slumbers, Brother Priest” takes on a much more poignant meaning with Diverona’s new addition of gentleness. It’s not so much an insult, but a reason why Helenus probably won’t last long in this war, the kind person he is now he’ll wake up from someday, him not much more than dream.

Also don’t get me started on debt, and brothers, and goodliness in the face of extreme acts of violence by your own hands.

Excited to work with Easton - Edmund is one of my favorite characters from Shakespeare’s list, and seems like another fun personality to work with. Damned brothers. Maybe Easton’s got some points.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

Where do you see this character developing, and what kind of actions would you have them take to get there? 3 future plot ideas would be preferable.

IT WILL COME BACK:

Even since his brother’s death, he’s been spinning the story. It wasn’t him who pulled the trigger, but the thug. His father, the only other person alive who knows, has retreated into himself. And the Capulets’ are more than ready to help their pastor keep his secret - assigning Albert’s death to a nameless criminal, and keeping the theft of Hugo’s store an uncomplicated,  and more importantly, anonymous tragedy. This way Hugo accumulates pathos and stays out of jail. But one day, his father drinking, a slip of the tongue from one of the higher ups - and all of Verona knows the pastor they’ve trusted is guilty of fratricide. It suddenly comes to light that Hugo is Cain, not Abel, and if Hugo can’t even be his brother’s keeper, how can he possibly hope to keep the faith of his congregation?

HACYLON AND ON AND ON:

Hugo admits to himself he has feelings for Roman, the Montague. But with every favor Hacylon asks of him, it cleaves him further and further from his fair-hearted love. If Halcyon is a woman written large, something centric, around which people can’t help but rotate around like she’s the North Star, then though what she asks feels immoral, she’s what must redeem Hugo. She’s what reminds him he belongs in the shadows, not lit by the sweet torch of Roman’s look. Hugo had stumbled what must be miracles, Roman and Halcyon independently,  and finds himself too impure in the aftermath. However, when Halcyon asks him to do something that will bring Hugo to the brink of a life already full of wickedness, will he stay his hand?

GO WITH GOD:

Hugo has become comfortable in his dual role as pastor and soldier. Days he can openly denounce what he does in secret at night. Sure, a few people know his secret, like his brothers in arms, and most of the upper forces of the Capulets, but he is working off his debt and soon he’ll be free to try a true repentance. All he’s doing now he can tip the scales back from again, with hard work and prayer for the rest of his life not spent in the Capulet’s debt. He is working off his brother’s labor, and what’s more biblical than that? Then one day the Capulets strongly urge Hugo to start writing into his sermons a Capulet bent, turning his services from neutral arguments for peace to a more propagandistic tint. If preaching and helping others is all that Hugo has left, then what will he offer to not sacrifice that respite?

Some other plot ideas include him getting addicted to Measure by Measure fighting, him overhearing some plot at To Tame a Soup, and Hugo maybe starting his own web of debts, starting with Lawrence.

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | Of course. If it makes sense.  

In Depth

Please choose between the interview or the para sample (or both, if you like!)

In-Character Interview: The following questions must be answered in-character, and in para form (quotations, actions written out if applicable, etc). There is no minimum or maximum limit for your response - simply answer as you would if you were playing the character.

What is your favorite place in Verona? |

If this weren’t a Capulet interview, if this weren’t the first of many an annual interview gauging his psychological state as a soldier, Hugo would have grinned, leaned in close, and joked ‘Measure by Measure.’ He’d only be half-joking of course, and the uncertainty of whether he was telling the truth or not would add the perfect amount of charming deviance to make his conversational partner - probably from his congregation - chuckle nervously and then louder. They’d hit his arm with the same coquettish flavor, and say something about youth pastors being too agreeable nowadays, and they remember when priests were people to be scared of. Not him. God turns the other cheek. And so do the guys getting knocked out in the ring. Haha, joking.

No, but this wasn’t a question from a parishioner, and was an official Capulet interview, so Hugo unfolded his hands with a nervous, you-got-me shrug. “To Tame A Soup. Well - maybe that comes as a surprise. I could’ve said the church.”

