#and seeing her now being able to exist somehow in a new dragon age game is INCREDIBLE

[illegalmemes]

back in 2014, i made an inquisitor that i fell in love with. BUT I NEVER THOUGHT WE'D LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DRAGON AGE GAME AAA, so all these years my Enasalin Lavellan was the elf i picked up and shoved into SO MANY DIFFERENT AU's, including d&d and BG3, so this is her as a wood elf druid. still ena, still my Lavellan <3

her toyhouse :)

[blueberry-sunshines]

Small Surpises— Big Brother Shiro x Little Sister Reader

Summary:

You are Shiro's younger sister waiting on him to return from a mission while you reminisce about your life with your big brother which then gets interrupted when he brings you back an unexpected surprise...

Word Count: ~2K

Childhood memories | Brotherly Love

Requested by: @white_skittle on Wattpad

{Your POV}

Honestly, you had never really thought that it would be so boring to be in a half-castle half-spaceship until you were actually in one. It sounds crazy to even think you'd be in one let alone that one exists! One moment you were on earth with Keith trying to figure out these weird radio signals and then the next your brother who'd been missing for a year had crash landed onto earth in an alien pod! And just when you didn't think anything could get any crazier, you found a giant blue lion that whisked you all away into space! That was just the beginning of all the adventures you'd have traveling the universe with your new found family. But as of now, the only thing you could do is wait around the Castle of Lions until the Paladins are back from their mission. To keep your mind off of your boredom and anxiety you tried your best to distract yourself with useless things like wondering the castle and getting lost in your own thoughts.

You were significantly younger than your brother, Shiro. While he was 25, you were only a teenager. You two were always rather close despite your age difference. Shiro was always so cool, you and all of your friends thought he was the most amazing person in the whole world. And if you were being honest with yourself, he still was. I mean, being the paladin of the Black Lion and the leader of Voltron was the coolest thing you could think of! As kids you and Shiro loved playing together, you would play with his soldiers and planes or he'd play dolls with you. You two would spend hours playing little games like hide and seek or just playing pretend.

You would be the princess and Shiro would always be the courageous knight there to protect and save you from evil villains and mystical dragons. Using sticks and pool noodles as swords he would slay any foes that even dared to hurt his little sister. Shiro has always been your hero in more ways than you'd ever realize.

"Fear not, Princess (Y/N)!" He would cry, holding his makeshift sword in the air. "I will slay this dragon to protect you and your kingdom from his evil!" He would then jab at one of your stuffed animals or sometimes even trees, pretending they were the villain.

     As you got older, you two were still super close. Shiro was then entering his teens, going to the Galaxy Garrison to be a pilot. He was so smart and so talented and all you ever wanted to do was impress him. When you didn't think he could get any cooler he always did. But even though he was at the Garrison, he still had never let you down. You have many memories of Shiro picking you up after school and taking you out to your favorite diner. Sitting in a booth across from each other he would ask you about your day while drinking a milkshake in his bright orange Cadet uniform.

"You look silly in your uniform, Takashi." Little you giggled in your memory. You could still see Shiro's face as he pulled away from his Oreo milkshake's straw, as well as the smile that formed on his face as he let out a small chuckle.

"I guess I do look kind of silly, huh?" He agreed, setting down his milkshake softly.

These couple times a week visits made it feel like Shiro had never really left at all. Soon you were able to transfer into the Garrison Cadet program and next thing you remember is staying up late into the night studying with Shiro and practicing your techniques. Shiro was the star of the Garrison and he still remained the star of your life. Sure you had made many friends, but Shiro was still your best friend above all else. You still remember when Shiro had introduced you to Keith and how you two got off to a rocky start. But eventually, it didn't feel like it was just you and Shiro against the world anymore. Soon you had a new honorary brother in Keith. You would all ride around together on Hoverbikes and Landspeeders and you even would take Keith for milkshakes at your diner.

"Hah!" You beamed triumphantly as you swung to a halt on your hoverbike. You looked behind you now as your brother came up to a stop behind you. You laughed triumphantly as you had just beaten Shiro to your designated finish line. "I told you I could beat you!"

"I never doubted you for a second." Shiro told you proudly as he whipped the sweat from his forehead.

You looked now on the other side of you over the edge of the large cliff next to you. "So can I learn the dive now?" You blurted out quickly.

Shiro laughed warmly, "Absolutely not." He said quickly and gave you a teasing smile. "Not until I'm sure you and Keith are both ready." He explained, watching you pout in amusement.

As you were entering your teenage years and Shiro was leaving his, you two had somehow managed to grow even closer. He had come out to you over the course of your time at the Garrison. You still remember him gushing to you all about his, then crush, Adam. You were there for him when coming to terms with his feelings and there when he brought Adam home to your parents for the first time. In return he was always there for you, helping you when you were sick, giving you advice when you were down in the dumps, and he helped you through your first ever breakup.

Time was flying by so quickly and soon, you were an accomplished pilot just like your big brother, and Shiro had asked Adam to marry him. Life was just the way you liked it and you didn't think anything could ruin your wonderful relationship with Shiro. If none of the petty sibling fights you got into or even any of the serious ones could have ruined it, you didn't know what could. But, you could never forget Kerberos...

"We're back!!!" You heard a voice shout from a room over. It was the cherry voice of Lance McClain exclaiming their arrival in the castle. You began running back down the corridor to return to the lounge where you heard the voices coming from.

"Hey, (Y/N)!" Hunk smiled seeing you enter the room. You saw Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Keith, and Allura all standing in the room.

"How did it go out there today?" You asked them all, subconsciously looking around for your brother. The Paladins went to a freed planet to collect some tech that was needed to help the fight against the Galra.

"We collected all the samples we needed." Pidge told you before gesturing behind her, "Coran and Shiro are unloading as we speak." She was unusually smiley, but you brushed it off as her just being happy to have new tech to work with. You were about to leave to go find Shiro when,

"(Y/N)," Keith said your name now, walking over to you, also dawning a small smile. "There's also something we brought back for you, too."

"Hey!" You heard Lance complain, "I wanted to be the one to tell (Y/N)!"

"Too bad." Keith smirked at him and the two began a small, signature squabble as they walked past towards the direction of the showers.

You looked over at Pidge and Hunk now curiously, "What are they talking about?" You asked them, furrowing your brow in thought trying to guess what on earth they could have brought you. You heard them both giggle as they refused to give you any clue before heading towards the showers as well. Your last hope was Allura.

She just looked as confused as you, "I do wonder what they had brought you as well." She said warmly before following you towards the other door the four Paladins had come from originally. As you and Allura made your way down the hallway she tried to offer you ideas as to what they could've brought you, but half the things she said you had no idea what she was talking about.

Once you reached the hangar where the Paladins had come from, you sprinted towards the Black Lion. Coran was placing small metal crates onto a floating cart and Shiro was helping him.

"Shiro, Hey!" You yelled as you got closer, Allura still following suit.

"(Y/N)!" Shiro called your name happily placing down a crate and turning towards you. You laughed as you ran into his arms, you felt him stumble a bit upon impact and you heard him chuckle.

"You really missed me that much?" He teased you as he gave you a tight squeeze before putting you back safely balanced onto your feet.

"Always do." You smiled up at him affectionately. You then cut right to the chase, "Keith said you guys brought me something!"

Shiro raised an eyebrow at you, "He did, did he?" You nodded in response and he let out another laugh. "Alright, you got me." He admitted humbly.

"Is it another crystal?" You asked excitedly. Shiro had brought you small trinkets before from the missions you didn't get to go on. The Paladins often needed your help, but sometimes when there wasn't any risk you'd just stay behind.

"It's better than that." He said mysteriously as he lead you back towards his lion.

"Is it a bigger crystal?" You asked which earned you a laugh in return.

"No... now stop guessing!" He shook his head in amusement. "Wait here, I'll be right back." Shiro instructed you, turning snd disappearing into the lion.

You looked back over to where Allura and Coran were conversing about something while you waited. Once your brother reemerged from Black, he was holding a small box that had some kind of cloth or blanket sticking out from it. You stared at the box in pure curiosity as Shiro grew closer.

"Keep your voice down," he advised as the contents of the box were nearly in full sight. "You don't want to startle him."

You were still not understanding what this could be but now you were thinking it may be alive. Despite not knowing, you listened to your brother and kept quiet. Shiro held the box further down and you saw him.

      You had to hold in a squeal as you saw what Shiro had brought you. It was a small light gray ball of fluff. The creature had long droopy ears, four legs with five tiny toes on his paws. It had four small horns above his closed eyes, a pink nose and cute little pouting mouth. His chest and his face were white and he was all curled up in his long, white, fluffy tail. He sort of reminded you of a chinchilla but much more alien like.

        Gasping you looked back up to Shiro, "No way..." you breathed out finally. Shiro had a large smile on his face.

        "Do you like him?" He asked now, "His breed is concerned to be a loyal partner on Ormaphu. He's a traditional Ormanphian pet called a Bentorm."

         "Shiro I love him!" You gushed looking back down as your sweet, little baby Bentorm.

          "I'm glad, I thought you would."

      When you were kids, you would always beg your parents for a pet but they never let you or Shiro get anything besides fish. Your new Bentorm was the most amazing pet you could think of! Your attention was turned back to the box when you heard him let out a soft yawn as he stretched and uncurled himself. You let out a soft aww, as he sat upright and looked up at you with big, black eyes. He looked as if he was smiling as he looked up at you, he began making a sweet chirping noise and you looked up at Shiro in amazement.

        "You can pick him up." Shiro told you softly, smile still prominent on his face. You reached down and picked him up softly from his tummy, under his arms. You pulled him close to your chest and he quickly snuggled into you, smile on his cute, Bentorm face.

         "From what his breeder told me, they don't get much bigger and they love riding on their owners shoulders as they get older."

       "Allura!" You exclaimed, "Look what Shiro brought me!!"

       

        Allura came over then, in the same awe that you were upon seeing him for the first time. "Is that a Bentorm?" Allura asked looking up at Shiro.

      Shiro nodded and moved the box onto his hip you free one of his hands to pet the Bentorms head.

       "What are you gonna call him?" Shiro asked looking back up to you.

         "Hmmm, I'm not sure..."

_________________

Hi everyone! Thanks for reading this Brother Shiro one shot! It wasn't super long but I think it's pretty cute. Shiro would be the best big brother and I hope I captured that!

Have a great day! Keep requesting please!

[rosaetae]

spellbound to be | one

☇ “I don’t need to drink your blood to have my lips on your neck.”

[this is a part of tale of the purebloods] — prologue / one / two 

➣  pairing: jungkook x reader

➣  genre: vampire!jungkook, fanatasy!au, soulmate!au, angst

➣ word count: 12.3k

➣  rating: pg-13

➣  synopsis: jeon jungkook is the cursed pureblood to have fallen in deep love with someone who was not his Complement. having to have fallen hard, he has to compensate with a life full of heartbreak and pain— one of which a burden weighs heavily on his shoulders. so much so, he hires a witch one day to reverse his inevitable Complement tie.

Bloodshed.

That is what derives from Witch Trial Week at Ember Academy— overly exaggerating, of course. A witch-made week established decades ago, the equivalence to Hell Week in the mundane world, but something your friend, Piper likes to call "Heaven Week" for her own musings.

Ember Academy's witches spend the week hexing, jinxing, cursing each other in the light of every October 31st, Halloween. There's no real motive behind it. Before, whoever was the last witch standing would be given special treatment, but in modern day, it was used as a tactic for the professors to oversee who would be a powerful witch, for some it was a mechanism to either get revenge or to let out one's anger. For you, it was always fun.

To your misfortune, you were at the short end of the stick, being clever and witty enough to be made part of Witch Trial Week, one of the notable witches that some would target, but unlike the rest of Ember Academy, you didn't grow up with the others. They all knew each other the day you stepped into the academy, looking and talking about you as if you were anything but one of them.

And it was true, you weren't fully one of them.

Growing up, you lived in the mundane world, surrounded by people who upheld no special abilities as those in the Upper World. Surely, you were no stranger to the realm of where your mother comes from, you coming home every day from primary school to your father, a human, and your mother, a full-fledged witch who gave up her immortality and her life in the Upper World for the sake of her Complement. You'd spend the day learning simple arithmetic, and after school, you'd come home to your mother teaching you simple, harmless charms.

It was a normal life growing up for you, your upbringing never straying too far from your roots. On some nights, your father put you to bed by telling you bedtime stories, on other nights, your mother would sing a lullaby of broken latin. You were convinced for awhile that it was your mother's soothing voice, but at a certain age when she stopped singing you to sleep, she exposed that it was a siren's song she learned from a friend in her hometown.

As a child, you'd constantly ask about the Upper World, having constant dreams about another worldly realm and a recurring figure holding their hand out for you. And the minute your finger grazes theirs, you awake. Not on your bed made of sea water and a ceiling made of glass, but in your normal New York apartment that had some crooked crevices on the ceiling, on your springy mattress with beige linen sheets. Although, despite your continuous desire to visit your mother's home world, your mother and father were very against world hopping.

However, due to your father's passing when you turned 14, there was no reason as to why your mother should keep you in the mundane world any longer if you didn't want to stay, and brought you to the Upper World of where your dreams of it had come to reality.

Entering Ember Academy, you could not fathom why your mother was so strict of you convincing yourself and everyone else around you that you are a full-fledged witch. And then you learn during one of the history classes that a hybrid witch that shares two worlds forbidden from each other was subjected to execution if entered the soil of the Upper World. You never understood why such a thing as your existence had such dire consequences, but that just made you more aware of your lies to everyone in the Upper World.

Your mother raised you believing that love shouldn't be forbidden, no matter the circumstances, even if that meant two different worlds. The mundane world was like that too. Star-crossed lovers consisting of Romeo and Juliet, Jack and Rose, Joel and Clementine, your own parents— they're all the epitome of what your mother likes to gush on and on about. And in hindsight, you are the product of it.

Due to your inability to grow up with the other witches, you had almost the entire academy against you for the past few years, especially on Witch Trial Week, only for this year to completely change that.

In the mundane world, sports like kickboxing was one of your favorites, and while there was no such thing as kickboxing in the Upper World, your main characteristic was that you like to play rough. A tug a war, a game of chess— this year, you were not holding back.

"Don't be so quick to be disappointed, Piper."

Piper, one of your only purely good friends at Ember Academy, watches you grind up dried lavender buds in a hard stone mortar and pestle, making a few grinds before running an index finger along an old page of your mother's book you took without her permission. She plops down onto her seat in front of you, her dark purple hair bouncing on her shoulders as she taps on her star glitters on her face. "It's Witch Trial Week, ___. That means I have to witch-proof all of my belongings because Rina and her damn fritter friends are going to pull a last year's move."

"Oh, come on. It wasn't that bad," you state, pouring the crushed up lavender into a glass bottle that had frog mucus and torn rose petals sitting inside about one fourth of the way. Piper doesn't question what you were up to, only continuing to voice out her frustrations.

"They cursed my assignments! You know how many extra credit assignments I had to do? 200 points gone because of this bloody witch-made week!"

Smirking, you peer up at her before standing up from your seat to grab a large jar of purple dragon drool on a shelf right behind you, before sitting back down, "calm down, I have plotted the perfect revenge."

"What?" Piper raises an eyebrow, her facial expression looking concerned. "Is that dragon drool?"

Opening up the jar, Piper makes a sour face when the aroma of a putrid, green whiff draws out of the jar, you having to stifle in a cough at the stench that made no warning traveling up your sinuses. Bringing your index finger and thumb to pinch your nose, you grab the small wooden serving spoon attached to the side of it and put two heeping spoonfuls of the dragon drool into your concoction before swiftly shutting the jar and finally being able to breathe again.

