#and i just start writing and shove background info into something that i can later admit isn't *really* necessary

[daughterofhecata]

Writer's question bc I'm nosy (and in need of guidance): When writing drabbles or other formats limited to a certain word count, what is your method in reaching the exact word count? Do you already have a good grasp on how much/extensively you can write to hit the wc? What's your process in editing, is there a certain type of word or lines that gets kicked out first? i.e. adverbs, etc...) is your approach to a story/prompt/idea different if you don't need to hit a certain wc?

Awww, I feel honoured that I'm apparently some kind of authority here <3

Unfortunately, I genuinely do just have a pretty good grasp on how many words a scene needs, or rather, how much story I can stuff into how many words. Usually, especially with shorter things (like, everything under 1k) I can get within like 10-20 words of the goal on first try.

If I'm just a tad over the limit (idk, up to 10% or something), it's usually the "filler words" that have to go (my beloved "gerade"s and "endlich"s and "quasi"s), or I try changing the sentence structure in a certain way (which is why I'm not sure I'd be able to write drabbles as easily in english - "without hesitation" and "without hesitating" is the same amount of words, "ohne zu zögern" vs "ohne Zögern" saves you a word!). (And if it's *below* the limit the same obviously applies in the other direction as well.)

If I'm past the limit by more (like 10%-40%, after that I consider upping the limit instead), I start cutting background information/backstory/description that isn't absolutely vital to the story/vibe/impact/etc.

...bold of you to assume I have any approach to fic that isn't just starting to write. (Joking, but only mostly xD) I do consciously start with less "extra" tho - don't bother with an intro, just start in the middle of the scene. And if needed I'll also cut off in the middle of the scene (there's a surprising amount of stories that can just. Stop. Let the imagination do the rest.), or throw a quick scene break into it. (Like, that one Cotta/Victor/Skinny ficlet from January '23. That's just four almost disjointed scenes, the first & last just a few lines, but it still *works*, apparently.)

Hope this helps?

[flightfoot]

Perspective From Another Timeline

Thanks to my betas @steelblaidd and Izzybusy!

I ADORE @buggachat new Bakery Enemies AU. This idea just kept on swirling through my head, I had to write it! This is set between parts 13 and 14, so after Adrien meets Alya and Nino but before Marinette starts sympathizing with him. AO3

---------

“You okay?”

Alya shook her head, trying to clear it. “I’ll be fine. I’ve weathered worse than that - we both have.”

Nino grinned at her. “True that.”

Alya smiled at him fondly, remembering Heroes Day. It was a bittersweet memory, with her having been turned against Nino and them both being akumatized. 

But they had fought to protect each other as best they could. She’d seen Prime Queen’s footage, how Carapace had struggled to get her to fight against Dark Cupid’s magic, how he’d only given into despair after she’d given into akumatization. 

“What did that blast do to us?” Nino wondered. “Everyone else the akuma blasted just disappeared. Why’re we still here?”

Alya’s brow furrowed. “I dunno… hold on, let me check to see whether any new info on the akuma’s been uploaded.”

Pulling out her phone, she tapped on the Akuma News Alert app.

An error message popped up, telling her that she had no internet connection.

Puzzled, Alya checked her phone’s other settings. 

No wifi - no wifi even recognized, much less connectable - no cell service, no connection to the outside world at all.

She glanced over at Nino. “Hey, you got any signal?”

Taking out his own phone, he quickly checked his connection. He shook his head. “Not a single bar.”

Frowning, Alya looked around. “Maybe all the cell towers were taken out?”

Everything looked intact though, no sign of any destruction at all.

Something else caught Alya’s eye. “Hey Nino, what time should it be?”

Nino blinked. “Well I mean lunch just started so it should be a little past noon-”

He glanced around, noticing the long shadows and the pinkish-orange of the evening sky.

“-which it clearly is not anymore,” he concluded.

Great. “Guess Ladybug and Chat Noir must’ve taken a while to defeat the akuma,” she said, putting her phone away. “Hopefully my parents aren’t too worried. They like me to text them just after an akuma attack, but right now…?” she gestured to her pocket.

“My folks aren’t as worried,” Nino said. “But they still expect me back home before the sun goes down. They’ll be getting nervous soon.”

Alya let out a small sigh. “So much for playing Super Penguino together.”

“Hmmm…” Nino’s eyes gleamed. “You know… it’s not night just yet. And I’m sure my parents would understand if I was a few minutes late because I grabbed a bite to eat.”

Grabbed a bite to eat? What was Nino hinting at…?

Alya looked around at their location more closely.

Wait… that blast seemed to have carried them to that one park, the one near-

Alya grinned. “I think my parents will forgive me for not calling in if I bring them fresh-baked treats from the best bakery in Paris.”

---

*ring ring*

The scent of freshly baked bread wafted through the store. 

Instantly Alya felt her shoulders loosen up, releasing tension she didn’t even know she’d had. There was just something so warm and comforting about the bakery.

Of course, a lot of that was due to the people running it. Good luck finding more friendly, caring people than Marinette’s parents. Sabine often checked up on anyone who seemed to be struggling or upset (and ready to protect them if they were - Alya had seen the video of the time a TV crew decided to invade Marinette’s privacy), and Tom was basically a giant teddy bear in human form.

But neither of them were manning the counter today.

Instead a young woman stared back at them.

A very familiar-looking young woman. 

“Marinette?” Alya asked cautiously.

The woman stared at her for a minute. “Alya?” she finally asked. “What happened to you?” She paled. “Did a new supervillain attack? Is that why you and Nino are younger?”

Huh. Weirdly scared reaction from Marinette. They’d all gotten used to supervillains by now. She’d expect an older Marinette to take them in stride even more than the current Marinette.

Hm… an older Marinette, a different time of day, and Marinette not seeming to know about the latest akuma attack? 

“Marinette… what year is it?” 

Marinette blinked for a moment. Her eyes widened.

Seemed Marinette understood what she was getting at.

She told Alya the date.

Her hunch was right. “We’re in the future,” Alya breathed.

A wicked grin slowly spread over her face. 

Five years was a long time. A lot of things could have happened. A lot of information could’ve come to light.

Like Hawkmoth’s identity.

Or more information on the Miraculous.

But most importantly right now-

She leaned in close to Marinette, making sure to keep her voice down, just in case someone else was around in the back. “So did you ever get together with a certain blond-haired, green-eyed model?”

“Uh… what?” Marinette asked, looking puzzled.

Alya snapped her fingers. “Adrien. Did you and Adrien finally get together? Ooooh, if you did you’ve GOTTA tell me how the confession went! Or, no, wait, don’t tell me, I want to get the deets at the time. Just let me know how long I’ve got to wait, girl!”

Marinette just stared at her, slack-jawed. “Adrien… like ADRIEN AGRESTE?!” she said, her volume rising with every word.

Alya’s eyebrows flew up. “Um… yes…?”

She’d thought that Marinette would be glowing about finally getting together with her crush, or dejected about still not being able to spit out what she wanted to say to him, downcast over him rejecting her, or maybe even infuriated because he mistreated her and they subsequently broke up.

(The last one was VERY unlikely though. After the Felix debacle, she’d learned to have a bit more faith in Adrien’s good nature.)

Shock at the concept of dating him? Not something she’d anticipated.

Footsteps echoed from behind Marinette.

So one of Marinette’s parents must’ve been in the back-

Adrien popped his head around the corner.

Seemed both he AND Marinette had aged well. 

Not that Adrien looked all that different. Taller, definitely, maybe with slightly messier hair and… were those earrings? They looked good on him.

“Hey dude!” Nino waved at his best friend. “What’s up?”

“Uh…” Adrien said, scratching the back of his neck.

“WOW those outfits really take the years off, huh?” Marinette said loudly, shoving them out the door. “Make you look smaller than usual. Well we better go talk about plans later okaybye-”

She promptly slammed the door behind them, physically pushing them away from the bakery.

After Marinette had dragged them a good distance away, Alya finally got over her shock, turning around and glaring at her. “What was that about?!” she asked Marinette indignantly, hands on her hips. “You know me, I wasn’t going to spill anything to him. That’s why I was talking so quietly! Why’d you have to do that?!”

Nino frowned, seeming more concerned than annoyed. “Adrien looked really hurt by that. Not cool.”

“There’s nothing to spill!” Marinette protested, gesticulating wildly. “I only met him for the first time two days ago!”

*record scratch*

Two-

Two DAYS ago?!

Ok, hold up.

“Adrien joined our collège class the day after I did! He sits in front of you in class! What’re you TALKING about?!”

“Uh… no…?” Marinette tilted her head to the side, befuddled. “I think I would remember that, even if it was a few years back.” 

Alya let out a bark of laughter. “Yeah, no kidding. He would be uh, difficult for you to forget. Heck, even if your memory was erased, you’ve got so much stuff revolving around him, I couldn’t see that lasting long.”

Marinette blushed. “Why do you think I have a crush on him?! He’s HAWKMOTH’S SON!”

“WHAT?!” Alya and Nino yelled in unison.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated Hawkmoth a couple years ago,” Marinette explained, pulling out her phone.

A moment later she held it up, showing a blog post from the Ladyblog.

Oooh, that’s a nice graphical design. I’ll have to look into updating my site, Alya thought.

Turning her attention to the picture, she squinted. “Hey, can you enlarge the photo?” She asked.

Marinette complied, enlarging it and turning her phone sideways, letting it fill the entire screen. 

Gabriel Agreste being led away in handcuffs by the police, with Ladybug and Chat Noir in the background. Ladybug looked satisfied, with maybe a twinge of melancholy, but Chat Noir…

He stared vacantly ahead, seemingly not focused on anyone or anything, a smile on his face - but the most forced one she’d ever seen.

“What’s wrong with Chat Noir?” 

Marinette frowned, looking troubled. “I don’t know. He seemed really, really upset when Hawkmoth was defeated. It was a tough battle, bad enough that neither of them have returned since, but that doesn’t explain why-”

She trailed off, lost in thought. 

A moment later she looked up, meeting Alya’s eyes.

Immediately she waved her hands around, trying to ward off… something. “I- I mean, that’s what I read on the Ladyblog and what I could piece together from video footage, it’s not like I was there, NOPE. I was huddled in my room the entire time. Not like I have any insight into what Chat Noir was acting like during the battle, not beyond what any other civilian would know! That would be ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!” she let out a few forced guffaws.

Alya’s eyebrows flew up.

O...Kay…?

Maybe Marinette had been following Ladybug and Chat Noir during the final battle and hadn’t wanted anyone to know? She’d wondered whether Marinette might have a thing for Chat Noir, but her crush on Adrien dwarfed any feelings she might have had for him. Plus it’s not like Marinette would actually know Chat Noir, unlike Adrien.

Thinking about Adrien…

“He must’ve been devastated,” she murmured. Marinette looked at her questioningly. “Adrien, I mean,” Alya clarified. “Having your father turn out to be a terrorist? I can’t even imagine.”

Marinette buried her face in her hands. “Not you TOO,” she said, her voice muffled.

Nino slowly started edging his way behind Marinette.

“What’s your problem with Adrien?” Alya asked. “Did he do something?”

Marinette glanced away. “Not… exactly… I just… I’m afraid that it might all be an act. That he might’ve been helping Hawkmoth secretly, and… and even if he wasn’t before, that he might just be biding his time, waiting until he figures out who Ladybug and Chat Noir and then BAM!” she slammed her fist down on her other hand. “He takes them out, steals all the Miraculous, frees his father and rules Paris FOREVER!”

Alya reached out towards Marinette tentatively. She collapsed into Alya’s arms. 

Hugging her tightly, she sang a soft nonsense song, rubbing small circles in Marinette’s back. 

She’d done this a few other times since she’d met Marinette, though she’d never thought she’d do it underneath these circumstances.

Whatever these circumstances actually were.

Did everyone have amnesia or…?

“Do you have any big memory gaps?” Alya asked once Marinette’s breathing had calmed down. “Especially from five years ago?” 

Marinette shook her head. 

She’d shelve that theory for now then. More likely it was…

“An alternate timeline, huh?” Alya said.

Marinette looked up at her questioningly.

“That’s what I think this is,” Alya explained. “I WAS thinking that maybe there’d been some sort of mass amnesia, but if you don’t have any memory gaps - and trust me girl, with how involved you were with Adrien, there WOULD be memory gaps - that seems unlikely. I’m betting this is some sort of alternate universe, one where Adrien never got to go to school.”

“I still don’t get why you think there’s something between me and Adrien!” Marinette said. “I mean sure, he’s pretty, but did I really fall for him just for that?” 

Alya shook her head. “Actually, you hated him at first. Chloe’d been bragging about how he was her friend, and with that on top of you catching him trying to remove the gum Chloe’d planted on your seat and mistaking it for him PLANTING the gum… well… both of us just assumed he was a spoiled rich bully, just like Chloe. Luckily that turned out not to be the case.”

“How’d that misunderstanding get cleared up?” Marinette asked. “And how did your Marinette jump from that to crushing on him?”

Alya grinned. Marinette had ranted about this moment to her SO. MANY. TIMES.

“School let out later that day. It was raining and Marinette had forgotten her umbrella, so she hung back a moment, long enough for Adrien to approach her. At first she looked away from him, not wanting to acknowledge his greeting. But then he told you - told her I mean - that he hadn’t done it, promised that he’d just been trying to take it off with such sincerity that she had no choice but to believe it. He opened up to her, even though she’d been shunning him just moments ago. And finally he gave her his umbrella, just because he could. Because it was the kind thing to do. She’s been a goner ever since.”

The Marinette in her arms looked away. “I can see why she might have developed a crush on him. But I still dunno whether I trust him.”

“I don’t know whether I have anything that could convince you on that,” Alya admitted, “especially since this is probably a different timeline, and for all I know he could be evil here. Just make sure that you’re judging him on his own merits, okay? Not who he’s associated with. Not his fault he has so many crappy people in his life.”

“I’ll… take it under consideration,” Marinette said reluctantly. 

Marinette looked from side to side. “Where’d Nino go?”

“Oh, he snuck back into the bakery several minutes ago.”

“WHAT?!”

---

Nino opened the door to the bakery, letting out a small sigh of relief. He really wanted to check in on his best friend, and judging by Marinette’s behavior, she wasn’t exactly keen on him or Alya chatting with Adrien.

Thinking back on what he’d just heard, he frowned. 

He wished he could say that he’d never have suspected that Gabriel was Hawkmoth.

That he didn’t think Adrien’s old man could ever be capable of such evil.

But he knew better.

The guy threatened to withdraw Adrien from school and isolate him from everyone else at the drop of a hat, paid little attention to his son when he was at home, and was a very negative influence on his life in general. He might have been grieving, but… so was Adrien. He needed the only parent he had left.

And instead Gabriel had chosen to respond by becoming a supervillain and terrorizing Paris, endangering his own son in the process.

He really wished he’d gotten to hit Hawkmoth with his turtle shield more. At least he got to relish the smack he got in.

“You’re back!” 

Nino looked towards the voice.

Adrien walked closer to him, a tentative grin on his face. “I didn’t think you’d return so soon!”

“I had to come back to talk to my best friend,” Nino said.

“Best friend?” Adrien asked, blank-faced.

Oh, right. According to Marinette, Adrien hadn’t joined their class. She hadn’t even met Adrien until recently. 

Had some sort of memory-wiping akuma attacked? Wouldn’t have been the first time. 

“Do you know who I am?” Nino asked, pointing at himself.

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh… well I know you’re friends with the Ladyblogger and Marinette, and… sorry, that’s it.”

He looked really apologetic, like a dog who’d ripped up a bunch of toilet paper and acted guilty about it once caught.

Hm. If it had been a memory-erasing akuma, maybe he could jog Adrien’s memory…?

And even if it wasn’t, he wanted to let Adrien know that someplace, somewhere, people cared about him. If Marinette’s reaction to him was any indication, he’d need that reassurance. Being looked at with suspicion, having people run from you just because of who your dad was, thinking that you might’ve been involved in his crimes… he couldn’t imagine.

“You joined our class the day after Hawkmoth first attacked,” Nino told him, pulling out his phone.

Adrien shook his head, looking confused. “Uh… no? I wanted to, I REALLY wanted to go to school, but Father-”

He cut himself off, looking away.

“Marinette said the same thing,” Nino told him. “That you hadn’t enrolled in our class, that she’d only met you recently. I don't know what that’s about, whether everyone’s memories were wiped, or an akuma messed with the past, or what.”

Come on, come on, where was it- ah!

He clicked on a photo, one taken a few months ago, holding his phone up so his friend could get a better look.

Adrien squinted for a moment. His eyes widened. “That’s-!”

Nino nodded. “Our class photo. The official one, anyway.” He chuckled. “I liked our unofficial ones better.” Swiping to the side, he showed the new ones the class had taken at the park. 

Adrien’s jaw dropped more with every new photo. He let out an involuntary bark of laughter at the one of himself, Nino, Kim, and Juleka posing. “I- I always wanted to mess around like that at photoshoots,” Adrien said. His voice trembled slightly. “But I wouldn’t be able to get away with it. And that’s mostly fun when you can share it with friends, at least share the picture, and I- I couldn’t. Chloe wouldn’t have appreciated it, and L-”

He cut himself off, shaking his head.

“Luka?” Nino asked. 

He didn’t know why Adrien would know Luka and not anybody else, but he seemed the most likely option.

“Uh…” Adrien scratched the back of his neck, looking away.

Hm, he’d have to see if he had- ah!

“You played in Kitty Section too, with Luka, Rose, Ivan, and Juleka.” Nino explained, clicking on the video. 

Adrien’s hands shook as Nino handed him the phone, watching the mini-concert.

“I- I was allowed to- I got to-” Adrien’s voice quavered. 

“Not at first.” Nino grimaced, remembering how bummed Adrien had sounded when he called him. “Your old man said that Agrestes were soloists, and that we were all bad influences.”

“HE was the bad influence,” Adrien said. A current of anger, of venom ran through his voice that Nino had never heard before. 

“Well I already knew that, even before finding out he was Hawkmoth,” Nino said, making a face. “Dude needed to chill out.”

Adrien snorted. “If he had any ‘chill’ he wouldn’t have decided that becoming a supervillain was the best way to heal my mother.”

Oh.

So THAT was why Gabriel had done it.

He’d just thought it was standard ‘I’m an asshole and want to rule the world while being a jackass to everyone in my life’ behavior.

(He still wasn’t going to rule out that being a factor.)

Nino put a hand on Adrien’s shoulder sympathetically. “At least he’s gone now and you’re free, right?”

“Right,” Adrien said. He didn’t meet Nino’s eyes.

“Not you TOO,” Marinette had said, burying her face in her hands.

As if she found it exasperating that Alya sympathized with Adrien. As if she had expected differently. 

Those worries she’d voiced as Nino had been tiptoeing away, about Adrien helping Hawkmoth, about him lying in wait, biding his time… Marinette probably wasn’t the only one to have that concern. And with Adrien’s face being as well-known as it was...

“You AREN’T free, are you?” Nino asked, eyes wide.

Adrien sighed. “I was as surprised as everyone else when I found out who Hawkmoth was. That someone who’s caused that much harm, that much trauma to this city, lived in my own house.” He clenched his fists, digging into his jean’s fabric. “I could barely believe it… no… I didn’t WANT to believe it.”

He took a deep breath, steadying himself. “I- I only remember snippets from right after his arrest. The police chief talking to me. Riding back to the station. It’s all a blur. Everything felt like I was processing it underwater. It was all so blurry and muffled. Even- even then, though, I could feel everyone’s accusing stares.” “I understand why, don’t get me wrong,” he cut in hurriedly. “Who wouldn’t be suspicious of the son of the terrorist who’s been making everyone’s life miserable for the past four years?” Adrien almost panted with exertion, his eyes wild. “And- and it was happening in my own house! Underneath my nose! I should have KNOWN! I could’ve stopped this!” 

Reaching out, Nino pulled his friend into a hug. 

Adrien stiffened for a moment, before melting into his embrace.

“It’s his fault, not yours,” Nino murmured. “Remember that, dude. He was the adult. He was your parent. Your ONLY remaining parent. I’ve met the guy. And I’ve heard you talk about what he’s like. If you had investigated more?” Nino shuddered, thinking about the disproportionate punishments the bastard had enacted. “And knowing he was HAWKMOTH on top of that? I’m kinda glad you didn’t. Yeah, maybe you could’ve ended things sooner. Or maybe he would’ve hurt you more before you had the chance. I’m just glad you survived.”

“I-” Adrien’s throat sounded tight. “I’m- I’m glad I survived too.”

They stood there for a moment, Nino feeling Adrien’s breath go in-and-out, his heartbeat racing, until it gradually started to slow.

*ring ring*

Adrien and Nino broke up their hug just as Marinette burst through the door, Alya on her heels. She skidded to a halt in front of Adrien - but not quite in time, sending her careening towards the floor.

She never made contact.

“Woah!” Adrien shouted, catching her in his arms.

Nino detected a hint of pink to Marinette’s cheeks before she abruptly sprang to her feet.

“So, uh,” Marinette said awkwardly. “I’m guessing Nino talked to you about some stuff. I mean, of course he talked to you about stuff, because that’s what talking is about. What- what I mean is, what were you two talking about?”

“I wanted to show him how much we care about him,” Nino told her. “Especially since with this… amnesia?”

“I think it’s an alternate timeline,” Alya said. 

“Especially since in this timeline,” Nino continued, “it really doesn’t seem like he had anyone.”

“I had a couple other friends,” Adrien told him quietly, giving a melancholic smile. “But I lost contact with them right after Hawkmoth’s defeat.”

Noticing Nino’s frown, he hastily added, “they didn’t abandon me or anything! They were online friends. One moved somewhere without internet reception, and the other... we never knew each other’s names. But we talked all the time. We chatted, laughed, defeated villains together…”

“In the video games we played, of course!” he added after a moment. He chuckled fondly. “We played as a team. Together, we were unstoppable, no matter what our opponent threw at us.”

Adrien swallowed. “But in the aftermath of Hawkmoth’s defeat, with all the turmoil, with everything that happened… I lost my means of contacting her. I- I don’t know whether I’ll ever get to see her again.”

“We’d promised to meet up after Hawkmoth’s defeat,” Adrien said. His voice cracked. “That- that once it was safer in Paris, we’d finally tell our names.”

His eyes dropped to the ground. “Instead, we lost each other. Maybe for good.”

“I know what that’s like,” Marinette said. She sounded strangely distant. “I had a friend like that too. I cared about him. A lot. Maybe… maybe even as more than a friend.” She said the last part haltingly, as if she’d only just admitted it to herself. “He- he wanted to know who I was. For me to know who he was. But- but I couldn’t do that. Not in Hawkmoth’s Paris. I already cared for him so much it ached. If I was closer to him than that- if I’d accepted his rose- I’m- I’m afraid Hawkmoth might’ve used the strength of those feelings against me. That I could’ve gotten akumatized, or he might’ve, and if we knew who each other was, knew WHERE the other one was… I just… I couldn’t accept that we might be sent to hurt each other.”

“We talked while the final battle was raging,” she continued. “He seemed really upset, more angry than I’ve ever seen him before, but… also kind of sad. I wanted to know what was wrong, but there wasn’t really time to press him. And after that battle he just… disappeared. I knew there was going to be some sort of disruption, but- but I’d thought we’d have more time to talk beforehand, that we’d be able to exchange new contact information. We were cut off before we had the chance.”

“I- I think of him every day,” she said quietly. “Wondering how he’s doing. He was always so positive, no matter what life threw at us. I hope that wherever he is, whatever he’s doing, he hasn’t lost that positivity, that optimism, the ability to see the best in the world and in others.”

“I’m sure he’d be happy to know you cared for him so much,” Adrien said, giving her a warm smile.

Marinette blinked, giving herself a small shake. She turned to Alya. “I dunno whether you’ll remember any of this after the Ladybug in your time restores anything, but on the off-chance you do, is there anything you need to know?”

“Oh!” Alya pulled up some footage. “You told me who Hawkmoth was, but what about Mayura?”

“Mayura?” 

“Who?”

Alya snapped her fingers. “You know, the Peacock Miraculous wielder, the one summoning the sentimonsters! Did she not exist in this universe?”

She pulled up part of the fight against Mayura, the sentimonster Ladybug, and Hawkmoth.

The video ended, she took another glance at Marinette and Adrien.

Marinette seemed to be in shock, staring straight ahead.

Adrien frowned, thinking. “I’d wondered for a long time how Father managed to hide his supervillain activities from Nathalie, considering she was around him most of the time. I thought maybe she was just really good at never asking questions.”

He grimaced. “Looking at that? I’m betting she didn’t ask questions because she already knew the answers.”