He could’ve said the restaurant. A few years ago he would’ve. He loved the wall the lights splattered onto the floor in little bushels of pale, creamy yellow like somewhere to fall asleep in. They’d let cats come in and sleep in the sun pockets, to the shock of some customers. Splattered like his mother onto the floor. He’d scrubbed out the blood, not his father, not the Capulets. He’d seen the white turn pink when the light hit in the morning.

“But what can I say? I love my church as well. I’m as predictable as I seem. I like helping people. Maybe To Tame A Soup was the wrong thing to say. I know it’s in Montague territory, but it’s a good place set up to help the good people of Verona in need. That’s something above territory. It’s esteemed.”

What does your typical day look like?

Hugo nods his head back and forth, like the day’s hypotheticals are rolling out in front of him so he can best read it off. “Well first I have to open the restaurant, which means counting the safe to figure out how much money is in the restaurant before first shifts, filling the register, making first deposit…prep work for breakfast and lunch, all the heavy-duty cleaning, setting up tables — Dad’s still the owner, of course, but after the robbery it’s just easier for me to open, as long as I’m home from school anyways.

“Unless it’s Sunday, which means I’m at church by six to prepare for a seven thirty service and I’ll be there the whole day.

“Otherwise the restaurant keeps me pretty busy… Inventory, cash control, food cost analysis, etc. And in the minutes I can squirrel away to myself, I’m still usually drafting sermons for the next week.” Hugo wonders if his interviewer can hear the envy drifting into his voice. His life sounds boring, normal. He finds himself salivating over what he’s invented for himself, wants to continue listing things that don’t involve blood, or debts, debts paid off by blood. None of what he’s saying is untrue, it’s just separate, distinct. Good, honest work. He takes a breath back to composure.

“I donate whatever time I can but —” Hugo bites his lip. “My day isn’t really my own. I’m mostly where I’m sent.” Nights he doesn’t sleep well. He paces. He cracks his knuckles in a distracted, painful way. Goes out and wanders the streets, watches people silhouette their windows. Catalogues the city into dangers.

“Which is a blessing in and of its own, I suppose. Routine is just another word for complacency. Or so I’ve been told. And in a grander sense, the day is a duty I’m happy to serve.”

What has been your biggest mistake thus far?

Oh religion and its capacities for accountability. Guilt. On a more realistic, fundamental level, maybe the mistake had been going away to seminary school. Straying his eye away from his brother. Letting one, two, three years go by with not a single word traded between them. The egotism, the pride of turning to God by turning his back on his family. If he wasn’t being punished, then…maybe it had been thinking any of them, even his family, could escape the conflict that had consumed even the best hidden corners of Verona like air. More literally, if he hadn’t fallen asleep that night, lulled into a demonstrably false sense of safety. He doesn’t blame Albert, victim of a system —

Hugo blinks out of it, shifting in his seat. He looks over his interviewer again. “Biggest mistake. Yes. Hm. I find myself failing on the pulpit. People are scared. And unforgiving. Without remorse, this city’s come to gorging on itself. I think I’ve slipped into preaching — I don’t mean to lecture you — but there’s no room for forgiveness when there’s no impetus to feel remorse for the enemy blood that’s been spilled. I’m not sure how to help Verona see itself as a city of brothers and sisters again. I feel —even worse, I see — the consequences of that failure every day.”

What has been the most difficult task asked of you?

Hugo catches himself, faltered and recovered in an instant. He should know better. The questions seem routine, and he knows he knows how to keep it together.

“I guess it would depend on what we define as something capable of asking. Who asked what of me? God? My brother? The gun, that had the trigger? My mother? Did she ask of me, in heaven? You of course know what happened. I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, I’m just trying to understand the question.” Halcyon?

Keep it general. Keep it a parable. Lessons of moral inequality are never unexpected from him, and seem to put people at ease.

“Verona asks me to walk a difficult path every day. And Verona asks we go nowhere for help. The city has built itself so that no one leaves the same way they came in. I don’t know if that’s the most difficult thing asked of me - or of you - but it’s the most prominent.”

What are your thoughts on the war between the Capulets and the Montagues?