Piper lets out an exhale she's been holding in, staring at you with wide eyes, waiting for an answer that you were sort of stalling as you rip up a piece of paper. "I borrowed my mother's infamous dark magic book."

She gulps at the sound of that. "Dark magic?"

"Calm down, it's not that bad," you roll your eyes at her fear of using an area of magic that you were technically not supposed to touch upon— but you couldn't help it. It's dark magic, it's bound to be used somehow. "Just going to tease around with Rina's emotions a bit. We all know she's been trying to hit on Namjoon despite her Complement is Doyeon. I'm making a simple love potion for Namjoon to fall in love with Rina— only for the week though. She'll be a bit heartbroken at the end, but hey, she stained my uniform with troll's blood last year."

Jung Rina, daughter of Ember Academy's high priestess, who also adapts an attitude problem. She likes to taunt other witches from afar because of the power she gains from being the high priestess's daughter, cursing and jinxing others and acting as if it wasn't her— she gets away with it anyways. Unsure why, even when you do mind your own business, it's as if Rina has something against you— you confirmed this when even after Witch Trial Week, she wouldn't stop jinxing you.

Last year, she took your uniform while you were showering after with a game of shuntbumps, only to wear a uniform stained with a bright yellow color leaving a horrendous, pungent smell of troll's blood. It was one of the most talked about trick for the year, everyone bringing up the fact that Ms. Jung Rina was able to get her hands on troll's blood and use you as a target. A laughing stock, the black sheep— you've endured it for long enough.

"You're using dark magic! On the high priestess's daughter! That's—"

"Risky? I could care less." You finish for her, shrugging. You write down the template for the love spell that was written in high level latin, writing it carefully letter by letter. As your quill inks the paper, you look at a sweating Piper momentarily. "Stop worrying! If anything, you're guilty by association."

Piper places her hands over eyes and sighs. "I did not see anything."

"No, you didn't," you muse along with her as you place your quill back into its holder and roll up the paper into a thin tube, tapping it into the bottle that finishes up the spell. You watch as the dragon's drool acidifies the paper, already acidifying the rose petals, ground lavender buds, and frog's mucus prior, all in all creating a lilac hue in the glass bottle. "See? It's done. Now I just need to pour this into his cup of juniper latte when we go to potions."

"Huh," Piper says aloud. "That's sneaky."

Clicking your tongue at her, you slam the dark magic book closed, quickly shoving it into your tote bag while you plug the glass bottle with a cork, gently placing it along with the magic book.

"May the games begin," you whisper audibly only for Piper to let out another sigh of disappointment, but also in anticipation.

Everything was going smoothly. Going to class was like a mission, having to make sure that you don't mindlessly enter a trap, but as you sit down in your seat, in the sight of Professor Young of where safe base was, you just had to get through this class without being suspicious. Despite all else, everything was smooth sailing. Even pouring the potion into Namjoon's juniper latte when he wasn't paying attention was easy. And you noticed that no one has caught you— yet.

In a whirl of lingering moments, the grace period, you were sat in your seat, reading your potions book when you hear an abrupt sound, you and almost everyone in the class looking up to see Namjoon, his told figure looming over the other students with eyes wide as day.

He makes one audible noise, "Rina," before dashing out of the potion room in a coarse and gawky manner, Professor Young calling after him while the rest of the class took it to their own accord to follow him, already presuming that something only Witch Trial Week can influence. Eventually, all classes grew curious of the commotion that people trickle into the crowd as they follow in a hearty distance from Namjoon's graceless gait.

You pull Piper to the side when you see Namjoon approach his and your target, standing from one of the many columns of the area to get a good look given by the angle you were given. Piper couldn't help but to let out an amused giggle when you both see the moment unfold in front of your eyes.

"Namjoon?" Rina speaks, her cheeks going red when she sees Namjoon on his knees, head down. You almost snort at how her eyes go wide when she finds her biggest crush right in front of her, thinking this was out of his own willingness— Namjoon actually being in love with Rina. "Namjoon, what are you doing?"

"I love you!"

The loud announcement rings and echoes in waves down the hallway, you and Piper already having a hard time stifling your laughter at the confession. Rina gulps before she lets out a scoff in disbelief, a smile creeping on her face as if this was a moment she was expecting. Her cockiness makes you want to gag.

"I love you with all my heart, Rina! I want to stay by your side forever!"

Whispers upon whispers dissipate into the air, one of concern, one of cheer for Rina, and one of straight amusement.

Rina raises her eyebrows, clearing her throat. "Namjoon."

"Please, keep me in your life," Namjoon states, almost like a whimper. In that moment, he peers up at Rina with huge bug eyes, as if he was really begging. The anticipation stabs at you like daggers as Rina continues to stare at him in both awe and confusion by the sudden confession. "Master."

The last word leaves his mouth almost like a mutter, and you were for sure, for a mere second, that you misheard him— everyone did, until you're finding Namjoon leap from his stance into Rina's arms, immediately peppering her with kisses on her cheeks, causing her to stumble backwards. The murmurs amongst the crowd grow, following with a few giggles as Rina is trying to push Namjoon away, trying to hold in her giggles.

"Namjoon," Rina says through fits of giggles as she brings her hands up to his chest, trying to keep some distance between them. "Namjoon, not—"

The words are taken out of her mouth when Namjoon, shamelessly and giddily swipes his entire tongue along her cheek, earning a large gasp from the crowd. It leaves not only you in shock, but as well as Rina who entirely freezes in realization of the contact that was just made. Your mouth hangs open, until you roll your lips inward, trying so very hard not to break into a fit of laughter.

"Wrong spell, you hobworm!" Piper whisper yells, slapping a hand on your arm as you let a snigger out, looking at your friend with amusement, wondering why she wasn't finding this just as funny as you did.

"Hobworm?" You gasp at her insult, your amusement unabashedly shining through.

Piper scowls at you, biting her tongue to prevent from encouraging you further into amusement. "You cast the wrong spell!"

As your smile grows, you shake your head. "No, I swear I didn't. I did everything correctly—"

"Then why on earth is Namjoon under a puppy love spell?"

Glancing your eyes at Rina, you hear whispers among the crowd who watch as she tries to push a puppy in love Namjoon away from her. He whines and whimpers each time she makes the distance greater between them.

"Who did this!" Rina exclaims, trying to push a licking Namjoon away from her. "Who in the heavens thought this was funny? I will be reporting this to my mother and every little squeamish fritter that allowed this to happen— no, Namjoon, bad dog!"

This allows you to snort, all your laughter you were containing bursting out as you couldn't hold it in anymore. However, doing so only allows Rina to make direct eye contact with you, her face twisting in volatile spite, knowing very well that you are the culprit. Widening your eyes, you began to run before your mind processed it.

"___!" Rina screeches from the tops of her lungs, everyone in front of you turning heads to find you, the witch who dared to pull a little stunt against the High Priestess's daughter.

Legs stride step by step, zooming through the halls with adrenaline pumping your veins as the wretched witch was probably right behind you, chasing you down when you hear the sounds of heels, knowing very well that's Rina's 3-inch heeled mules clacking in the distance. Professors peek their head out of their classroom in curiosity, some yelling at you to not run in the halls, however, your eye is set on the prize— the exit.

It was closed, and to save time, you swipe your hand in front of you, a spell recited in your head swinging the door wide open that it hits the walls and causes a loud slamming noise. It was the door that led out to the garden of the academy of where fresh herbs grew, and at this point of your escape plan, you were hoping to hide in the depths of the greenhouse until class ended.

You run down the steps, eyes looking down as your feet land on each step, careful not to miss one or you'd fall down to your doom. And just when you safely made it down the staircase, you are bumped into a wall of rigid flesh and muscle, your immediate reaction to apologize, except the words are taken out of your mouth when you look up and see the face on all pictures and drawings matching to the person who looked just as mesmerizing in person as he is on paper; the one and only—

"Your grace," Jungkook hears you sputter, shutting your eyes and lowering your head to hide your own embarrassment and disappointment in such a quick second. His men behind him step forward, but he raises a hand to halt them in their place. "My sincere apologies—"

"Do you have no mind?" Jungkook hears the secretary who was leading him on a tour around Ember Academy snap, her booming and high-pitched screech at the sheer shame that has been exchanged by this incident.

"I am so incredibly sorry, your grace. I am at fault—"

The king himself is not at all bothered by a simple bump by a young witch, considering that it seemed you were on the run from something. He glances down at you in subtle curiosity, your head bowed before him with your hair braided, as you stand still despite the constant nagging of the secretary scolding you for being so unaware. And something catches his eye.

His eyes focus in on the crystal of pale, fair, ivory that hangs on your neck. It twinkles in his sight with the sunlight just bouncing off of it into his cornea, right before he settles in recognition of where he recalls it. There's a swift movement moments later of where you raise your head just slight, only to lock eyes with him.

How you've grown, he thinks to himself. He remembers how your eyes were that of similar of a doe, and how you stared at him with the same wide eyes when you were little. It scares him how much time has passed and how you stand before him, more matured than before— he wasn't expecting to see you this soon.

The locked gaze lasted briefly before your eyes widen and you bring your head back down.

He manages to let out a sigh, "I suggest you pay attention where you are going in the future."

Jungkook can tell that you were surprised by his response, despite you committing the worst crime by even daring to be this close to the king. Even the secretary was a distance away from him.

"Yes, your grace."

"You may look up," he speaks. The permission makes you hesitate, but swallowing the lump in your throat, you inhale deeply and rise, and when you steadily meet his eyes, immediately, it's as if you could see his past. The pain and sorrow he has been through. It all encompasses into the hallows of his eyes.

"What is your name?" You blink at the question blankly as he awaits your answer, arching an eyebrow when you stay mute. "Well?"

"___," you answer. "My name is ___, your grace."

There's this glint in Jungkook's eye that even he is aware that you notice. It occurs to him that he has not once asked your name before, but somehow he finds it this moment valuable to gain that piece of you. Meanwhile, you hope he does not find any significance to your name, that this incident isn't one to be held against one day.

It's then, he smirks, giving a single nod, etching your name into his brain for he knows he will not forget it. 

"Your name will be in my memory, ___," he speaks ominously. Your heart drops in return. "You are dismissed."

six years later.

"Welcome."

The books weighed heavy in your arms, but you ignored the fact that it was nearly slipping out of your grasp as you gripped on the jar of dried magnolia leaves in the other hand, making your way to the small work table just right out into the shop of where you greet the presence inside the shop. Taking one last step to your marked destination, you let out a sigh of relief, your shoulders relaxing as you plop all of the buttery books onto the work table, still keeping the jar of magnolia leaves in your grasp.

"Is Circe here?"

At first, the voice processes in your mind, realizing that you were so engrossed on completing a minor trip without making a fool of yourself and dropping all your books at once that you forget for a mere moment that someone was in the shop. And what makes your whole body freeze like the ice age of modern day was the name you haven't heard in so long— only when your father would let it tumble out of his mouth and him being the last one to ever speak of the name.

The aura shifted within the shop. Not daring to turn around and meet eye to eye with the person who knows your mother's real identity, you keep your back turned away, placing the jar gently onto the table right next to your books, a pinky setting down first before gently setting down the bottom of the jar to relieve the loud sound it would have made.

"Who's asking?"

There's a moment of hesitation, one that you can only take in as sly and mischievous. Silently, you maintain a mantra in your head, one that recites a spell to freeze one's muscles entirely, the silence teeter totter between having to put the spell to use or not. The sound of a step is heard— one that sounds too close for your liking that in a whirlwind, you swiftly twirl around and let the mantra come to life in an instant, "carpe musculus."

And with wide eyes, you realize your mistake immediately when eyes lock with the ones that belong to the sheer ruler of the property you stand on— the king. It wasn't hard to forget them, since the last time you two had a rather unpleasant encounter. His eyebrow quirks up at your spell you casted upon him, his body completely frozen over as he was in the midst of grabbing one of the crystal necklaces hung on display at the register, an arm outstretched, but posture and dignified stature remained.

"An old acquaintance."

"Verto," you mutter, blinking with the same wide eyes as you see him gain control over his muscles again, his hand retracting and meeting his other hand from the behind, his throat clearing at the situation that he assumed— correctly— that you were fearful of. Bringing your head down instinctively, you open your mouth with eyes shut. "Your grace, I apologize—"

"Apology accepted," he cuts you off, making you peer up at his form from the curtains of your draping hair. Slowly, you rise your head, keeping your chin up to match his formal, dignified persona. "I am merely here to see your mother."

Scoffing lightly, you let your lips curl upward, turning around to grab at the jar of dried magnolia leaves from the table. "You must be an old acquaintance to call my mother by her real name," you take note aloud, wandering and maneuvering around the vast shop to the corner near the front of where the jars of special ingredients sit in the cupboards.

"Is Circe not what she goes by?"

You shake your head, opening the jar with one of the keys wrapped around your neck, twisting and turning before the cupboard unraveled a collection started by your mother. "Cora," you correct him. "She went by Cora."

"Very well then. Is Cora present?"

You blink at the question, mindlessly nudging the other jars to make room for your new ingredient you've obtained from the village due to a friendly seller who saved the leaves just for you.

"You just missed her," you announce, placing the jar snugly just between the phoenix feathers and pickled frog tongues. "By three years. She passed away."

"She passed?" The king speaks his question in subtle shock, evidently oblivious to your mother's passing, one that makes you question what connection he had to your mother as you turn around to meet his wide eyes. Politely, he realizes the atmosphere that was created and clears his throat. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"I'm sorry for yours," you try to keep the the spirits high, a teasing smile on your lips. "It seems like whatever reason you came here for was pretty important if the king is in need of my mother's services. And in replacement of my mother's absence, how may I assist you?"

In comparison to the young witch that was so invigorated with competition that you grew blind to your own surroundings, you were not like her to easily cower in front of intimidating figures— including the king— anymore. If she saw you now, she'd probably wonder why you are so nonchalant speaking to the king as you are in the moment, but there is one thing you noticed that allowed you to act the way that you are now.

He came into the shop looking for your mother, seeking for her services. Though he has the power to put you into exile or to chop your head off or to even rip your heart out of your chest, it means nothing when he is obviously wanting a favor.

Jungkook's eyes narrow slightly before he scoffs lightly. "Not quite sure if you can help me."

"I'm not that sure either," you muse. "But I am the next option to my mother's assistance. Or if you have no interest of my assistance, then I believe this shop is not meant for you, your grace."

It wasn't hard to notice that he was having an internal battle the minute you turned the other cheek to resume what you were doing. Shutting the cabinet and locking it, you wander to the back of the room of where the work table was, taking the top book of the stack and dusting it with one of your mini feather dusters.

"What do you know about Complements?"

Freezing your wrist, you take a second to process the question set in the air, your eyebrows furrowing. Setting the duster and the ancient novel down, you twirl around once more to meet the eyes of the distant king, each second becoming more comfortable under his gaze that seemingly brought temptation and fear amongst others.

"Depends. I'm not very interested in the topic enough to know the ins and outs of it. However, I do know how to expose a Compliment tie—"

"What about erasing a Complement tie?"

An eyebrow shoots up on your face, his questions becoming more questionable from your mere curious uprising, but as you let his inquiry sit in your mind, you shrug. "Never been done."

His grace scoffs, allowing the pad of his thumb swipe under his nose before returning to hold his hand from his behind. "That's what your mother said."

"And I'm afraid, to this day, her word remains true," retorting to his attitude, you fold your arms over your chest. "However, I can unknot a Complement tie if needed."

"Your mother has already done that."

"Of course she has," you roll your eyes, realizing that the more you talk to the king of Frawen, the more you realize that you were talking to a wall. "How about this? I will do some digging about it in her archives. She has mentioned before that terminating a Compliment tie is hard. However, I do believe it's not impossible." He stares at you attentively before you placate his energy with a smile, a little light of hope intended. "I will come by your castle once I've retrieved a decent amount of information."