“You think Mayura’s Nathalie?” Alya questioned.

He nodded. “Unless something’s different in your universe. My father doesn’t have a lot of associates, and the way he acted around Mayura there, how he was willing to pass up a chance to fight Ladybug for her Miraculous in exchange for catching her… the only people I can think of who he’d do that for are my mother and Nathalie, and mom…” he trailed off.

“I- I didn’t even think about that,” Marinette said guiltily. “I remember reading something about Gabriel having a secretary, but I didn’t think about her much beyond that.”

“Maybe you could ask this universe’s Alya to post something on the Ladyblog, telling Ladybug and Chat Noir she has a lead on who Mayura is?” Alya said. “I mean, I know they haven’t shown up in ages, but maybe that’s just because they haven’t had reason to.”

Marinette winced. “I… really don’t think that’s it… plus Ladybug and Chat Noir never said that someone was helping Hawkmoth. Mayura never appeared, at least in public. I don’t know what we can do about this right now, especially without proof. Maybe if Ladybug and Chat Noir appeared, but…”

She sounded doubtful. Alya was beginning to think that the final battle was even worse than Marinette had alluded to.

She hesitated a moment, before turning to Adrien. “I- I think I owe you an apology. I thought you might’ve been helping Hawkmoth, but… well… I was just judging you by who your dad was. You’ve been nothing but sweet and kind.”

Adrien smiled at her, though it was slightly strained. “It’s fine. I’m used to it. A lot of people in this city have suffered at Hawkmoth’s hands. I don’t blame them for being scared, or angry at any reminders of him.”

“That doesn’t make it RIGHT,” Marinette said heatedly.

Nino nodded. “Dude just because something’s done to you it doesn’t mean it’s justified, or that it shouldn’t be made better. Like with your old man forbidding parties. I didn’t let that stop me from bribing your bodyguard into letting me and the other guys throw a party at your place for you!”

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “It kinda escalated though. I think half the guys at Paris were partying in your room by the end!”

Alya gave Nino a sideways look. “And ONLY the guys because they ditched us girls while we were planting trees with a lame excuse. Seriously if you’d said you wanted to throw a party for Adrien while his dad was away, you could’ve just told us!”

Nino winced. “Yeah, my bad. At least we got to have fun there for a while before the akuma attack.”

“Akuma attack?” Adrien asked, eyes wide. “But I thought you said Father was gone!”

“He was- OOOOOOOH.”

“Yeeaaaah I don’t think he was actually gone,” Alya said. “You threw a ‘secret’ party in Hawkmoth’s house, WHILE he was still at home.”

Adrien gaped at Nino. “How’re you not DEAD?!”

Nino chuckled. “Lucky I guess?”

*twinkle twinkle*

A familiar red mass flew towards Alya and Nino.

Adrien’s eyes widened. 

“Behind the portrait!” he blurted out, just as the two of them were enveloped by the ladybugs, spiriting them off to whence they came.

It was silent for a moment.

“Do you think they heard?” Adrien asked Marinette.

“I hope so,” she said, looking off in the direction the ladybugs flew.

She turned to him. “I was planning on setting up some hang out time with Alya and Nino later this week. If you’re not busy… would you like to join?”

His smile told her everything she needed to know.

[mashep23]

Traffic Jam Session

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Female!Reader

Word Count: +1.5K

Warnings: Nat being ridiculously confident and flirtatious? I think that deserves a warning. This is just pure self-indulgent fluff.

Summary: Stuck in a traffic jam, another commuter requests that you turn your music up

Inspired by this meet-cute prompt:

We are caught in an extreme traffic jam and have been sitting next to each other, parked, for the last five minutes. Your radio is playing my absolute favorite song so I ask you to turn it up. We spend the rest of the slow traffic aggressively singing along to the music at each other.

Prompt list found here

A/N: I tweaked the prompt just a little, hope it's still enjoyable. This was so much fun to write!

Thank you to @river-soul for her incredible beta skills and endless patience 😭❤️ and @whisperlullaby for workshopping with me 💗

Disclaimer: gif not mine

It's a decently warm day, sunny and clear, and the azure blue sky is dotted sparsely with clouds. A breeze blows through the car windows, playing with the feathers on your dreamcatcher hanging from the rearview mirror while you're stuck in traffic. You had been creeping along for the better part of 20 minutes, but you've been at a standstill now for almost five.

Typically one to drive home in silence to decompress, today the stillness and lack of road noise makes you want to turn on some music instead. Since nothing playing on the local stations feels right, you sync your car Bluetooth with your phone and scroll through your music streaming apps. A playlist you made simply entitled "Happy" seems to fit your mood and the gorgeous weather so you press Shuffle All and settle back in your seat.

The soothing, light-hearted Put Your Records On filters through the speakers and you can't help the smile that curves your lips as you close your eyes. Propping your arm on the window, head on your hand, you bask in the sun's warmth. You periodically crack open an eye to check on the car in front of you but there's no change. Everyone on the road has parked and resigned themselves to the long wait.

Your playlist contains a wide variety of genres, cherry-picked songs that unfailingly lift your mood. They're radio hits, usually well-known songs, and easy to sing along with. You happily bop your way through your playlist, getting a little more energetic, singing along to each song.

Walking on Sunshine just finishes and the next song is cueing when you hear a sweet voice ask lowly, "Do you mind turning it up a little?" You grin and twist the volume knob so I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) plays louder before looking to the eavesdropper that's enjoying your tunes.

Holy shit. How did you not notice the car next to you? There is no way they were there the whole time. They're all beautiful. Two men, two women - blondie is driving, two brunettes are in the back seat, and a redhead is in the passenger seat. She was the one that spoke and she grins gratefully, leaning closer, head tilted out the window. You turn it up a little more as she starts singing along.

You grin widely and start singing with her. Her companions in the car laugh and join in good naturedly, cheering as the two of you belt the call-and-answer part of the song.

When the song ends, you're both breathlessly laughing, smiles wide. You turn your stereo volume down even as the next song starts to play and stretch out for a high five. She gives your hand a satisfying slap as she laughs joyfully.

"That was so fun! Thank you so much, I love that song."

"I do too! You're a great partner! And the back-ups were awesome!" You playfully finger-gun point at the driver and backseat passengers. They cheerfully laugh and thank you. You don't remember the last time you smiled this hard.

"I'm glad you didn't mind - I could barely hear it. I had Steve try to get closer but that didn't really help much, so I just decided to ask you." She gives you a sheepish but pleased smile and you return it.

"Oh no I don't mind! I haven't had this much fun in ages!" You can't seem to stop smiling but maybe it's okay because she's smiling at you, too.

"I'm Nat," she says suddenly, and you don't hesitate to tell her your name. She repeats it quietly, still smiling softly at you.

There's a stretch of silence, you're both just looking at each other and one of her friends clear their throat, causing you both to blink. You think maybe you should be embarrassed but she doesn't appear fazed in the slightest.

"In the spirit of introductions, hello beautiful. I'm Sam." The male brunette sitting behind Nat says smoothly after his light cough. "This is Wanda, up there is Steve." He gestures to the woman beside him and to the driver, respectively.

Your gaze never leaves Nat. You can't tear your eyes from her even as Sam speaks, catching the quick tightness around the edges of her mouth before it relaxes again as you smile and respond to her rather than Sam.

"It's nice to meet you," you say sincerely to Nat. Her answering pleased expression as she returns the sentiment warms you. A pleasant tightness fills your chest as her lips quirk at something Sam mutters under his breath. The woman next to him, Wanda, laughs quietly.

"So, you know, we're gonna be here for a while. Let's see what else you got to listen to." Nat grins expectantly at you with a raised brow and you mirror her expression as you turn the knob.

You're pretty sure you've found your soulmate when her eyes spark in delight and she belts along effortlessly to Sweet Caroline, arms spreading dramatically as she almost nails the driver, Steve, in his face with the back of her hand. Sam and Wanda cackle as he shoves her arm away in mock affront and she sticks her tongue out at him.

You can't help but laugh at their antics, watching her perform, directing her friends' involvement ("bah, bah, bahh") before she turns to you ("so good, so good, so good!"). This is quickly becoming one of the best times you've ever had.

The song continues, both of you sharing the lead, absolutely ridiculous and uncaring of the scene you're making. If anyone in the surrounding cars felt disgruntled at the impromptu concert, you'd never know it. The girl in the car next to you has your undivided attention.

You're not sure how long it's been, how many songs you've played and sang along to, but after a while, traffic slowly creeps to life. Steve taps Nat on the arm during a lull between songs and you lower the volume as she turns to him. He gestures at the line of cars ahead, the ones directly in front still unmoving but in the distance you see brake lights releasing, vehicles rolling forward.

She turns back to you, chewing the inside of her lip as she looks at you thoughtfully. She seems to make a decision and reaches her hand out to you.

"Here, let me see your phone real quick." She makes a single gimme motion, fingers flicking closed then open as you hand the device over. Your lips spread into a wide smile at the triumphant look that crosses her face.

She beams at you before dropping her gaze to the phone, fingers moving quickly across the screen. You hear an unfamiliar notification tone and she pulls a phone from her lap, holding it up to show you.

"I text myself from your phone. Now we have each other's numbers. I wanna be able to call you later." She's unabashedly smug as she hands your phone back and you wonder if your face shows just how pleased you are.

You look down at the message thread she left open for you, the unsaved number displayed at the top.

"Traffic Jam Hottie 😍"

The single line of text and emoji sent from your phone to the number makes you bite your lip and shyly cover your smile with your fingertips. You look at her with raised eyebrows and she correctly interprets your unasked question and shrugs.

"That's your contact name. I'll probably never change it, not even after we get married."

It's sly and nonchalant, how she slips that in there, smooth as you please. Your jaw drops and her friends all seem to choke on air but her gaze, locked on you, is unwavering. The flirtatious expression on her face is simultaneously sincere and mischievous as she watches for your reaction.

Butterflies erupt in your stomach, your chest feels tight and pleasantly warm. Your smile stretches so wide your cheeks hurt as she winks and you're so giddy, you don't care how eager you look in this moment.

You quickly save her contact information and smirk, wiggling your phone at her.

"I'd hope not. I think having matching contact info is pretty cute and kinda romantic. A fun story for the wedding toasts." You grin cheekily.

Her expression shifts, full of mischief, a quirk of her eyebrow that makes your breath hitch and sets your heart racing as her friends whoop with glee at your banter. Her lips spread in a sly smile and you can't help but return it. You're positive you've never smiled this much in your life.

Too soon, the gridlock lets up and you both start moving with traffic. The cars in front of you begin to roll, the lane speeds varying enough to cause you to separate. She's still grinning at you as they get further ahead. You can faintly hear their teasing and you catch a glimpse of her profile, smiling and laughing, before she's no longer visible.

They take an exit as you continue on and you barely have a moment to mourn that they're out of view before your phone vibrates in your lap. Picking it up, you grin madly at the screen, the contact "Traffic Jam Hottie 😍" scrolling across the top.

Accepting the call, you hear it connect through you car speakers, her friends still audible in the background. Your heart stutters when she purrs her greeting.

"Hey hottie."

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

Tagging some of my amazing discord family: @buckyownsmylife @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog

[artobotsrollout]

Transformers: Harbingers

The Pirate Scream AU

Before I talk about it you guys are the best thank you for indulging me and my AU from this post xjdjd. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

@badlydrawntransformers @cosmic0de @warrioroffandoms @measlyfurball13 And a bonus thank you to those encouraging me in the tags as well ❤️

I plan to do art for it as well as accompanying written bits and maybe even an animatic but till then have some general info under the cut.

Also there is transformers: Prime spoilers below so open at your own risk.

TRANSFORMERS: HARBINGERS

So this AU comes from the same place many AUs heavily involving TfP Starscream come from: the unfulfilled potential in our boy Scream. Now deeper discussion of that is not gonna be in this post. It'd be a whole essay.

It also comes from just how salty I was that the Team's kindness never really benefitted them much and they kept getting slapped for it. And OP really wanted to win over a con and Starscream kept wanting a partner. ALSO ALSO Optimus was portrayed as keeping his emotions in check and then never really gets a message that it's okay to be emotional so... I'm doing that here.

And the Starscream Pirate AU was born...

Aka Transformers: Harbingers (maybe idk if it's catchy enough djjsw)

Why Harbingers? ''It's just a SHIP Starscream chills in for awhile in the show' ' I hear you say. WELL HANG ON!! I got two very good reasons!! .

First off: Starscream, with the help of some Cybertronians who he wins over one way or another (Ill get to that), help him essentially use the remains of the Harbinger to put together their own functional ship. It's smaller than the Nemesis and will take some pirate ship inspiration. While it is a hardy beast it's a bit jury rigged.

Second of all:

Imagine being a fictional character living in a ship with a name that basically means 'Foreshadowed bringer of change' and then going back to Megatron and his bullshit. I'm gonna grab this and run all the way with it. Highway to Hell just came on my Spotify so... That may be an omen.

---------

NOW LISTEN

I feel like Starscream and Optimus could really have had such an interesting dynamic but we never really got to see that in TfP and I feel cheated. Also both could have mutually benefitted a great deal.

So what do I do? I shove them together to be sorta begrudging Co-Captains. As a result there's a lot of shenanigans to be had!

How this happens OP has some run ins with cons and, through a way I'm still deciding, has the opportunity to extend a hand to Starscream. Starscream, being kindness starved, doesn't entirely know what to do about Optimus being nice to him one whole time with no sarcasm or ulterior motive and sorta starts trying to get his attention.

Starscream and his crew are a bit of their own team at this point. MEANING sort of new LOGOS!

I'm yoinking the crossed out Decepticon logo from the Dark Energon Starscream and Dark Energon Knockout toys cause I mean... It's right there and also kinda like a skull and crossbones. It fits too well guys.

Starscream essentially manages to win over the autobots enough so they can sorta make a mutually beneficial, if strained, alliance to aid their aligned goal: killing Megatron and revitalizing cyberton. This is aided by some slight changes to the plot of course. It's also a benefit, much to Ratchet's delight, since they finally get some cybertronian tech to work with.

And so they gotta work together to take Megatron out and there's much bonding moments esp later when the autobot base is destroyed. Starscream extends his hand to them and offers them a more permanent position onboard. (rubbing in how unfortunate their situation is and how this is such a big favour but he's paying Optimus back.)

And insert team dynamic stuff!! Like cons teaming up with Bots, Starscream and Optimus trying to stick with it leading their own teams but keep accidently backseat-leadering one another. I will write some other ex-con and bot dynamics cause there's a lot of chaos to be had.

Optimus doesn't open up to his crew for morale sake and masks his emotions well, and Starscream is... well Starscream is Starscream so he masks what he truly feels a lot and doesn't share a lot of personal stuff besides complaints with his team either. So there's a lot of tension.... That is until Starscream has had it at just how good a poker face Prime has.

Because he's absolutely paranoid got a harmless curiosity about Optimus's ulterior motives and wants potential dirty secrets he can use as blackmail to have power over the Prime, he essentially puts cybertronian booze (but kid friendly version of course fbejek) in Optimus's energon heavily expecting him to spill the beans when heavily drunk. What he doesn't expect is that Optimus is just... LIKE THAT to his core. He's smart but very sad and guilty. And maybe a bit weepy and exhausted cause this man has not shown an emotion for eons now. /s. Starscream doesn't know wtf to do but swayed by how earnest Optimus is he sorta softens up and does open up. Might have helped that he took a swig of the tainted energon to get on his level though. But it also helps that neither is the others subordinate so they don't need to maintain their image as badly with the Co-captain as they do their team.

The ex cons sorta accidently absorb some of the autobot's morals over time. The cons help the autobots have some fun. There's a lot of stuff learned both ways. Also the cons realize how cool humans can be and after a lot of argument and forced time spent with the kids, they want to protect earth too.

Starscream, helps Optimus open up a bit more and allow himself to be emotional. He also shows him how to be a little selfish. Optimus in turn helps him with self confidence and making friends. Both help each other with the shit Megatron put em both through and overall boost one another up. (This also does change the start of the war a bit but I'll get to that in another post.)

Miko tries to fight all of the cons at first but quickly changes her tune cause "BOOYAH PIRATE CONS!!"

Other bits about this AU:

Starscream will eventually get a slight design change. It'll be less scrappy and look more confident and put together. It'll be minor

Because they are on a flying ship but have less energon than the Nemesis, everyone gets equipped with mods for flight. There is a jetpack upgrade one can get or Knockout can straight up help change their alt mode surgically.

I'm working up a list of who gets what flight mod but... Ya'll should know that Wheeljack dares Knockout to make him into a flying car. Largely cause I just got the image of Wheeljack flying above vehicons and just turning into a car and dropping on them. That and driving up the side of the Nemesis and confusing the fuck out of Megatron. Out of all the characters you know that would be a Wheeljack thing.

Arcee and Knockout grieve together.

Knockout loves bugging the hell out of Ratchet. It's extra fun for him cause Ratchet often can't do shit about it since they both need the room and tools.

Knockout and Wheeljack become an insufferable duo with the nicknames they have for everyone.

Wheeljack won't leave Starscream alone and keeps coming up with worse and worse nicknames like he did with Ratchet.

Starscream and Ratchet become complaining buddies.

STARSCREAM'S SEEKER SQUAD REJOINS. Well some of them. Skywarp, Thundercracker and maybe other peeps.

Miko manages to befriend Skywarp and Bulkhead now has to watch both Miko AND Skywarp. Wheeljack refuses to help Bulkhead round them up.

Raf hits it off with Thundercracker.

Knockout: "FINALLY a team with fragging MANNERS!"

Instead of Beeftimus Prime from the forge, Optimus actually gets access to a third alt mode and.. Idk something else primely. So he actually gets wings.

Starscream and the other fliers are greatly amused because Optimus, as great as he is at his poker face most of the time, hasn't yet figured out how to not emote with the pair of wings he gets from the forge. Thundercracker is the one who eventually informs him while the rest of the crew are booing loudly in the background.

I actually do have designs of TFP Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Ironhide in the works.

Fowler and Starscream have insult battles. Oddly both grow a weird almost fondness for these verbal sparring sessions

They frequently raid the Nemesis

Miko keeps talking in a pirate voice. Smokescreen has joined her.

AND A LOT OF OTHER STUFF I'LL GET INTO WITH MORE DETAIL AND ART. I'll also talk more in depth about some of these things that isn't a ramble like this post is. xnwjskw.

Feel free to ask about anything you're curious about.

[atherix]

fldhksdhalkdfhga I TOLD YOU I WAS GONNA SCREAM IN THE MORNING HERE I AM IM SCREAMING AHHHHHHHHH

First of all the explanation non-explanation for how scar made his glyphs is SO cool the WORLDBUILDING my GOD also him giving Tubbo the bee????? and the reason tubbo is the bee???????? someone let him be a beekeeper plz and thx

ALSO GEM IS SO FREAKY BUT IN A POSITIVE WAY AND I LOVE HER. God forbid women do anything [~~they scry into their friends' futures am i right~~] BUT HER BEING THE ONE WHO BROUGHT THE ADOPTION PAPERS BY IS SO!!!

I LOVE HER THOUGH BC HERES THIS LIKE MYSTERIOUS ORACLEY WOMAN AND ALSO SHE FUMBLED HER STAFF!!!! GEM!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH 'Oh so you havent met him yet' GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM

So many ways this can be taken. So many - like i assume shes talking about Grian bc Grian forcing his hand into scars life sort of shapes everything BUT!!! SHE COULD ALSO BE TALKING ABOUT MUMBO BECAUSE DECIDING TO SHOVE MUMBO AWAY IS ALSO SOMETHING THAT SHAPES SCARS LIFE IM!!!! I AM SO FULL OF IDEAS

T H E B I R D G L Y P H - IS THE BIRD GLYPH GRIAN. IS GRIAN THE BIRD. I AM!!!!!! IS THE FUCKING GLYPH ON GRIANS HAND THE BIRD GLYPH I AM LOSING MY MIND I AM SO!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ESPECIALLY SINCE IVE GOTTEN A GLIMPSE AT SOME OTHER DOCUMENTS [Im quiet. I'm normal about it] I AM SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM ON MY KNEES AND I AM SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS!!!!!!

And oh my GOD Tubbo is so cute im sdaglkdhfkl i love this little break to get to see how cute tubbo is it is making me lose my MIND but i am ALSO LOSING MY MIND OVER THE BIRD THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM FINALLY ANSWERING HJKFSHJDSJKFS AAAAAA

Worldbuilding my beloved <3 Also fun magic stuff <3 HAHA if Tubbo wasn't so determined to run Scar's shop one day he would absolutely become a beekeeper <3 He might become one anyway :) I say as if I haven't shown you a certain spoiler :))

I WANTED HER TO BE ENERGETIC BUT CRYPTIC I AM HOPEFUL IT GOT ACROSS <3 There are exactly TWO people in this world who can take Scar for an absolute loop and both of their names start with G LMAO- I wonder just howwww muchhh influence Gem, an energetic and strong Sorcerer who breaks the laws of life itself, has had over the story at large.... And all from the background, too... :)

HAHA hm hm yes I wonder who she was talking about.... they both shaped the direction of Scar's life after all <3 How much does this mad Sorcerer know-

HM HM HM HM HMMMMMM I WONDER. I mean.... isn't it... suspicious.... that Scar had a glyph...... just READY...... even tho he didn't go to Mumbo's house expecting to give a glyph to anyone........ that he puts so much work and time into these glyphs, inking them SPECIFICALLY for the people he makes them for...... each one unique and carefully constructed from each other...... and he just has one READY hm hmm? :) HJKFSJLFSJK WHEN YOU KNOW THINGS ABOUT THE STORY THAT NO ONE ELSE DOES HJKJKDHJ

I am in love with littol Tubbo and dad Scar and other than important background info that becomes important later on this fic has absolutely been an excuse to write Dad!Scar fluff <3 Oh. Also an excuse to write out Scar singing the lullaby. I wonder what that missing line was, hm. :)

THE BIRD THING will HAUNT YOU NOW <3

[consulaaris]

SHEPHERDS OF HAVEN RECRUIT FORM - RHIANNON VASI

(template by @shepherds-of-haven !)

.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFO

name + nicknames: rhiannon vasi - rhia (by red, and later the other shepherds), sunshine/frosty/ice-queen (by chase)

titles: captain of the shepherds, the hero of haven, the dragonslayer

callsign: aethereal (possibly glacier)

gender: cis woman

sexuality: bisexual

pronouns: she/her

racial heritage: hunter

age + flower day: 28 years + 12 leph (winter)

height: 5’3” (160cm)

“a female mage with waist-length tousled raven hair and attractive stormy grey eyes. you're wearing your shepherds uniform and sun medallion. you have a streak of white in your hair as a result of your hunter heritage, and your cloak sports a golden eagle clasp.”

.

BACKGROUND INFO

weapon: daggers

magic specialization: elementalist (aetherai)

birthplace: maj

education: circle-trained

.

MISCELLANEOUS INFO

past jobs: freelance mercenary, bodyguard, library assistant, tavern waitress (that one lasted like, a solid day and a half before she blew up on a rude customer)

likes: fancy cloaks, books, khav, stargazing, sweets & baked goods, picnics, cats, snowy or rainy weather, quiet days, inside jokes, cuddling with her friends & loved ones

dislikes: people prying into her past, pickled vegetables, enclosed and/or crowded spaces, swimming, being Known™ in haven

strengths: magic (both brute force & controlled), knife-fighting, working with children, speed, cleverness, quick-thinking, introspectiveness, honesty

weaknesses: social situations, overly stubborn, past injuries (particularly on her hands) sometimes make it hard to fight physically, brute strength, holds grudges, emotionally repressed + PTSD, has a major guilt complex & will push people away/get herself into dangerous situations to “protect them” (doesn’t consider her own safety to be an important thing, essentially)

hobbies + special skills: wood carving, studying magic/history/astronomy, writing poetry, impressive gambling skills (she’s good at people reading and has a great poker face; she just struggles when she has to like. actually talk LOL)

major arcana: the hermit

dnd morality alignment: chaotic neutral/true neutral; leans towards the good side there, though

meyers-briggs personality type: intj-t

.