A soft smile. Hugo thinks about Halcyon, and from her lips sweet as antifreeze, new marching orders. “Of course any endorsement of war would be immoral. Blood waters tragedy. That’s not saying anything new.” It hits him that a smile might not have been appropriate.

“But I don’t think it’s traitorous to admit either. I’m loyal to the Capulets, that’s never been in question. Leaders who discourage complicated emotion towards violence in their name should employ animals, loyal only to violence, not men. The Capulets have given me the gift of loyalty by accepting me into their ranks ..no matter the reason.. and that alone cements my allegiance, even if I don’t always agree with…all this.”

“War, more than anything, is a set of volatile conditions.” Hugo focuses on his hands, moving them in a haphazard pattern, an airplane crash. “I’m realistic enough, neutral enough — and I guess some might mistake that for ambivalence, but — I’m realistic enough to question who of us will survive it, especially those of us small enough our stepping on will go unnoticed. Little ants in the atomic blast. I’m trying to say, the flock, especially, is who I’m worried about, not so much the lions laying down with them. Even me.” He smiles again.  

[breakfastathummingbird]

Hey I was just wondering if there's anywhere you would recommend visiting in New York apart from the usual tourist attractions, places that are a bit different?

This is actually something i wanted to write a blog post on but I wasn’t sure if people would be interested in. Is it something you think you would read if I put it up?#1 One hack is to go to rooftop bars instead of dishing out 30-40 dollars for One World Observatory or Top Of The Rock. Now two years ago when I was here for a summer there wasn’t the same options for rooftops as there are now - but since this May the two most incredible ones have opened up. You have to go to Public Hotels and The William Vale, Honestly, the views from them both are as breathtaking as any you’ll pay for (plus you can enjoy a drink at the same time - the music on Public rooftop really adds to the experience too) #2 Download the apps Pulsd + Eventbrite. Also I frequently check Guest of a Guests list of events (some are ticketed and invite only, others are free to attend) and there’s DoNYC and Time Out NYC of course. Refining your search on Facebook for events in your area is a good idea too. I do it at least once a week. Oh, and I frequently check fomofeed and artworldnyc on instagram - they show the unconventionally tourist side to New York for sure. #3 Working out in the city is a great way to see it - and the good news is you can be thrifty about it too. I’ve gone to free running clubs in the Samsung flagship store and the A DAY pop up on Elizabeth St. There’s also free kayacking on the Hudson river on Sundays (don’t be like me and go hungover)#4 SMORGASBURG. It’s actually a bit touristy but a MUST. There are a few different locations but I urge you to go to the one in Williamsburg. Not to excite you too much but they have spaghetti doughnuts. If you’re into fares and markets I strongly recommend Hester St Fare in the Lower East Side. It doesn’t get the recognotion it deserves really! If you’re there then 100% check out Manic Jane - the best vintage stall of them all. #5 If you’re a movie buff like me then you’re in luck. One of my favourite spots in New York is in Bushwick - It’s called Syndicated. They screen old school movies from the likes of Baz Luhrman and Wes Anderson for $4 and any new release is $7 (which is half of what you would pay in any theater in Manhattan) It’s all in a really precious art deco setting and waitresses come in and out if you want to order wine (or even classic cheese royal) during the screening. Nitehawk just off Bedford Ave is a similar concept - they also do brunches on a Saturday morning where you can eat bowls of cereal and watch screenings of your all time favourite childhood films. If you download the apps I suggested too you’ll see the listings of free outdoor movies that run up until September. Hotels such as Hotel Hugo and Arlo SoHo do weekly screenings on their rooftops too. 

#5 JAZZ.  The Jazz scene here is something I was very set on exploring. So far I’ve only gone places with no cover (because hello, who is in their early 20s in this city with disposable income for tables at jazz bars) The Roxy hotel have free jazz 1-2 nights a week, it’s very intimate and feels like something from an Ernest Hemmingway book. Arthurs Tavern in the West Village is an old classic - the staff are so rude and the place is teeny but you have to go if you want to see real jazz. 