He stays silent, a steady gaze on your eyes that slowly made you more uncomfortable with each passing second, but thank the dark lords that someone enters your shop, the door making a very loud entrance that ruined the staring contest between you two, your eyes averting to the customer who entered the premises.

"Welcome," you announce, strolling from the work table up to the front to sit right behind the register, flickering your eyes towards the king when seeing that he hasn't moved from his spot. "Until then, King Jungkook, I have a customer to attend to."

The customer that saved the awkward tension takes a step into the shop, but with a single glance headed their way from the king, the customer drops their head and mutters an, "I'll wait outside" and flees back into the Upper World sun, the door shutting again. Lips parting, you gape at Jungkook who looks back at you, ignoring that his own presence had made one of your customers scurry off in intimidation.

"When will I hear from you again?"

Scoffing at him, you shake your head at his evident advantage and inhale deeply. "I'll start doing some research tonight, your grace. Expect me in front of your castle in two days. And if you could kindly so, can you tell my customer they may come in on your way out?"

He lets his gaze linger on yours for a second before silently nodding on his way out, his presence exchanged for the customer's. The customer glances at you awkwardly as you count write something on a piece of paper with your quill, as if confused that you were not trembling after just speaking with the king, but going back to your normal day as if the king had never arrived.

"Why, King Jungkook came to visit. Quite sooner than I expected," the amused tone that drips from Circe's tongue when she notices the arrival of none other than the King of Frawen just two weeks after he had gone up and left her abode after the reveal of his dreaded Complement tie.

"Came to greet a happy birthday to her?" The witch doesn't meet his brooding gaze, but gathers bouquets of flowers in her hold.

"No," he flatly states. "I still have a favor to ask of you."

"Ah," Circe nods, balancing the bouquet carefully before tossing her aging hair over her shoulder. "The one about your Complement? You left so quick the last time we spoke."

Jungkook clenches his jaw, an attempt to not forget that his own fear and apprehension after making the forsaken revelation that he had met his Complement so soon; a child— a hybrid, a product against the Upper World law— is his Complement. Curse himself for being so easily affected.

And while the two have known each other for awhile, Circe wastes no time to remind him of inevitable fate, despite her own idea of the past he carries. It weighs on him heavily that even Circe cannot recognize the aura of whom she once knew of.

"Yes," he inhales sharply. "I need you to erase it."

Circe bellows a light chuckle, one that makes his eyebrows raise at the response. "Are you insinuating I kill my daughter?"

Jungkook knows that the witch likes to dig in places to prevent the other party from kicking around the bush. She hates fluff and she hates time being wasted. Only now, giving up her eternal life only makes her that much crabbier about it.

"Do you believe that I'd be daft enough to try to imply such a thing?" He shakes his head, a slight smirk growing on his face. "Murder doesn't sit very well on my shoulders, Circe. You must at least know that much of me."

"Do I? It's been too long."

Jungkook smiles at the grinning witch, "I am insinuating you sever our Complement tie."

The witch in decorative forest green and black, stares at the king who wears a sack-colored cloak that did not do justice hiding his black, feathered doublet that resembled such royalty and wealth. Even with the hood on, it is no mistaking that the man with raven hair and pale, glimmering skin, is the king. She laughs, her finger tapping against the paper wrapped around the bouquet of plum-hued calla lilies. "I'm afraid I can only live up to your favor in part."

"The most powerful witch I know cannot cut a Complement tie?"

She is no stranger to his challenges, but because she has no need to maintain the name of being the infamous witch who wields such immense power no longer (as she knows that name will be given to someone much worthy), she merely shrugs, a smile on her face. "Not even I know how to cut a Complement tie, dearest Jungkook."

"Your lack of knowledge of erasing something as mere as a Complement tie is disconcerting, Circe."

The witch hums in response, before whispering something of broken latin, and with a waver of a her fingers, a string of deep scarlet attaches against Jungkook's chest, one that floats in the air and trails in a ragged line right over Circe's shoulder and through the wooden door of her home as if he were tied to something— to someone.

The unveiling of the string causes Jungkook's breath to be caught in his throat, a pinch of nothing like before right against his chest of where the string is attached to.

"I see that, despite your best efforts, you could not stray away from her. And you want to know why?" Circe turns over her shoulder, before pointing at the single evident knot made along the string. "This knot was formed when she touched you and so long as it is there, you will live in constant yearning to see her and to be with her. Tell me, how many times have you had to prevent yourself from coming here until it became too unbearable?"

"Can you reverse it? Untie the knot?" His breath is tattered, uneven. It's as if the exposure of the string wrapped every inch of his heart and silently, the king of Frawen fears that his heart might be taken out of his chest.

"I can," she nods, an expression of indifference on her face. "But doing so does not change the fact that you are each other's Complements. It means that you will no longer feel the constant and desperate need to see her."

"Then I beg of you to do it—"

"However, the bond is strong, Jungkook," her gold eyes stare back at him before they soften, as Jungkook's mental mantras to fight off the peculiar pain deriving from the scarlet string has become a door to all of the pains he has experienced in the past. "I fear that the more you leave it in the dark, the more it will create more conflicts in the future."

"Having this complement now is already creating conflicts for me, Circe."

"Jungkook, if you two were to see each other again by the universe's happenings, must you know that the knot cannot be made again by simple touches. It has to be tied by the hand of a witch."

"If it's not any burden to you," he breathes in sharply. "I'd like you to unknot our Complement tie."

Circe makes a face of indifference before sighing. "Very well," she states just before she mumbles another string of latin and snaps, and lo and behold, the knot unravels by itself. The scarlet rope looked like it had no indentation of where the knot once was.

Jungkook lets out an aching sigh, as if he was under water for too long. Circe makes one more movement of her hand before the red string dissipates into the air, no longer exposed to the eye.

"There," she says. "Now leave, before she sees you again."

Circe doesn't give Jungkook a look of goodbye as she hurries inside her house. She feels the presence of Jungkook leave, exhaling in relief as she peers down at her daughter who gleams up at her, her hair in two buns on either side of her head. Her daughter lets out a squeal of "mommy!" before dropping a sage bundle in her hand to run up and hug Circe's leg.

"Happy birthday, my dear. Six years old already?" The witch pats her daughter's head as she giggles against her. "Go on into the kitchen. I'll be there in a moment."

And as she turns around to trot inside the kitchen, Circe takes notice of her neck that has been exposed due to her hairstyle that she wanted to wear this morning. The etching of her Complement mark that once inked her skin of a rose, had become a blank canvas.

As if the mark was never there to begin with.

You haul across the other wing of the castle that stretches from the main entrance of where the gigantic black, grandiose door stares at you mockingly for not having the privilege to be invited by the king himself as well as enter the main entrance to unravel the glory of what stood for centuries.

Servants of the fairest skin and darkest of hairs escort you to the a room you are unsure of, but you don't question them when they open the doors for you of the building. This was as close you were ever getting to the castle.

"Your grace," you announce your arrival before you could realize that another man stands there from the side of your kingdom's king. Freezing in place with books tensing against your chest, your lips part. "King Jimin—!"

"Hello— oh, please. I don't like the bowing," his voice is light, a striking contrast from Jungkook's ominous tone. You lift your head that was on the way down of honorability, eyes staying wide at his unexpected presence. "Trust me, I'm not a big formalities type of person like my brother."

"What is it? Did you find anything?" The king ruins the moment by his barking, an impatience growing in his chest.

You open your mouth, and close it. "Yes, and no."

"Proceed."

Walking over to the table, Jimin smirks when he hears the loud plop that comes from your stacks of ancient books slapping on the table, dust sprinkles in the air by such impact as you wave it dismissively out of your face to spread out the books evenly.

"These are just merely collections my mother had of Complement ties laying out and about," you begin, grabbing hold of the green and gold accented leather bind novel of browning pages. "They all talk about the history of it, the perspectives of it, and some old spells that used to be done moderately back then, but have been taken out of a witch's curriculum in school. Oh, like this one goes on and on about the importance of it and why finding out who your Complement is before you meet them is deemed as bad luck. Like seeing the bride before the wedding, which actually originated from arranged marriages when— sorry, tangent. If I can just find the book..." As your voice trails, your eyes furrow in concentration to find the book amongst the pile you brought that would deem as very important.

Finally, you hold it up to and pat it, Jungkook raising an eyebrow and Jimin looking bemused at your inner workings being elicited through your rambles and tangents.

"This is where I stumbled upon something fruitful," you began. "It's a book that's anti-Complement. The author was actually a witch who thought his Complement was, and I quote, "vile and tremendously horrendous", so he composed this book that explains how to unknot the Complement tie."

"Nothing about cutting it?"

You smile as you open the book. "There's a whole chapter about it, but," as you flip open to it, the book in your hands bursts into bright blue flames illuminating your skin with a blue tint before it calms down, living proof that the book itself was cursed, either by the author or your mother's doing. "The book has been cursed and the most vital information you want means you're not the only one who is searching for a severance."

"Couldn't you just... cut it?" King Jimin chimes in and you shake your head.

"No, this witch said that cutting it would damage the blade and not the tie," you close the book to prevent the fire from getting anywhere. "The tie itself, when exposed, is simply a scarlet rope. Its material is very ethereal and even your finest sword cannot cut it in two."

"Brilliant," Jungkook says, defeatedly. He sucks in a deep breath before looking at you, eyes flickering up and down your form. "When will I hear from you again?"

Making a loud sound as you stack the books on top of each other, you look up at him and raise an eyebrow. "Again? You're expecting me to continue the search for an answer that I can't give you? This is all the information that I can gather from my mother's archive. I don't know what else you expect me to do."

"What the daughter of the most powerful witch of this kingdom can do, of course," he retorts, easily. It makes you scoff.

"I apologize, your grace, but I am not going through those extra lengths."

"For someone who adheres to formalities very often, you don't seem to be very intimidated by me. At least not enough to do what I say."

"Is your job as a king to be intimidating?"

It was that type of riposte that would have your head, an immediate escort to your death for even thinking that a cocky retort would come out of your mouth. If only if Jimin hadn't let out an amused snort, punishment would not have immediately be put off the table, but the irritation forming in the king's blood remains. He doesn't turn to his brother to hush him, but rather keeps a heavy stare at you, narrowed eyes into slits as a heavy warning— yet you stay grounded, raising an eyebrow at him.

"And you don't seem to know when to not speak your mind."

"With all due respect, King Jungkook, may I remind you I am here because you requested my services. I've given you what I can provide, free of charge. My mother has probably dealt with a customer who has wanted the same thing, and if the book was cursed, it's a heavy sign that it's not a wise path to follow."

King Jungkook inhales deeply, eyes staring at the hybrid who fears nothing under his gaze. He mentally curses to himself knowing very well that Circe was the most probable culprit of cursing her own books, for the sole reason of not wanting him to get his hands on vital information that would separate a Complement tie attached to her own daughter. Sighing, he makes a dismissive nod towards you, a finger tapping on his arm chair repeatedly. "Very well. Dismissed."

And without a word, you gather your things and leave, the same men escorting you away from the castle and the inconsiderate king.

Once your presence no longer lingered, Jungkook sinks down into his chair, letting his head fall against the fist of his arm that propped it up. Jimin clicks his tongue beside him.

"Now tell that was not who I thought that was," Jimin sings once the door had fully shut closed and it was just Jungkook and his brother of the neighboring kingdom.

"Your instincts are spot on, brother," Jungkook says with heavy sarcasm, shaking his head.

Jimin heartily laughs. "It doesn't take a Merlin to see that she's your Complement. It's quite obvious."

"Care to go more in depth?"

"Other than the fact that she's the only outsider you granted a visit at your castle, you're not so quick to throw her out either," he begins before tapping his finger on the table. "You also don't like looking her in the eye. You get tense when you do. Either you fear her or you fear getting close to her."

Jungkook raises an eyebrow in surprise at his brother's quick observation— it must be all the times he's observing human behavior in the mortal world.

"She's mentioned that her books derive from her mother's archives— is her mother...?"

"Her mother was the one that undid our Complement knot."

"Her mother was the infamous Circe, then?" Jimin marvels with his signature taunting smirk on his face. "Well, I'll be damned."

"You already are," Jungkook rolls his eyes.

"Your Complement is a hybrid— and not just a hybrid, Circe's daughter?" Jungkook didn't like that his own brother kept reminding him of who his Complement was, thus encouraging the fire of searching for a severance. "Despite the fact that she holds tremendous power, she seems very promising. You're not fond of her?"

"Jimin, you know—"

"Right, pardon me. You don't want her," Jimin inhales deeply, nodding.

"Jimin," Jungkook begins once again. "I can't have her as my Complement. I need her to find a spell to wither our tie."

"Is there another reason why you need to find such spell other than you're dreading that she's bound to you?"

"So that she could find real love and romance. She will not find it with me."

There was an unreadable look in Jimin's face that even his own brother could not decipher. It lingers for a moment before he makes the executive decision to stand up from the seat, knocking on the table with his pale knuckles. "I'm heading back to Merosa. May I make the suggestion that you take her to Sagewood?"

"Sagewood? Why in the heavens would I take her there?"

"If you want to cut the tie so badly, then I think it wouldn't be a very shabby place to start, no? After all, she only has access to such limited information— you're not being much help either. Besides, you both will most likely find something valuable there."

It was pruning day.

The plants you planted outside your windowsill in its respected pots looked green as ever, with some minor flaws sticking out. You walk outside with shears in hand, identifying the buds you'd snip off with love. You enjoy taking care of your plants, the only common denominator between this world and the mundane world that gave you a sense of normality.

Humming an old folk tune from the mundane world, you admire your plants, recalling that some of these plants were the ones your mother would plant back in the mundane world. As you snip off one of your greenery, you hear the faint sounds of neighs from afar, halting in front of your shop and creating audible commotion behind your back. You overhear your neighbors rush out of their respected buildings, having you grow curious by the second.

Raising an eyebrow, you turn around to find nothing but the king hopping off his trusty steed of ebony glory with a luscious mane, planting his feet flat onto the ground with ease while two other men follow his lead, staying a hearty distance from him. He meets your eyes immediately, ignoring that everyone around him are caught in a trance by his sudden appearance in the town.

"King Jungkook," you marvel with a smirk, ignoring the fact that your neighbors were staring in mixed awe and fear. "What a lovely surprise."

He approaches you, stepping onto the gravel, expressionless. "I request your stay at my castle."

The words don't process fast enough in your mind, a blank expression being your response, but even then, you couldn't help but to laugh, but it came out more like a baffled scoff. "I beg your pardon?"

"To make use of the castle's library," he fills in, a smirk painting his face. "We, too, have an archive for all things your curious, knowledgable mind may want to see. Thousands of collections over the centuries, compilations from notable figures. I'm giving you access to that information in search of the severance."

You gape at him, lowering your shears. The king takes this action with positivity as his smirk only grows for a second before he's back to his emotionless expression.

"I will have my men come by to escort you to the castle tomorrow morning at nine-hundred. Pack your things," he says with no confirmation from you. His passive command makes you blink while you watch him turn his shoulder.

Amidst his turn to head back to his source of transportation and the other men who stand in front of your property, you stop him, "really? And when have I agreed?"

His body comes to a full stop just a hearty amount of distance from you. "And you wouldn't?" He calmly states aloud. In a moment, he's turning his body back to completely face you, cocking his head slight. "Tell me, you're not at all curious about how to cut a Complement tie?"

"Why would I? I have no intention of doing so."

"So you'd want to stay bound to one person your whole life? When you meet your Complement, you want to be so attached to the point that being even just miles away from them tears you apart? Every second you do not see them is as if your heart is being shredded apart in layers. Finding out who your Complement is only ruins you in a way that is a hell disguised as a heaven," he says as if it were straight spitfire. There was remorse and dread in his voice that even you cannot decipher completely— as if the pain that courses through his vein is truly authentic.