PERSONALITY

heart of gold / will of iron (it’s a 52-48 split- very close)

rebellious / loyal

independent / social

tactful / straightforward

bold / cautious

charming / stoic / intimidating

witty / sincere

resentful / forgiving

self-preserving / self-sacrificing (rhia claims she’s self-preserving, but she’s really... not)

book-smart / street-smart

one-god / atheist / old faith

bright mind / silver tongue / razor wits / nerves of steel

overall personality: although as a child/teen she was confident and playful, ten years of life alone and on the run have hardened rhia and caused her to retreat into her shell. she’s always been headstrong and stubborn, but now she tends to come across as rather prickly or icy to people she doesn’t know or trust. when you do get to know her though, it’s clear she’s more awkward than intentionally mean, although her personality can still come off as snarky or abrasive when she’s in uncomfortable situations or around unfamiliar faces. rhia can be a bit temperamental at times, but (though she’s convinced otherwise) she’s a good person with a kind heart who’s incredibly protective of those she cares about, no matter how much she may try to deny or bury it- she never asked for the powers to save the world, but she’ll be damned if she won’t do it... regardless of the cost to herself. she blames herself entirely for the loss of her village and is terrified of hurting the people she loves like that again, but joining the shepherds is the biggest catalyst for rhia trying her best to open up once more. though she’s always cared for them in her own way she’s now beginning to truly trust them, and with red around she’s slowly starting to show her softer side again, too.

.

RELATIONSHIPS

best friend(s): red antiqua, halek prince, riel syndran, briony stormbreaker, caine

preferred mission partner(s): red, halek, blade (they butt heads, but rhia trusts his work ethic lolol), and ayla or briony. generally a team that she trusts to get stuff done & won’t give her a heart attack (i.e. working with chase or trouble can be fun, but rhia is Stressed)

friendly rival(s): probably chase a little bit, just because they tend to snark at each other a lot. they’re good friends though! she and ayla also get a little competitive since they’re both elementalists, but it’s the type of rivalry that pushes them both to improve.

love interest(s): red antiqua (ex and current)

first kiss scenario: okay but the fact that i could 100% see that being their first kiss as teenagers + a possible first kiss once they get back together... good shit. (and i do have a WIP where rhia gets injured... 🤔)

enemies: ebert, the endarkened, the autarchy, moonsilk (not really she’s just big mad + halek is her bff ajsjjsjsj)

.

REFERENCE QUOTES

“she’s got a passion for learning, that one. miss vasi was the best assistant i’ve had in ages, and though i often found her reading on the job she always finished her work. very detail oriented, too, although i do wish she hadn’t left so suddenly. it always did feel like she was running from something.” (- librarian from an unnamed city in Blest)

“rhiannon’s vicious in a fight, i’ll give ‘er that much. she’s not exactly the most chatty o’ folks, but if yer looking for a good bodyguard you ain’t getting’ much better than ‘er.” (- fellow mercenary)

“i think she might hold the record for the shortest amount of time a waitress ever worked here. to be fair, i don’t really blame her for throwing a drink in that man’s face and threatening to shove her foot up his you-know-where when he made that comment, but business is business.” (- owner of an inn in an unnamed city in Blest)

“rhia was always at the top of our class in the circle; she was confident and funny, and even when she got in trouble it was clear the teachers loved her! she was always happy to help anyone with their work, too- or anything really. she was great fun, one of the good ones. i do wonder what happened in those years she was gone though, because seeing her again, it was like she was almost... sad. like a light all burnt out. i hope she’s alright; i’ve been a little worried, and i know red and neon have too. red especially, if you catch my drift.” (-panrachus )

[idreamofplaid]

The Gift

 Summary: It started with a gift, and the end result was something extraordinary.

Characters: Sam x Reader x Dean

Word Count: 2561

A/N: This was a request from @akhuna01 during a Christmas past. I had the greatest time writing it. This girl is greedy. She has so many orgasms it’s hard to keep count (but who wouldn’t with Sam and Dean in their bed?). I’m am completely jealous of her!

A/N 2: Happy Half Christmas! Day 4 All the Info Here

It was supposed to be a joke, but no one was laughing. Sam looked at the green knitted object he was holding. He lifted his eyes in your direction, eyebrows raised with a questioning expression. Dean was holding a similar gift you had made for him. His was a bright, merry holiday red. You noticed him swallow; his mouth fell slightly open, and he bit his lip. Sam's eyes caught Dean's briefly. Dean shoved his present back in the box and stood up quickly. He asked, "Anybody want eggnog?" 

 Sam and Dean disappeared in the direction of the kitchen leaving you alone to look at the boxes on the table and wonder what happened. Your knitting skills weren't the greatest, but you thought it would be funny. After all, it was something you were pretty sure neither one of them had ever had before. Had they? Handmade cock socks weren't something you would give everyone, naturally, but you had known Sam and Dean for a long time.  They helped you out with a little poltergeist problem a few years back; you'd kept in touch, and you considered both of them to be close friends. To be perfectly honest, you had thought of dating both of them. Problem was, you really couldn't make up your mind.  Add to that the fact that neither of them ever asked to help you break the tie, so nothing came of that idea. 

Your relationship with both of them had always been comfortable before, but now you were feeling pretty awkward and regretting your decision. Particularly since you had exaggerated the size of the socks to something most would consider to be extra large at the very least. You put your hands on one of the boxes briefly and shook your head  then got up to join the boys in the kitchen. The night was spent drinking eggnog, catching up by sharing stories, and pretending the present thing had never happened.

Later That Night

You were sitting at the desk in one of the bunker bedrooms brushing your hair preparing yourself for bed. You were no longer trying to figure out what had happened earlier; you were just relaxing, enjoying the holiday mood.  This year you actually felt like celebrating for the first time in a long time. Christmas music played in the background, and it put you in a dreamy mood.

You'd never had a perfect Christmas, never had anything close to the one that lived in your mind, the one with snow falling gently outside the window, a crackling fireplace, a tree sparkling with lights, and homemade cookies on the coffee table. What fantasy, Christmas or otherwise, would be complete without strong arms around you? You closed your eyes to picture it, and you could almost smell the cologne he was wearing.  The scent was woodsy with a touch of warm comforting musk. The man in your fantasy was tall and muscular; his voice was deep. He nibbled on your ear and whispered all the things he planned to do to you. They were wonderful, naughty, sexy, delightful things. 

You took a deep breath and slipped your hand down into your panties and moved your fingers slowly through your damp folds. You imagined the touch of much bigger fingers than yours, long fingers that were thick like Sam's. You parted your legs wider to get better access. Your fingers brushed over your aching clit; it had been too long since anyone else had done it for you, and your hand moved in ever quickening small circles. Your breathing became more rapid, eyes still closed. You were so involved in moving ever closer to your climax that you didn't even hear the door open. The deep voice from your dreams became a reality, and you heard Sam say "Am I interrupting something?" You quickly pulled your hand from your underwear; your eyes popped open, and you turned toward the sound of his voice. 

Your breath caught in your throat, and you could feel your walls clench around the emptiness. Sam was standing before you completely naked but for the green, knitted, very special Christmas gift you had given him over his erect penis.  You had made it so huge as a joke, but the fit was snug. He looked like something that had fallen from Mount Olympus; he was a god. You stood up stuttering,  "Sam, Sam I… ."  He walked toward you taking the ends of your hair in his hand and gazing intently at your lips. You had imagined him naked many times, and undressed him with your eyes almost as many. He hadn't noticed, or at least he pretended he didn’t. His hazel eyes caused your heart to flip in your chest. It was pounding so hard you couldn't think; you couldn't breathe. You couldn't form words. 

He brushed his thumb across your cheek. "Do you want me to finish what you started?" All you could do was nod. There was absolutely nothing funny about this now. "Would you help me thank you for putting so much time and thought into my gift?” Sam tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. “I'd really like it if you took it off." 

Your eyes didn't leave Sam's as you reached out and wrapped your hand around his impressive length. The yarn was soft, but what lay beneath was rock hard. You pulled the sock from Sam's body earning you a moan that came from deep in his throat. You were totally aroused now, past aroused. Sam lifted your night shirt over your head and leaned in to take one of your tight nipples into his mouth. He sucked on it gently and swirled his tongue around it in tantalizing rings. Your core pulsed longing to be filled. He moved his hand to your other breast pinching, pulling, and rolling the firm little nub.  His mouth sucked your other nipple while his hand made its way down into your panties right to your throbbing little bud where your own hand had been just minutes before. His fingers felt so much better. 

Your hands grabbed onto his shoulders to keep yourself steady. Your orgasm was already close. "Sam. Sam, please take them off."  

He leaned in close to your ear.  "Not yet.  There's plenty of time for that later."  He moved his fingers faster, taking them away from your clit down to your opening and back again. He pushed the tip of his finger inside you, and pumped it a couple of times before going back to your throbbing clit. He was watching you; you could feel his eyes on you as your climax built in the pit of your stomach. Your nails dug into his shoulders; your nipples hardened, drawing tight. 

"Sam. Sam. Sam. Gonna come. Please, please. God." He pushed two fingers inside you and quickly pulled them out again pressing them against your clit, fingers swirling. He alternated his motions driving you crazy. "Sam, I can't take anymore." He kept you right on that edge.  "Please let me come. Please. I'm so close. Sam, I'm so close."   It was building to the point of bubbling over.

 You were panting out of control now. "I want to hear you say my name, Y/N. I want to hear you say it over and over. I'm gonna make you come so many times."  Your orgasm swept over you in a huge wave, and you said nothing but Sam's name exactly like he wanted. Sam talked you through it. "You're so perfect, Y/N.  It's going to get even better. I promise. Just let it all go. You are so beautiful when you come.”

"Yes, yes, yes!" You screamed his name again squirting all over his fingers.  Sam eased his hand out of your underwear. He picked you up and placed you back down on the bed. You were still shaking from the intensity of your climax. With a swift movement, he pulled your panties all the way off. Before you came all the way down from the orgasm, his tongue was inside you. He thrust it as deep into you as he could, bringing you quickly back to your peak.  This orgasm went on and on. You looked down and saw Sam moving his tongue over you.  His fingers pushed in and found your g-spot.   “Sam!"  Your legs were spread wide, and he was making the most incredible noises. It was unbelievably sexy watching him flick his tongue over your little bundle of nerves.

 Sam's eyes found yours.  "Come again, Y/N." It was the sound of your name, the slide of his tongue, the curl of his fingers inside you. It was too much for you to hold back even though your last climax had hardly subsided. Your juices gushed from you again covering his face. 

"Oh, my God.  It's incredible, Sam. I can feel it. I feel it. It's happening." 

"Nice show."  Dean's voice rumbled low from the doorway.  Sam was still licking you and fucking you with his tongue. He didn't stop.  Dean was watching you come while his brother ate you out with his hand around his own dick encased in his bright red, merry holiday cock sock. He pulled off the sock to reveal his gorgeous erection. You dropped your head back against the pillow. Things started to go dark. Then you heard Dean's voice again. "I think she passed out, Sammy." Dean was holding the side of your face in his hand. "Hey there, sweethear. Are you with us?" You kissed his hand.

 Sam kissed the inside of your thigh. His fingers were still deep inside you; he added a third stretching you, pulling you open. Your words weren't frantic anymore; they were quiet. "Inside me. Please don't make me wait anymore." 

Dean brushed his knuckles down your cheek. "Who do you want inside you, baby?" 

You looked into his deep emerald green eyes. They were filled with a soft intensity. "I want both of you... at the same time." You'd thought of them both individually but never that way.  In that moment, you knew with all certainty that was exactly what you wanted. You didn't want to choose.  Sam licked back down your inner thigh to your core and gave you a chaste little kiss as he moved out of the way so Dean could settle between your legs.

 Sam moved around behind you and rested his back against the headboard. Your body lay back on his chest.  Dean took his cock in his hand and slid it up and down between your folds teasing you before thrusting in all the way with one stroke. Sam's mouth was next to your ear. "Do you want to come for Dean?" Sam's arms were on each side of your body, his hands holding your thighs down and your legs open. You took in a breath and let it out through your mouth. "Does he feel good?"

Your eyes rolled back into your head.  Dean was so deep. He was pumping in hard, stretching you wider than you'd ever been stretched before. You moaned and said yes. Sam's voice was husky with arousal.  "Where do you want me, Y/N?" Do you want me next to Dean, our dicks touching while we thrust into you together? Do you want me in this pretty ass of yours? Has anyone ever been inside that hole? Do you want me there?" That idea was too much for you to take. You were coming again; your hands reached for Sam behind you. Your arms wrapped around his neck. Sam brought his hands to your breasts to knead them. He bit your neck, marking you, and you pressed your hips up against Dean. Sam's fingers pinched and rolled your nipples while the sound of Dean's grunts filled your ears as he continued to thrust into you. 

Sam spoke promises against your neck. "We're going to do so much more to you. You're going to come until you can't come anymore. We're going to make you come until you're too tired to beg. I know it's what you want; it's what we want too, Y/N." You were moaning loudly; Sam moaned in answer. "Come for Dean, Y/N.  Come for him like you did for me."  It felt so damn good.  This orgasm was the most intense one yet. Dean was filling you up; Sam's hands were still working your nipples. 

"Kiss me, Sam."  Sam's tongue twisted and wrapped around yours. Dean maintained a steady rhythm with his thrusts."Unhhh." You moaned into Sam's mouth and tightened around Dean's dick coming in spasm after spasm. Sam moved his hands from your breasts and placed them flat on your stomach. You couldn't come completely down from your climax with Dean still thrusting inside you. You were deliciously trapped on that edge, not able to get enough. "I want more. Please. Sam?"

 Sam eased his tongue from your mouth. "Are you ready for us, Y/N?" You nodded. Sam kissed the corner of your mouth before he lifted you up to face Dean. Dean took you in his arms and leaned back far enough to expose your ass to Sam. Sam gathered some of your juices to use as lube then slipped a fingertip into your hole. He gave you time to adjust before pushing it in deeper. You started rolling your hips, and Sam put a second finger inside you. The angle was perfect for your clit to rub against Dean. Sam scissored his fingers back-and-forth.  Then, when he added a third,  you came again clenching around both of them. 

Sam pulled his fingers from inside you and placed his cock against your entrance. He pushed in slowly, just the tip. It burned, and he waited. Sam kept completely still. "Are  you okay, Y/N?" 

You had closed your eyes when he first entered you. You kept them closed and put your hand over his where it was resting on your waist. "Yes. Give me more, Sam." He did as you asked and started to move. The burn gave way to pleasure.  Both of them were holding you and moving inside you. When Dean pulled back, Sam pushed in. Your orgasm was building. You felt so full. Sam was filling your virgin hole; Dean's mouth was on yours. Sam played with your nipples just the way you liked. He could read you so well. 

Dean's mouth was hot; he tasted like whiskey and mint. You felt like you were splitting open, impaled on two enormous cocks. Another orgasm was building. Both of them were calling out your name. You came screaming; they shattered you completely. Dean came soon after you. His dick throbbed, and he released his load into you. You melted into his arms. With just a few more thrusts, Sam spurted his hot come into you. 

Sam pulled out and lay back on the bed; Dean guided your body down to the mattress. You turned in toward Sam and put your head on his shoulder. He nuzzled against you and kissed your forehead. Behind you, Dean kissed your shoulder. He put his arm over your waist bringing you close. You could feel the entire length of his warm body. "Sleep, Princess." That's exactly what you did between the two men who hadn't made you choose.

Everything Forever: @gambitwinchester @princessmisery666 @onethirstyunicorn @peridottea91 @logical-princey @emilyshurley @beenlovingromansincedayoneish @fangirlxwritesx67 @waywardbaby @atc74 @ledzeppelinsbonzo @shaniquacynthia @mariekoukie6661​ @tumbler-tidbits​ @67-chevy-baby​ @fandom-princess-forevermore​ @terrarium-jpeg​ @emoryhemsworth​ @crashdevlin​ @heycasbutt​ @jules-1999​ @mrsdeanfuckingwinchester​ @cosicas-cuquis​ @sammyimpala-67​ @queenoftheunderdark​ @dean-winchesters-bacon​ @mrs-meghan-winchester​ @timelordy-fangirl2​ @sweetness47​ @hobby27​ @awesomesusiebstuff​ @kickingitwithkirk​ @gh0stgurl​ @becs-bunker​ @sandlee44​ @supernaturalgrandma​ @lonewolf471​ @sea040561​ @dawnie1988​ @maddiepants​ @volleyballer519​ @outcastedangel​ @iknowwheremytowelis​ @kdfrqqg​ @lizette50​ @daisymoder72​ @sorenmarie87​ @oldfreakything​

Sam/Jared Love: @girl-next-door-writes​ @stunudo​ @feelmyroarrrr​ @winchesterxfamilybusiness​ @idabbleincrazy​ @evansrogerskitten​ @i-joined-social-media-finally​ @wingledsam​ @autumninavonlea​ @spnxbsessed​ @durinsbride​ @deansyahtzee​ @wendibird​ @fantasy-shadows​ @team-free-will-you-idjiot​ @waywardnerd67​ @neii3n​ @fullmooner​ @supernatural-took-me-over​ @julesthequirky​ @songbird400

Dean/Jensen Love: @flamencodiva​ @deanwinchesterswitch​ @waywardrose13​ @feelmyroarrrr​ @akshi8278​ @ladywinchester1967​ @sgarrett49​ @wingedcatninja​ @coffee-obsessed-writer​ @adoptdontshoppets​

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - The Eye of Pincosta

So this is an episode that really didn’t need to exist, and I say that as a Styalan defender. The writers took a perfect opportunity have the characters actually learn and grown and bypass it all for a contrived performative fake out redemption. 

Summary:  The group arrive in the town of Pincosta, but Eugene is immediately thrown in jail for having previously stolen the town's largest diamond, the Eye of Pincosta. The sheriff declares Eugene to work in the deadly copper mines and soon the rest of the group are thrown in jail. Rapunzel negotiates with the sheriff, offering to find and retrieve the Eye of Pincosta in exchange for Eugene and the group's release. The sheriff agrees, but on the condition that Rapunzel returns in two days. Rapunzel confronts Eugene about the theft and reluctantly, Eugene reveals he previously worked together with Stalyan, forcing Rapunzel to seek out Stalyan and persuades her to help.

So Why Didn’t Eugene Just Stay Behind With the Caravan?

Like it doesn’t take all six of you to buy and carry food back to the caravan; which they don’t take into the town anyways. Especially when you have two horses you can use. So why bring Eugene along when you know he could be arrested? 

Pointing Out the Flaw In Your Writing Doesn’t Make It Any Less of a Flaw

No seriously, why didn’t he stay with the caravan? You need someone to watch over your stuff anyways if your going to leave it behind and Eugene is the perfect candidate for that. And even if you did need everyone to stick together, which you don’t, then bring the camper with you and let Eugene ride inside of it unseen. It’s not like the towns roads are too small for it or anything and it’ll save you from having to carry your stuff. 

If you have to turn your characters into sudden idiots for no discernible reason to make your plot happen then you haven’t a good plot. Start over and come up with something else. Like maybe have Eugene not realize that he is wanted here because it was so long ago or have the guards randomly check their caravan where he’s hiding out because Styalan’s back into town, or something. Anything so long as it doesn’t make the mains stupid. 

You’re Literally The Princess of Powerful Kingdom; Use That! 

Ok, from what background info we get here, Pincosta isn’t even a fully fledged kingdom. It’s a hamlet, which is smaller than even a village. We get no indication what ‘land’ it belongs to, but it shares a kingdom with the larger town of Zulberg, which is one of the running gags in the first half of the episode. 

What all this means is that Rapunzel is still the most powerful person in the room. She’s the heir apparent to the throne of a prosperous kingdom that has ties with a large trading network with bunch of other power kingdoms. Locking up her boyfriend and the future prince consort of said kingdom can be perceived as an act of war. 

The series is trying to lead into Rapunzel becoming queen, but that means she needs to take advantage of her position and perform queenly like tasks. Like negotiating international incidents like this one, and simply complying to the city’s laws as if she was some random traveler doesn’t cut it. 

Oh, So Now You Care!

Rapunzel, where the fuck do you think that prison barge was heading to just two episodes back? The same prison barge that your friend Attila was being threatened with. The same prison barge that victims of Corona’s corrupt justice system, like say Varian, are threatened with on top of the inhumane conditions of those dungeon cells that you locked your two best friends in back in season one. 

Do not tell me Rapunzel is some kind and caring person if she only gives a damn about unjust treatment when it only affects her or someone she already cares about.     

This Is Stealing Agency Away From Eugene 

Rapunzel is not the one responsible for Eugene’s mistakes. She can help to some degree, like using her political power to pull some strings, but she doesn’t need to be the one to make reparations for his actions; that’s on him. 

Or rather it should be on him. This should be his episode. The one where he grows as a person as he makes up for past deeds. Because redemption isn’t just about never doing bad things again, it’s also about making amends for what you did wrong. 

That’s where this series fails and why the whole ‘It’s Rapunzel’s Story’ mantra is hollow. For starters it’s not just Rapunzel’s story. The series isn’t structured to be that way because it’s based off of a movie with two protagonists. It’s Eugene’s story as well. It’s also Cassandra’s and Varian’s story because as the main antagonists they further the conflict. 

But it also fails because Rapunzel is just thrown into other people’s stories instead of being given her own. Rapunzel never learns anything from this adventure. Stalyan does, and Stalyan is never seen again after this episode. Having Rapunzel teach other random people lessons is counterintuitive to what the series wants to be. If it’s meant to be a coming of age story where Rapunzel learns about the real world, then she can’t be automatically in the right every episode.   

Well Ain’t That Convenient  

So Stalyan is needed to find this diamond that she and Eugene stole in order to free Eugene. Yet it’s never stated how Rapunzel finds Stalyan, especially so quickly. Last we saw her she had just left Varados and that was months ago. She could have been anywhere by this time. 

So why is she near the same town where she’d still be wanted for arrest at? Where’s a her dad, who was dying from poison when we last saw him? What has she been up to? How did Rapunzel even know she was here? 

Like you need to establish crap like this, otherwise it’s just a major plot hole. 

So Why Stalyan? 

This episode could have gone to just about anybody. Eugene, Lance, Lady Caine, fucking Shorty... Like I’d even take Hookfoot over this. He’s at least there for more than two episodes. 

So why Stalyan? Why does she get a focus episode when we’ll never see her again? How come she’s ‘redeemed’ but not any of the other criminals on the prison barge? Like the series wants to act as if Rapunzel is this really forgiving person who believes in second chances but only four villains out of twenty get redemptions. 4 out of 20! What makes Stalyan so special that she gets to be one of those few select four and not say Lady Caine, Dwayne, or Andrew and the Saporians? 

This Should Have Been a Lance and Rapunzel Team Up Instead

Keep in mind when I say this episode could have focused on anybody, I do mean it. You get creative enough this initial setup could have featured any two characters you wanted interacting. Lance and Eugene, Eugene and Rapunzel, Eugene and Stalyan, Eugene and Cassandra, Lance and Cassandra or maybe even Caine and Rapunzel, and reveal how Eugene knew Caine back in the pilot episode. Like there’s a lot of possibilities here. 

For my money though, this should have been a Lance and Rapunzel episode. Because we don’t get any Lance and Rapunzel episodes. We don't even get any Lance episodes after his introduction. All his development, what little there is, is shoved into the b-plot of other characters’ focus episodes. He also barely interacts with the series main character despite being her boyfriend’s BFF and living with her on the road for year. That’s ridiculous. 

All you needed to do was make Lance Eugene’s partner and have Lance make up for his past deeds to try and free his friends. Boom! 

Why Didn’t You Bring Anything With You Raps?

We see at the end that the caravan was parked outside of town this whole time. She still has the key to get out any money that she needed, the pick of two horses that can’t fit inside of a cell anyways, and oh yeah probably a canteen to use.

Furthermore, she’s a fucking princess!!! She’s has credit and clout and can just get whatever she damn near wants just by asking; because she’s not your average person on the street like us. 

I’m not going to feel sorry for the main protagonist when the main protagonist is an idiot who does these things to herself and makes life harder for everyone needlessly.  

Rapunzel Has a Stunted Grasp of Ethics 

Stalyan’s not wrong here. Unless you have an alternative, like your own horse or money to buy horses, that you decided to leave behind as well for some undefined reason, then yeah, you needed horses. Your friends lives are at stake woman! 

I touched on this back in my TAR review, but the show leans heavily into authoritarian beliefs because it provides childish lessons for adult situations.  

‘Stealing is always wrong no matter what’ is the thought process of a child. It does not take into account how systems of governments can stack the deck against certain groups of people, nor how sometimes emergencies come up and you got to deal them in the moment and make amends later. 

And you know what, I’m not taking ‘it’s a show for kids’ as an excuse here. Children shows very much can introduce comlex themes and grey morals and plenty already have. If you make classism a major theme of your story then you need to actually address it, and that starts by having your main character acknowledge it. 

This could have been the perfect opportunity for Rapunzel to grow. Up till now she’s always had her physical needs provided for her. Since her escape from the tower she’s also been thoroughly spoiled. Have her come down off her high horse and see how the other half lives. See first hand what Eugene and the pub thugs had to do to survive before they met her.      