#6 I struggle a little bit with the amount of parties there are on the weekend. Like it seems a though people my age literally do nothing else sometimes! But i have to give them credit - there is no better place to go out than here. All day parties you can choose from are the likes of Mr Sundays, MoMa PS1 on a Saturday and Tiki Disco on Sundays. These are all in Brooklyn and Queens. The party scene in Manhattan isn’t as fun to be honest - unless you like wearing heels and sitting around a table of girls on their phones drinking vodka sodas. #6 Don’t be ripped off on food while you’re here and experience New York through eating where the locals eat. My personal favorites (and also dirt cheap places) are: Cafe Habana - For the famous corn and Cuban sandwich. This is my favourite spot in all of the city - especially the Brooklyn location. Lovely Day - It’s Asian food in a cosy English setting, thats’s the only way I know how to describe it. Please get the coconut curry with udon noodles if you’re there!Pause Cafe - Out of everywhere in NYC i’ve come back here the most for the generous portions of acai bowls. Prince St Pizza + Joes - You can’t come to this city and not eat a fantastic slice of ‘zaaaa. San Marzano - Skip the craziness of Little Italy and venture into the East Village for fresh-as-you-can-get pasta. And the best news is a pitcher of sangria is 15 bucks and all pasta dishes come in at 9. It’s always packed there but worth the half hour wait, trust me. Vanessas Dumplings - 1.50 pan fried dumplings. Yes, you heard me. We lived off this famous spot when we first came over. There are a few locations but go to the one just off Broome St if you’re going. Wo Hop on Mulberry St is also somewhere to hit up if you’re interested in experiencing authentic chinese food at a cheap price (i may or may not have two t-shirts from there, just sayin’) Dudleys + Rubys - Okay I’m done with the food after this but you have to give these Australian restaurants a go. I can’t express how happy Dudleys makes me. They are all rounders - amazing for brunch, dinner, drinks, coffee - EVERYTHING. 

Okay I could keep writing these suggestions but I have to stop somewhere! I hope this helped and you enjoy your trip here xx

[leonthecardboardunicorn]

Land of Agreement, Chapter 6

Okay, I accidentally forgot where I was and posted chapter 5 again as chapter 6. This is the actual chapter 6.

As usual, spoilers for Hugo’s route! I’ll be posting a few chapters today, so keep an eye out for those.

“Liz, what's going on?”

How was I going to tell them about it? 'Oh, don't worry about it, it's just that Hugo's brother is trying to kill me.' Yeah, that was going to go over real well.

“I.. I'm not sure that I can explain right now,” I said at last.

“Don't worry,” Alfonse said gently. “Whatever happened, we trust you.” Tears sprang to my eyes as the others nodded. “But for right now, you need to get out of here; the Ministry is already on their way, looking for you.”

Everything was happening so fast. One minute, Hugo was finally by my side again, and now we were being told to run. The Ministry was after us. We'd have to flee the Academy, and who would come after us? Klaus at least, maybe more- maybe our friends-

“Don't worry,” Hugo said, “I'll watch over her; that is my priority.” I squeezed his hand. My heart was still racing, my mind going a million miles a minute, but as long as he was at my side, I felt a bit more at ease.

Suddenly, I heard a knocking at the door, and Alfonse immediately got to his feet, whispering to us, “I'll take care of this.”

“We need to get out of here now,” Hugo whispered to me. Okay, we needed to focus on a way out. With all luck, it would just be Klaus nearby, and we could sneak out the back.

“This way.” Hugo led me to the other room. “If the front door is blocked, the window might be the only way out.” How ironic.

“Let's hope we don't get stuck,” I muttered without thinking.

“What?” I just shook my head.

“It's a long story.”

“Whatever. Here, we need to get you out.” The window was a little high, so Hugo helped boost me up.

“Oh, hey, Klaus!” I heard Alfonse's laughter from the doorway. “Funny seeing you here! What brings you out here to Liz Village?”

“I am here on official Ministry business,” Klaus said curtly.

“If you're looking for Liz, she's not here. We came by to surprise her, since she's been feeling down the past couple days, but she wasn't here. Funny, huh?”