"In the mundane world, it's different, no? Humans fall in love with who they want, when they want. Did you ever compare that to the Upper World where it is frowned upon to not be with your Complement?"

"They differ, yes," you say through gritted teeth.

"Are you not so curious as to how to sever the tie? To at least be one of the first witches in centuries to hold great knowledge of a severance? That maybe you would one day change your intentions to cut your tie?"

You stay silent, placing your shears down as you stare at him attentively. Sure, you were curious, but your curiosity grew more prevalent seeing how the king was doing so much as to using a rhetoric tactic to ease your answer into a yes. And oddly enough, it was working.

"Besides... free stay, breakfast— in the castle? Surrounded by all things good and gold?"

Letting out a scoff, you narrow your eyes at him. "Is that your way of paying me for my services? A bed and breakfast at the castle? A week to pretend I'm royalty?" Challenge dripped from your tone evidently, but while the others around you and nearly the whole kingdom all feared the king's presence, you didn't share the same feeling. After all, this was the king asking for your services.

And suddenly, his expression changes, one of seriousness turned into dry amusement as he lets out a deep laugh bellowing from his stomach. "No, I'm offended that you may think I'm that cheap," he states as you raise an eyebrow, stabbing your shears, sharp point down into the window sill just right behind your plants. "I may have taken advantage of your services before, forgetting my place as a client to you. For that, I apologize sincerely. I am offering pounds of gold to you in exchange that you continue your search to cut a tie."

"Pounds of gold?"

"I notice that you live in your shop," he speaks of apparentness, making your cheeks go red as he turns his gaze to look at the shop behind you, a place you vaguely remember growing up in. "After your mother died, you decided to turn your home into a shop? Selling your services?" In that moment, you freeze only slight, caught off guard by how easily he put two and two together, you merely forgetting that he was an "acquaintance" with your mother— of course, he knew of this property before you probably were born.

"If the pounds of gold are not enough, I would be glad to make your stay at the castle permanent after you've found the severance."

You raise your eyebrows at his offer, never missing the way his lips quirked upwards for a ghostly second when he sees he's appealing you in the right direction.

"A permanent stay at your castle? As what? Your mistress? A maid?"

He chuckles and shakes his head. "Of course not. Your mother would find a way to resurrect herself to rid of my existence if she found out that I made you, her daughter, a mistress. Let alone a maid."

"You will be staying at my castle free of charge. And while I know this shop has been dear to your mother— dear to you, I am also willing to put a new location in the center of Sapphire Hill for your services on the table. Closer to the castle and in the heart of Frawen. That is, only if you have a mind to accept my proposal."

Inhaling sharply, you both stare at each other in silence as your mind juggles and he patiently awaits your answer, his body still as a stone, probably cold as one too. There was no other ulterior option to choose from— after all, why would you decline such a proposal? You were just as curious about the severance as he was, wondering why your mother never wanted to stray close to that path and why she has never mentioned about it before. And perhaps, you too could also cut your tie before you ever get to find your Complement if you ever came down to it.

However, despite his generous offers for a mere severance, there was a deep feeling in your stomach that didn't sit very well with you, one that was silently yearning you to not accept. It felt alarmingly unnatural. Just as unnatural as interacting with the king up close three times in a month.

"Alright," you sigh, defeatedly, grabbing your shears from the wood and returning to pruning day. "You've appealed to me."

"Wonderful," he acknowledges, a single celebratory nod coming your way before he turns around to head back on his steed. "I will have people to escort you tomorrow. Nine-hundred."  

"Quite a castle," you announce, eyes boggling at the interior design of the castle you never thought you'd see in person. Hell, you didn't think you'd ever get to see it closer than it being on top of the hill until just previously.

The halls were a fair color accented with alluring gold, intricate designs resembling a brush stroke, as if the gold were painted free-handedly, yet a symmetry being maintained. Crimson rugs, drapes, furniture dabble the expense of the hallway itself, and ebony statues and sculptures stare back at you broodingly. Two broad statues of fairies introduce you on either side of the entrance, facing each other with conch shells held to their mouths.

Selene purrs in your arms, probably just as dazzled at the structure as you are. "I know, baby, I know," you mutter under your breath as your pace slows along the red carpet.

"___." The voice announcing your name echoes throughout the vast hallway, pulling you out of your thoughts and daydreams as you peer towards the grandiose staircase ahead, finding a familiar figure in red with accenting white tassels walk down the steps, slowly and gracefully.

Selene suddenly paws out of your grasp to be let go of, you lowering her down to the floor carefully as you know that she likes to roam around new and foreign areas by herself.

"Your grace," you acknowledge, pacing towards him to meet him in the middle, eyes watching Selene trot along the scarlet carpet just in front of you, only to realize that she made her independent way to the king. You arch an eyebrow when Jungkook stops his footing altogether, both of you noticing Selene taking a liking into him, purring against his leg and her tail curling around his calf, making elegant circles around him in adoration. "I see Selene likes you."

Jungkook coughs before removing his eyes from the feline to meet yours. "You have a cat."

"I do," you nod. "Is she not allowed in the castle?"

"I'll make the exception," Jungkook swallows as Selene rubs her cheek against his leg. You mentally thank Selene for kissing his arse, knowing that Jungkook might have gone soft for your feline friend immediately and discarded the direct thought of kicking her out.

"I was given her a couple years back."

"Were you?"

You hum in response. "Given to me as a gift for my birthday. I named her after selenite, one of my favorite crystals."

"As long as she doesn't get into anyone's way, your feline company is welcome. However, if she were to be causing mischief, do not be blowed if she is in your soup," the king warns as he turns around, a hand motioning you to trail behind him, but the whole situation nearly made you snort out loud. Was that humour in his voice?

Following him, you scoop Selene with a hand as you caught up to her, cutting her curiosity trip short as you did not want to have her disappear and find her as your dinner, despite King Jungkook's warning sounding slightly sarcastic. His foot steps climbing up the stairs echo, his boots emphasizing his steps as you follow a few steps behind him, your flats being light-sounded from underneath you.

The Upper World resembled a victorian age from the mundane world. As much as you missed your tennis shoes and trousers, the Upper World called for bell-shaped dresses, the air-sucking corsets, and uncomfortable shoes that hurt your back if standing for too long.

As King Jungkook walks down the spacious hall with such glorious designs, you notice that there were two beautiful women in gray high neck dresses, eggshell aprons wrapped around their waist standing on the side with head lowered. Despite their dull attire, their appearance is what caught your eye.

The one on the right had skin of the bluest topaz with complementing navy hair tied up into a sleek bun. If she had looked up earlier, you would admire her sunshine eyes that made her look so kind. The on the left had contrasting mauve skin and emerald hair flowing down her shoulders. She wore a headband to keep her hair out of her face.

Nymphs.

"Cricket, Calla," the king's voice ruined the solace of the hallway, the snap of both ethereal beings' heads making direct eye contact with King Jungkook, you catching the hazel eyes of the mauve skinned beauty for a split second before she keeps steady eye contact with the person she serves.

"They will be serving you throughout your stay," he states towards you, a nod cueing the two nymphs accordingly.

"Good morning, ___. I am Calla," the topaz nymph speaks first, bowing her head as you respectfully did the same.

"And I, Cricket," her partner speaks, bowing as well.

"It is lovely to meet you both, Calla and Cricket," you speak with a kind tone as they give the smallest of shy smiles.

"Aster and Fickle are unloading the carriages. They will be up to bring her belongings in any minute. You may start unpacking—"

"Oh no, that's not necessary," you intervene. The king sends you a glare for interrupting him, but daringly, you roll your eyes at him. "Cricket, Calla, just have Aster and Fickle leave my luggages on my bed. I didn't pack heavy, so it's alright. I'd prefer if I unpack myself."

"As you wish," Cricket and Calla say in unison before King Jungkook gives one last asserting, yet hesitating nod, turning his shoulder to continue walking down the hall.

"Come. I will show you the library," he orders, having you share one last look at the beautiful nymphs who both smile at you. In that moment, you give them a smile that you hoped would make them feel safe— as if you all have been friends before. As you tear your eyes away, you trot up to the king's pace, Selene being safe in your arms as you mentally curse the king for having long legs.

Walking for nearly a minute or two, you didn't realize he had stopped in front of large double doors, black wood engraved with the exact designs you recall in the main entrance, intriguing you with every bit. You blink for a nanosecond until you hear the door unlock and open, having to blink once more when you see that the king was only a few feet away from the immense opening, arms held behind his back as the door widened.

"Did you do that?" You question aloud. It sounded very mundane of you— as if you had not seen anything weirder in the Upper World.

"Yes," he speaks, raising an eyebrow at you as you wait for the doors to open fully. "I am a Pureblood, aren't I?"

His reminder made you realize that you did indeed forget that Purebloods hold some sort of power. It was only the three kings who held such powers, being why they were named the most powerful trio over centuries to live. Unsure why, you didn't take the King of Frawen to hold telekinesis, if anything.

The doors finally stop opening, two grand doors coming to a halt on either side of the opening and creating an entrance to a room that already has your mouth hung open.

"This is the library," he speaks, taking a step in first. "All of Frawen's greatest works over the centuries are all kept in here."

It was not the immense room that was its own castle itself, but it was the giant collections, endless spines of literature and word composition that was tempting you to swallow all of the knowledge up from them.

"These are the collections of Edgar Allen Poe," you observe, remembering that you had to read one of his famous works in your mundane junior high, the eerie components of his pieces standing out to you enough that you recall his name. "The Upper World holds mortal works?"

"Just the finer ones. Homer, Machiavelli, the Brontë sisters, Cordelia Maine—"

You widen your eyes. "No way. Cordelia Maine? You have her works, too?"

"Of course," he laughs at your never-ending bafflement. "She might be famous to you mortals, but her roots don't stray away from Frawen."

"Mortals," you repeat, catching his word that he knowingly categorizes you. It makes you blink up at him, more concerned why you weren't feeling as uneasy as you should that the king who stands in front of you and has brought you inside his castle knows you're the product against the Upper World law. "Dare I ask how you know this?"

The king smirks at you, probably bemused at how you weren't exactly trembling in your boots, but you probably have a spell prepared at the tip of your tongue. "Do you forget that I can smell your blood? You reek of mortals."

Arching an eyebrow at him, you narrow your eyes just slight. "Should I be worried?"

He smirks. "That I hold such knowledge? No, or else I would have no way to find a severance now, would I?" His rhetorical question is followed with a quirk of his eyebrow, a bemused smile illuminated from the indirect sun from the window. "Besides, your mother and I were acquaintances. I am well aware of your father and while I have never met him, I do know that your mother loved him, even if they were worlds apart."

Not saying another word, you smile. One that lingers on your face for a bit, one that is shared between you and the king, one that is as if you two have created some sort of connection by this secret he finds indifference to.

However, you do not let the smile linger for too long, for you cannot trust anyone so easily, no matter if your heart is oddly beating out of your chest and there is an odd stir in your stomach when his eyes remain on your form for a moment as if he is trying to study you and your every feature.

You disregard it though, as if a chip on your shoulder, or a hair in your face when he leads you back to your room from the grand library, claiming he has work to finish.

Later that afternoon, you were in the midst of unpacking your luggages when Calla and Cricket make an appearance into your room. They were there to escort you to lunch, but you told them to give you a few minutes to organize your things, encouraging them to wait in your room as you did so.

"Are you his betrothed?"

The sudden question makes you stumble, nearly dropping the books in your hand that you deemed most viable to bring to this trip. "Sorry?" You laugh, looking at them with a sheepish smile. A harmless question, but a stretch to inquire.

"Isn't that why he's having you stay here at the castle?" Cricket asks, keeping her hands intertwined in front of her as they both watch you organize your knick-knacks of books and crystals and Selene's toys.

"Oh to the heavens, no," you laugh, Cricket furrowing her eyebrows and cocking her head to the side, wondering why your peculiar stay at the castle isn't for that singular motive. "I'm here for an entirely different reason."

Calla blinks blankly, her long, blue lashes making it obvious. "Our king doesn't usually like to keep guests overnight— let alone indefinitely."

Placing your books onto the antique dresser, you raise an eyebrow at them. "Is that right?"

"We thought, perhaps, this was his attempt in courting you," Cricket says, rather timidly. "After all, you're very beautiful."

The compliment brings red to your cheeks. "You're just saying that—"

"But, 'tis true," Calla nods. "We're nymphs—"

"We can't lie—"

"We thought that he may have found love again—"

"We would be surprised if he didn't find you, at the very least, beautiful—"

"Our king doesn't open a room for just anyone, since he's very..."

"Closed off."

They jump off their sentences swiftly, as if a ball ricocheted against the walls in great speed and force. It intrigues you as you furrow your eyebrows, more interested in the last part they had to say. "Closed off? Why is that?"

Cricket and Calla look at each other before bringing their head down. "Have you not heard of his past?" You shake your head before Calla sighs and begins again. "Our king is the most kind, most fair— but it does not redirect the light away from his past—"

"Lost the people most close to him. Lost his mind along the way, and perhaps, most tragically, lost his soul. It began with Dawn and then his best friend who happened to be his general, and then his parents, and so on. They are frightened of him."

You furrow your eyebrows. "Who's they?"

"All of Frawen. Even those in the mundane world have heard of his story," Cricket answers.

"Frawen respects our king, if anything. However, that respect derives from fear. I'm afraid that the people in this castle are the only people who love him, who see the better in him."

"So I see it's been a lonely castle on this hill," you nod in understanding. "I won't bombard you both with anymore questions. You both are free to leave, I will meet you both in the dining room."

"Are you sure, my lady?"

"I'm sure. Please, I do not want to be a burden to you both."

The nymphs giggle. "We assure you that you are not. It's rather refreshing to tend to someone other than the king and his brothers."

"You both have been very kind. I will see you both there."

"And my lady," Cricket speaks. "We wish you a wonderful stay."

"Jungkook," Circe acknowledges his presence in a blink of an eye the minute he makes a step onto the property that was under an invisibility spell for nearly a decade, only to have it reappear as if it didn't disappear in the first place. "Here to welcome me back?"

The king lowly laughs, not taking another step onto the property as Circe turns around from watering her deep red rose bushes planted right outside. "I was surprised to hear that you made a foolish decision to move to the mundane world."

Circe ticks her tongue, shaking her head at how his prejudice against the humans stain his tone. "I don't believe it was foolish, dear Jungkook."

"Is that what you tell the Counsel?"

Circe lets out an amused sound, maneuvering around her bushes. "The Counsel can believe what they want, but they hold nothing against me. By law, I am allowed to be here and to be there. I may be a witch, aging like a mere mortal, but I still uphold powers strong enough to burn them alive before they can even think of crossing me."

"I have no doubt," Jungkook smirks. "But by law, is your daughter allowed to be here?"

Circe pauses her watering, hose in hand halting with the water continuously drenching a part of the rose bush as she raises an eyebrow. "Why are you here, Jungkook?"

"I heard she attends Ember Academy now. Enrolled as a full-fledged witch. I've come bearing a gift for her."

"A gift?"

"Call it a welcome back gift," he speaks with an anticipating tone right before he walks over to his horse of where a woven basket was attached to the saddle. Circe remains where she stands, watching him carefully as he walks towards her before she senses something, one that makes her hair stand on her arms. As he nears, Circe peeks into the basket, only to have her jaw drop as she sees that it is a kitten.

A kitten of midnight beauty, sleeping soundly in its basket of blankets.

Circe, who could not help it at all, laughs. Soft laughter rumbles through her throat as she coos at the creature, reaching her hands out to take the basket in her hands. "And your arrival has nothing to do with the fact that today is her birthday?"