Have her things actually be confiscated. Have her princess title mean nothing cause no one knows her or believes her. Have Corona not recognized in this part of the world. You want to be the underdog then make her an actual underdog and have her learn from it.  

Because Rapunzel having the moral outlook of child makes sense given her backstory, but she can’t stay that way. We all have to grow up sometime, we all have to learn the harsher truths of this world, and this is suppose to be a coming of age story. 

So How Does Stalyan Know Where the Eye Is But Not Eugene?

If Eugene is the one who lost it, then how come he didn’t know where it was at? Why couldn’t he just have told Rapunzel all of this and left Staylan out of the picture? Also how do you know if Goodberry even still has it if it’s been years ago? How do you know where Goodberry is? It’s awfully convenient that he never moved in all that time and that he’s so close to the town of Pincosta. 

Once again, plot holes. 

Stalyan is a Poor Man’s Sadira

So for those of you who aren’t 90s kids like myself, Sadira is a villian from the Aladdin tv series. She’s basically Stalyan but done better. 

Things they have in common 

their goals are to marry the main hero, who are ex-thieves

both are jealous of the main heroines who are princesses 

both are thieves themselves and have lived their whole lives as such 

both believe they belong with the hero because they come from a common background 

both resort to dubious means to win the heart of the hero

both try to get rid of the heroines but never resort to killing them out right 

both are redeemed and eventually befriends the princesses 

You know what the difference between the two of them is? 

Sadira is actions are actually worse than Staylan’s but she’s given enough screen time and focus to come across as sympathetic to the audience. 

I’m serious. Stalyan is an ex who was left at the altar by her douchey boyfriend, but their relationship was so toxic that she can’t understand that she’s actually better off without him nor accept that he left her for someone else. So she tries manipulating him into coming back to her, while her dad does some messed up blackmail and poisoning that she didn’t agree to but went along with anyways. 

Meanwhile Sadria is a straight up stalker. She doesn’t even meet Aladdin until after the events of the first film, and he makes it clear to her from the get go that he’s in a committed relationship with someone else and isn’t interested in her. But Sadria tries episode after episode to ‘win’ him resorting to mindwipes, kidnapping, and even alternating reality. 

But we actually see things from Sadria’s perspective. It’s made clear that she has no one and nothing. Aladdin is the first person to show her kindness and so she latches onto him. Sure it’s unhealthy and the series calls it out as such, but by the time she has acknowledged this and befriends Jasmine the audience now understands her and feels sympathy for her.   

We get no such focus for Stalyan. Not even in her redemption episode. We still don't know why she wants to be with Eugene after he’s treated her so badly. We still don't have any clue what their relationship was like before the breakup, or even when the breakup happened. (I still think it was during the events of the movie and that he left her for Rapunzel, but it’s left open) It’s hard to relate to or feel sorry for Stakyan when we know nothing about her and haven’t seen this ‘good side’ Rapunzel keeps talking about for ourselves. 

Even though theoretically she should be very sympathetic because of the way Eugene treated her, and because her actions thus far are relatively tame compared to most of the villains in the show. 

Just Because Other Places in the World Are As Bad as Corona, Doesn’t Mean That Frederic Is Excused For His Behavior 

This show thinks it’s a okay to introduce horrible crap so long as it’s done in a comedic way and not focused on, but this isn’t The Office. You can’t use a corrupt legal system and authoritarians abusing their power as the crux of your main conflict in season one and then expect us to just laugh off jokes like this one. Or the one about tailor getting locked up for ripping Frederic’s robe. Or find young Lance trapped in a cell with Shorty being fed gruel as funny. 

Like, even if you do laugh at these jokes at first in the moment, once you stop to think about them, it just shows how awful Frederic and Rapunzel are, how awful the system is, and that change needs to happen. But it can’t happen if Rapunzel and the show doesn’t acknowledge that such things are wrong. That they are more than jokes. 

The serious story that the writers want to tell is undermined by the comedy, and the comedic moments are undermined by the existence of the more serious drama.   

So is this a sitcom or a drama? It can’t be both, not when dealing with such high stakes. 

Sitcoms work because they’re low stakes. Few characters are affected and most situations aren’t life and death. Even in dark comedies where death is often the joke, it’s because death is seen as unimportant, something to be casted aside, and it’s funny because it’s disrespectful. But the moment you call to attention just how messed up everything really is, and how awful death can be, then it’s suddenly no longer funny. Especially if it’s innocents who are getting hurt. Dark comedies also work because it’s often computuance for characters who are awful people. 

That’s not what TTS is, so it’s attempts at being like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Rick and Morty just doesn’t work and comes across as tone deaf. 

Also why are the dang horses in the cell with the humans? They’re horses! 

So What Exactly Is Stalyan’s Plan Here?

No seriously, what is her thought processes here? The audience isn’t mind readers. We need know why the characters do the things they do. 

Why is Stalyan still hung up on Eugene? Why does Stalyan think he’ll take her back if she shows up to free him without Rapunzel? What is she going to say when he asks about Raps and why would he even believe her to begin with? 

What does ‘A thief belongs with a thief’ even mean!!? We have no context for this cause we have no context for their relationship! 

This episode could have provided us with some context, some cule of why Stalyan and Eugene were together for so long, why they broke up, why she still wants to be with him, why she thinks he’ll return to her even now, but nope! We gotta have a stupid parody wrestling match.  

Oh joy. 

This Is a Guilt Trip, Not a Redemption 

Rapunzel is full of shit. 

If she honestly believed that there was ‘good in everybody’ then why did she send Caine off on the prison barge without even trying to relate to her? Why didn’t she try to befriend Weasel instead of fighting him off? Why is Varian currently sitting in a jail cell right now!!!  

Here’s why Stalyan was ‘redeemed’ and not the others. 

Rapunzel needed something from her. 

Rapunzel guilt trips, manipulates, and coerces Stalyan into helping her. She doesn’t actually give a damn about whether or not Stalyan ‘does the right thing’ so long as she gets what she wants; Eugene’s freedom and his heart.

Sure Stalyan probably should turn away from her life of crime. She should let go of her obsession with Eugene. She should return the eye that she stole and start making up for her past. But you know what? 

None of those things have anything to do with Rapunzel! 

Stalyan needs to come to those decisions herself in order for this to be a proper redemption. If Rapunzel is involved in any of that then it can’t be with the condition that she’s gaining something from it. It’s not true compassion if you have an ulterior motive for what you do.   

This Confession Might Actually Have Meant Something If We Had Any Actual Context! 

This doesn’t tell me anything. 

Why would Stalyan only see ‘a thief’? She loved him enough to want to marry him and has known him for years. Sure she may have accepted that he was a thief, encouraged it even, but there’s got to be other reasons why she dated him. Other reasons for why she wanted him back. 

Also why does this come back to Rapunzel specifically? Is she the reason why he left Staylan at the altar? And even so, why is that a reason to give Eugene a free pass? Is it just because she’s the protag and now they’re friends suddenly? 

In fact if you are friends now, then Rapunzel deserves to know the truth of who she plans on marrying and come to the decision if he’s worth it. If he really has changed, not just in terms of being an ex-thief but also in how he handles relationships. 

We the audience deserve to know too. 

Redemption Shouldn’t be Tied to Friendship With Rapunzel 

Eugene becoming inspired to be a better person because he fell in love with someone is one thing. Rapunzel only forgiving people because they’ll befriend her is entirely another. Especially when two of the main villains become villains after they stop being friends with her.��

It sends out a really gross message of favoritism and not letting go of toxic relationships, while also placing Rapunzel too high upon a pedestal.   

Rapunzel Can’t Forgive Stalyan In Eugene’s Place 

I’d be pretty upset if my current spouse just said that my abusive ex ‘was not that bad’.

Like, fuck both of you. 

And yes, I did defend Stalyan in Beyond the Corona Walls, and I did say that we didn’t have enough context to claim she was abusive when they were in a relationship. After the breakup tho? Yeah, yeah she was abusive then. You don't have to be in a relationship in order to bully someone; you just have to have power over them. 

Stalyan hurt Eugene, not Rapunzel. That’s why any redemption with her needed to be with him. They both needed to make amends, forgive each other, and move on. 

This isn’t Rapunzel’s show. 

If the creator wanted it to be her show then he shouldn’t have introduced conflicts that don’t actually involve her, nor characters with higher stakes then her. 

This Doesn’t Feel Earned, and So the Audience Feels Cheated 

And so Stalyan rides off into the sunset rich to live happily ever after presumably as a thief still, and no one gave a shit.  

No one was asking for this. No one cared about Stalyan. Worse the writer failed to make us care. Ergo this whole episode feels like a waste and it is. 

Conclusion 

Much like the rest of season two this is pure filler, and not even good fun filler; like with the mermaid episode or the pirate episode. Worse it’s very existence actually diminishes Rapunzel as a character rather than build her up. So it fails in its sole purpose as a story. 

[gilded-green]

In celebration of the 10th anniversary, I’ll probably reread GG and send updates/highlight areas and as for commentary. Probably XD

But first. What aspect of Gilded Green was your favorite? What was something you put in a lot of world building for but never got to show either in fic or on tumblr. Who is your favorite character and why, what makes them special in your eyes? Which character has turned into a completely different one as soon as you started writing them? Which part of the fic did you like most when you finished it, do you still like it? Similarly, which part do you dislike most?

Lasty, anything about gg2’s story you want to share/talk about/rant?

-love, the dai li fangirl

Haha, no pressure! But at the same time yes if you do feel free to send me passages for commentary here! <3

What aspect was my favorite? Hmmm. *thinking face* I think, when I first came up with it, I was just thrilled to have these two small things - minor character Lu Ten, overlooked villain organization Dai Li - that I was able to combine into something so big. That was pretty nifty!

As I started developing the story, I think what really caught my attention was the fact that “Wow, all these characters are awful people!” Like. The Dai Li aren’t good.The Fire Nation aren’t good. Lu Ten is a victim but also an oppressor. All off these people have extremely different beliefs and worldviews - Fire supremacist, police state enforcers, classist academic gatekeepers - and all of them think THEY’RE in the right here and none of them are. I think Tien and Hoang might be the only people with a decent, non-oppressive worldview in the story so far. XD I was growing out of the storytelling trope of black-and-white morality at the time, so it was really fun to start experimenting with writing awful people as enjoyable, sympathetic characters.

World building? Hmm. I was just learning how to use my worldbuilding muscles back then. I seem to remember reading up a lot on how brainwashing actually works in the real world and going “I don’t think this is compatible with what we have in ATLA” and just kinda tossing that whole thing out. XD I also recall looking up a lot of stuff for the bits about Jouin, some of which - kalua pig! - has since shown up again in WFFD. I also recall someone on FFdotnet at the time saying “All this chapter did was tell us more about a dead character than the living one” and I was just kinda like -_- yes because he is DEAD and this is your chance to feel sorry about that, we’ll get plenty more of the living one later on account of him still being, y’know, alive. XD

Oh, and Shirong’s personal side projects. I finally got into that a bit in A Meeting of Minds, but the dude DOES have his own stuff going on, which Delun so rudely interrupted to drag him off to see Long Feng about brainwashing a Firebender.

I also did a bunch of research for the birthday party interlude, I think. Mostly appropriate alcohol for such an occasion? And....okay, this’ll sound funny, but.....food containers. I wanted Fen to pack up leftovers for Suyin and Shirong. That’s what my Italian family does after get-togethers, and I assumed that a Chinese family/friend group would do the same! But I also had, like, zero exposure to everyday Chinese life, let alone everyday Chinese life in the 1800s, and I just didn’t have the...idk, cultural osmosis? to figure it out. Like, if you asked me how Victorians would transfer food I’d probably come up with “Idk, wrap it in cloth and stuff it in a basket?” and I assumed people living in modern China would also be able to explain what their people did for food storage/transport 150 years ago but I didn’t have that cultural background, now, did I??? Also this was 10-12 years ago I was looking this up, mind you, the internet was still very different, there was plenty of information on Chinese historical events but not on everyday life objects, CDramas weren’t easy to find if they were translated at all and I certainly didn’t know they existed, and no one was posting beautiful aesthetic videos of life in a rural Chinese mountain village to youtube yet. Eventually I learned that bamboo baskets were a thing, but there wasn’t much info on THOSE either and I wasn’t sure how to describe them, so I just tentatively typed “basket” and called it a day. XD

YOU CANNOT ASK ME TO CHOOSE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER THAT’S LIKE ASKING ME TO CHOOSE BETWEEN MY CHILDREN!!! *shoves Yong off a cliff*

I’m very fond of the Dai family, along with the Trungs and Sais. I’m very proud of how Tuan turned out. I adore Yuan, who you’ve barely met, and Xun, who you haven’t. Huang and Wu Sheng are also definite faves and I can’t wait for y’all to get to know them better.

Characters do usually behave for me in terms of personality development. They surprise me, but they never really turn out to be the complete OPPOSITE of what I was expecting? They just kinda develop organically. Huang and Wu Sheng surprised me, tho, those boys got deep. I knew they had the potential, but developing their backstory actually caused Stingrae and I to develop Ba Sing Se’s socio-political backstory and Long Feng’s rise to power, all because of an inkling I had. That was a very satisfying few years of worldbuilding and story development.

Um, favorite part of the fic....idk, I’m very fond of the final scene, with Azula and her wall chunk from Lu Ten. I’m doubly fond of it because of how it always resonates with readers. Heck, during Azula week last year, I used that chunk of rock as an ongoing theme in Sandstone, and someone commented like “I DIDN’T REALIZE YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WROTE GILDED GREEN” and that made me really happy!

Lu Ten’s time stuck underground - I used the seven stages of grief to get through that one and it was very helpful in structuring that part of the story, and I figured it was deep or something because PSYCHOLOGY.

I’m also proud of myself for getting through the dark brainwashing scenes. So, like, FYI, fanfiction could get...very dark, back in the 00s. People love to play purity police these days and complain about how nasty people get can, but listen. Listen. Do you have any idea how dark FFdotnet got back in the day? Legolas And Aragorn Get Captured By Orcs And Brutally Tortured was an entire genre. I feel like torture fic was actually a lot more common back then, and darkfic in general - I’m sure someone could write a whole thesis on why it’s not so prevalent anymore, I’m gonna guess the fact that fandom is less-insulated and more public now could be part of it, maybe also the fact that the internet is more social media/influencer culture based so people care about their image, and also the purity police which is its own kettle of worms, but I also think that the Bush Administration had something to do with it? You have all these kids who were pre-teens when 9/11 happened, growing up during the Iraq War with an awful presidential administration while everyone was scared and conservative Christianity started to realize that their control over the nation’s “morality” might be slipping and reacted accordingly......yeah there was a lot of darkfic back then.

And I read a lot of darkfic too, but, uh....well, statistically speaking, a lot of writing is bad, okay? A lot of those fics were just weird; you could see where the writer had this idea, and also where they failed to execute it in a way that resonated or made sense. And whatever, writers were young and just wanted to pound out some catharsis, it’s cool, but it still just felt narratively awkward when you could tell how the writer was more focused on LET’S MAKE THIS AS DARK AS POSSIBLE instead of “Let’s tell this as well as possible.”

So the first several attempts at writing the brainwashing scenes, I was nervous because I didn’t want to get TOO dark, and when I finally decided “eff it” and said to Stingrae “I think I need to let this be as dark as it needs to be” I was still nervous because I didn’t want it to end up WEIRD. Idk if that makes sense, but anyway I seem to have done a decent job at it!

As for parts I dislike the most, uhhhhh Iroh’s retreat (I didn’t care, I just wanted to get it over with), Enlai might’ve been promoted too fast? idk, the fact that I came up with Nanyue AFTER I finished publishing GG so I couldn’t work that into the Quy bits, the fact that I was young and innocent and didn’t understand sexual slang or innuendo and randomly chose Dong as the name of the court physician which could lead to some awful puns except no one ever seemed to pick up on that and maybe I’ll regret pointing it out but the man IS going to appear again so I might as well get the first shot in myself. XD

I might have GG2 stuff to talk about but not sure, if I do I’ll make another post on that!

<3

[panharmonium]

some disjointed thoughts about stranger things 2 under the cut (concealed to hide spoilers from my sister)

so, season 2!

i’ve gone into every season of this show knowing absolutely nothing about it.  i’ve had no exposure to the fandom or to reviews or anything that would indicate what it was about or how good the seasons are in relation to each other, which i like, because i know my opinions are my own.  season 1 i watched back in the winter, i think, and it was amazing.  blew me away. 

i just finished season 2 and i’m like...not as into it?

and i’m glad i had no preexposure to anything, because if i had, i’d worry that i was just being influenced by other people’s opinions, but i genuinely don’t know what people think of the various seasons.  i’ve been stringently avoiding anything about this show, have it blocked on tumblr, etc, so i could watch it cold.

i’d have to watch it again to really pin down the places where my investment was flagging, and i’ll probably do that eventually, because i know my roommate will want to see it, but my general impression was this: they had me hooked in the beginning, and then they started to lose me.

- i feel like overall it was 9 episodes where very little substance actually happened.  plotlines were stretched out over a reallllllly long period of time and became paper-thin.  like nancy and jonathan?  the only thing they really did over those entire nine episodes was make a tape recording and send it to the paper.  that was their whole story, and it could have fit in one episode.

- and what did happen felt like it suffered from a lack of focus.  can i explain this in more detail without watching the show again?  not really.  but i just mean that in S1, i could tell you what each of the main character’s arcs were, and i could lay out how those arcs had clear beginnings, middles, and endings.  in S2, i can really only do that for El (and even that i feel like got messy by the last third).  

- the horror vibe was different this season.  it was LESS scary, to me.  S1 was a CREEP factor that had my skin crawling - it wasn’t like...creature horror - it was the unsettlingness.  the whole parallel world thing was so - well, the only word for it is unsettling, like.  you felt like you could take a step and accidentally wind up somewhere no one should be - the idea that you can be trapped so close to somebody and yet so far away - you just felt like the world was inside out (or upside down, if you will).  and so much of the fear in the first one came from how incomprehensible and uncertain the entire situation was - you didn’t know how things worked and nobody believed you when you tried to tell them what was happening.  that scene where the christmas lights spell out R-U-N?  scariest fucking thing i’ve ever seen.  but S2 changed it to be like...it felt like more of a monster flick.  like a zombie movie or something - lots of creatures running around that you can just shoot with a gun - that’s just not really the same vibe as the first season, and i didn’t find it quite as interesting.

- i don’t want to be That Person, because i liked maxine as a character in general, on her own terms, but from a writing perspective - what even was the purpose of her introduction?  her and her brother both, honestly, the whole family.  i feel almost bad for saying that, because i can guarantee that there were people out there complaining about her being introduced because “they just wanted to have another girl; it’s so stupid, blah blah,” cue more sexist stuff, etc, and that’s really not where i’m coming from, but for me, from a general storytelling perspective, i don’t understand why she or her family were introduced.  they were superfluous to the story.  they didn’t need to be there.  and since i don’t even feel like the returning characters got enough development this season (see point #2), i don’t understand why we spent so much time on her/her family/her introduction to the Party.  it felt like filler.

- stranger things S2 did that thing teen wolf does where 2/3 of the way through the season it drops a tonally-different expository/flashback episode that does a lot of the legwork tying other shit together while also being completely disconnected from the rest of the plot, which is basically an info dump and is my least favorite way of relaying plot/getting characters to the spot the writer wants them to go.  i think kali was the most interesting new character we met this season; i was rapt every time she was onscreen, but i don’t love the “we’re going to shove all of the character development and background info into this one episode and at the end El has had her turnaround and goes back home.”  it didn’t feel believable to me.  are we ever going to see those people again, or were they just a plot convenience to serve the aforementioned purpose?  (idk, i haven’t watched S3 yet, so...we’ll see.)

- some weird...minor tonal changes/dropped plots?  in S1 one of the running undercurrents was how mike and nancy’s mom wanted them to talk to her and she really did care about what was going on but they couldn’t connect to her and that bothered her, whereas in S2 it’s like - that theme has been dropped; she’s not involved in their lives really at all, and her and ted’s spousal relationship is just being played for laughs, and there was that REALLY weird scene with her like...lusting after billy??????  that was so fucking bizarre.  

and until one line in the very last episode, they dropped the whole thing about hopper’s daughter, too - the way they wove that into the first season was brilliantly done, and just - you don’t see a bit of it in S2, and that felt off, to me.

- killing bob was a bad call.  it was gratuitous, AND it was contrived - who the hell is running for their life and then just stops dead in the lobby to smile at their girlfriend?  ANY SENSIBLE PERSON WOULD KEEP RUNNING FOR THE DOOR.  like - bob died, but the doctor survived????????  the doctor, who was attacked and immobilized and defenseless in a stairwell, somehow wasn’t killed??????  of course not, because he needed to survive, so he could get El her papers later....that entire thing irritated me.  it made no sense.  that was actually the point where i said to myself “uh-oh.  first Bad-with-a-capital-B decision this show’s made.”  

- lack of consistency in terms of how, exactly, Stuff Works.  in S1 it was like - the Upside Down is everywhere.  the demigorgon could come through anywhere, if you were unlucky.  that was part of what made it so creepy - there’s this whole other world and it is RIGHT THERE with you, and sometimes the fabric separating the two universes gets scary thin, and bam, you’re somewhere no human has any business being.  whereas in S2 it’s like - ok, things are coming through this one portal and spreading through tunnels underground, in our own dimension???  like at first i thought hopper had actually entered the Upside Down in the tunnels, but then it seemed like the tunnels were still on our plane, just gross-looking.  so why in S1 could the demigorgon come through the ceiling of will’s house, or through that tree in the woods, or take barbara through the pool?  why did the lab people think burning that little gate would help, when the first monster from last season was obviously popping into our dimension from all sorts of other places?  

- this is a minor quibble, but it was driving me up the WALL in the last couple of episodes - what in god’s name were they injecting will with???  and HOW.  mike just grabs that syringe off the counter like “we need to make will go to sleep” - there is NO reason that anyone in the room would know what was in the syringe or what the correct dosage was or HOW TO GIVE AN INJECTION IN THE FIRST PLACE.  joyce gives it???????  by stabbing straight down????????  into will’s arm????????????  what the hell kind of injection technique is that?!?!?!  that’s not....how that works.  ever.  and maxine does it to billy too, in his NECK - just straight in there.  there is no....look, people in human medicine can weigh in better than me here; maybe things are different, but just from the veterinary perspective, you can’t just stab a creature any old place you want, and giving something via any route that isn’t intravenous isn’t going to drop an animal immediately, AND you do not have control over how long they’re going to be out.  if you give a sedative, you can’t just wake an animal up by wafting ammonia under their nose.  AND the animal is likely not going to be actually asleep until you also give an anaesthetic induction agent, and if you do give an anaesthetic induction agent, you’d better have some monitoring equipment and a breathing apparatus hooked up to your patient!

look, it just - the “go to sleep” injection was used to solve too many critical situations for me to just ignore it.  it bothered me.

anyhow.  overall, i didn’t hate it.  but i thought it was way less cohesive than the first season, and therefore way less effective.  i’m still curious to see what happens in S3, but my expectations are lower now. 

[if you wanna talk to me about this, you have my permission, but ONLY if you’re able to do it without talking about S3 in any capacity, including your own personal evaluation of how good/bad it is in relation to the other seasons.  i like to watch without knowing other people’s opinions of things, otherwise i feel like my viewing experience is colored by what i hear.  thanks! :) ]

[theyoungkleinwriter]

Writing Blind#004: Exposition

Disclaimer: Everything here is my opinion so if you take problem with anything I have suggested, just leave a nice little comment. Again this is all opinion based.

And here is my most dreaded and hated enemy in the writing world. Exposition. Now I’m not suggesting that exposition is entirely bad, otherwise I would have stopped after the first few sentences. What I’m saying is that exposition is good only in the right kind of circumstances. When it is not shoved to the forefront of the narrative and is instead quietly milling around in the background. The point of exposition is to enhance the readers understanding of your world or of a particular character. Ways in which people have done this in the past, particularly in fantasy, is through providing a huge info dump at the start of a novel usually as part of a prologue. Now it is only my humble opinion but THIS IS WRONG, THIS IS VERY, VERY WRONG! Personally I feel people often do this because they have so many great details about the world they have built tht they want to immediately get it down on the page. That’s perfectly alright to be proud of what you have done but ask yourself one question; is this entirely relevant to the present moment in the story or will it be relevant later down the line? 

It is this fundamental question that drives the sort of exposition I use when I write. I try to keep it a relevant to the story as possible. In regards to this idea I would like to analyse two different approaches to what I feel is good exposition and I may even be enticed to provide some juicy examples along the way. The first of these ideas is to have your exposition be used only when relevant to he plot, as previously mentioned, and the second is to use it in small slices rather than huge dollops.