“I'm sure you know, Alfonse,” Klaus's voice was terse, “that the Ministry is on the lookout for Liz.” Was it just me- or did his voice sound a little pained? Klaus had been like a mentor to me for so long. And I doubt Vain had told him why he was supposed to be searching for me. “If you have any idea where she might be, it is imperative that you let us know-”

“I know, I know, Klaus! But, say, uh, do you know why they're looking for Liz?”

“..Get out of my way, Alfonse, I don't have time for this.”

I made it through the window. And Hugo was scooping up Mischa to pass her to me, but she stepped away. “Don't worry, I'll take care of him!” Before I could grab her, she darted off.

“-Mischa?” I heard Klaus say. “What are you doing here?”

“Just popping by,” Mischa said lightly. “Did something happen?” I heard Klaus sputtering, but I turned my attention back to Hugo, helping him through the window. And we ran like the wind, leaving everything behind.

Once we had made it a decent way into the forest, we stopped. There didn't seem to be anybody else around. I stopped, leaning against a tree for support.

“Okay,” Hugo said, “let's take stock here for a minute. We've got two major problems to deal with here: first, the Ministry is after us-”

“Thanatos,” I blurted out. “It's Thanatos after us.”

“Okay, Thanatos is after us, and Vain is trying to kill you-” Oh, god, he didn't know.

There were a million different ways that I could've told him the truth about Thanatos. And I'm sure that I could have done it more gently. But did I think of any of those in the moment? Nope.

“-Actually, I think that still only counts as one.”

Hugo's eyes went wide, and then he buried his face in his hands. “I wish I was surprised..” I patted him on the shoulder, unsure of what else to say.

But I couldn't avoid the question. “So where do we go now?” We couldn't go back to the Academy, as much as I wanted to. But running would only get us so far.

“I.. I don't know,” he admitted.

“Our first priority should be fixing your magic,” I said. If we could do that, all of our problems would be solved. Vain would have no more reason to come after me and would therefore rescind the arrest. Everything would be so much easier- “There must be some way to go where we can research this-”

“I've tried searching almost all the places that I could think of, but I couldn't find anything. Our situation is rather.. unique.” That was putting it mildly. “There is one place that I haven't searched, but.. it would be really dangerous for the both of us.”

A chill ran down my spine. “Where is it?”

He sighed. “It is possible that my magic has to do with me being a- a Dragonkin,” I didn't miss how his words caught at that part, “so the best place to search would be right at the source.”

That night, my mind was still abuzz as I tried to lay down to sleep. A lot of things could go wrong once we made it there, and what were the odds that we'd actually be able to find anything?

“Can't sleep?” Hugo's arms wrapped around my waist, and I nestled into his chest.

“I can't stop worrying,” I told him honestly. “What if we make it to the ruins, and things go wrong? What if we can't find any answers?”

“It'll be all right, Liz. As long as you are by my side, I feel like.. I have no reason to fear.” How strange.  We laid in silence for a while, and then he spoke up again. “Liz.. You mentioned something about a prophecy before?”

“Yeah. That was the first time that I saw you.” Back then, he had just been the mysterious masked figure; who would've known that he would become such a big part of my life? “The Goddess and her apostle and her..” The words caught in my throat. “Are you sure that you don't remember it?”

“I wish I could; it might make things easier.” You'd think. He was quiet for a minute. “But it does remind me of something.” I tilted my head, and he explained, “The past few years, Vain told me I have a tendency to go into these.. trances. Apparently, I freaked him out real bad the first time I fell in one. He said I would say these strange things that didn't make any sense. I never remembered any of it though, but I think he started writing them down eventually.”

And I remembered something he had said before. 'If things had been different, I might've been the one to give you the prophecy.' So he had known about the prophecy then; perhaps he had ingrained it into his brain. Did he know of his own role in it? Perhaps he had accepted it, knowing what he'd have to do in order to-

“You said that this prophecy is important. What did you remember from it?”

'Vain is going to kill me. Your brother is destined to kill me.'

“I think.. I think it has to do with you and Vain. With your battle. And- I think-” It would've been so easy not to tell him. It would've been so easy to say 'I don't remember'. But he deserved to know. “I think it foretold about Vain trying to kill me. I don't remember the end, but I'm afraid- I'm afraid that-”

Hugo held me close. “I don't remember the end of prophecy. But it doesn't matter; we'll make our own future.” How strange. Once upon a time, I had been the one to speak of hope, but now he was the one who held it. How very different things were now.