"Is that today?" Jungkook ponders aloud as Circe laughs, sneaking a smirk on his face before she strokes a finger on the kitten's head carefully and gently. She can tell that he remembers, and that the years leading up to now, he always have.

Sighing, Circe's smile fades as she looks up at Jungkook, tired eyes and all. "I must tell you, Jungkook."

He raises an eyebrow at her.

"I've grown ill," she begins, retracting her finger from the kitten to hold the basket with two hands. "I have been for awhile now and I can feel my end nearing. I trust to believe that you will protect her."

Jungkook blinks a couple times, the odd construct of having someone who has been around for longer than he has tell him explicitly that their end is inevitable and that it was nearing quite sooner than he expected was worth a double take and a few seconds to digest.

"You may not want to stay tied to her, but I trust you enough to uphold her secret. And to protect her when needed," the kitten purrs meekly in the basket, making Circe glance at it for a mere moment before meeting the concerned eyes of Jungkook with matching knitted eyebrows. "Believe that I am not entrusting you with her life, but that the feeling in your heart of wanting to protect her is inevitable. No matter if the knot remains untied."

He opens his mouth, but the words he could not formulate were taken away quickly by Circe's chuckle, waving him off.

"I know what you'll say," she raises an eyebrow, lips curling and eyes creating crescents. "But if anything happens in the future, must you know you have my blessing."

"Circe," he begins.

"She'll appreciate this kitten," Circe interrupts, smiling at how the kitten inhaled and exhaled, curling in its ball with comfort of the soft fleece blankets. "I'm sure you don't want her to know it came from you, perhaps?"

There is a knowing look that the two share, one of pure guise. "May it be our little secret."

"Among thousands," Circe nods, one in which Jungkook does the same. "Will this be the last time we meet?"

"I would hope not."

"Then I bid you farewell, either for now or forever," Circe smiles, a weak curl of her lips, an evident form that made Jungkook realize that she looked much older than before— the gray hairs, her smile lines and forehead wrinkles. It all reminded Jungkook that she is, in fact, a pure mortal, withering faster than most. It scares him, but it makes him curious as to her motive despite him knowing that she did it out of love.

As he leaves the ebony kitten in Circe's hands to give to her daughter's possession, he departs her property with the lingering thought that maybe— perhaps people really do scary things out of love.

[vaultureculture]

Meet my Guardians :) [part 1?]

I have been playing Eldarya ever since I was 14. For the past few years, I had been reading the story religiously, mixing in headcanons to fill plot-holes, and  fleshing out Erika until she became something entirely different. 

Her character soon split into my three mains, all of whom I will introduce to you all in this post! In my Eldarya AU, they all exist in the same universe, and the three of them play crucial roles in the Oracle’s prophecy. I will develop them more as time goes by hmhm

1-Monnika

Name: Monnika Defreine (she/her)

Birth date: 14th November  [  ♏︎  ]

Age: 22

Species: Faelienne (Aengel+Human)

MBTI: INFP

Guard: Absynthe Guard

Familiar: Lillith (Bâkhrâhell)

LI: Leiftan (both in TO and in ANE)

Occupation in the Guard of Eel: She has taken on the role of a teacher for many children inside the H.Q’s walls. She specializes in lyrical poetry and composition. Whenever she is free from her teaching job, she adventures out into the forest to collect ingredients for ointments and potion spells. 

Sub-occupation: Trained alchemist, Oracle visualizer. Monnika has frequent premonitory dreams and visions featuring the Oracle, but she cannot understand them nor speak in their tongue. Her visual communication with the Oracle is important regardless, and she’s the most attached to it.  

Weapon of choice: Sword

Pros: Forgiving, educated, compassionate, patient, reliable. 

Cons: A push-over, easily biased, indecisive, self-victimizing, very edgy.

Monnika follows the more “canon Erika” path. She is the only one of the main three to have come from Earth through the portal we see at the beginning of the game. She is also the only one to retain an element of Aengel blood, albeit stronger than Erika’s. The option was ruled out for canon Erika, but Monnika is indeed adopted and a faelienne. She’s aware of her adoption but does not know anything else about her background, nor has she cared to know.

In her childhood, she was often reported to affect nearby light and energy sources. Her parents believed her to simply be sensitive to electromagnetic fields. This explanation is usually given to spiritual mediums: The energy they accumulate is said to be what causes paranormal phenomena around them. 

Once she crossed the portal into Eldarya, she began regulating her Maana, and her powers started manifesting more. The eventual blood transfusion and ‘soul-tethering’ with Leiftan jumpstarted a physical transformation, leaving her stuck out of her human disguise. Now, do not let her edgy appearance fool you: she is an Aengel. 

Monnika's form is inspired by traditional Seraphims— that is, ominous balls of eyes and feathers. Her blood is ancient, and her outside reflects it:  Upon transforming, all of her grows in size monstrously. She prostrates, back heavy with wings, as blazing white light fills her sockets. Her spindly fingers dig into the soil, like the feeble limbs of a black widow spider. She is one with the earth her mother bore her from; in her presence, one feels as though judgment is neigh.

There are no reasons to fear her, though, for she is kind and reserved. Monnika finds joy in tranquility and avoids company most of the time. After her initial transformation, she grew more distant, ashamed of her new condition. Her human blood keeps her from smoothly regulating her powers, so she is stuck in her angel form from the first time it occurs to the end of the War for Eldarya, before the 7-year coma. With training, she is finally able to change back to a more human disguise. 

Leiftan and Monnika are, indeed, soulmates. She always felt herself gravitate towards him and followed this attraction without remorse. Her alliance stands with Leiftan and with Leiftan only, which made her position in TO quite complicated. Her lover's crimes were heinous, but her eagerness to build bridges between them again kept her from understanding the seriousness of it all. After their coma, her spirit and trust are broken by Leiftan's distance. She's then left to pine from afar, desperately trying to comprehend how she's supposed to live with half a heart.  

2-Astraea

Name: Astraea Varma (she/her)

Birth date:  5th March [ ♓︎ ]

Age: 24

Species: Euryhalin nomadic mermaid

MBTI: ISFJ

Guard: Obsidian Guard

Familiar: Thetis (Blobbiathan)

LI: Valkyon (TO) & Mathieu (ANE) 

Occupation in the Guard of Eel: Unwilling to find herself (or her peers) wounded and helpless in the midst of battle, she started working as a nurse under the protection of Ewelein. Her eagerness to learn and help others soon turned her into a sponge for medical knowledge.

Sub-occupation: Obsidian infantry soldier, Crystal fragment detector. Astraea can easily sense the presence of crystal fragments, corrupted or not. She can easily follow them to where they are, as if they left a visible trail. 

Weapon of choice: Hammer or enchanted fists. 

Pros: law-abiding, empathetic, just, optimistic, fun to be around. 

Cons: Inflexible, holds grudges, bad loser, stubborn, quick to judge.  

Astraea washed up on a small stream that crosses the forest of Eel. She was found by Ykhar and Alajéa on the noon of the same day that Monnika appeared in the Crystal Room. Astraea had no recollection of her journey upon waking up beside the fact that she was looking for something significant. She made allusions to it being noted down in her journals, all of which she lost in the last half of her trip. 

She comes from a clan of Euryhalin nomadic mermaids, aquatic creatures who can travel both through rivers and oceans according to migratory seasons. These migration patterns are marked by the moon and the stars, so these mermaids are essentially nocturnal. This is similar (if not the same, even) to the structure and tradition of Alajéa and her sister Colaïa’s clan. The likeness between Alajéa and Astraea’s experiences will eventually strengthen the bond between them, and make them grow closer than ever— despite the initial moments of sourness. The only thing that could throw a spanner in the works is Astraea's distaste for Karenn, Alajéa's best friend. The breach between them is no different in ANE, as Karenn's overall demeanor is quick to make Astraea's blood boil.

Despite being an Obsidian, Astraea fears conflict and very much dislikes harming others. She is not one to await battle with a smile, nor is she an outstanding warrior by herself. Nevertheless, it is her wit, perseverance, and fairness that landed her on that guard. Moments of doubt, like passing mists, may have clouded her self-perception; She may have broken down many times but always stood up again to dedicate more effort to her cause. She fights when necessary, using her knowledge in enchantments to gather up fists of rocks as her weapons.

Incredibly passionate about justice and discipline, Astraea held the Obsidian chief Valkyon in high regard. He became one of her confidants in the tortuous search for her memories; then, a partner to stand by as the world caved in. After the War and the 7-year coma, Astraea withdrew into isolation, grieving over the loss of her lover and mentor. The cherry tree that once was Valkyon’s shelter is now Astraea’s place of reflection— a deep, melancholic pondering only Mathieu, a new friend, and Sonzaishinai, an old friend, can get her out of. 

3)Sonzaishinai

Name: Hélène “Sonzaishinai” Müller(she/her)

Birth date:  20th May [ ♊︎ ]

Age: 25

Species: Nocturnal fae (moth variant)

MBTI: ENTP

Guard: Shadow Guard

Familiar: Skade (Owlett)

LI: Nevra (TO) & Lance (ANE)

Occupation in the Guard of Eel:  Hélène had always shown a questionable interest in the archives of the H.Q. When Ykhar offered her to work as an adjoined archive librarian, she could not pass it up. She knows the catalogue by heart and has gathered a bunch of...information that may be of use to her. 

Sub-occupation: Master archer, Oracle interpreter. Sonzaishinai has auditory hallucinations featuring the Oracle. She is able to understand her tongue and speak in the Ancient tongue of Eel, thus being able to interpret many crucial pieces of information. 

Weapon of choice: Bow and arrow.

Pros: Diplomatic, humorous, witty, loyal, affectionate. 

Cons: Hides information, violent under stress, impulsive, patronizing. 

Sonzaishinai was brought to the H.Q disheveled and delirious by a group of local Purreko merchants. They had accused her of theft (bread? a dragon tear? so they said), and she was thrown into a cell pre-emptively. Nevertheless, her worn-down state and the lack of evidence ended the trial period rather quickly. For lack of planning and information about her, she was kept in jail for an extra day. Sonzaishinai was in prison at the same time as Monnika. The 'masked man' freed both, and the girls parted ways at the Hall of Doors. 

As a disoriented newcomer, Sonzaishinai was granted shelter. She was allowed three days to recover and decide on her fate. She would either hit the road and return to her homeland or commit to becoming a productive citizen of Eel— by settling and supporting local markets, or joining the staff. Her affairs were thoroughly searched, and nothing was found but a couple notebooks filled with inscriptions in an alphabet unknown. Under questioning, Sonzaishinai soon proved to be, somehow, proficient in languages galore, many of them forgotten and unused. 

She soon joined the same recruit program as Monnika and Astraea...not without the Guard's persuasion, of course. There, Sonzaishinai and Astraea grew close beyond belief. They learned to lean on each other, bound by laughter and blind trust. Sonzaishinai considers Astraea a sister and does not hesitate to call her so— while Astraea always goes to Sonzaishinai for guidance. In ANE's weapon giving ceremony, Hélène chooses to call her new bow (it is Monnika who gets the sword) "Astraea", for she believes the younger mermaid to be her protection and good luck charm.

The nickname "Sonzai Shinai" was given to her by a guard colleague from the Jade Coast. It is a verbal expression of Japanese origin, meaning "there is not", "it does not exist". The culprit behind Hélène's telling nickname is no other than her silence: One can barely hear her arrive, and she always seems to appear as suddenly as she fades away. With time, she fully adopted the nickname, and nobody really calls her Hélène anymore—with rare exceptions.

Nocturnal faes are beings as mysterious and charming as they are dangerous. Most of them present themselves as delicate young women, who seem far too attractive or even stuck in time, never aging.  Behind their lips, however, hide sharp teeth. They are carnivorous and oftentimes conniving, some even venomous, just like the habitats or plants they frequent. It depends on the individual, of course, but they do not have the best reputation around. Whatever they really are, it is not advisable to seal deals with them. They always have a trick up their sleeve.

Although Hélène can be 100% trusted if you are her ally, she does tend to keep many things a secret. It was her that contacted Lance in TO, never telling Miiko and even asking him to take her along. She built a sense of trust between them that allowed Lance to feel comfortable enough to kidnap her in particular, hoping she'd be the one to understand his goals the most. He'd never thought that she'd know as much as him and that she'd been using him to get new leads the entire time. Despite it all, they were always capable of dialogue, which threatens to come back in an incredibly mentally stimulating way upon their new meeting. 

Regarding Nevra, Sonzaishinai had always felt a strong, nurturing love towards him. He'd proven to be an ambitious brat with too big of an ego one too many times, but his light-heartedness and genuine attachment got to her rather quickly. Upon waking up after the 7-year coma, she did not recognize the moody and regretful man before her. He'd promised to love her forever, but now she stood alone spiteful, facing empty words. Despite their falling out, she will always have a soft spot for him and won't doubt to put herself in harm's way for him.

[lisinfleur]

The request:

Author’s Notes | It took me some time, but here it is! I hope you like it!

Info | Viking Age AU, requested by @nyx-daughterofchaos98​, Part I

Words | 1530

⁑ Warnings: Some cursing

She'd learned from him more than he really wanted to deliver. And yet, it was almost anything in face of what she had said to him. Ivar heard of lands he never dreamed about, people he never thought could exist. Colored people, different people, women with beauty unknown to his eyes, men with a strength he had never seen before, and different techniques to fight the wars he knew would reach his lands someday. That woman, Y/N, she was almost able to make him think his crown was really nothing at all. She was almost able to make Ivar think releasing himself from the weight of the metal piece in his head and break the bonds with his lands forever to explore the world by her side was something more desirable than the throne under his butt.

But she was clear with her words, as always.

"Where I go, I go. No one goes with me and I walk beside the wind. I have no partners, son of Odin. If you want to make the world your path and the knowledge your journey, you may do it by yourself."

It wasn't that attractive without her.

Somehow, that woman had taken Ivar's attention in such a deepness that it was starting to pull him away from the obligations as a king. Everything was being delivered to Hvitserk under him so he could spend more time learning, teaching, speaking to that amazing visitor he didn't know for sure when would leave his lands to never come back into his life.

It was one chance he couldn't lose.

But his absence was bothering Hvitserk - especially when the full work of a king was over his shoulders but no benefit from the crown was being ceded to him.

"And what is this that you do that's so more important than your obligation towards the people you fought so hard to conquer, uh, brother?" Hvitserk said, annoyed. "Since that woman came into our lands, you spend whole days with her, sometimes I noticed you spend even nights awake, speaking all sorts of secret subjects nobody is allowed to participate. Who's this woman after all? Will you make her your queen?"

Ivar didn't have to answer when Y/N entered the room right on time to listen to his brother's mischievous questions.

"I have no interest in occupying this place, young prince," she said.

That kinda bothered Ivar a little. It was stated that she wasn't interested in any carnal conjunction or relationships other than understanding the whole world around her, but it was annoying that she would say so explicitly that she didn't want him or he couldn't attract her in any way as she was able to do to him.

However, Ivar knew pretty well others had tried to make her theirs and they failed before. And as she said, others would try and would fail as well... She was a woman, but not a woman at the same time. It was complicated.

But easy to understand she wouldn't belong to him at all.

What would console him was to think she wouldn't belong to anyone else as well.

"And what is it that you want then?" Hvitserk turned his questions towards her and Ivar then sat; a malicious grin on his lips. He knew pretty well those questions wouldn't bother her.

It would be fun to see his brother's reaction to what had bothered him so long ago.

"She says she wants to learn. I'm teaching her," he said, catching Hvitserk's eyes for a moment before the older brother would frown, annoyed. "And she's teaching me too."

"Speak clearly!" Hvitserk charged. "Our men complain of your absence, our people ask about their king, some are even wondering if they're under you or under me, brother. Is this what you want? To cede me the crown and go learn or teach our new pet?"