Starting with using exposition only when it is relevant to the plot I think this is most useful since it can be used to create intrigue in the narrative by only using the relevant parts of exposition. What this achieves is a better focus to the narrative and it entices the reader further as they learn more about the world you created. One interesting example is the show don't tell argument which certainly applies here strongly. Take for instance the opening to Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, in this were are only given exposition in the background through descriptions of things like clothing or magical acts. This is so much better than simply writing, “there is magic”. It help to create further intrigue in the narrative. Another aspect of this form of exposition is that it can be used to build on character relationships. Now this is more down to how you describe your characters interactions with each other but it is far better to show there is conflict between characters through actions and dialogue rather than simply saying. (Woah, got a little side-tracked there) I think the biggest advantage to using exposition only when relevant to the plot is in how it provides a layer of mystery that gets the reader yearning to learn more. Little bits of insight into these worlds helps the mind of a reader build up a greater narrative picture. Just remember that despite all I have said currently, it is occasionally okay to have a large portion of exposition. AS LONG AS IT’S INTERESTING. the last thing a reader wants to do is wade through a huge paragraph of the worlds economic system when ultimately it amounts to zero relevance on the plot. 

Regarding the second idea, and my personal favourite, is providing exposition through little details throughout the work. Like my English Literature teacher always said, use only a small salami slice rather than a huge dollop. To me this bears the greatest relevance as it pushes the more imaginative minds to be more selective of what they reveal to the readers. The best is the kind of small exposition slipped into an otherwise unassuming scene. Exposited by simply telling the narrative rather than focus on explaining every detail as to why things are the way they are; remember small salami slice dotted here and there. This serves a greater purpose as well as you could insert some interesting exposition that is directly relevant to the plot that the readers will pick up on and the characters don't. Suddenly readers have a greater vested interest in your characters as they know something that your characters don't.

Ultimately, I find exposition is a topic that has much to be improved on. Its close relation to principles of show don't tell and its ability to completely derail the plot if done poorly has always been something that frightens me. I would just like to conclude by suggesting that when one finds oneself writing a scene and feels the need to add some exposition to it to make even the smallest adjustment or improvement to understanding the narrative world. Just think for a second if it is really necessary, if it adds anything of merit to the plot and if it is done in a large, horrific mess of an info dump.

This has been TheYoungKlein and I'm writing blind.

[some-cookie-crumbz]

writing prompt for some angsty kidge! 😈: mission gone wrong

HO BOI HOPE Y’ALL ARE READY FOR EVEN MORE HEARTBREAK MWEH HEHEHEH!!!

TW: Gore, Mutilation, Disfigurement

With Earth becoming a hub for alien activity after Voltronswooped back in to remind the universe what Voltron was all about, there was amix of good and bad. On the plus, the coalition had returned to help repairsome of the damage that Sendak and his forces had caused. It had only been agood year or so since then, and the Earth was nowhere near the same as before,there was comfort in things starting to resume as usual. With the coalitioninvolved, as well, they’d started to do more networking with smaller but justas vital planets, sending small groups from Voltron, the Garrison, the rebelforces, and the Blade to start up positive relations.

And ultimately, that had all been going well. They weresuccessfully extending their network, which opened up new avenues fordevelopments in the war. With the help they were getting, they’d gotten newmaterials, and those new materials were being used by the incredibly talentedhands of the Holts, Slav, and a technological development team composed of thesmartest minds from various worlds. The upgrades that had been given to the MFEships, the Atlus, and the basic battle cruisers they were planning on bringingalong once they went star faring again had gained great advantaged that wouldfurther cripple the Galran forces.

This also, however, led to people like Commander Hortazshowing up.

Hortaz, as they learned, was yet another ex-Zarkon leechthat had broken off during the after effects of the power vacuum. He’d gained asmall following of his own, with a small but impressive fleet of his own. Hehad sent down a notice to inform them that he had taken Krolia and Shirohostage. He claimed that he had intervened with their ship on its way back toEarth, and insisted that only a trade would grant their safe release.Specifically, a trade involving the Lions of Voltron for two of their mostprominent leaders. He told them they had four hours to decide before there’d beserious consequences to pay.

Keith’s response was to insist they enact an incrediblyrisky maneuver to sneak on board and save the duo.

“Now I’m not trying to be pessimistic here. Butthis,” Hunk said, indicating Keith with the wave of one hand, “seemslike a really bad idea.”

Lance nodded, shifting a bit as he crossed his arms over hischest. “I’m inclined to agree with Hunk here. We have next to no infoother than their demands and that they mayhave a hostage or two. It’s way too risky,”

“Too bad it’s not up to you two. Pidge, get thecoordinates pulled up and send them to Green. Everyone else, get ready to getin your Lions for cover,” Keith snapped, glaring at the duo before turninghis attention to the young woman. She seemed surprised and frowned at him,fingers tightening around the datapad in her hands.

“We haven’t heard back yet from the rebels about theirsituation, though! They could still be with Matt and his team doing recon overon planet Faqur!” Coran insisted, poised at the communication channel andtrying to reach out to the planet in question.

Keith growled and wheeled to instead turn his fury on theolder male. “We’ve been waiting for overan hour! It’s time to take action!”

Hunk stepped up again, both his hands up in an attempt at aplacating gesture. “Dude, they need some extra time! The rebels don’t runwith state-of-the-art equipment on low-risk assignments like that! This leadsto a delay in the transfer rate for their communicators!”

“This has been waytoo long to be simple delayinterference!”

“Keith, we understand your concern but-!” Allurachimed in, trying to take a similar approach to Hunk.

“No, you don’t! My Mom and Shiro are the only family I have left!” He bellowed, wheeling to glare down at the faces ofthe other Paladin’s, all gawking at him. He felt his hands clench into fists athis side. “If there’s even the slightestchance that they’re on that ship, I haveto go and get them out!”

He turned and stormed out of the room, not even bothering tolook back at them again. None of them really understood how he felt, about howterrified he was. For so long he’d had no one to rely on, had no one who lovedhim or believed in him. He’d already lost Shiro once and had missed so muchtime with his mother, he couldn’t stand the thought of losing either of themagain.

He heard footsteps behind him. He paused and turned,unsurprised to see Pidge jogging up along after him. “Hey, hold on. Can wetalk for a second?”

“If you’re just going to try and convince me thatthey’re right then you’re wasting your breath,” He said bluntly.

She frowned a bit as she strode up so that she was standingright in front him. “I’m not saying that we shouldn’t go out there anddeal with Commander Hortaz, but I think the others have a good point. We needmore information before we go in there shooting - or, rather, stabbing - firstand asking questions later,” She explained. She readjusted the grip shehad on her datapad, as if she intended to pull it up and show him something.“We should figure out where, exactly, he could be holding Krolia and Shirobefore we go storming in.”

“You mean where he isholding them! We would have heard back from oneof them by now if they weresafe!”

“But we don’t know if they are in danger! Hunk already explained to you why we may not haveheard back yet! We have another three hours of time before Hortaz comes lookingto fulfill the exchange; that’s morethan enough time to hear back from Matt. While we wait, we can do someinvestigating with drones on the ship so we have a better idea of what we’refacing if it does come down to a matter of executing a rescue mission. Doesthat sound like an agreeable plan?”

He growled and leaned down to her level, getting in herface. “We don’t have time forall this stalling! If we sit on our hands and do nothing, it guarantees that they’ll bekilled!”

“And running in half-cocked will only get us and them killed!” She snappedback angrily, not even bothering to step down. He had always admired herferocity and stubbornness, but now he just found it frustrating. Her gazesoftened a bit, though, and she reached out to set one hand on his upper arm,squeezing lightly to try and reassure him. “Keith, please. Work with us, not againstus. We’re a team and we need to worktogether like one. We can save them if they are in danger, but we need to workas a team.”

He stared at her, at the pleading gaze in her bright ambereyes. Of all the Paladins, he’d always felt that Pidge understood him the best.Despite the two of them coming from drastically different backgrounds, he’dseen how passionately she protected those she held dear. He couldn’t recall allthe times where her sensibility and logical approaches to problem solving hadsaved Team Voltron as a whole. Her input was one he valued and could rely onwhen his own was in a questionable place.

Well, most of the time, anyway.

He wretched free from her grasp. “I was expecting that,if anyone understood how I felt, it’d be you,” He hissed lowly.

Hurt took over her features for a moment before anger slidback into place. “I never putthe safety of the whole team on theline to save my family! I went looking for Matt alone!”

“Sure didn’t mind putting you, Shiro and Matt at riskfor your Dad, though,” He scoffed.

“How do you know about that?” She asked in slightsurprise.

“All you need to know is that I do. And that I knowyou’re being a hypocrite. So, just saying, make sure to be careful whenclimbing down from that high horse you’re up on. Wouldn’t want you to hurtyourself,” He sneered, shifting to walk away again.

“And somehow you’rein the moral right regarding this? Is thatwhat you think?” She said with a sharp, incredulous laugh. She followedafter him, shoving her way in front and forcing him to face her properly.“Bad news, pal; you aren’t! You’re putting all of us at risk over what a Galran commander is claiming he did! Without giving any of your own teammatesthe chance to confirm the validity of hisclaims!”

He squared his shoulder, his own fury growing at herpersistence. “I outrank all of you!Instead of picking a fight with me, just do what I fucking said,Pidge!”

For a moment, his shout echoed in the corridor around them.The look in her eyes was hard to read for him, but he could see that somethinghad been shattered between them. Trust, respect, comradory… He could place anexact label on it, but he knew that he had broken whatever tender relationshipthey had. For a moment, he wanted to back pedal and apologize, admit that shewas right and he was just falling back into his old habits of using aggressionto solve his problems.

However, he knew she wouldn’t accept it. The damage hadalready been done.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking a stepback and holding her hands up. When she looked at him again, her eyes were nearglowing with contained fury. “… Fine. We’ll do things your way, ohvaliant and noble leader. But if something goes wrong, I’m not saving you out there. Remember that,” With that, sheshifted around him and headed for the hanger to get the necessary preparationstarted.

He shoved down the uncomfortable churning of guilt andself-doubt in his belly as he returned to the command room, letting the othersknow to get to their battle stations for the in enactment of his plan. Alluraand Hunk exchanged worried glances with each other and Lance as the moved past.Lance himself, however, glared Keith down as he exited the room, making sure toshoulder-check the darker haired male as he did. The Black Paladin optedagainst commenting or pushing his luck further with his team; with his bondwith Pidge clearly fractured, the last thing he needed was to give hisrelationships with the rest of Team Voltron the axe treatment.

The ride in Green Lion to Commander Hortaz’ main ship wastense and uncomfortable. He stayed silent himself, not wanting to push Pidge’spatience any further, and she didn’t even grace him with questions or commentsabout their progress. She used a scanning device she’d upgraded the Green Lionwith to locate an empty hanger – most likely vacant to have room for the Lions,if he wagered a guess – and hacked the mainframe to open the door. There was asmall squad of sentries inside but, with Green’s cloaking still active, theywere easy to remove and settle in.

They left Green in the hanger and began searching, Pidgeshifting through codes and files and unlocking any cell that could potentiallyhave someone inside. Their searching turned up nothing, though, and dreadstarted to fill Keith as they approached the main deck. Perhaps CommnaderHortaz had foreseen their impromptu rescue mission, and relocated the prisonersto where he could monitor them personally?

When they charged in, though, it became clear by the legionof soldiers and the smug look on Hortaz’ face that it had been a bluff. AndKeith led them right into the trap like a bunch of blind mice.

Chaos broke out the minute he and Pidge breached the maindeck. The sentries and soldiers surged forward, clearly intending to overpowerthe duo. They handled themselves well enough, dispatching their opponents withthe kind of skilled grace to be expected of seasoned Paladins of Voltron.Commander Hortaz was barking orders at his underlings as they fought, but Keithwasn’t paying much mind to what he said. His bigger concern was taking Hortazdown for what he’d done.

Suddenly, there was a force slamming into his back and asharp shout of, “Keith, look out!” He stumbled forward and turnedjust in time to see some strange, orb-like device latching onto Pidge. Therewere large, piercing metal prongs that suddenly speared out, piercing throughher armor to latch on to the crook of her neck on the left side. She cried outand reached up, trying to yank the device free frantically.

“Pidge!” He shouted, turning to charge forward andhelp get it off of her.

But, then, the device began flashing, and an explosionerupted. There was nothing but the sound the explosion, the sight of theexplosion blast, and the smell of burning; burning skin, burning hair and theburning of whatever material their armor was constructed from. Pidge’s bodywavered for a moment, her silhouette in the resulting plume of smoke all hecould see, before she dropped to her knees and hit the ground.

And then all he saw was red.

“Pidge!” He howled, barely recognizing his ownvoice. He rushed forward, pulling out is luxite blade and hacking at thesentries and soldiers indiscriminately in his path to her. Hortaz came at him,trying to halt him, only for Keith to smack him rough across the head with theblunt side of his bayard. The Commander wasn’t used to combat, obviously, as hestumbled back with a cry. Keith paused and struck the other twice more, justfor good measure, and then easily sidestepped his body to get to his followteammate.

He dropped to his knees beside her, hands shaking as herecalled his bayard and set his luxite blade aside. She’d taken all the damagefrom the explosion, and the armor seemed to have become nothing more butshrapnel to cause even more damage. The side of her helmet the bomb hadattached to was completely destroyed, and the glass from the screen wasshattered on the other side, murky with grim and blood. All of her shoulder waspierced open and there were clear bleeding lacerations along her neck. Therewas the faint gleam of silver from the small prongs, still latched into herskin. He shifted to pull her closer and froze when he saw the mangled mess ithad become. “O-Oh, God, Pidge…P-Please, say something!” Hechoked out. He stole a glance down and saw only a faint movement of her chest,some slight he almost missed it.

He would need to act fast if he wanted her to live.

He opened up the communication channel before carefullymoving to pick her up. He shifted to carry her over one shoulder, in thefireman carrying style with his right arm looped under her knees to keep herpressed close. “We need an extraction, now!” He shouted as he dartedout of the room.

“W-What? But you have Green Lion! You can fly out thesame way you came in!” Hunk sputtered before letting out a shout, thesounds of laser blasts reaching through. The fleet may have been small but itwas clear they hadn’t wanted the Lions having a chance to link up.

“Pidge isn’t going to be able to pilot! We need someoneto tow Green with us inside!”

There was static for a second, followed by an impassionedshout from Lance. “What do you mean?What happened to Pidge? What did you do?”

“Lance, now isn’tthe time!” Allura snapped back. Keith skid to a stop in the hallway for amoment, looking around as he tried to remember how far back they’d had to goand what kind of turns they’d made. “Get back to Green and let us knowwhen you’re there. We’ll find you and get you out.”

He swallowed hard before he darted down a corridor to hisright, recognizing a dent from where Pidge had slammed a drone into the wall.He kept going, desperate to find his way back to Green. “You’re gonna be okay,Pidge. I promise,” He choked out, forcing himself to remain composed. He neededto stay focused on making it back to Green in one piece. If they didn’t, Pidgewouldn’t make it out of this alive.

His stomach churned as he remembered what Pidge had said,about how she wouldn’t protect him if this mission went bust. He wished thatshe had stayed true to that, that she’d let the bomb blow up on him. This wasall his fault, his bull-headed decision, and she didn’t deserve to suffer forhis refusal to listen to his team.

He would have to apologize her, once she was well enough, hethought as he barged into the hanger. The moment they arrived, Green’s particlebarrier lowered and she dipped her head, opening her maw to them. He rushed in,charged into the cockpit, and settled down. He placed Pidge down gently andcarefully. “We’re in!”

“Send out a distress signal from Green’s comms! Theships defenses are down so we should be able to track you down!” Allurasnapped. He carefully shifted over and the console lit up, Green most likelyaware of what was needed and giving him a minimal amount of leeway withcontrolling her. “It’s showing for me; is everyone else seeing it?”

“Got it! Heading that way now to run defense!”Hunk called.

Lance was the next to chime in. “Same! I’ll heat blastinto the ship to get Green space-borne!”

“Excellent. I’ll see if I can handle towing Greenalong. If you two can cover me, I think we can make it,”

“Roger!” The two said in unison before putting the makeshiftplan together.

With the plan set in motion, Keith stumbled away from thecontrols and headed back over to where Pidge was laying. He paid barely anyattention to what was occurring, glancing up briefly when the hanger was meltedopen and the ship knocked into an angle. He watched as Green shifted, floatinga bit and slowly twirling out into the stars. The minute Green was out farenough, Blue appeared, staring at Green for a moment before shifting upwards,settling her paws along Green’s back and starting to surge forward.

He knelt down beside her and shifted, unsure of what to do.Would removing the helmet be a safe idea? She clearly suffered from headinjury, so would removing the helmet be too much jostling for her weakened formto handle? But she was bleeding so much and from so many places… Would it bebetter to try and stop the bleeding?

He rushed over to one of the smaller compartments in thecockpit, where they kept small amounts of rations and first aid kits. He fishedout the kit and then headed back over, kneeling beside her again, and poppingopen the kit. As he reached in to start getting out supplies, he had to freeze.So much damage had been done, where should he even begin? His brain told himthat her neck was the logical place to start with getting her injuries undercontrol, but then the issue of what should be removed and how safe to do so itwould be, cropped back up.

He could feel his mind whirling a mile a minute, panic andanxiety grasping around his throat like a choke hold. What if his attempts tohelp only made things worse? After all, he risked the chance of causing morebleeding if he removed pieces of the shrapnel, right? He could feel his handstrembling as he grabbed a bottle of antiseptic from inside. “Pidge, comeon! Katie, please, say something! Give me something, a-anything! You have to be ok!” Hedropped the bottle and pressed one hand against the cool metal of the cockpit,hoping that it would ground him. “This can’t… This can’t be happening. Not to her.”

There was the now-familiar prodding at the back of his mindof a Lion reaching out to him. For a moment, he thought it was Black Lion,sensing his unsteady frame of mind and reaching out to him. Once he allowed thepresence into his mind, though, he realized that the Lion was unfamiliar tohim. “My Paladin… Where is my Paladin, Black Paladin?”

“Green…?” He asked quietly, lifting his head andlooking around the barely lit cockpit.

“My question, Black Paladin. Answer it,” Green’s presence became more aggressive, the edgesof her consciousness beginning to bleed anger into him.

He shook his head a bit. “I… I dont know what youmean! Sh-she’s right here, withme!”

Green’s anger boiled higher at this, pressing on his mindwith a sharp pressure that left his vision spotty for a moment. “Do youthink me a fool? I will not be taken in by your lies!”

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before glaringtowards the ceiling of the cockpit. “It’s not a lie! She’s here in front of me! Right here!” He looked back down at her and then sucked in aharsh breath, his heart stammering for a second at the lifelessness of herbody. He pressed forward, setting a gentle hand on the chest plate of herarmor, praying for just the slightest movement. Thankfully enough, he could seeher taking incredibly shallow breathes. It wasn’t much, but at least it showedshe was still fighting. “She’s… She’s still breathing! She’s going to make it!” He shouted,whether for himself or for Green, he wasn’t entirely sure. He opened the communicationsagain. “We need to have a medical staff at the ready the minute we get back to Earth!”

“Easier saidthan done! Your brilliant plan of kicking thehornet’s nest is getting us swarmed!”

“Lance is right, Keith! We were barely able to get you out safely, and I can’t fight with Greenattached!” Allura chimed in. He heard her mutter some kind of swear inAltean under her breath, some of her frustration starting to leak out. “Ifwe had Voltron we could handle this with great ease!”

Keith glared off to the side before letting his eyes fallback on Pidge, watching her like a hawk to assure she was still breathing.“Voltron’s out of the question; we’re down a Lion, regardless of what wedo. Even if I did call Black Lion to me, it doesn’t change that Pidge can’tpilot,”

“Is there any way we can switch Lance to towing duty?Red’s faster so she and Lance can get you guys back down faster so Pidge canget treatment! Then he can come back to the battle, and Keith can get Black tohelp out! At least with four Lions we have better odds!” Hunk chimed in,just as Yellow rushed in front of Blue to ram into an incoming ship.

“Great idea, Hunk! Also, thanks for the save!”

“Aw, thanks! And don’t mention it!”

Red could be seen a bit away from them, weaving between shipsand wreckage with the greatest of ease. "That should work. Allura, I’mheading over to switch with you,”

The switch went relatively smooth, thanks to Hunk running interferencewith any incoming ships. Once Red’s paws were settled along Green’s back, Lancepunched it into overdrive, the sudden chance of force and speed nearly topplingKeith over. He forced himself to stay upright, though, and carefully placed asteadying hand against her good shoulder. She released a quiet whine at theaction, but he took it as yet another sign that she was still fighting.

The minute the ground was in sight, a medical team standingby with a stretcher, Keith shifted and picked Pidge back up. He focused onhander her over, ignoring the horrified sounds of the staff. A glance over hisshoulder showed Red Lion frozen in air for a moment, Lance most likely catchinga glimpse of the damage and being too stricken to move. He turned away andrushed to getting Black, intent on getting some kind of revenge for what hadhappened.

With him partaking and Commander Hortaz dispatched, dealingwith the fleet was handled well enough. The whole team was fueled by the angerof knowing one of their own was seriously injured by these soldiers and theirleader. He was kicking himself the whole time, wondering why he hadn’t donebetter, why he hadn’t led the team better.

Hadn’t he learned anything?

Was he just doomed to repeat the same ignorant approaches toproblems, harming those he held dear for eternity?

The thought plagued him the entire mad rush from the hangerto the medical bay. They were forced to sit in the lobby area with Sam andColleen once they arrived, as she was still in surgery. Coran stayed with themthrough most of it, but left to inform Matt, Shiro and Krolia of what had occurredonce it was confirmed they were on their way back. He had been the one goingaround and taking the time to reassure and comfort everyone, but with him gone,no one else dared move or speak. The silence was only occasionally broken up bysoft hiccups from either of the panicked, terrified parents. Keith didn’t havethe courage to lift his head and say anything or even face them. How could helook them in the eyes, knowing this was all his fault? That the bomb was meantfor him, but he’d only been spared because of their daughter’s quick actions?That none of this would have happened if he’d simply listened to his teammates?

All of his bravery had left him in the face of this, leavinghim nothing but a heart and belly that felt weighed down by lead.

Finally, after two hours that felt like an eternity, one ofthe doctors came down to lead them up. Thankfully, she had swapped out hersurgical scrubs for the expected white lab coat. He didn’t recognize her anddidn’t bother with reading the ID badge she had clipped to her coat. They allfollowed her down the hall, but once she reached the door, she took the Holtsaside and spoke with them quietly. Keith swore he saw something break in themat whatever she said before she opened the door and quietly ushered theminside. Once determining that the two were settled in with their daughter, sheexited the room, shutting the door with the utmost care, and turned to face theother Paladins.

“How’s Pidge? Is she gonna be okay?” Hunk blurtedout, his tone frantic but seeming to recognize that volume control would stillbe necessary.

Lance was next, scrambling out of the small plastic chairhe’d settled in. “When can we go in and see her? How long will she needbefore she can bounce back?”

The doctor held up one hand, clearly not anticipating to bejumped so enthusiastically following her return. “She is stable,” Shesaid, directing these words to Hunk before turning to look at Lance, "butit will be some time before she is able to do much of anything. The damage wasextensive and will require a lot of additional treatment and surgeries goingforward to help her adapt to the aftermath. For now, we don’t want her beingoverstimulated, so we only want one or two people going in at a time, and forno more than ten minutes at a time. She’s stable, as I said, but there wasquite a bit of trauma to her head so she can’t keep up with things going onaround her near as well as she could prior. Right now, until Commander and Dr.Holt come out, no one else should go in to see her.”

Allura shifted to sit more upright in her own seat, armswrapping around herself tightly in concerned. “Aftermath? What does thatmean?”

“Well, the explosion was in close proximity of herperson, correct?”

“Yeah,” Keith croaked, the first words he’d spoken in hours.“It… It was some kind of bomb that attached directly to her, along hershoulder and… And part of her neck. She was trying to pry it off when itexploded.”

The doctor hummed, plucking a clipboard from a tray besidePidge’s door and beginning to write on it furiously. "Well, that certainlyexplains quite a bit of it,” She paused once she was done writing, gave asmall nod as she skimmed it over, and then returned the clipboard to its tray.“She’s got severe burns on the left side of her face, as well as somegashes from the combination of bomb shrapnel and her helmet being destroyed.Furthermore, she’ll be deaf and blind on that side. Amputating her left handwas also necessary, as the damage to the muscle was too extensive to recovernaturally. Commander and Dr. Holt have both already been informed of this, sowe know a prosthetic will be a fast reality for her. It just depends how fastshe feels well enough to have the prosthetic attached.” There was a quietchime within one of the pockets of her coat. She pulled out a small beeper andhummed to herself, switching it off and nodding her head at them politely.“You’ll have to excuse me. I need to go make my rounds with my otherpatients.”