I fell asleep much easier after that.

As we were walking, I had a lot of time to think over everything that happened. To think about what had happened to my friends and what we would do. But, truth be told, my thoughts most often turned to Hugo and Vain.

I remembered Mischa talking about how Vain had raised Hugo, about how everything he did was to protect him. 'I don't think Vain fought back. Not against Hugo,' she had said. And yet.. Hugo had fought him. Hugo had nearly killed him to protect me. I mean, I knew their relationship was complicated, but.. I didn't think that Hugo hated him.

“Liz? Is everything all right?” I bolted up as I heard Hugo's voice, and I gave him a sheepish smile. “You've been kind of quiet.”

“I was just lost in thought,” I said lamely. He tilted his head. Well, now was as good a time as any to ask. “Hey, Hugo, I was just wondering.. After everything, do you hate Vain?” Okay, I probably could have asked that a bit better.

His gaze went distant for a minute. “I'm not sure,” he said at last. “He tried to kill you, Liz. That's not something that I can just easily forgive. But..” I went quiet, listening to his words. Of course I had my own feelings on the matter, but this wasn't about me. “He and Mischa are the only family that I know. I only knew of my parents from the stories Vain told me. He's always rude to other people, but he took care of me. He nearly gave up everything to take care of me while working on his missions.

“Even before he became my boss, he had a way of.. deciding things for me,” he said nervously. “He always believed that he knew best. He'd decide that something could only be done one way, and I'd have no choice but to go along. But I always believed that he knew best, so I went along with him.

“And he believed that he could do it again. He decided for me that the way to save me was to hurt you. But things are different now. Because of you.. I can start to see a future that I get to choose. And I'm not going to let him take that from me.” He met my eyes with resolve. “I care about him, but I'm not going to let him hurt you.”

And at last, we came to the place, and my heart skipped a beat at the sight. The building was worn, the letters on the outside long since worn away, but it was still a magnificent building.

“It's said that this place is the sum of all knowledge of the Dragonkin,” Hugo said. “Only the blood of a Dragonkin can get you inside.” I could sense his hesitation. Even though it had been a few weeks since Vain had told him about their heritage, I knew it must've been hard to accept.

“Hugo-” I started to say, but he shook his head.

“It's all right.” He bit his thumb, pressing it to the doors. And the doors slid open. “Well, I guess he was telling the truth there..” Taking his hand, we stepped inside the Library of the Dragonkin.

“You find anything yet?”

I shook my head. It felt like we had been searching for hours and hours on any information about Hugo's condition, but there was no information at all.

“Hmm- Ah!” As I was searching for another book, my foot caught on something-

“I got you, it's all right.” Luckily, Hugo caught me in his arms, gently setting me down. What surprise, I tripped over a book. I'm sure we had scattered them all over the place, but this one didn't look familiar. I picked it up, and we sat together. The pages were old and worn, and it opened to one part, as though it had been revisited a thousand times.

'When the queen grew sick,' I read, 'we feared that she and her child would be lost, leaving the eldest prince all alone before he even came of age. But the prince stayed at her side through the night, donating his own magic to her. It was said that he nearly ran out a few times, but he was determined to save her.

'The day the prince came of age, the queen gave birth to her second son and passed from this world.'

“This.. this sounds like what happened with my mother,” Hugo said. My heart ached as I remembered Vain and Mischa's words. The prince and Vain must've been about the same age too. “I feel like this is the one.”

I kept reading. “However, as the younger prince grew, it became clear that his brother had the same weakness as his mother. He required constant donations of magic from his older brother, now the king. However, the king refused to give up on him-”

“I wondered when you would find that. I left that book out just for you.”

My blood turned to ice as I heard the all too familiar voice; I felt Hugo go tense at my side. A million thoughts ran through my mind. 'I'm not afraid of you.' 'What are you doing here?' 'Let us go-'

“How did you know that we'd come here?” I asked as I turned to face him.

“I had heard of a Dragonkin child desperate to save his brother,” Felix said, “just as I will save mine.”