"I'm no one's pet, young prince," the woman manifested again, short and calm, in that tone that was so annoying for Hvitserk as it was for Ivar when he first heard that impassivity.

"Then who the heck are you, woman?"

Ivar almost broke a rib not to laugh at his brother's annoyance, remembering his own irritation when he'd just met Y/N after that sick fight of hers against his men.

There she was, once again, sliding her fingers through the runes she liked so much to learn about, carved in the pillars of his halls, ignoring his brother's anger as much as she had ignored his own.

"A learner, I've said before," she answered, calmly.

"Then find yourself a teacher who has less to do than ruling a kingdom, for the gods' sake!" Hvitserk exploded, fully annoyed. "Or you find someone else to work for you like this, Ivar. I'm not your damn slave!"

She rose her eyes towards the prince. Ivar glared at her, paying attention to her reactions. With time, he understood her glances would speak pretty more than her mouth. She was alert.

Hvitserk was acting like a threat and she would treat him like that.

"I suggest you calm down, Hvitserk," Ivar warned, with nothing but the intention to tease his older brother into the flames he could see into his eyes.

"Fuck you, Ivar!" Hvitserk lost his mind, infuriated. "I have been doing your gods damn work all this time as you're here playing house with this woman as if you had nothing more important to do! What is it that a wanderer has to teach you that's so amazing after all?"

"There is always something to be learned, always something to teach," Y/N said, catching Hvitserk's angry eyes towards her.

"Well guess what, stranger, you're wrong! I don't believe there is anything you can teach to a grown man like me. All you do here is just to occupy my brother's time and throw services that aren't mine over my shoulders!" he grunted back, fully harsh.

But Y/N just walked closer to him with that same cold expression Ivar learned was something natural for her. Out of nowhere, she lowered herself down in a quick movement, swirling around herself with one of her legs stretched, making a circle with her foot around her own body, passing through Hvitserk's legs in the way.

Ivar's eyes watched fully impressed as his brother's feet were lifted up from the ground almost at the same time she lifted herself up, swirling in the opposite direction and using the weight of the movement to hit her stretched leg against Hvitserk's chest, throwing his brother's back against the ground with a loud noise.

Two seconds and Hvitserk was laid flat over his back, with all his experience as a warrior beaten by an unarmed wanderer, as he'd called her himself. His eyes were large in surprise: he was barely able to see that coming or reach for his sword or any kind of protection. She could've killed him without a single effort.

"What is this woman... These are the words your head is searching for, brother," Ivar mocked, giggling at his brother's impressed expression.

But Y/N was looking at Hvitserk with the same blank expression from before.

"As I said, there is always something to learn and something to be taught. You've just learned this, which is something new in your life. And by the expression on your face, I believe my techniques are also something you just discovered I can teach you and you want to learn. Here is the time you wanted, young prince. I may take a part of my days to let King Ivar be what he has to be and do what a king shall do. While this, I shall follow you into your training camps and you may teach me how do you handle your swords and axes. In exchange, I shall teach you what you've seen today. Sounds like a fair deal for you?" she said, offering her hand to Hvitserk who accepted the firm grip to get up from the ground still impressed.

"Who are you, woman?" Hvitserk asked.

And Ivar smiled as she repeated words he'd heard from her mouth before.

"I'm Y/N, I’m a daughter of nobody, I came from nowhere, my destiny is the next step, and whatever the gods have prepared for me into it. I follow no god; I believe in all of them. I saw all lands; I belong to none of them. My home is the world, the roads, the dust. I'm a learner, young prince. That's what I am. But I can also be a teacher. And from now on, I think, we can teach each other."

"Go with her, Hvitserk. She'll teach you amazing things. But learn wisely. She won't stay forever," Ivar advised.

As his brother went away with the woman behind him, Ivar sighed. He would lose some of his precious time with her so she could teach Hvitserk her ways to fight. But if she had to teach someone else in his lands, then maybe she would stay a little longer.

It was a win/win game in the end.

And if there was something Ivar liked to do was winning...

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[the-descension-inks]

Sojourn (Zutara Week 2020)

Summary: It's a strange fate that they have crafted for themselves; lines that don't quite meet, stars that circle each other, and stories that are almost written. (Or, glimpses into Zuko and Katara's lives, told in reverse, from the very end to the very beginning.)

[3/9] Fuse 

"Ask me what," she persists, arms crossing over her chest.

He doesn't miss a beat. "If I don't, will you spare me?"

Katara pulls a face and immediately thinks she might be a little too old for that. But then, hasn't Ember Island always been there for exactly that?

To be who she wants to be. To be who she could have been. To be who she is.

Not Master Waterbender Katara, or the Avatar's wife Katara, or Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, but just Katara.

She wonders if this is why Zuko chooses Ember Island to return to, year after year. To be just him, no titles attached to his name, no bloodied legacies entwined with his very existence.

"No, I won't," she says before she gets far too ahead with her thoughts. And then, only for good measure, "Do I ever spare you, Zuko?"

Read the entire series here, and this chapter under the cut, or on AO3, or on FF.net.

162 AG

Katara doesn't understand much of Pai Sho, never has.

She is seventy-six, and figures if she hasn't picked up on the tricks of the game in all these years, then perhaps it is nothing more than a hopeless pursuit.

"Why delay the inevitable, waterbender?"

It's mostly said in good humor, but there's still some pride in his voice. Being on the throne for more than half a century can do that to someone, Katara thinks.

She considers the tiles laid ahead of her, and decides: "Your hubris knows no ends, Fire Lord."

Zuko grins at her, all teeth and entirely unabashed. He looks so much younger when he smiles, something that Katara has been aware of for most of her life. She thinks – hopes – that some day she'll be able to tell him that.

"Your turn, come on," he prods.

"Always so impatient," she huffs, takes a long look at the board, realizes anew that there is no winning on the cards for her.

(She wonders why she cares so much about winning a stupid game. After everything she hasn't been able to win in all these years. Maybe that's why.)

"Katara."

She can sense his nervous energy wrecking through the room; this tiny heaven they have crafted for themselves, in Ember Island, away from civilization and noise. It's nice, she thinks, to take this time off for herself.

(To give herself a semblance of what she's lost. Winning has never felt this important.)

Something strikes her. She smiles, ever so innocently, and picks up the Knotweed tile off the board. "I have an idea."

Zuko groans, throws back his head for what she calls the visual theatrics.

"Ask me what," she persists, arms crossing over her chest.

He doesn't miss a beat. "If I don't, will you spare me?"

Katara pulls a face and immediately thinks she might be a little too old for that. But then, hasn't Ember Island always been there for exactly that?

To be who she wants to be. To be who she could have been. To be who she is.

Not Master Waterbender Katara, or the Avatar's wife Katara, or Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, but just Katara.

She wonders if this is why Zuko chooses Ember Island to return to, year after year. To be just him, no titles attached to his name, no bloodied legacies entwined with his very existence.

"No, I won't," she says before she gets far too ahead with her thoughts. And then, only for good measure, "Do I ever spare you, Zuko?"

He laughs, hearty and whole, and she feels something uncoil in her chest. She might be too old for this, though.

"Tell me, Katara."

She beams at him, wonders how he always lets her win.

(She likes these little victories over him. They almost make up for a lifetime of losing him.)

"I was thinking," she imagines there's a glint in her eyes by now, "it's been a while since I've taken a ride on Druk."

He sighs lengthily, dramatic, yet another one of his visual theatrics. "Always with the dragon."

"Well, it has been a while. What can I say?" And then, because she is old enough to joke about this sort of thing: "For all I know, I could be dead tomorrow."

Zuko freezes, hands stiffening mid-air over the Pai Sho board, as his eyes slowly meet hers. And fuck, turns out she is the only one who thinks that's appropriate for a joke.

"Zuko..." she begins, but sees no ending in sight.

He shakes his head, tears his gaze away from her, and rises to his feet. She is quick to follow, feet moving on automatic, and arms reaching out to keep him in place.

He angles his face away from her, and for a moment all Katara can see is the terrified boy from the Crystal Catacombs of Ba Sing Se. Her heart wrenches, and she wonders since when it had become physically painful to see him like this.

Perhaps always.

She rests a gentle hand on his scarred cheek and forces him to look at her.

"Don't," he bites out, somehow entirely hollow, eyes still not meeting hers. "Don't do that, Katara."

"I have never been very good with jokes, you know." Her thumb traces an idle pattern on his skin, circles and more circles. Isn't that what they have always been running in?

"Zuko," she finally says at the silence.

He pulls away from her, draws back, so much distance between them that it makes her reel. She readies apologies, thinks of words to say—

"It's not what you said."

She stutters, "It's n-not?"

Zuko shakes his head, starts, "Well, not exactly. I... There is something I have been meaning to tell you for a while now." Drags his eyes finally to meet hers, and she realizes she feels a lot lighter. "It never really felt like the right time but..."

Only took me to talk about my death, she almost asks but holds her tongue.

"...I think I'm ready to step down as Fire Lord."

Katara feels her eyes widening, all thoughts of tactless jest disappearing from her mind.

He probably mistakes the surprise on her face for horror, says hastily, "It's not... that I don't care for my nation. But I think there is a lot more that I could help with, things that I can't do as Fire Lord."

Realization dawns upon her; politics can be a dirty game, and she surmises how harmless actions can be twisted and misconstrued when there's a monarch behind them. "So what are you going to do?"

There's a pause, and then, wary and jittery: "I was hoping you could help me with that."

Oh.

Zuko straightens himself, eyes bright, burning, and damn, if she doesn't feel twenty and stupid again; willing to throw away everything for the man in front of her.

"The world could do with someone like you, Katara." He sounds so certain, she almost believes him. "It's a new world, but the problems are the same. You know them, you understand the people, you are fair and compassionate and—"

"Zuko," she cuts him off while she still can.

There's resignation in her voice, she knows he recognizes it. Recognizes where it stems from. But something tells her he isn't willing to hand her a victory right now, not without a fight, anyway.

"Republic City could do with your help, Katara." He crosses the distance between them, warm calloused hands tugging at her own. "It's just as much as your city as it is mine. As it was Aang's."

Bitterness bubbles within her, in a way it should not. That's not what the scrolls say, she almost tells him.

Almost. But not quite.

She glances at his hand wrapped around hers, thinks how this is what Katara from years ago would have wanted, and thinks how it's too late now. "You know my work is at home, Zuko. Training the next Avatar, is what I'm supposed to do."

"Katara..."

She separates their hands, watches him fold in on himself. Tears prick her eyes, but she knows how to hold herself together; she has a lifetime of doing that behind her.

"I'm sorry," she tells him.

He gives her a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes and waves her away like it's no big deal.

(This is a victory, she knows. Doesn't feel like one, that too she knows. She hates it; this fusion of winning and losing. The blurring of lines that should exist.)

Zuko clears his throat. He sounds hopeful: "Maybe, someday?"

She wants to lose now. Or win, she isn't sure. "Maybe, someday."

.

.

.

A/N: Thank you for reading! I don't know if this chapter does justice to the prompt 'Fuse', but oh well. xD

Also, while inconsequential, I'd like to point out that the Knotweed tile that Katara picks up is a 'Fire' tile. There's a Boat tile too, which is a 'Water' (duh) tile, and I toyed with the idea of fusing those two tiles, but somehow that didn't happen.

Before I devolve into a Pai Sho Manual, I'll see myself out. xD

(Tumblr still doesn't let my work show up on the tags. 🤷)

@zutaraweek

[quarterfromcanon]

27-29 for the get to know my favorites game

Hello, lovely! Thank you for these. :) Trios turned out to be a surprising challenge (I apparently have more favorite groups of four than three), but I’m pretty happy with the ones I remembered after giving it some thought. The final picks are under the cut! <3

Top 5 BROTPs

1. Paula Proctor & Rebecca Bunch (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) - Naturally, this was the immediate choice that sprang to mind. It’s the first relationship on the show I really fell in love with, and it’s the one friendship in the series that consistently tugs on my heartstrings. It’s flawed, complicated, and messy but the genuine connection underneath it all is strong enough that I’m hopeful they can work through their problems. I would’ve preferred to see more emphasis on that effort in the fourth season (and a lot more work on Rebecca’s friendships with Heather and Valencia as well), but I want to believe things improved between them after the finale. 

2. Steve Harrington & Robin Buckley (Stranger Things) - The general public opinion of Steve Harrington has been on such a journey since Season 1, bringing him now to a status of common fan favorite. As such, I think a delicate balance needed to be struck in finding a suitable match to team up with him on adventures. This person needed to:

A) Have good chemistry in their interactions with Steve

B) Bring a new dynamic to the table that he didn’t already have with an existing connection 

and most importantly 

C) Be a unique and engaging character that the audience would care about individually, so they didn’t get lost in simply being an offshoot of Steve’s story. They couldn’t be relegated to perpetual sidekick with little else to define them.

As far as I’m concerned, Robin Buckley fits the bill on every account. She’s artistic, resilient, loyal, and - especially endearing to me - a movie buff. She has a quick wit, a sharp mind, and a big heart. Being friends with Robin helps Steve take the specter of his high school self less seriously so he can put it behind him, and she helps him more fully embrace the person he’s becoming in the wake of that lost status. Having Steve for a friend helps Robin resolve some lingering emotional scars from school as well. It gives her an opportunity to share her authentic self with a peer and - to her relief and ours - find acceptance after revealing a pretty important secret. I can’t wait to watch the two of them be adorably nerdy and goofy bros at Family Video in Season 4, presumably with some daring fights against dark forces when they’re off the clock. Does saying I hope Kali comes to Hawkins somehow and bonds with one or both of them mean I can speak that into existence? I’m doing that now. It’s worth a try. If it happens in some capacity when the time comes, know that I will throw a One Blogger Party of epic proportions. 

3. Wynonna Earp & Nicole Haught (Wynonna Earp) - I had to use this specific screencap because it perfectly encapsulates the chaotic energy that makes me loves these two together so much. Their separate approaches to their shared work environment are at pretty much polar opposite ends of the spectrum, but they make a pretty solid team when they play to each other’s strengths and communicate. They also both love Waverly most of all, so it feels like they were bound to work out their differences eventually since neither would want to make her feel torn between her sister and her girlfriend. The hijinks they get up to in each other’s company are just top shelf. I look forward to at least a little bit of fun like that from every season. If I wind up having a lasting partner later on down the road, it’d be cool if their personality balanced well with my sister’s on this level. I’d also be really happy if I ultimately gelled with her person in a way that sounded unlikely at first but worked. Fingers crossed for both outcomes, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

4. Emily Thorne [Amanda Clarke] & Nolan Ross (Revenge) - I have two things to quickly clarify for those who are unfamiliar with this show.

#1 She has two listed names because she was born Amanda Clarke but goes by Emily Thorne for most of the series to hide her true identity. 

#2 Despite the impression this picture may give, Nolan is not marrying Emily; he is simply walking her down the aisle. 

These two are there for each other through so much - the looming threat of discovery, jail time, capture, near death experiences, heartbreak, the passing of loved ones, etc. - and they make it to the other side with a deep bond the likes of which they’ll never experience with another person. It is at times heavily one-sided because of how much drama Emily deliberately dives into, but it’s something that she tries to make up for during her more self-aware and less self-involved times. There’s genuine love and mutual respect there by the finale and it’s really gratifying to witness the journey they’ve taken together. 