And, once she disappeared from sight, all Hell broke loose.

“A bomb wentoff in her face?” Hunk wheezedout, stumbling back a step as he stared at their somber leader.

Lance, however, wheeled around and seized Keith up by thecollar of his Garrison jacket. “This is all your fault!” He shouted, slamming him into the wall justbeside where he’d been seated.

“Lance, stop!”Allura protested, getting out of her seat and moving towards them.

Keith held one of his hands up at her, trying to stop her. “No,Allura. Let him shout about how right he was while he can,”

He almost regretted those words as a look of pure murdertook over his teammate’s, eyes icy in more ways than just color. “Is that what you think this is about? Aboutgetting to say I was right? Being right was the last fucking thing I wanted to be; especially if what happened to Pidge was the cost!” He seethed, his volume lowered but pure menacedripping off his words. But this was what Keith had wanted by choosing thewords he had. Of all of Team Voltron, as loathe as he was to admit it, he knewthat Lance was the one that would always be completely honest with him, withoutholding anything back. And that reality – thathurt –was what he needed. “You could have gotten her killed! And for what?To chase after a blatant lie? If we’dwaited another thirty minutes - just like the rest of us said - youwould have known they we bluffing!Instead, Pidge had to lose a hand, her sight, and her hearing on one side! Areyou happy now that you almost got her killed because you just had to rush into a fight? Like you alwaysdo?”

“… Let go of me,”

“What, can’t handle the truth?” Lance sneered.

Keith snarled and lifted his head, meeting Lance’s furiousgaze with one of his own. “I saidlet go!” He roared before tearing the other’s hand off of him andtaking off for the elevator.

“That’s right, run!Run away from the problems you makelike you always do!”

He rushed into the elevator and made his way up to the roof,desperate to find a place to be alone. He had antagonized Lance intentionally,sure, but he hadn’t necessarily expected that. Those words… Though he felt themto be true, hurt to hear coming from someone else. To have his own feelings -the dark and awful feelings he kept buried deep down inside – asserted as atruth hurt deeply, but he forced himself to swallow it down.

He deserved it. But, for as much as he knew he deserved it,he had been a breath away from lowering himself to fisticuffs with Lance, andhad forced himself to just leave.

He stayed up on the roof as he watched the sun dip behindthe mountain range, the inky dark of night enveloping them. He watched as thestars began to slowly spark to life, tracing out his favorite constellations asthey appeared. He couldn’t remember how many nights he’d snuck out to the roofto think, the sight of the sky helping to soothe the unease inside of him.

Once that familiar comfort had fully soothed him, he headedback down to Pidge’s room. He hoped that Lance was either gone, or at leastcalmed down some. To his surprise, the other Paladins were gone, but Shiro wassettled in one of the seats. He’d most likely known that he’d come slinkingback at some point with his tail between his legs.

“Keith,” Shiro said as he rose from his seat.

He walked past the older male and stared at the door. “Howis she?”

Shiro heisitated, looking off to the side before sighingquietly. “She’s… She’s hanging in there,” He sounded choked up. Heprobably hadn’t expected the kind of horrific damage that Keith had caused tothe feisty young woman. “Everyone else has already gone in. So, if youwanted to…”

He let out a hollow little laugh. “Do I even have the right to go see her?”

“Keith… Of course you do,”

“I don’t feel like I do. I feel like all I’ve done is revealedhow wrong it was for the Black Lion to ever put me in the leader’s seat. Idon’t deserve to be a Paladin of Voltron… I don’t deserve to be a pilot… AllI’ve done is proved everyone that ever said I’d never be worth anythingright,”

Shiro reached out and set one hand on Keith’s shoulder,giving a small squeeze. “You made a bad call… That’s true. Learn fromthis and never do it again. Work to make amends with the others. All you can dois do better going forward,”

He stared at him for a moment, not really sure if hebelieved the other, before looking back at the door. “Now or never, Isuppose,” He said before opening the door and slowly going inside.

There were a lot of monitors and devices hooked up to her,mostly the standard ones from what he could tell. The entire left side of herhead was covered in white gauze. The IVs had been placed into her right side,which made sense, but the chair in the room had been moved to settle by thefoot of her bed. It made sense, though; if she couldn’t see or hear on her leftside, company would need to approach from her right, but it was clear that theyalso needed to be weary of her hookups.

Her visible eye was cracked, a little hazy, but shifted tofix on him as he slipped into the chair.

"Hey, Pidge,” He said quietly.

“Oh… Hey,” She trailed, her words a bit slurred.Probably from the pain medications, he wagered.

He reached out and gently set one of his hands on top ofhers, making sure not to put too much pressure for fear of irritating any ofthe IVs she was hooked up to. “Pidge, I’m… I’m so sorry. I should have listened to you and the others. If I had, none of this would have happened. Youwouldn’t have been hurt, and I understand if you can never forgive me for this,”He choked out, blinking frantically to keep the tears at bay. He hated himselfso much for what he’d done to her.

“It’s okay. We all do stupid stuff, I’m sure… Atleast, I think so, anyway,” It was strange to hear her sound unsure.

“I’m just so glad you’re alive, Pidge,” He said,lifting his head to look at her again.

“Thanks, um… Uh… Who are you?”

[lycorogue]

Meet My OCs: Willow (Part 5 – Stories)

You still with me? You are friggen awesome!

Just two more to go! This post and the next one, which will be a post showcasing some fun wrestling entrances I created for my husband’s WWE13 game.

Before we really get into this post, though, how about a quick recap of this series thus far?

Part 1: Introduction to the series, as well as explanations of the real-world influences that helped me create my two story worlds of Gyateara and Glitches. Part 2: Explaining the inspirations that birthed each of my four main Gyateara characters. Part 3a: Same, but for my four main teenage Glitches characters. Part 3b: How I reworked 6 canonical X-Men characters into the Glitches main supportive cast of six adult characters.

Meet Willow mini-series:

Part 1: Willow’s background, personally overview, and powers. Part 2: Willow’s main relationships. Part 3: Willow’s history on the X-Future game, and how it will translate to Glitches Part 4: Willow visuals; fanart, commissioned art, and fashion design games

Now you get a bit more into Willow’s head via 5 writing samples. Two are adaptations of the play-by-post game itself, and three others are side-story narratives. Check below to read them.

The Set-up: An example of the Willow/Devon dynamic before Devon left to join The Brotherhood, leaving Willow feeling betrayed.

Word Count: 1174

 - Mutual Teasing - 

Labored breaths fell in rhythm with pounding footfalls. The humidity of the summer day settled on the thick lawn that was a few days past needing a mow. Broken blades of grass stuck to two sets of sneakers. Their path was already visible behind them with the wet greenery staying crushed under their tread.

"There!" Willow panted as her fingers brushed Devon's shoulder. "Finally caught your ass." She gargled some sticky saliva and spat it to her side. She braced herself with her hands on her knees as she took a long breath. Moving her hands to her waist, she exhaled and arched backwards before flopping onto the grass. The budding dew cooled her bare legs.

Devon allowed one foot to slide out on the grass and landed beside Willow. He thumbed his nose and coughed the burn out of his lungs.

"Worn out already?" he laughed. "I thought you do street running or fast running or Perk-ore or whatever."

Willow leaned back on her elbows, tossed her short silver hair out of her face, and focused on Devon out of the corners of her aquamarine eyes. She clicked her tongue against her teeth before huffing a sarcastic laugh.

"First: you're an ass. Second: how the hell did you grow up in Brooklyn and not know what Free-running is? Also, it's pronounced Parkour."

"Eh, whatever. You knew what I meant."

Willow let her arms give out beneath her and stretched across the grass. She closed her eyes and flicked Devon in the wrist as her fingers brushed his skin.

"Hey!" Devon pulled away before smirking and skirting around to her head. Kneeling at her shoulders, he pinned her arms. "How am I the ass when you're the athlete who can't handle a quick game of tag?"

The fifteen-year-old opened her eyes again, only to squint them as if she were trying to stare at the sun. It kept her a couple of seconds to adjust to Devon's exotic brown eyes only being a couple inches away. The flecks of color embedded in the cocoa of his irises flickered a rainbow of reds, golds, greens, and oranges as if Devon's eyes were kaleidoscopes.

Abruptly, Willow killed the silence by blowing on Devon's nose. Instinctively, the seventeen-year-old pulled a hand away to rub the itch she caused. With Devon distracted for a couple of seconds, Willow easily slid her other arm free, twisted into a sitting position, and flicked him in the forehead all as one fluid motion.

"You're an ass because your 'quick game' lasted over an hour with barely any breaks. Plus, your mild healing power increases your endurance. No lung or muscle burn means running is easier. Simple science confirms your assness. Boom." She motioned her hand like she was dropping something, and the image of a three-inch atomic bomb appeared, complete with a mushroom cloud explosion when the bomb disappeared into the grass.

"Bah, you're just a sore loser." Devon tilted to his side and rolled onto his back. "So, whaja wanna do now?"

"Sun's down. We should probably start heading back." Willow stood and brushed the moisture off herself.

"Sun's down," Willow's voice parroted back to her, "We should probably start heading back."

Willow turned to see herself lying in the grass, one leg hooked over a bent knee, kicking slightly.

"I hate when you do that." The real Willow tucked her hair back to make sure Devon saw her full glare.

Imitation Willow laughed in Devon's baritone. Her long, slender legs shimmered as they became quickly covered in heavy denim jeans. Her petite chest broadened and her pale skin darkened to an olive-tone. Finally, her heart-shaped face, framed by an asymmetrical bob, shifted into Devon's chiseled jaw with spiky brown locks; his nondescript features returned, again suggesting that he was somehow all races at once.

"Come on," Devon said once he was back to his normal form, "you secretly love having a twin."

Three Willows formed out of the air behind the original. In unison, all four replied, "I could be however many I want. All you do is simple mockery."

One of the false three walked over to Devon and knelt beside him. She rubbed his chest and stroked his jaw with a silky smile across her face. The original Willow stepped to the side of the other two in order to give Devon an unobscured view.

"I can do more than mimicry though," the real Willow cooed.

The two illusions that stayed behind turned to each other and moved in for an embrace and kiss. Before their lips met, they transformed into Devon sloppily making out with himself.

The seductive Willow illusion still stroking Devon's chest burst into laughter. The real Willow joined suit. With a flick of her wrist, the illusionary Devons were only in matching white boxers with hearts on them. One Devon grabbed the other's ass.

"There we go," Willow snorted, "much better. Don't you think? Oh, and a goosing too. You frisky devil."

Devon smirked. "I think I'm damn handsome actually, and would gladly make out with myself given the chance. I also think you secretly want to see me in those." He gestured towards the boxers and winked at the real Willow. He then tapped the illusion Willow on her nose to disperse her; breaking Willow's spell.

Willow huffed as she waved her hand as if erasing the illusion of the making-out Devons. They too vanished, leaving only the original Willow and Devon alone in the field.

"Well, I think you have too high of an opinion of yourself." Willow crossed her arms in front of her and pouted; her fun ruined. "Like I'd want anything to do with you and your boxers."

Devon stood up and chuckled. "Say what you want. Your illusion showed me all I needed to know."

"Shut up! I was trying to mess with you."

"Would have worked if you got some details right." Devon dramatically shrugged with his arms out to his sides. "For starters, you clearly don't know how make-out sessions work."

"Y-yes I do!" She blushed. "I was purposely making it bad to imply that you're a bad kisser."

Devon shoved his hands deep in his pockets before walking over to Willow and leaning in close. "Want me to show you how well I kiss?" He wagged his eyebrows at her.

Willow's face flushed. "No! Gross! I'd probably have to teach you anyway." She stepped back and hugged herself. Her face scrunched up like she smelled a used diaper.

"You also got the boxers wrong. I go commando. Makes the morphing easier with less clothing. In fact, who's to say if I'm wearing any actual clothing right now?"

"Ewww!" Willow shoved him further away from her and started running back to the dorms.

"But I would totally sport only those white boxers with the hearts if that's what you're into," Devon teased, chasing after her. "And when should I expect those make-out lessons?"

"Hate you, Devon!" She playfully called back.

"You love me," he laughed.

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

The Set-up: 

Devon returned to the X-Men after spending two years with The Brotherhood of Mutants. Until the X-Men can decide if they can trust him, Devon is in a holding cell hidden under the Xavier Institute. Willow, feeling conflicted on the return of her former best friend and crush, decided to visit Devon to get some answers of her own. The answer she got was that he wasn't part of the attack on the Xavier Institute; he didn't even know about it until months later, and he grieved the presumed loss of his friends. He had every intention of simply infiltrating The Brotherhood and coming back to the X-Men as a spy to prove his worth to the X-Men. This is a sample from the larger story “Please, Let Me Explain” co-authored by me and Devon's creator Ronoxym.

Word Count: 843

- Can't You Be The Bad Guy? -

She peeked over her shoulder and back at Devon before turning fully around. "I saw what you did in the Danger Room. I was so intrigued by the idea of your first DR run that I made sure to set up shop in the observation deck. I watched the whole thing: wandering the desert, saving Penny, getting knocked out, waking up in what you thought was the infirmary before being convinced that you were going on an actual mission, going up against The Brotherhood again, and taking out Lookout once Pyro offered you info on your parents. It was a mean trick, but it seemed to seal your coffin well enough."

"I really wish you hadn't seen that." He shied away, ashamed at his behavior, but also growing angry at the reminder of the cruel misdirection. That session had ruined his life.

"Yeah, well, I did. I was so mad. I hadn't known you for long, but I thought I knew you pretty well. Even after the thing with Marge in the DR, I tried to come up with an explanation. But then you flee before the place blows? You had betrayed us to The Brotherhood and clearly didn't care about us any longer. My life for the past two years was hating you to no end. Vowing that I'd avenge Hedge. That I'd get payback for the other three lives you took. So, tell me, Devon, if you are as innocent as you claim, how doesn't that make the last two years of my life worse?"

Devon looked bewildered by her question. He had figured that being innocent would always make things better, not worse. Willow didn't miss a beat in informing him otherwise.

"Don't you get it? I just spent the past two years of my life hating you! Despising you! Having nightmares about you! I had a sickening sense of betrayal whenever I thought about you - even the few good times we had. I had emotional breakdowns and loathed my best friend for the past two years over a misunderstanding? That's supposed to cheer me up? I blamed you for four deaths you had nothing to do with? That's supposed to lift my spirits? Do you realize how much I put myself through because I thought I was the one who drove you to it? I mean, I was the one who convinced you to try out the DR in the first place! If I hadn't suggested it to Wolverine then maybe you wouldn't have left. Now knowing that I just might be right about that fact is supposed to perk me up?"

She started screaming at him as she wept. "The amount of time I wasted hating my best friend. The amount of energy I dedicated to hardening my heart to you. The days of self-loathing because I thought I put you up to it, or because - to this day – I'm still pissed off at Cyclops for tricking you like that! You were the enemy! Cyclops was right about you, and he was justified in testing you in the DR instead of letting you betray us in the field. Yet I still hated him for such a horrible ploy. Then I felt guilty for siding with a foe instead of a professor."

She hung her head and her hair spilled from behind her ears, hiding her right eye. It was manic whenever Trish's hair fell into her face, but it was sweet and a bit heart-wrenching when Willow's silvery-white locks drifted into hers. Devon just wanted to brush them away from her eyes, and help dry her tears. It pained him to the core that he caused her such grief.

Her voice cracked as she breathed out the next sentence. "It's just easier on me if you really were the bad guy. So, just- can you just give me that?"

Devon had no clue how to respond. They stood in silence for a few minutes - Devon staring at Willow as she focused on her own feet - before she finally ran out of the room. Mirroring Devon when he left the institute two years prior, Willow didn't bother to look back or say goodbye.

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

The Set-up: Nyssa, Devon, and Zeke just defected to the X-Men from The Brotherhood. Willow has not taken kindly to the trio, and is particularly harsh with Devon. Nyssa, Devon's unofficial girlfriend, decides to take it upon herself to get Willow to chill. This story is a companion piece to X-Future.

Word Count: 1613

 - It Is So On! -

Willow sighed and flopped on to her bed. "What do ya want, Nys?"

The blonde slammed the door closed behind her. "We need to talk about Devon."

Willow squeezed her eyes closed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "No, we don't. We really, really don't."

"Yes, we do." Nys' voice was firm, like a scolding school teacher. "Or at the very least you're going to hear what I have to say."

Willow opened one eye to glance over at Nys. The girl had a stubborn determination. Willow could already tell that she was in a losing battle. She closed her eyes and waved Nys on.

"You need to lay off him," Nys demanded.

Willow loudly drew in a hissy breath. On the loud exhale she rebutted, "How about nope?" She then rolled off her bed and walked over to her desk. "Well, that was fun. Buh-bye now."

Nys bit the inside of her cheeks and folded her arms. "Are you this hostile to everyone?"

Willow swung out her leg as she pivoted on her opposite heel, and then gracefully landed in her chair. "Only potential threats," she said matter-of-factly. "Ya know, like former members of an organization that already blew up this school once."

Nys stormed over to the desk. "That's not fair! First of all, none of us had anything to do with that! We weren't even members back then. Secondly, The Brotherhood had lied to us and kept us in the dark the entire time we were with them. None of us are actually bad people."

Willow cocked an eyebrow. She carefully watched as Nys took a few steps back and sank on to the bed. The blonde's harshness melted as she slumped on the soft surface.

"Look." For the first time Nys' voice was soft and a bit defeated as she studied her woven fingers. "Zeke is a bit simple minded, but he's really just a huge teddy bear. He's devoted and loyal as long as you treat him well, and he really just wants to be a good person. He's actually pretty devastated that he was part of a terrorist group. Well, we all are, honestly. Anyway, Zeke doesn't deserve you or anyone else here harassing him about his past."

"Yeah, okay, don't pick on the humanoid St. Bernard. Whatever." Willow made a display of yawning before she checked her desk clock. "Weren't you invading my room in order to talk to me about the Traitor Supreme?"

Nys vaulted off Willow's bed and got up in the younger girl's face. "Never ever refer to him like that!" she snarled.

Willow leaned back and shot her finger up at Nys. "Ah, there we are. Full circle back to rage. Fascinating how that works." She crossed her legs, and again casually waved for Nys to continue. "Well, if I have to hear this, can you at least move it along?"

"Move it along? Move it along! Are you kidding me right now?" Nys slammed her hand on the desk beside Willow. "Listen up, bitch, and listen carefully. You want this short? I'll make it simple for you then. Leave. Us. Alone. Easy enough for you?"

Willow scoffed and pivoted her chair so she had space to stand up. Nys caught the armrest and swung the chair back to center Willow on her. Holding firmly to each side of the chair, Nys leaned in close. "Don't mess with me, skank."

"Excuse me?" Willow knitted her eyebrows in disbelief and shifted her weight to one side, ready to sweep kick Nys away from her if need be.

"Don't pick on Zeke," Nys continued completely undeterred. "And certainly do not harass Devon. Don't be mean to him. Don't treat him harshly. Don't call him names. And never call him a traitor again! You would be lucky to have a loyal friend like him!"

"Loyal?" Willow's voice cracked as it was torn between yelling and laughing. Her face hardened. In a quick movement she simultaneously shoved Nys away from her and stood up fast enough to kick the chair behind her. "Now listen up here, sweetheart." She spat out the last word as if it were a curse. "I already had Devon as a friend, and let me tell you, it was far from lucky. Plus, he was about as loyal as a pet tiger. So it's time for you to sit down and listen to Teacher."

Nys rolled her shoulders and took a step back so her nose wasn't practically brushing Willow's. The silver-haired girl clenched her jaw as she growled through her teeth. "That jerk caused nothing but chaos when he left. And I certainly didn't feel his loyalty, or feel lucky to have been his friend. You want to know what I did feel? I felt lost. Betrayed. Hatred. So, you can keep him as a friend. 'Cuz I certainly don't want it."

The blonde shifted, gently tilting her head and calculating. "You liked him," she finally guessed after a few heartbeats.

"What?" Willow stiffened her back and glowered.

Nys struggled to keep the smile from tugging on her lips. "You did, didn't you?" She scanned her adversary as she softened her stance. "That's why you're so hard on him. He broke your heart when he left."

The belly laugh filled the room. Hugging her stomach, Willow snorted before she was able to recompose herself. She held up her hand apologetically as she took deep breaths to calm the giggles. "I'm sorry, but Devon? Devon St. James? That punk kid? Break my heart?" She guffawed and quickly muffled it with a hand. "Yeah, alright, ya got me. He intrigued me a little, and I may have thought he was kinda cute. That's it." She fought against smiling and it was killing her cheeks. "Broke my heart. You're so cute. Look, I was with someone then, and I'm with someone now. I wouldn't want Devon St. James ever. Hate to break it to ya." Willow winked at Nys and giggled a bit more.

"Oh, right, dating someone." Nys stared at a patch of wall just past Willow's shoulder. Her voice was distant as she tried to grab at a passing memory. "That Chayse guy, right?"

Half of Willow's face pulled up in a smile as she cocked a hip. "Yeah. Chayse. Someone way better than that runaway douchebag. Yet another reason your little Don Juan scenario would never happen."

Nys' eyes bore down on Willow for yet again disrespecting Devon. Taking a couple long breaths, she calmed herself. Something about the younger girl seemed a bit off balance since it was suggested that she had a crush on Devon; maybe even loved him. Nys decided to take a stab in the dark: that the images Lia had seen during their battle were at least based on truth. "This oh-so-fantastic Chayse guy, he was with that Lia girl before, am I right?"

Willow's chuckles quickly died. She scowled and again stiffened her back. "Watch it."

"Yeah, I think I heard that the two of them were actually a cute couple for a while. Then you stole him away from her with your slutty feminine wiles." Nys smirked and her eyes twinkled.

"Listen here, Tinkerbell," Willow shot forward to get right in Nys' face. She poked the girl in the shoulder to accentuate her point. "Don't go around talking about shit you know nothing about."

Nys casually gave a sideways glance at Willow's poking. As if swatting a fly, she brushed the younger girl's hand away. "I also heard something about you creating unnecessary chaos between that Irish couple."

Willow gave Nys a shove. "I told you to stop."

Nys stumbled back and landed on Willow's bed. She quickly crossed her legs and leaned back as if she had intended to sit down anyway. "Seems to me you enjoy causing needless drama among happy couples."

The slap echoed throughout the room. Nys gripped the side of her face, knowing a handprint would show up in due time. Willow remained in the follow through of her swing. Her breaths were slow but heavy. "I said," Willow growled, "stop it."

Nys pushed Willow out of the way so she could stand up. The two stared each other down for a good minute. Nys was the one who finally broke the silence. "Listen, bitch, I don't care if you despise Devon or love him. He's mine and you're not going to cause drama between us. Try all you want, but keep in mind that I have my own way of getting into someone's head." Glaring, Nys released some of her pheromones and Willow became lightheaded.

After a little wobbling, Willow allowed herself to collapse on to her bed. Nys smirked and let up on her powers. "Just a little taste. You'll be fine in a minute or two. Open the window to help that along." She walked over to the door and stopped with it half open. "Trust me, mess with Devon anymore and I'll make it ten times worse for you."

Nys slammed the door behind her when she left. Right on cue, Willow's eyes refocused. She stared down her bedroom door and imagined the blonde that just left. Her fingers still tingled from slapping the girl. Willow studied them before clenching her hand in to a fist. "Challenge accepted, Nys. Challenge accepted."

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

The Set-Up: The villain Agony managed to force Willow onto a weird sub-set of the Astral Plane in order for the two of them to battle. After a few scuffles, Agony drops some blood onto the “ground” of their battle field, and “crew” three copies of herself. Willow, using her illusion ability, did the same: creating 3 copies of herself. During the four-on-four battle, Agony circled the Willows, who are grouped together with their backs to each other. The Agonies formed scythes in each of their hands, meanwhile, Willow had her and her copies form daggers and shields. This is an adaptation of an actual X-Future role play scene

Word Count: 1358

 - I am a Badass -

Boy, did I screw myself over by not keeping one hand free. I couldn't vault myself like I normally would as Agony and her copies each swiped at us with their scythes. The best I could do was an aerial spin.

I jumped up, pulled in as tight as I could with the dagger and shield, and spun a bit so I was above the high blade. I came down just as Agony's clone's scythe finished it's swing. I managed to land on the blade and push it down to the ground. My illusionary selves mimicked me as we all land on the scythes and pin them to the ground. Unfortunately, I don't know if it was my clones or Agony's that were out of sync, but the duplicate behind me had her left shin badly sliced on her landing. Her balance off, she missed pinning the scythe of her Agony, and she nearly took out the Willow to my right.

My focus shifted for a half-second as I watched the girls tumble into each other. I made a mental note to watch my back for the free scythe. Lowering my weight to make sure the scythe I was standing on was pinned, I smirked at the Agony in front of me, my dagger out towards her throat.

“Your move, Kaiba.” I mocked.

Agony grinned and took a step forward, driving my dagger through her neck. Before I could register that she was obviously one of Agony's illusionary duplicates, blue “blood” sprayed out of the woman's neck; coating me. I guarded my face with the shield, and took an instinctive step back.

I wasn't pinning her scythe any longer, but it doesn't seem to matter as the injured Agony dropped to the ground and 'died.' The other two illusionary Agonys vanished as well, leaving my copies dazed as their fighting partners disappeared. Regaining our bearings, my illusionary clones and I all turn to the real Agony.

She didn't seem to care about her scythe any longer, dropping it to the ground, and letting the psy energy dissolve back into the atmosphere. Instead, Agony threw back her head and laughed.

Even with the shield, the spray had come at me too fast to block it all. I still had some of it on my face and shoulders. I kept my eyes on Agony as I tried to wipe the blood off me. The second I touched the blue goop it started to glow. Its pulsating felt like my own heartbeat pushing through my skin.

“What the hell!?” I chanced looking away from Agony for a moment as I inspected the damage. The pulsating blue blood glowed brighter. Startled, I tossed my shield to the side, and frantically attempted to brush the liquid off at all. I only managed to spread it onto my clean hand, and then down my unsoiled arms. No matter what, the blood won't clean off; like it was attached to me now. My hurried swipes became noticeably slower, and my head grew heavy, as if I were tranquilized. I dropped to my knees, and my head swayed and bobbled as I struggled to stay alert. My only thought was Seriously? This is how I'm going out?

“You. Bitch.” I coughed out; dropping onto my hands as well.

"Soon you will be fully paralyzed, then I'll have you at my mercy." Agony smirked as she folded her arms across her chest, waiting for the inevitable.

My three duplicates stared at me as I collapsed, completely baffled. Morons. That's when I figured that maybe them being dumbfounded was actually in my favor. Agony doesn't seem to be paying much attention to them anymore.

Go! I mentally whispered to them. Move! Help!

I was frozen; pinned to the floor. My body wouldn't move.

Agony took a step towards me, and held out her hand. The weird blue blood finally peeled off of me like liquid metal being pulled by a magnet in Agony's hand. As it pooled on her palm, it solidified into a crystalline dagger.

Help, I plead once more to my illusions. They had to be listening to me, right? Agony kneeled down in front of me, pulled her arm back, and as she swung her arm down to plunge the dagger into my back, my clones finally leapt at her.

“What the hell?” Agony bellowed as my illusionary duplicates pinned her in place, pulling back on the hand with the dagger. “How are your petty illusions moving on their own?” She struggled for a few seconds before smiling down at me. “No matter. This won't hold me for long.” She closed her eyes, relaxed her struggle slightly, and concentrated on her breathing.

Moving on their own? It didn't make sense to me that she'd be so confused by that fact. Oh, right! Her illusions moved completely in unison with her! They could only mirror. She can't create autonomous clones!

I made a mental note to use that fact against her, assuming I survived long enough for that knowledge to prove useful.

“They're not real!” Agony's voice squeaked with a twinge of pain as she started struggling harder against my duplicates again. “They are not real!” She screamed.

Oh, shit! That was it. Agony knew my weakness. Disbelieving in my illusions dispelled them. The only things literally holding her back from killing me would be gone any second now. I was doomed. I clenched my eyes closed and focused on getting my body to move.

Move! Move! Damn it, move your big toe! It worked for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill! Now do it!

“They are not real!” Agony yelled again. Her eyes flew open and stared down her attackers. “You are not real! What is going on? Why are you still here?”

Opening my eyes, I struggled to arch my neck to see. All three illusions truly were still fighting back against Agony as she frantically squirmed against them. I was clueless as to how that was possible. Was there some part of her brain that sincerely believed the clones were there? Was that why she couldn't dispel them?

That was when my eye caught the shin of the copy that was hit by the scythe earlier. Blood was trickling down her leg.

Holy shit! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. They're real? They're really real? Oh. Em. Gee! I'm so friggen hard core!

The blood trickling down my illusion's shin had a purple hint to it. Same as the shading of the actual Astral Plane. That's when I truly realized what happened. The damn things were more psi-weapons! Just in human form! You can't dispel psi-weapons!

I made another mental note: when I'm on the astral plane, any illusion I create is a friggen psi-weapon!

My humanoid psi-friggen-weapons pulled harder back on Agony.

“Get off me! You're not real! You're not supposed to be here anymore! How are you still here?” Agony twisted more against the clones, panic starting to draw onto her face.

The copy that had Agony's wrist yanked harder on her hand to make Agony's grip loosen. My copy leaned in close to Agony's ear.

“We're all still here-” the clone said.

“-because I am-” continued the clone yanking on Agony's shoulders to bend her arms back away from me.

“-a mother-effing badass!” the injured duplicate finished, then sucker-punched Agony in the gut.

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

The Set-Up: Willow unintentionally finds Lia hiding in the community bathroom. Lia blames herself for Annika/Judgment's possible death, as well as Devon's death (although technically, he's still alive), and Liam's. This is an adaptation of an actual X-Future role play scene.

Word Count: 1390

 - Check the Ego - 

“Oh, hun, no.” Willow dropped to her knees in front of Lia, who was curled up on the floor, hugging her legs. Willow placed her hands on Lia's to try to get her attention. “No, none of that is your fault. None of it! Do you hear me? You were fifteen when Annika left. What could you have possibly done? As for a last week? She was trying to kill you! You did what you had to in order to survive. If she is dead, it's her fault, not yours!” Willow moved her hands to Lia's face, and pulled her head up so Lia was looking in Willow's eyes.

“And both times Devon left were his own fault. He was the one that didn't want to include us. How could you possibly think you were responsible for that moron's actions? As for Liam? From what I gathered, you weren't anywhere near him. Know who was? That asshole Roscoe. Ya know, the guy who pretended to be Liam's BFF only to literally stab him in the back? Why? Why do you take all of this on? It's not your fault!”

Lia choked down tears in a sobbing hiccup. With the heel of her hand, she blotted away the few drops that pooled in her eyes. Despite Willow still holding her face, Lia refused to look in her friend's eyes, looking down to her arms instead.

“I-I dunno. I dunno why I feel guilty. Why do I feel guilty? What's wrong with me? I- I just can't help but feel like I failed, like I could have done something, like I could have done more. If only I could have gotten through to them. If I were better at understanding people. If I were better at my own powers. But I just keep failing. I keep proving to the world that it got left behind an inferior model. And-” Lia's eyes shoot up to meet Willow's. Her hands whipped to cover her mouth, a loud gasp attempting to suck up the next sentence back into her throat.

Willow's eyes slowly widened as realization washed over her. Abruptly, she ripped her hands away from Lia's face as Willow sprung up to tower over her.

“You're not your mom!” Willow shouted, wildly gesturing, uncaring that Lia's father was waiting for her just outside the bathroom door. He needed to hear this ridiculousness too. “Christ, girl, lower your ego a bit, huh? Is that really what this is all about?”

Lia gasped again at Willow's harsh words, glaring a little at her supposed friend. Willow didn't care, she hoped she was pissing Lia off; make up for how pissed off Lia just made her. “Seriously. Everyone looks at poor, little, emo Lia whining about how useless she is, and we all think 'Why does she have such low self esteem?' I should have known better. I should have known this whole thing was actually because your ego is way too big!”

Lia shifted awkwardly on the bathroom floor tiles, but Willow stepped closer so Lia had no room to rise; to move away from hearing this truth.

“Lia, you have no control over the world. You're not that powerful; you'll never be that powerful, so dial it down, 'kay? The world doesn't revolve around you. These bad things aren't some weird karma directed at you. The world isn't mad at you for not being your mom. Christ, not even your mom was that important to the world. So, come on, get over yourself. You are you. You are as good as you can be; you train hard for that. Learn from your downfalls and improve. Don't mope. Don't cry in your emo corner. No one else cares. No one else blames you. So stop inflating your ego thinking that everyone depends on you. You're not anyone's mom here, you're not even your own mom. So knock it off!”

Willow bent down to grab Lia's hand, and pulled her to her feet. Before Lia could catch her bearings, Willow had her in a tight embrace.

In a softer tone, Willow muttered one last thought in Lia's ear. “So, you gonna go back out in the world and learn? Or are you gonna stay in here and hide some more? Because I still need a shower, and Chayse is probably wondering were the hell I am.” Willow leaned away from Lia and gave her a gentle smile. Patting Lia on the cheek, Willow gathered up her supplies and headed towards the shower stalls.

Lia sniffled, her head hung. Tears spilled over this time, and she didn't bother attempting to wipe them away. “What's the point? You said it yourself, no one depends on me. Probably because they can't trust that I can do any good. What's the point of staying here to learn any more? I'm no hero. I can't help anyone here.”

The tiles squeaked as Willow skidded to a halt. Rage filled her face as she whipped around and stormed back over to Lia.

“Seriously?” Willow screamed in Lia's face, mere inches from her roommate's nose. She then leaned back and crossed her arms, her hip cocked as Willow stared Lia down. “Seriously. Alright. Fine. We're doing this then. Whatever. Sure. Sure, you're useless. You haven't saved anyone. Sure. Ignore the fact that it was because of you that Devon, Nyssa, and Zeke joined the team in the first place. But nope. You don't reach anyone.” Willow smacked her lips to resist smacking Lia. “Ignore the fact that, for the limited time Lincoln was here, he seemed the most calm and at peace whenever he was around you. Nope. You're useless. Right.” Willow took a step away from Lia, rolled her shoulders, and gave up trying to keep her voice low. “We'll also forget that we were able to capture Lighter in the first place because you stopped her single-handedly from turning all of us into fried chicken.” She was waving her arms wildly now, pacing in front of Lia like a lioness cutting off a gazelle's retreat. “Chayse tries to be better not because his parents berate him, but because you do. Ripley found an anchor here - excuse the pun - and rejoined society because of you.” Willow roughly poked Lia in the shoulder before throwing up her hands over her head. “But, nope. Nope. You are useless. No one needs you here. You're just wasting everyone's time. Sure. Sounds about right.”

Willow shook her head and stomped over to the bathroom door. She held it open and motioned to Lia's father standing guard in the hallway.

“Your dad's right here. Do you want to tell him that you want to move back to your old home, or should I? Because I sure would hate for my time to be further wasted by you,” she snapped out sarcastically.

Concerned, Jamie timidly poked his head through the community bathroom door, and glanced over at his daughter. “Lia? Baby, you okay? What's going on between you two?”

“Oh, nothing much, Mr. Madrox,” Willow spat out as she glared over her shoulder at Lia, “just your daughter whining again because she's not a 'hero,' which apparently everyone else in this school is. Cuz, ya know, I've stopped tons of arch villains myself. Same with Crystal, and Tyler, and Colette, and Alister, and Sasha, and dozens more. Yup. We're all big bad superheroes ready to join up with SHIELD and the Avengers; leaving her behind.” She fully turned and screamed back into the bathroom. “Right, Lia? So, what's the point in staying here? Lord, it's all or nothing with your ego, isn't it?” Willow shook her head, and shoved the bathroom door as open as it would go before storming out.

“Ya know what,” Willow muttered over her shoulder, “Screw the shower. It could never clean this grime off me anyway. Such bullshit.” A few stomps down the corridor, Willow pivoted and shouted back to the bathroom. “Just let me know where I'm shipping your shit!” Spinning on her heel, Willow stormed back to her bedroom.

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

WOW! There... was... a lot of Devon in there... >_> Hubby doesn’t really write anything terribly in-depth, so most of the Willow/Chayse role play is “off-screen”, things like “They go on a trip to Japan for a couple of weeks” or “They nurse each other back to health after a tough battle” or “He takes her to a secluded place for a picnic of Cajun food he made himself.”

Ronoxym, on the other hand, did a LOT of dialog-focused role play with Willow, and he was the one who came up with the concept for “Please, Let Me Explain” so I guess it makes sense that most of my Willow examples center around Devon....

Anyway, one last post to go! Who’s ready to see some fun wrestling entrance videos?

[altonadventures]

ALTON ADVENTURES BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

So...because its Friday and I usually update AA on Fridays, I figured it was time to make my big announcement! 

And that is...that Alton Adventures is changing. A little bit. 

Am I rebooted the comic again? No haha! Once I get back to it it shall continue as normal but some characters may look a bit different going forward. 

Who may those characters be?

Sir Gareth Nemesis 

Why is he changing? 

Sir Nemesis’ change is actually less drastic than one may think. For starters, he needed a design rehaul. I wanted his armor to be more simple, easier to draw but with still details that could tie him to Nemesis (the green eye, the arms, the light pink details instead of inconsistent tentacles). I also had an issue where his hair was too close to his skin color, so to combat this I turned him into a ginger! His eye color also changed from gold to green, another thing to visually tie him more to Nemesis. 

So yes, I changed Sir Nem’s design because I was unhappy with it. His armor was never drawn consistently ever, I was constantly changing the tone of his hair and his skin so that was inconsistent. I want my designs to be more consistent and polished going forward.

What else is different? Well, you can probably tell he looks much more serious, like in older pictures I drew of him. Why is that? Well, I was kind of..honestly tired of his role as the “dad character tm” that he kind of turned out to be. It almost undermined his true characterization and turned him into a typical over the top exaggerated hero character. And I started to realize how much I missed his original concept. A battle hardened solider that was filled with regret and remorse, who heavily sympathizes with the plight of the alien he’s locked in combat with. He’s still much a father however, as he has a biological son and adopts an alien who mimics his likeness (hence another reason he’s a ginger now as his Nemesis daughter always was one). He’s just returned to his roots as a character. Because I felt that characterization was a unique one for the Nemesis ride. And it was an idea I really loved. Sir Nemesis actually WAS one of my favorite characters...I wanted his role to be much larger than it is in the comics. I don’t blame anyone for him becoming a joke, I did initially kind of fuel the fire for it, I’m just hoping that its not to late to get back to the Sir Nemesis I originally wanted to write. And of course, all my characters are still meme and joke worthy. I just want to tackle much more serious issues with my comic and show the more serious side of some of my characters and don’t want there entire existence to be a joke Mr.S can’t have too many folks 1 uping him in the laughs department!  I guess to note with this change that his original voice claim has also been solidified as well. It’s a more somber and serious tone that I feel fits him as a character. 

Final Notes 

Sir Nemesis is a character that I have a lot of thought put into. His backstory is tragic, emotional, and his character is complex and he’s not the perfect hero people might image him as. I plan for his Arc to follow the Fireworks arc in the comic, as well as I am planning to start some more text heavy short stories about how the Secret Weapons became Secret Weapons (which I will likely call Secret Weapon Short Stories hehe) and will be writing his first. Also a very important thing i must address. Yes, the eye on his chest moves. (I have a gif but it doesn’t want to work on this post Ill have it up later ><)

Erica Annabelle Cloud 

ooof okay this is a huge one. Confession time. Erica was always my least favorite character. Why? She just had...no character. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with her, her design felt phoned in and there because I needed an Air/Galatica character, (yes, she is changing as her Galatica stage too). She was just. not well thought out. She had a dual identity but I think a lot of people didn’t pick up on that? She felt like a Rita 2.0 as just a nice and friendly optimistic person and literally had 0 backstory. Originally she was supposed to have had some sort of accident that turned her into Galatica and she had memory loss and forgotten about when she was Air, yeah it was a mess. That eventually just turned into Nebula Corona being a character she made up (bc her one trait was that she was into space and wrote a lot) that she played as when her rides themeing changed. 

She was just..barely a character and her design was abysmal (Her Galatica suit was okay but her Air outfit was an afterthought) She needed a massive visual upgrade. A sleeker flight suit that makes more sense (I used a ref or two for this design!) A different face shape to help her stand out more, my signature they wear glasses they have dot eyes look. Long, wispy, flowing hair to resemble those trails planes make. A bit more lanky and tall. And let me tell you I LOVE her design now. It looks so much more unique and you can just SEE she has so much more character now!  As for her characterization im going full into her being a nerd. A very tech nerd at that! She designed her suit to help her fly at her best, and eventually will be the one that designs and builds all her Galatica tech! Her Galatica design hasn’t been done yet, mostly bc I wanted to focus on her current comic canon design, but not much would change I feel with her upgrade anyways! She is effectively the brains of the group, and the others often turn to her for plans of attack when dealing with a situation, or innovative solutions to problems! I have yet to get a voice claim for her, but im sure one will come to me soon enough! 

Final Notes

Erica/Nebula was a character I struggled to connect with. Everyone else had Airs that were either super plot important, or just much more cool and creative in general. I felt, that with my Air/Galatica she was just there, and I wanted her to be more. So a full character rehaul was done with her and it makes me so happy. She feels much more fleshed out, better designed, and I’m super excited to do more stuff with her, and hopefully you will all see her much more now that I’m a lot happier with her as a character! <3 

Welp that's the end of the updates....wait. Hold on. I have something written here. What could this be? Oh! I remember now! 

Black Hole, AkA Beatrix, will be joining the MAIN CAST of Alton Adventures! 

When I drew my Black Hole design, I knew she was something special. She stands out compared to a lot of my characters, and her design SCREAMS main character. While the biggest main roles will still be held by Mr. S and Rita, I wanted to add another non SW coaster to the main crew, and because Canonically Corkscrew is MIA, Black Hole seemed like a fitting addition to the main crew! As she isn’t human, a species literally only referred to as Black Holes, I thought making her a main character and giving her a big arc would help flesh out the reality of non humans in Alton Adventures! Her powers and design and character and personality are just too fun to shove her into the background. I feel that adding her to the main cast gives them not only another character to support them, but a closer friend! You will all see her much more in the future for certain! 

Well that's about it! In terms of comic updates themselves...its still going to be hiatus as long as I’m being swamped with school work. I hope you all understand. I’ll try to squeeze in updates over the breaks I have IF im not working on assignments for class. As I also said, I wanna do short stories as well, to expand the world and explain it better, as a comic will only develop the world so quickly and lots of you have tons of questions! I also wanna do something animated at some point, that’s my dream. I’ve ALSO mentioned to some people about merch, likely going for making stickers first since that's simple. I got an excited reaction for that so I’ll come up with designs for them soon! I just wanna do a lot with Alton Adventures, because I know how much it means to people, and of course it means so much. Goodness I really need to actually get to this park, I look quiet silly constantly gushing over a themepark I’ve never been to all the time XP  That all aside I thank you all for sticking by me. I promise that even if I don’t do comic updates as frequently during the school year, I’ll still work to push out as much AA content I can outside of that! I’m always open to suggestions to what you guys want to see! ALSO, working on a big google doc spreadsheet with info on all the characters I’ll be posting when its more completed! So be on the lookout for that! 

Again thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me through this, Your support makes me feel nothing but proud of what I’ve created. These characters may have been created out of something some may consider silly or odd, but the only thing that matters to me if that I can make at least someone happy with what I create. 

Patreon (note that patrons got to see all of this content as it was being worked on!) l Ko-fi

[my-one-love-is-music]

Be My Player 2? Ch. 28

Also on AO3!

Keith gripped the edges of the plastic bag tightly in his fingers. He’d tried to shove his hand in his pocket while he carried the bag, but it made the two bottles inside knock against his side uncomfortably. He was left suffering with cold hands since he didn’t have any gloves.

He jogged up the steps to the front door of Pidge and Hunk’s apartment complex and pressed the buzzer for their place.

It crackled before Hunk’s voice came through. “Hello?” he asked.

“It’s Keith, let me up,” he said, shaking in place as snow swirled down around his head. His backpack knocked against his back and he belatedly realized he should’ve stuffed the tequila bottles in there with his computer and spare change of clothes instead of carrying them like the idiot he was.

“It’s about time you got here,” Hunk muttered before the door clicked and buzzed in front of him.

Keith ignored the comment and jerked the door open, stepping into the warmth of the building. He shivered as warm air wrapped around him. At least the alcohol would help serve to warm him up when he got upstairs.

He jogged up the stairs, reaching their floor quickly. He hurried down the hall and barely knocked once before the door was being pulled open in front of him.

Pidge grinned up at him and stepped to the side, letting him inside. “We have pizza if you want some,” she said as she shut and locked the door behind him.

“Sure, I’ll take a slice,” he said. “I’ve got two bottles of tequila for all our shot taking needs too,” he said, setting it down on the counter next to a bottle of vodka and some margarita mix. An open box of pizza was next to the shot glasses and cups.

Hunk waved at him, chewing on a slice of pizza and he returned it. He could see Pidge and Hunk had their computers set up on the kitchen table and Keith pulled off his backpack, setting his laptop and phone down next to theirs.

He tossed his backpack on the couch and stowed his shoes next to the front door. He wasn’t willing to take off his jacket or beanie yet since a chill still lingered under his skin.

“You want a blanket or something?” Pidge asked, noticing his shivering as he took a slice of pizza.

“I’ll warm up soon enough,” he said. “I’m just ready for the snow to end. This week has been brutal.”

“I know. The walk to campus has been rough,” Hunk agreed. “But at least we’ve had our heat.”

Keith shrugged. “Mine was only out on Sunday and by the time I got back from my shift at the restaurant it was up and running so nothing to worry about. I was one of the lucky few who had somewhere warm to go.”

“You should invest in a space heater,” Pidge suggested.

Keith raised an eyebrow and moved to open his laptop to get Skype set up. “And how would that help my electric bill?”

“Fair enough,” Pidge said, pulling the bottles of tequila out of the plastic bag as Keith fiddled with his laptop to pull up Skype. “What do you say we start with some margaritas?” she asked.

“Sounds good to me,” Keith said, sitting down at the table. He opened Skype and found Shiro was offline. He frowned and pulled out his phone, sending a quick message to him.

Keith: You ready to Skype? I’m at Pidge and Hunk’s and we’re ready to get things going.

He nibbled on his pizza as he waited, watching Pidge pour tequila into three different glasses before diluting it with the margarita mix.

“At this rate, you’ll be able to bartend in no time,” he joked, taking one of the cups she handed to him.

“Hey, you don’t get to be picky. And we didn’t come here to make fancy ass drinks and sit around talking about high society bullshit. We came here to get drunk and do job applications. So you can sit down, shut up, and knock that back.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, but didn’t object, taking a pointed sip from his cup instead.

“That’s what I thought,” Pidge huffed.

Keith’s phone vibrated on the table next to him and he grinned and picked it up.

Shiro: Sorry, sorry! I was running late getting to Lance’s place and well I just got here now so we’re trying to get everything set up.

Keith grinned, imagining Shiro flushed from sprinting to Lance’s house and frantically trying to get his computer set up on a stable surface.

Keith: Don’t worry about it, babe. Take all the time you need, no rush.

He’d barely sent the message when his Skype started ringing. Keith rolled his eyes and answered Shiro’s incoming call.

“I thought I told you that you didn’t have to rush,” he said.

“Sorry,” Shiro said, still trying to catch his breath. “I was already in the middle of getting things set up when I realized you’d texted me.”

“Keith, hey!”

Keith blinked as Shiro’s head was shoved out of the way and Lance grinned at the camera. “Hey Lance. Do me a favor and get Shiro a drink?”

He heard Shiro make an indignant comment off the screen and snickered.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ve got plenty of drinks ready to go. And we’re ready to start taking shots,” Lance said.

“He’s right,” Allura said, showing up in the background with a glass in her hand. “Although I’m starting with a glass of wine.”

Keith chuckled and raised his red solo cup. “I’ve got a cheat margarita and so do Pidge and Hunk.”

“You could at least introduce us,” Pidge said, coming up behind him to lean over his shoulder.

“Yeah, we’re good for more than just giving you drinks and pizza,” Hunk added, looking over his other shoulder.

“This is Pidge and Hunk,” Keith said, pointing to each of them in turn. “Guys this is Allura and Lance.”

“And Shiro!” Shiro exclaimed, sticking his head into the frame.

Keith rolled his eyes and chuckled. “They’ve already met you!” he called back.

“Yeah but still!” he huffed.

“Okay, now that introductions are out of the way, what’s our game plan? When do we take shots?” Keith asked.