[~Slightly spoiler-y closing statement after these brackets~] I was pretty sure I knew where the show was going with romantic ships by the end. I knew for certain it wasn’t my personal OTP for her because they’d already killed that person off quite some time ago. There was a part of me that could’ve found some contentment in leaving the story with these two as a couple. After all, one of my favorite ship dynamics is Reluctant Acquaintances to Best Friends to Lovers, but it was not to be. That being said, the platonic friendship they shared was a big part of the heart of the show and I cherish it for that. Nolan was a rare exception for Emily, a genuine bond formed in the years when she was tried to operate like her heart was made of stone. I also think working with Emily gave Nolan a sense of purpose and let him flourish in his area of expertise. I’m not sure how either of them would feel about the musical reference but, to slightly paraphrase from Wicked: because they knew each other, they have been changed for good.

5. Penelope Stamp & Bang Bang (The Brothers Bloom) - I have seen Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi in more roles since this movie than I had prior to watching it for the first time so, if anything, my fangirling over this friendship has gotten worse rather than more manageable. x) This post classified the film under the subgenre whimsical noir. It turns out that’s a style I instantly adore every time I stumble upon it. One of the titular brothers, Stephen, lives so deeply immersed in the variations of the world he writes for their heists that even those closest to him are essentially characters he can interact with on a daily basis. His feelings for them as people can get very muddled with his feelings for them as interesting OCs to move through narratives. A big trouble with this is that his living archetypes can often get reduced to clichés. He’s not always mindful of their nuances or allowing for the full range of their autonomy. Penelope is selected by Stephen to serve as the “manic pixie dream girl” who will be his brother Bloom’s forever love and Bang Bang is essentially presented as a “dragon lady” stereotype. I haven’t done a rewatch in years so I may be giving the movie too much credit here, but I remember this choice feeling at least semi-deliberate. It could be interpreted as a way to illustrate how Stephen warps real life to fit his vision. At least, I can definitely remember scenes that felt like they debunked the one-note assessments of these two. What I genuinely love, though, are the little moments when Penelope and Bang Bang are able to just spend time together with little to no interference from Stephen or Bloom. They share their hobbies and teach each other new skills. It feels like they truly perceive one another as whole human beings on a level that neither guy is capable of doing since they’re both so immersed in the drama of the plot. When the women are with each other, they get to be more than an extension of the men who maneuver them; they get to be themselves. Penelope is the only one Bang Bang clearly wants to maintain contact with once the heist is finished. I think that says a lot. Honestly, this is another BROTP that could slide to OTP. If someone wrote fic of them completely severing ties with the brothers and going off on their own - romantically or platonically - I wouldn’t be upset at all. 

Top 5 Trios

1. Luke, Leia, & Han (Star Wars Episodes IV - VI) - Oh dear, I’m overwhelmed just looking at a picture of them together. Star Wars has been a part of my life since childhood. Getting to watch the original trilogy felt like a rite of passage (when I was really little, Mom used to find things for us to do outside the room while Dad watched because she was afraid some of it might scare me). Princess Leia resounded with me on a level that almost no other fictional royalty has ever quite matched. Han’s wardrobe is still some serious #aestheticgoals and I would 100% wear replicas of his jackets and vests if I had them. I also remember thinking that Luke’s new look in Return of the Jedi was SO COOL with the all-black wardrobe and green lightsaber. Wow, imagine that, an edgy costume change that shared vibes with the common Disney villain color palette called to me as a baby fan of antagonists and antiheroes! Who ever could have foreseen that sudden spike in appreciation? :P Anyway, one of my lingering sorrows about the more recent trilogy is that we never got to see all three of them as aged adults in each other’s company. I still wanted our new cast to get their time to shine, of course, but I do lament the absence of at least one little trio reunion.

2. Luna, Neville, & Ginny (Harry Potter series) - The Silver Trio, pictured here with the first set of three that comes to mind when thinking about the books and movies. I do still love Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but I’ve found a growing appreciation for this other team-up over the years. They’ve been through a lot too, even if they are not always present where the main action is. Bullying, loss of parents, manipulation of the mind and body, abuse at the hands of authority figures - they’re all left with internal (and probably external) scars to bear. There’s also something to be said for how strong they all were in the school year set during Deathly Hallows, when the Golden Trio wasn’t around to inspire and unite those who wanted to stand up to ever-increasing tyranny. It can be easy, unfortunately, for them to get written off based on the oversimplified stereotypes that have gotten associated with them. People remember Luna as being weird and spacey, Neville as awkward and hapless, and Ginny as bland and lovestruck. They’re all far more nuanced than that, and they accomplish great things while fighting for and beside their friends. I’m planning on doing a re-read of the books at some point, and I really look forward to revisiting these brave kids.

3. Irma, Marion, & Miranda (Picnic at Hanging Rock) - Ah, yes, my very recently discovered darlings. I have many thoughts about them all. I’ll try to keep this as condensed as I can while still making sense. Some spoilers will follow, although those won’t answer every question the story poses. There are audience members who ship the above characters as a throuple, which I totally get, but for me it’s like soulmates of a different kind. These three have met at a point in their lives when they all burn with compatible intensity. They long for the same dream version of youth, for a way to begin life free from the confines of a world that won’t accept all their hearts contain. While the people that surround them may not be willing to bend the rules, nature itself appears to show them mercy. How often do we see a story of girls who just... love other women so much that a sacred location goes, “Y’know what? I’m gonna help you escape your restrictive society. Permanently.” This miniseries definitely depicts the setting as being involved in messing with the investigation, as a mystical place that befuddles unwanted intruders. I love the way these three fortify each other in times of pain and fear, and there’s something deeply moving about how standing side-by-side helps them defy the odds.

4. Sarah, Alison, & Cosima (Orphan Black) - Okay so, technically, when I picture our core team in this show, the net is a little wider. My mind tends to also include Felix, Mrs. S., Kira, Helena, Donnie, Delphine, and Scott. However, I think you could kinda argue that those characters have a stronger connection to one of the above three than they do to the other two. Thus, this ends up being the central triangle. They’re all such solid performances and the fact they’re all played by the same person is incredibly impressive (not to mention the, like, twelve other clones Tatiana brings to life throughout the series). Watching them go from tense strangers to sestras was wonderful. I’m glad they had each other through the increasingly complicated web of lies and schemes they had to unravel and survive. 

5. Galavant, Sid, & Isabella (Galavant) - Remember how James Marsden was in Enchanted? If you dialed down the deliberately cartoonish quality of that performance and allowed for more not-so-G-rated humor, I feel like you’d have a general sense of what Galavant is like as a character. Sid is his squire and Isabella is a princess whose mission happens to combine with Galavant’s, albeit fueled by different driving motivations. They find themselves involved in a lot of shenanigans because of Galavant - even in his own universe, he’s into the whole dashing knight thing more than is strictly necessary - but they make a fun little team to follow through the world of this musical television series. I’ve gotten fuzzy on the details since I watched it air live four years ago, but I remember the series being enough of a summer feel-good time that I’d be game to revisit the show again someday.

Top 5 Family Relationships

1. Stevie Budd & The Roses (Schitt’s Creek) - The whole fish-out-of-water setup for this series was already pretty fun in and of itself, especially given how outlandish their lifestyles evidently were before the show begins. The thing that makes it special, though, is how the absence of all their expensive distractions finally helps them prioritize being a family. The Roses do a lot of work to reconcile who they were with who they find themselves becoming in the present. It’s sweet to see them collectively conclude that growing closer to each other is one of the few things they do not regret in the slightest. They also silently agree to adopt Stevie along the way and, boy, does that give me a lot of Big Feelings, particularly in the later seasons.

2. River Song & The Ponds (Doctor Who) - I think it’s been like seven years or so, give or take, since I watched Doctor Who with any regularity. These three have resurfaced in my mind many times since then. They all love with such fierce and unwavering devotion, spanning lifetimes. It’s fascinating - and often heartbreaking - to learn about the things they’ve experienced and endured. Oh gosh, and once the show reveals how River’s story overlaps with theirs, and you pay attention to how she looks at them, IT HURTS but it’s so engaging to watch. The emotions are all flooding back just remembering them now. Argh, what great characters... </3

3. The Tico Sisters (Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi) - Rose appears in two installments of the third trilogy, but this is the episode that has both Tico daughters. We never get to see them interact onscreen in the film, but I still feel the bond between these sisters so intensely. I found out later that Kelly was present for the filming of Paige’s death scene (which happens so early in the movie that it doesn’t feel like a big spoiler - please forgive me if it is). I’m glad that was something they decided to do behind-the-scenes, because it definitely informs Rose’s grief. She’s sitting in the dark, picturing her big sister’s final moments with such horribly vivid detail that it feels like she was there, and yet she can’t do anything to change how it ends. The shape of the sisters’ necklaces immediately establishes that they were a unit even when acting independently, that they felt like two halves of a whole - all they had left of their family. Now there is only one, and that fact is a weight around Rose’s neck both figuratively and literally. It serves as a visual reminder of how she carries Paige’s absence always, trying to discover and embrace who she is on her own while still honoring the memory of a relative she loved so deeply. I think she reaches the end of Episode VIII feeling like she’s someone of whom her sister would be quite proud. I’m very proud of her, too. 

4. The Tyler Siblings (Wonderfalls) - Jaye is comically different than the rest of her family, and the show establishes that right out the gate when we learn that she’s the only one whose name doesn’t rhyme with the rest (left to right, the others are Karen, Sharon, Darrin, and Aaron, respectively). Her relationships with her parents could certainly lead me off on some analytical tangents but, predictably, it’s the sibling stuff that interests me more. I think it could be said that all three do more living inside their heads than they do out in the world, and that they’ve all grown up to be borderline loners (Ironically Jaye, who is considered the most troubled, is the only one I remember being shown to have formed and maintained a friendship). Aaron’s a very philosophical and analytical person, so you get the sense he talks to himself more than to others, although he still manages to resurface from those deep contemplations so he can goad and tease his sisters from time to time. Sharon is high-strung, competitive, and brings that “disaster lesbian” energy to basically every social interaction she has. Jaye’s standoffishness seems to stem from both the difficulty of fitting in with people and the fear that connections will fall apart once they manage to form at all. They’re all just messes trying to make the best out of the situations they face, and I appreciate that. I also enjoy how prominently the Jaye and Sharon sister bond features throughout the show’s only season. It starts out on pretty rocky ground, but they grow a lot in regard to how willing they are to communicate and express their love for one another. 

5. The Brothers Proctor (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) - The family dynamics in their house are in need of some serious work, without a doubt. I’m just really touched by how close these two have become without Paula’s notice. It’s possible they always were, in that we-fight-but-we-care way that siblings can often be, but the supportive side of that really moves to the forefront as they get older in the series and it warms my heart. There’s such a glaring difference between The Household As Paula Views It and Things That Are Happening While She’s Not Paying Attention. I can’t help using fic as a way to explore that. I happily find excuses for her sons to make pop-in appearances, just to check up on them. I'm so pleased that, as of Season 4, they seem to have become fairly well-adjusted in spite of everything. Oh, and I am still not over the revelation that they attend renaissance festivals together, in character, for fun. What precious cuties who would no doubt dislike me referring to them as such! Paula, please give them an extra hug from me! 

[benichi]

Games with romance elements: RPG’s

The second part of my “Games with romance elements” series.

For the first two posts of this series I’ll be focusing on games that let you play as a heroine. The last part will be about games that have romantic relationships in general.

The focus of this part are games that would mainly be categorized among the (j)rpg genre. I’m only going to cover those that I’ve played and liked myself, so if there are other games that I should check out feel free to leave a comment!

Persona 3 Portable (Playstation Portable, VITA)

[GxB, BxG]

My first and favorite Persona game was lucky enough to get a remake that includes a female Protagonist. I’m a big fan of this game in particular because of it’s amazing and emotional story. The female Protagonist has her own characteristics and meets other people throughout the story, so both sides are interesting to play. There are several romance options with their own personalities, though you’ll be bonding with a lot of Characters since it’s a big part of the experience. This game is a must-have in my opinion, so if you haven’t played it yet now’s your chance!

Mass Effect Trilogy (PC / PS4 & 3 / XBOX ONE & 360)

[GxB, GxG, BxG, BxB]

Not only do you get to play as a female in the Mass Effect series, she’s also one of the best Protagonists we have. You step into the shoes of Commander Shepard who’s on a mission to save the galaxy from a powerful threat. In this Trilogy you’ll meet a lot of different people, some of them romance options. What’s very nice and unique about this series is that it’s possible to see how the relationships change and develope over time since it’s possible to keep the romances going from game to game. Though again relationships in general make up a good part of the story. I’m really not a fan of shooters (aka I suck at them) but the great story and Characters made me want to play this game and I’m very glad I did.

Dragon Age Series (PC / PS4 & 3 / XBOX ONE & 360)

[GxB, GxG, BxG, BxB]

Just like Mass Effect these games were also made by Bioware so there's a few similarities. Some of the biggest differences are the setting which is medieval as opposed to the futuristic one of ME and that you play as a different Protagonist in each game. Ranging from a “silent” Protagonist to voiced ones the Dragon Age series has been a little more adventurous in that regard. What I really enjoy about this series is it’s lore and world. Since you play as a new Protagonist each time you’ll also see the story from different sides and meet a wide range of Characters, some of them you can romantically get involved with. Out of the three games released so far Origins (the first one) is still my favorite, but all of them are enjoyable and among my must-have games. The fourth entry is currently being developed.

Avalon Code (Nintendo DS)

[GxB, BxG]

This game is a secret gem that was ahead of it’s time. I recently replayed it and once again realized what a shame it is that Avalon Code did not get the attention it deserves. You play as a female or male Protagonist who has been bestowed upon the Book of Prophecy which will bring reincarantion to the world at the brink of collapsing. As you progress from Chapter to Chapter you’ll meet lots of Characters, through Quests and Cutscenes you’ll be able to get closer to them and develope a (romantic) relationship. For this one of the core mechanics of the game plays a big role. With the Book of Prophecy you scan different parts of the World to collect Codes, and with those you can craft items or even help people suffering from certain conditions. If this game were to come out today I’m sure it would be a hit, but I guess we should be glad it exists at all. If you still have a working DS or somehow have a chance to experience this game you absolutely should.

Fire Emblem Series (Most recently 3DS / Upcoming for SWITCH)

[GxB, GxG, BxG, BxB]

Fire Emblem has been around longer than I have with the first game being released in 1990 (JPN). There have been a lot of entries in this series, most of them even involving some romance here and there due to the “Support” system or story telling. The biggest change to this series came with Fire Emblem Awakening in 2012 since the game introduced a lot of new features. Among that the feature to create your own Avatar (which was only possible once before) instead of playing as a set Main Character. With this new Avatar also came the option of supporting aka romancing the huge Cast with your own Character. In fact you can play Matchmaker for almost all of your Units. The following entry Fire Emblem Fates also followed this System. The next entry called “Three Houses” will be released on July 27th, so far we have no confirmation about the Support System though (I’ll be updating this info when we get it).

[theharellan]

So it’s Dragon Age Day, and the prompt for this year is “How has Dragon Age changed you?” and while I didn’t submit anything, this was partially because of how busy I was the last few weeks and also it’s hard summarising the ways the series has changed or affected my life. I still wanted to talk about it somehow though, so I’m gonna write about it here! CW for mild discussion of depression and heteronormativity.

I first picked up Dragon Age completely on a whim, I wanna say the summer of 2011 because I’d just finished my first year in undergrad. I think I’d seen my dad play it once or twice but I actually thought it looked bad, because like... Origins is ugly. I love it, but it’s not a pretty game, and its gameplay didn’t do much to sell me, either. But I picked it up because I was bored, and immediately after I hit “new game” I saw I could play as a dwarven princess and I was hooked. My first true Dragon Age love was actually Gorim Saelac, and Alistair would always be a step down from him, sorry Alistair.

I blazed through the game in a matter of days, and I saw that Dragon Age II had been released earlier this year. I also saw it was getting pretty mixed reviews, and said to my dad I probably don’t want it. He didn’t listen to me and bought it anyway, which is also how I ended up with AC: Unity, but in this case I’m glad he didn’t listen because DA2 is my second fave in the series now, after Inquisition.