“I want a shot for every cover letter I have to write,” Lance said.

“You do realize that’s going to be every job application?” Allura asked next to him.

“A shot for every application we get submitted,” Pidge offered.

“And one for every application that doesn’t need us to answer a million questions,” Hunk added.

Keith grinned. “Sounds good to me. You still got that whiteboard, Pidge?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Just who do you think you’re talking to?” she asked, walking down the hall towards her bedroom.

“What’s the whiteboard for?” Shiro asked, forcing himself into the frame in front of his computer since Allura and Lance were making no move to make room for him.

“Gotta keep a tally of how many shots each of us takes,” he said, rolling his shoulders. “I want to know how much of a lightweight all of you are.”

“You think you can outdrink me?” Lance scoffed.

“I’m a bartender dude,” Keith said with a grin.

“That doesn’t mean you know how to hold your liquor,” Pidge grumbled, walking back into the room and pretended like she was about to whack Keith over the head with the board as she passed. He stuck out his tongue at her and she didn’t hesitate to flip him off.

“Did we come here to argue about getting drunk and who can hold their tequila, or did we come here to get drunk and do job applications?” Allura asked and Keith blinked at how her choice of words mimicked Pidge’s from earlier. “Quit arguing and let the shots decide.”

“It’s on,” Lance said, hurrying off the screen.

Keith minimized his Skype, moving the small pop-up window into the corner of his screen so he could pull up Indeed and started searching for jobs in his desired career field. The initial results impressed him, but then when he filtered out everything that wasn’t entry-level, it became less exciting.

“First cover letter!” Lance called through the mic on his computer.

“What are you taking a shot of?” Pidge asked, pulling the cap off a marker.

“Vodka,” he said.

A second later Keith heard him splutter and he chuckled. “Not used to the burn?” he asked.

“Fuck off, Keith,” he muttered.

Keith ignored him and skimmed through the requirements of the first job posting he found. He clicked the link to apply and was surprised to find that it was an easy application that didn’t need much more than his name, contact info, resume, and an optional cover letter.

He quickly typed up a letter, using a rough format that he remembered from one of his classes and hoping he could be convincing enough about his work experience and education.

“I’m going to need two shots,” he said when he hit submit. “Wait, no, I’m going to need three shots. One for the cover letter, I barely had to answer any questions, and I submitted the app.”

Pidge cackled and lined up three shot glasses in front of him.

“Shots! Shots! Shots!” Lance chanted through his computer’s mic. Keith grinned and pulled up Skype so he could see the other half of their party. Shiro was watching curiously through the camera and Keith took a step back, lining up the shots of vodka in his hand.

“Can you catch these for me Hunk?” he asked.

“You know it,” he said, stepping out of his chair. He stood next to Keith, hands cupped in the air to catch the shot glasses that Keith would down.

“Three…two…one…” Pidge started. “Go!”

Keith slammed the first shot back, tossing the glass in Hunk’s direction. He followed it with the second and third in seconds and sucked in a breath, wincing at the burn down his throat. Warmth burst to life in his stomach, slowly spreading out to the rest of his limbs.

“How are you feeling?” Shiro asked, shooting him a grin.

“Good,” he said. “Ready to get back to more applications so I can take more shots.”

“Before that can happen, I’m up next,” Allura said, setting her computer to the side as she walked off screen to pour herself a drink.

“Me too,” Pidge said, filling up one of the shot glasses Keith had just used after plucking it from Hunk’s hand.

“Make sure to mark the tally,” Keith said absentmindedly, going back to his list of possible jobs to apply for.

“Shut it,” Pidge grumbled. “It’s my whiteboard so you don’t get to tell me how to use it.”

Hunk whistled. “Someone’s getting testy already. I didn’t think you were drunk enough for mean-Pidge to come out yet.”

“Are you kidding?” Keith asked, laughing. “A drop of alcohol is all it takes for mean-Pidge to come out.”

He blinked when Pidge’s face suddenly filled the space between his eyes and the computer screen.

“You want to say that again?” she asked. “Don’t make me delete your resume.”

Keith flinched, throwing himself to the side to pull his laptop away form Pidge’s reach. “You wouldn’t,” he hissed.

She narrowed her eyes. “Try me.”

“I spent hours working on this resume. You can’t just delete it.”

“Bitch, I can do whatever I want,” she said, coming after him.

“If you guys keep goofing off, all three of you are going to lose this job application party,” Shiro said through the mic.

Keith and Pidge narrowed their eyes at each other. “Temporary truce,” she said.

Keith nodded, and she went back to her computer. Keith sat as far from her as he could get at the kitchen table.

“Just wrote a cover letter,” Lance said. “Hit me with a shot.”

“Me too,” Shiro added.

Pidge reached over and marked two tallies on the board.

Keith groaned when he opened up a link to an application and found a list a mile long of information he had to fill in. His head hit the table with a thunk because he was definitely not drunk enough to get through all of that.

“Giving up already, Keith?” Pidge asked. “What happened to being able to drink us under the table because you’re a bartender.”

“It’s not that. This application just has so much information I have to fill out. It’s fucking depressing.”

“Better get started,” Allura said through Skype. “The sooner you get going, the sooner you can take another shot.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, sitting up as he slowly started putting his information in the separate fields.

“I need another shot,” Shiro said.

Pidge made another tally on the board and Keith slouched down in his chair, typing in his information as quickly as he could to get through it. He uploaded his resume and scrubbed a hand over his face when half of it was filled in incorrectly.

“I need two shots,” Hunk said, filling his glasses as Pidge made two more marks on the board.

Keith opened a blank document and started typing up another cover letter. The letters weren’t his strength, but he knew by the time he was finished with job applications, although he might never really be finished with them, he’d get pretty good at bullshitting his way through it and making himself sound good.

“I need another shot,” Shiro said.

“Me too,” Keith added as he finished his cover letter. “I just got done with my cover letter and need a break before I finish this application.”

Pidge handed him a glass.

“Cheers baby,” Shiro said through Skype.

He raised his glass even though he couldn’t really see Shiro and knocked it back, sighing at the warmth that spread through him. He propped his cheek against his fist and moved to the next part of the application, signing all of the confidentiality agreements and equal opportunity disclosure information.

The rest of the application was a breeze and he sighed when he was able to hit the final submit button.

“Give me another shot,” he said. A bottle was passed to him and Keith filled his glass.

“I’m going to need one too,” Allura said.

“Same,” Hunk added.

Keith knocked his shot back as Pidge made several marks on the whiteboard. Keith smiled as he set his glass on the table. He was starting to feel a lot better about applying for all of these jobs. His stress was disappearing, and job hunting didn’t seem so bad. He knew he’d manage to get a job eventually and if he had to, his job as a bartender would keep him busy in the meantime. He wasn’t completely out of work.

“What’s that dopey look for?” Pidge asked with a snort.

“Huh?” he asked, looking up from the job description he was reading through.

“You look like a happy idiot which is strange considering what we’re doing,” she explained.

He snorted. “Vodka. What else would it be?”

“Fair enough,” she said, holding out her hand.

It took Keith a moment to understand what she wanted before he passed the bottle to her. She poured a shot and knocked it back before making a mark under her own name.

Keith grinned and sat forward when he found a quick apply application. He typed in his information and uploaded his resume before typing out a quick cover letter.

“I’m going to need another three shots,” he said with a grin.

“Keith slow down!” Shiro called over Skype.

“Nah, you guys just need to keep up with me. We’re supposed to be doing job applications,” he said, lining up the glasses in front of him. He knocked one back, setting the glass to the side as more warmth spread through him.

“Just you wait!” Lance cried. “I’m going to catch up with you and drink you under the table.”

“Then you better hurry up,” Pidge said. “You’re three shots behind Keith.”

“What?!” he asked. “How is that possible?”

“Uh maybe because I’m working,” Keith said, going back to reading through the list of job applications. He blinked his eyes, trying to focus on the words on the screen that were starting to come through less clearly.

“Give me another shot,” Shiro said.

Pidge put another tally on the board and Keith re-read the same sentence three times before he started giggling. He pressed a hand against his mouth, trying to contain his laughter, but it didn’t work. He wrapped his arms around his stomach as he giggled, sagging down in his chair because this whole thing was so fucking ridiculous.

If college students were doing stuff like this, he could only imagine what it would like for workers in three-piece suits to be sitting around a shitty apartment, taking shots as they filled out job applications.

“Keith, you okay over there?” Pidge asked, leaning around her computer.

“Baby, have you already lost it?” Shiro asked.

Their concern made him giggle harder and he pulled up the Skype window to find Shiro, Allura, and Lance watching him expectantly, concern filling their gazes.

“Okay here me out,” he started, trying to catch his breath around his giggles. “But do you think that a bunch of people in fancy suits sit around and take shots while doing job applications? Like what do they do when they have to write cover letters and fill out job apps?”

Shiro’s grin pulled at his lips and he chuckled. “I don’t think they have to go to these kinds of lengths when they’re looking for a new job,” he said.

“No, but that would be hilarious,” Lance said, laughing. “Is this what we’re going to have to do if we ever change jobs?”

“I don’t even have my first job,” Hunk added. “I don’t even want to think about finding a second job yet.”

“Me either,” Pidge grumbled. “But it’s time for me to take another shot.” She grabbed a glass and poured herself a drink, sighing before she drew a tally on the board.

“Get back to your applications or you’re really not going to win at this rate,” Allura added.

Everyone scrambled to get back to their applications even as Keith continued to giggle in his chair, his focus starting to wane because of the vodka in his system.

If you enjoy my work, please reblog or consider buying me a ko-fi!

[taakofromtaz]

taako fights a necromancy cult on candlenights

Summary: 

(alternately titled "how the necromancers stealing lup made the best candlenights ever")

“Really, fellas? On Candlenights? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Notes: (transposed from AO3)

big thanks to the taz fic writers discord for giving me the initial idea and cheering me on!!!

this isn't my best work but i just wanted to post it before the year ended,

i did a little TOO much d&d spell research bc i love accuracy, also, hopefully these spells are all ones taako can actually use,

happy candlenights and happy new year's!!!!

[hopefully accurate use of d&d spells, kravitz was supposed to be here but he’s not, there’s blupjeanss but it’s in the background, taako’s a badass okay? i dont make the rules, TAAKO DOES A HIT, this has very little to do with actual candlenights actually,]

End notes:

ending kinda sucks but eh. que sera sera fuckit

Word count: 3065

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Tonight is going to absolutely perfect. Taako has spent the day toiling away in the kitchen—with the occasional help from Lup—to make the family dinner absolutely perfect. Everyone’s favorite dishes are present and even the latest of guests are set to arrive several hours before it’s time to chow down.

Lup and Barry and Kravitz have been in and out of their office in the Astral Plane the last couple days to finish any last night work that would even slightly disrupt their family holiday. There shouldn’t be any bounties coming their way for the next few days at this rate, Istus and the Raven Queen forbid.

Candlenights is going to be beyond perfect this year.

Lup is the first one home and after checking in with Taako in the kitchen, rushes off to her room to gussy up for the evening. Once she’s done, Taako will get ready, and by that point, the boys should be done wrapping up their paperwork and be back in time to help greet the first guests.

Taako is halfway out of the kitchen when a dimensional rift opens up beside Lup and Barry steps through, looking a little exhausted. “Just in time, Barold,” he says, smiling when Lup turns to give him a kiss. “Keep my sister company while I get ready, huh?”

Barry blushes and wraps an arm around Lup’s waist. “Heh. Not a proble—” Before he can finish, Lup disappears from his grasp, and the two of them are left staring at where she was in complete shock.

“What the fuck?” Taako rushes back into the room and waves an arm where Lup was standing just a second ago.

“L-Lup? What happened?” Barry’s eyes are blown wide behind his glasses and he’s frozen in place, shoulders stiff and arm slowly drifting back to this side.

“Barold!” Taako thumps him in the chest and Barry sucks in a deep breath, coming back to himself. “Come with me. I have a silver mirror in my room.”

“R-right. Right. We—we’ll find her. It’s okay, it’s fine.” Barry’s rambling seems to be more for his own comfort than anything, so Taako snatches up his wrist and drags him down to hall and into his disaster of a room. He shoves Barry to down to take a seat on the bed and digs around on top of the dresser for the silver hand mirror he knows he has.

Taako sets the mirror on the bed beside Barry and takes Barry’s face in his hands. “Hey,” he says, ducking his head to took him in the eyes, voice low. “We’ll find her. She didn’t leave.” The this time is implied. “She wouldn’t do that.” Not again.

Barry sighs and closes his eyes. Taako leans in and plants a kiss on his forehead. “What’s the plan, Taako?”

“I’m gonna cast Scrying. See if I can find her,” Taako says, stepping away and scooping the mirror back up. He clears a spot on the floor and sits down, cross legged, and focuses on the mirror. “I need you to go find her brush and bring me a piece of her hair. That’s the easiest way to do it.”

Barry nods and leaves the room. Taako closes his eyes and focuses directly on Lup, thinks about her laugh, her smile, the way she looks, the way she talks, and wills his magic to focus on hers. His ear flicks when Barry comes back, Lup’s brush in his hands. Taako takes it silently and concentrates the spell through it with one hand and the mirror with the other.

It takes a minute for the spell to find her, but it finally catches and he can see her in his mind’s eye quite clearly. There’s no way Lup knew he was going to look for her, but he can feel her voluntarily failing her save regardless. A second later, the room around him fades and he feels as if he’s with Lup, wherever she is.

Taako looks around, seeing and hearing through the scrying spell’s invisible sensor, and says, “Barry, if you can hear me, I found her. I’m gonna tell you what this place looks like.”

Taako can’t hear if Barry makes any sort of reply, but he feels a warm hand settle on his shoulder so he figures that the words came through. (Taako’s only ever used this spell once and he was alone when he used it, holed up in his room and getting drunk by turning water into wine like fantasy Jesus while he tried to find the man that wanted to kill him so bad he almost succeeded. He has no idea what it looks like from the outside or even if anything he said would come through. He’s glad that it does; trying to remember what this place looks like would be hell.)

The cave is dark and musty and full of weird, vaguely creepy artefacts that Taako doesn’t feel like describing. Bones and skulls of all sorts litter the floors and from Taako’s position, he can see Lup standing in the middle of a summoning circle, red cloak draped over her little black dress, arms crossed and looking extremely put out.

“Really, fellas? On Candlenights? Don’t you have anything better to do?” She sounds annoyed and not worried at all and Taako can’t help but feel relieved. “Didn’t we have to come break your shit up literally a week ago?”

That might be useful. Taako doesn’t know if Lup is being helpful on purpose, but he relates the info to Barry regardless. The hand leaves his shoulder and Taako tries to moves to catch it and only ends up moving his field of vision. Attempting to pull out of the spell only leaves him with a headache and ringing ears. “Barry? Where’d you go?”

The necromancers surrounding Lup say nothing, and she just looks progressively more annoyed. “So what now? You bring me all the way here and… nothing? No reaction?”

The necromancers start murmuring amongst themselves in Abyssal and Taako tunes them out, still trying to abort the Scrying spell before its ten minutes are up. The problem is that he doesn’t know how. His first attempt hadn’t been a success.

“Barry! Get back here!” Taako calls out, trying to move again. His vision merely shifts and he huffs out a breath, trying to stay calm. Nothing good comes from panic and his usual grounding methods are useless if he can’t move his physical body. “I’m about to freak the fuck out, Barry! Where’d you go?”

Nothing. Taako closes his mind to the vision of the inside of the cave and counts his heartbeats as he waits for the spell to end.

He hears the sound of fabric tearing and he opens his mind’s eye to see Barry step out of the rift, his Reaper glamor making him look like his lich form. “Asshole!” Taako screams, vision swinging as he makes to throw his arms out.

“Hey, babe!” Lup says, a huge smile lighting up her face. Taako wants to do a hit on Barry’s stupid face. “How’d you know I’d be here?”

Barry looks around, pulls something from his robe, and taps two fingers to the sides of his glasses. He sweeps the room again and locks eyes with what Taako can only assume is the Scrying spell’s sensor. “Huh. Neat.”

Taako huffs as Lup tilts her head. “What is it?” The necromancers are chanting now, something Taako is oblivious to the meaning of, but given the circumstances, it can’t be anything good.

“Taako found you with a spell. He can see us right now actually. Hears us too.” Barry gestures in the direction the sensor. Taako just wishes the spell would end already.

“Shit yeah!” Lup turns and smiles blindly in his direction. “Hey, Koko! These necro-fucks are real close to home! You know that cave that you, me, and Bare-bare checked out a few months ago? I think this is it!” Taako smiles even though she can’t see him. Lup is the best.

Barry sighs. “This is exactly what I was trying to avoid. We got this covered.”

“Aww, but it’s Candlenights!” Lup says at the same time that Taako yells out, “Suck it, Barry!” to his empty room.

“You two are chaos inca—” Whatever Barry was going to say is cut off the spell ending, throwing Taako back into his own senses and his quiet room.

“Lulu you’re the best sister ever,” Taako says to himself as he scrambles to his feet. He runs into the kitchen first thing and turns off all the heat he can and moves the dishes to safer, less fire-hazardous spots. (That could have been a disaster.) The next thing he does is jot down a note for Kravitz— “We had a situation but we’re handling it!” —and then he rushes back to his room for his cloak and component bag and the Krebstar.

It’s time to fuck up some necromancers.

 It takes Taako about ten minutes on Garyl to find the exact cave Lup and Barry are in. Taako doesn’t bother dispelling the phantom steed and as long as he stays out of the way, he should be fine. “Go in there and kick some ass, my man,” the binicorn drawls, voice low and smooth.

Taako shoots him finger guns and takes off into the cave, trying his best to be quick but quiet. The cave is suspiciously silent and Taako can’t imagine it means anything good for his family. Ahead of him, the cave opens up into an antechamber that’s lit with an assortment of candles an few enchanted lanterns.

There’s about a dozen hooded figures of varying shapes and sizes standing in a semicircle around where Taako can recognize as the last place he saw Lup. She and Barry are pressed back to back, hands clenched together, surrounded by what appears to be spectral cuffs. Lup’s mouth is moving but there’s no sound and Taako, if he’s being completely honest with himself, doesn’t care enough about the why to figure it out.

Conclusion? Lup and Barry are pretty soundly—or not, heh—trapped. No big deal.

The smart thing to do is try to pick these dudes off one by one and find a way to free Barry and Lup from the trap. The smart thing to do is to try and rescue his family and have them help him kick some ass.

What Taako ends up doing is firing off the most potent Sunbeam he can, taking special care to avoid catching Lup and Barry in its line of fire. Over half the necromancers fail their save and scream as the spell blinds them temporarily. The rest fall away from the line as quickly as they can. Not a single one of them is left unharmed.

“Just who the fuck do you think you are?” Taako steps out from his hiding spot, Krebstar raised, face drawn into a snarl. The necromancers left with their vision—about four of them, Taako guesses—look at him in what can only be stunned silence. “Really, fellas?” Taako asks, copying Lup’s line because it was just that good. “On Candlenights?”

“Run along, little wizard,” the nearest necromancer hisses at him, their voice low and grating. “You’re not who we want.”

Taako scoffs and hardens his glare. Little wizard? Sure, he must be a sight to behold with this hair in a messy bun, an apron thrown over and oversized sweaters with the sleeves rolled up, sweatpants and boots that are a size too big—not to mention his cloak of the manta ray and belt with his spell component pouch—but just because he looks like hot garbage right now doesn’t mean he’s not capable.

He’ll show these fuckers what for. They deserve it for underestimating him.

Taako gives a nasty smirk to the necromancer that spoke and aims the tip of the Krebstar at them. “Watch this,” he says, the casts Disintegrate.

The necromancer shrieks, briefly, and falls apart before the remaining hooded figures can make a move to stop him. Taako adjusts his grip. “Anyone else?”

A couple of the blinded necromancers fall over their comrades trying to move closer to him and one of the relatively unharmed figures raises an arm towards him. Taako quickly steps back into his hiding spot and casts Mislead, sending his double to go running deeper into the cave. He keeps his senses with the double until he’s sure of the path it can take then switches back to himself and sneaks, completely invisible over to Barry and Lup.

Barry’s eyes turn to him immediately and he barely stops himself from making an audible reaction. Stupid Barold and his stupid True Seeing.

Actually, this might be useful.

Thank you Istus, Taako thinks, raising his hands and signing out, ‘Trap?’

Barry blinks once or twice before grinning. The crew had all learned this sign language of sorts back in Cycle 27 when they came across a plane that left most the nonhuman members of their crew deafened—the cause being something that emitted a planetwide audio tone that only certain races and species were capable of hearing. It obliterated the auditory nerves of anything that could hear it, but the natives of the plane had already begun adapting, mostly by adopting more visual indicators for those affected by the strong noise.

‘Glyph,’ Barry signs out, doing his best to keep his movements small and subtle. Lup shifts against him and squints in Taako’s direction, so Barry shows her the name symbol they came up with for Taako. (Granted, it’s not the one Taako came up with, but the others convinced him that the gesture he wanted was a little too complex and obscure. He reluctantly agreed.)

‘Trap,’ Lup signs, confirming as well, looking off to the side. ‘Rock?’ She ends her second sign with a shrug, trying not to be too obvious about looking for the source of their magic cage.

Taako holds up a single finger, the universal ‘wait a moment,’ and switches his sense back to his double. Said double is deeper into the cave than Taako’s ever been and is physically wrecking every weird artefact it can while still keeping them mostly intact so the Reaper Squad can confiscate them. The double seems to be doing fine, making a mess of things while avoiding the occasional spell being flung his way.

Taako comes back to his actual self to see Lup pointing to a huge boulder close to the cavern wall.

‘Fake?’ she guesses, nudging Barry. He glances back at it and nods.

‘Check,’ Taako signs, sneaking over to the rock. He needs to be quick. The blindness seems to be wearing off of victims of his Sunbeam.

The rock is indeed somewhat fake. The front is illusory, a cover to hide a small, open spellbook covered in glowing arcane runes sitting on a much smaller rock. Taako grabs the book and snaps it closed. He doesn’t particularly care which type of trapping spell this is, but removing the book from the area should be enough to end the spell.

He tosses the book towards the cave entrance and watches as Lup and Barry grin and step away from the center of the summoning circle on the floor.

Taking advantage of his invisibility, Taako nudges past Barry and Lup. “Take a sip, babes,” he says, winking at Barry, and he casts Cone of Cold. Taako fades back into visibility as a vicious, icy wind whips up at his fingertips and blasts through the cave. The closest necromancers, still recovering from their blindness, fail to save—again—and several are frozen solid as their hit points drop to zero.

Lup is cheering, whooping and laughing as her brother annihilates the den of necromancers. Not all of them die from the attack, but enough of them do—Barry moves to collect the souls of the deceased as Lup heads further into the cave to get any stragglers.

Spell over and job done, he casually pretends to dust his hands off and waits for Lup and Barry to finish their reaping.

“Koko! That was fantastic!” Lup calls out as she runs up to him and grabs him in a big hug, lifting him up and spinning him around.

He laughs and hugs her back, striking a showy pose when she sets him back down. “Thank you, thank you, I know I’m amazing.”

“That was really impressive, Taako. Nice work,” Barry says, looking like himself again.

Taako turns to him and gives him a sharp smile. “You’re on thin ice, pal.” His eyes narrow and his grip on the Krebstar shifts. “You know why.”

Barry visibly gulps and Lup laughs. “Sorry I just. Left. Like that. I won’t do it again, promise.”

Rolling his eyes, Taako turns and starts to exit the cave. “Yeah, sure, whatever. I’m going home. This isn’t my job and I have to finish getting ready.” He looks back at them and points at them. “You better be home before seven or I’ll come back here and drag you back personally.”

Lup gives him a mock salute. “You got it boss! Come on Bare-bare. I’m sure there’s some gross junk in here that you’d just love to get your hands on.”

Barry waves at him as he shuffles off, following Lup to the cavern room that Taako’s double trashed.

Garyl is still waiting outside when Taako finally leaves the cave. “We done here?” the phantom steed asks as Taako climbs up.

“Yeah m’man. Take me home.”

 Somehow Taako makes it home before any of the guests arrive, which is just as well because he still has a lot to do. He makes to resume cooking and or reheat the food and rushes back to his room to change as quickly as he can. He comes back to the kitchen to see Lup standing at the stove.

“Go finish getting ready, bro.” She smiles at him. “I got this. Barry when back to the Astral Plane to drop some stuff off and drag your boy toy back home.”

Taako darts forward to peck her cheek with a kiss before running back to his. “Thanks, you’re the best!”

“No problem! And chill out! Tonight’s gonna be perfect!” Lup laughs after him and he smiles.

Best Candlenights ever.