I went into the game sort of expecting to romance Fenris or Anders, I’d never actually picked a woman to romance in these types of games. I grew up on Harvest Moon, where you were sort of forced to play as a man and romance women, and it was a novelty to get to be a woman and date men. Also, I’d been a big fan of Final Fantasy XII and loved Fenris’ voice. Only then I met them and they were both very angry and intense and I was immediately turned off.

So I romanced Merrill.

There are problems with that romance, no question, but romancing Merrill was probably one of the first positive ways I’d been able to express my attraction to women ever, even if I wouldn’t quite realise my romantic orientation until years after. Like, before it had been put upon me, because developers didn’t realise that Harvest Moon fans had a significant female fanbase and made me play as a man, or shell out more money for a second version of the game, and there was no option to be queer. Or it was things like when my internalised sexiam and internalised homophobia got tangled in a net when I was a child and I wound up disliking fictional female characters I had a crush on until I grew out of it. Or assumed heteronormativity made me believe it was just friendship I was feeling. Being able to choose to play a woman and choose to romance a woman meant a lot to me, especially as Merrill quickly became my favourite character in the series. I joke sometimes that “Merrill made me gay” but these games-- and other Bioware games or those like it-- gave me space to explore what I hadn’t explored in reality, thanks to heteronormativity and the struggles that I find a lot of ace people have with figuring out their romantic orientation.

But that wasn’t the only way Dragon Age helped change me. As I said, I started the series after my first year in college, and by the time Inquisition came out I had just graduated a few months prior. I was unemployed and wasn’t sure what to do with myself, and was in a deep depressive episode that in some ways I’m still trying to claw myself out of. Inquisition was the main thing I was looking forward to, albeit with some apprehension as I was overall disappointed with Mass Effect 3. As it turned out, I didn’t have to worry, as it became my favourite. Playing Inquisition, as well as replaying the other two, helped alleviate my mood, as did writing. I had made an rp blog for my Inquisitor, Thora, the day before the game came out, and after the Temple of Mythal I made a blog for Solas.

Writing both of these characters has really helped me over the years. Through Solas I was able to better understand my own mental health issues, researching his symptoms and seeing myself reflected in them. Same with Thora, the expectations put on her and the anxieties she has, some she could meet and some she couldn’t.

I also started writing Solas around the same time I started drifting farther left, and while I can’t credit Dragon Age for turning me into a leftist, that would be doing a disservice to the real, living, breathing activists who influenced me, it was unquestionably a lens through which I could see corruption in power structures and the importance of them being dismantled. My first time playing DA:O I was sort of neutral on the concept of Circles, I sided with the mages, thought things like the Rite of Tranquility were cruel, and advocated that Jowan be let go, but with our main perspectives coming from Wynne, who is pro-Circle, and Morrigan, who has a very Randian view of “they didn’t stop this so they deserve it,” it wasn’t until DA2 and replaying DA:O that I began to question its existence entirely. Which I think is one of the brilliant things about DA:O, it introduces the world in such a way that you step into it as though you lived it, rather than dropping you into the world similar to a TES game. It grants the player an opportunity to learn to question the existing power structures through slow experience and learning, rather than an rpg where you have so little context that you question it because you are a stranger dropped into an unjust world.

The last thing I wanted to talk about the way Dragon Age has changed me is through the fandom. Korth knows we have had our differences and frustrations, but as I said I started writing Solas five years ago, and in those five years I’ve met a lot of people through this fandom. Many of the people I was writing with five years ago aren’t around anymore, but some still are and I want to say I appreciate your presence so much, whether we talk or we are just comfortable mutuals, whether you’ve moved fandoms and still follow me or still talk to me on Discord. Through writing Solas and Thora I’ve met some of my best friends, and my darling Joly, which is more than I could ever ask of any game. It’s strange to think that something I picked up on a whim one boring summer is why I have the happiness I do now, but I’m grateful to it, to the hundreds of people who created the game, and most of all the people in the fandom I’m lucky enough to call ‘friend.’

[firebuug]

ok here’s this. pokemon au ramble. because this week has just been me loving my ocs but bass boosted. under the cut!! this post will be REALLY long mainly because of the teams sorry!

pokemon au is pure bc no deaths or rlly bad things happen

buggy is a trainer who went on the pokemon journey for fun and as a coming-of-age kinda thing(also because he may or may not have burnt his house down with a litwick), but kinda stopped getting gym badges half way and decided to settle down and just take the road casually. he settled down with apoccy and they both run a little pokemon sanctuary and care for pokemon that aren’t able to go back to the wild or have some little quirk (for example a litwick that cant keep itself lit easily). he likes battling for fun rather than for glory, and when his rival (farrow, obvs) was like “ha im gonna beat u and become the champion and ur not” he was like “i mean ok have fun!” which makes farrow pissed. he’s a guy who really cares about pokemon’s feelings and basically got back into action from pokemon santuary-ing and fought against the coven (the bad guy team) to stop them from hurting anyone.

team: 

- Ari (talonflame) (he flies around on her!)

- Lulu (chandelure) (his absolute baby and child)

- Fluffy (ampharos) (he named it fluffy when it was a mareep but then it evolved a bit and it wasnt fluffy anymore. its name is still fluffy tho)

- Big Boy (pelipper) (he’s a big ocean enthusiast but can’t swim and is a bit afraid of the water, so he uses pelipper to navigate over it and help him fish)

- Ellis (sylveon) (he wanted him to be a flareon but he loved them a lot and he ended up becoming a sylveon but buggy still loves him 100%)

- Musha (musharna) (musha helps him go to sleep easier and stay awake better as well, it’s basically his service pokemon ahghjhdjkf. she’s usually floating by his side!)

i think mendel would be a pokemon professor bc he studies pokemon. how he was even trusted enough to hand out pokemon to small children is a mystery, but gene takes care of most of the friendly stuff with handing u ur pokemon and stuff, mendel just does the research. later on it’s revealed that mendel is part of the region’s bad guy group, the coven! (>:3cc) their goal is to fuse multiple powerful pokemon together into the perfect pokemon that is able to beat everything and everyone else, in a combination of every type in existence. (Idk if this is the plot of any game bc i dont remember the plot of any game past pokemon b/w honestly) eventually the protag gets them to not fucking destroy everything and befriend the big boy pokemon (juggy, but like pokemon) and the coven disbands their group and just live life as normal people not criminals bc pokemon verse is best verse

team: - Juggy (sivally) (idk shit about sivally or the sumo plot but it looks like a fusion pokemon and its cute so like um there we go ig. in the actual au itd probably be a completely new pokemon but im lazy)

- Cofagrigus (obvious reasons. if i didnt want to keep this au pure i wouldve mentioned he still grave digs)

-Mimikyu (shut up its cute)

- Flabebe (flowere) (”oh what a pretty flower, it will be great to work on. oh no its a pokemon. guess its my child now”)

- Arbok (its a snake he loves snakes he gives it little pats on the head and rattatas)

- Claydol (it has a ton of red eyes and its black and red what more do you want from him. also he thinks it is cool and its psychic so like hhuiionnghgh yeah)

gene is a pokemon docdor (he heals those boys up for you and takes care of them) and helps mendel out in research since they both share an interest in researching pokemon!!! he doesn’t know that hes part of the bad guy team that snatches up pokemon and doesn’t question any weird things he decides to research about until like the end. he’s really nice and’ll probably catch up to you along your journey just to see how you’re doing, check up on you, and give you cool stuff like the master ball n stuff. he has a big greenhouse where he grows berries and’ll give you some as gifts along the way. he battles you occasionally to see how strong you’ve gotten and’ll heal your pokemon when your done, giving you tips. he likes hanging out around forests and little garden areas.

team:

- Serperior (long boi. good noodle boi.)

- Comfey (C O M F E Y flowere boi) 

- I lost my old gene team im so sad so i dont remember any of it

- Bitty (budew) (BABY BOY BABY! he loves them sm) (it evolves into roserade later on but shhhshhh baby budew)

- Swanna (pretty birb!!) (helps him water the plants in the greenhouse!!)

- Ana (unfezant) (HE NEEDS ANA OK)

- Audino (mega) (he needs that healy pokemon it’s essential) (theyre his little helper)

farrow is the stereotypical rival guy tbh. with buggy he was like “im gonna be better than u” and buggy was like “stop bullying me” but then just “ok” so he got bored. with skuggy it was more competitive, and they even battled each other right at the victory road’s entrance to see who was better, but they never got to complete the elite 4 trial since the coven juggy shit happened and they basically had to team up temporarily to stop these guys. when all of that was done farrow got back to challenging the elite four and trying to become champion, but he’s still struggling and is trying to train his team to become better while skuggy went “eh i’m done that was fun tho” and gave up. farrow hates being seen as weak and wants to have the strongest team, but he still loves his pokemon even if he pushes them near the limit sometimes while all focused up on winning.

team:

- Ally (linoone) (theres no possum pokemon and im mad but he likes ferrets too so) (or uh. long raccoon?) (either way he loves ally and she’s kind of a tank)

- Mittens (incineroar) (this was his starter, somehow, since he took the traditional trainer coming-of-age path and went to become the best.) (he loves his cat even if it did become....bipedal and buff??????) (They share the same big ego and victory flexing) (he rides on mittens’s shoulders sometimes or mittens carries him with arms in the air like a king)

- Rogue (liepard) (cate!!) (also it really fits him!!!) (he loves his thief cat and steals everyone’s items with it and makes them mad) (skuggy has cursed this cat out for stealing all his pokemon’s items at least twice before while both her and farrow looked on grinning smugly)

- Jasper (noivern) (i associate farrow with bats a lot, i think he likes bats now) (big fuckig boy who farrow flies on and farrow really likes battling with) (when farrow is out travelling and is tired and it’s late but he can’t find anywhere to stay, jasper shields him and makes whats basically a mini tent with his wings around him)

- Doggo (houndoom) (Farrow named him doggo as a joke but it stuck) (Fire dog with evil aesthetic! Farrow loves this) (He’s a good dog and farrow pats him for doing good work. he sniffs out berries and items for him on the road and is like his guard dog.)

- Snippy (gliscor) (another bat babey) (i might change it but idk) (it’s a sneakey boy) (he is also a tank and poisons everyone’s pokemon) (farrow accidentally gets stung by him like twice a week)

skuggy is a trainer who set out on the pokemon journey as a means to get out of his shitty house and family, collecting pokemon to help defend himself, but ended up really loving pokemon (especially bug types) and trying to take on a few gyms while he was at it. eventually he met farrow and it became kind of like a little race to see who can get the most gym badges first, giving him a motivation to travel the region and take on the elite 4. after the juggy fiasco he got a bit tired of fighting and decided he valued his pokemon a lot since they defended him and helped him fight back so he said “yknow what im gonna take a break from our race thing, im just gonna find somewhere to finally stay and chil out” while farrow was shaking the elite four’s door like “LET ME IIIIIN”. he’s kinda chill now and is thinking about going back and trying to fight the 4 someday, but for now he’s just a guy who catches bugs. he and gene hang out sometimes and go into forests n stuff. he’s still a butcher in this world ig. mans gotta make some money

team:

- Clove (scolipede) (his first pokemon, he caught it and went with it, but got really attached really fast) (she is his baby and he made it so far with her by his side and is really proud of both clove and himself for getting this far) 

- Big Tony (armaldo) (he found a fossil pokemon and kept it since it’s rock type and can help ward off fire types, which is a big weakness of his team, but he ended up loving big tony too. i know theyre supposed to be like 4 foot 9 but please imagine big tony as a BIG boy that skuggy can ride on its shoulders and back to get around.)

- Babie (ribombee) (he caught this thing and said “this is the cutest shit i’ve ever seen.” went on to destroy dragon types and be the best bee ever.) (actually it’s pretty weak but skuggy believes in them)

- Toaster (heracross) (heracross was too cute for skuggy NOT to catch. it’s the powerhouse. this boy rips thru pokemon likes it’s nothing. unless it’s a fire or flying type. then it dies.) (it likes to f i t e and shares skuggy’s quick temper, because u know what they say, like pokemon like trainer)

- Big old boy (stoutland) (this was also one of the first pokemon he’s ever caught and it was really strong, defended him well and was kind of like the tank of the team, so he kept it. he likes sleeping on its back, and sometimes it has to remember it isn’t a tiny dog anymore because it tries to jump at skuggy to greet him and he gets fucking smashed.) (hes a very good boy, he’s very fluffy, and skuggy loves him so much and owes him his life)

- Jeff (swadloon) (skuggy loves his emo-looking son.) (ever since he beat depression in the dick he just cant help but see himself in swadloon) (but swadloon is happy, just very comfy and grumpy) (swadloon loves skuggy and skuggy loves swadloon) (i mean just look at him) (it’s perfect for skuggy)

okay i’m done here there’s obviously more people but this post is getting alarmingly long and i still need to make their teams. if u read this entire thing u deserve 20 cat images and more jesus christ u madman !!!!!!

[mikes2ndcousinfromsweden]

Watch Me Touch Myself

Words: 2,801

Rating: Mature (Aged-up characters)

Summary:

After the Snow Ball, Eleven and Hopper are back to staying hidden, but Hop lets her see her friends once per month to keep her satisfied. A little fluff regarding those monthly meet ups plus a heated night!

OR

Eleven is getting more powerful and one night while using her powers she stumbles upon a horny Mike ;)

Jim Hopper had everything under control, everything figured out. The rules where back and fully active and Eleven would continue to stay hidden for another year. BUT! When he saw how disciplined, and pleased at the same time, El was after seeing her friends again and going to the Snow Ball with Mike, she stopped counting days, she followed the rules, she didn’t act like a prisoner or a little brat anymore and wouldn’t make a big fuss if Jim forgot to inform her on extra busy days that he wouldn’t be home for a couple more hours, like she did the last days before running away to search for her mother, he promised her that she could go outside once every month, after dark, preferably to one of the boys’ homes, and be back before dawn, preferably brought back by one of the parents or Jonathan. And that promise was a true promise. One he would never break. Oh, and TV at all times.

Three months had passed since the Snow Ball and the year was now 1985. She missed Mike more and more as the day of their future meeting was getting closer and the day of their last meeting was getting further away. She had craved to touch him again from the moment their eyes met through his living room window that night she killed the Demogorgon, and the day she came back from Chicago she got to do it. To actually hold him and be held by him, finally, not just observe him one-sidedly without him knowing with the help of her psychic powers and then turn him into smoke every time she tried to touch him. When they pulled apart she noticed there was a height difference now, one she wasn’t used to before, but grew to love instantly, and he felt bigger, stronger in her arms making her feel protected and safe. 

At the Snow Ball they had kissed again. She had tried to do so the day they reunited, but had failed due to the circumstances that surrounded them. One of these circumstances being Jim calling her name seconds before their lips could touch. Maybe she wasn’t completely sure what kissing meant even now, but the people inside the television, “actors” said Jim’s voice in her mind, were doing it when they loved each other, and quite frankly that’s how she felt around Mike. Their first kiss might have been unexpected, but the one at the ball was definitely desired by both sides. When it was time to leave and go back to staying hidden from the world, Mike had taken her hand and hauled her away from the gym, where the dance floor was, and to the north wing of the school. At first he looked like he was struggling to find the words to express himself avoiding to meet her eyes, but El knew. She could read him like an open book.

“I’m not going away ever again, Mike.”

She reached out with her hand to cup his cheek lifting his face so he could see in her eyes that she truly meant it. Then she stood on her tip toes rising herself a little higher and he leaned closer. They kissed, but this time it was deeper. After the first peck, he came in with force, crushing their lips together, his arms coming to hug her waist, pushing her against the corridor wall. She felt the tip of his tongue asking for permission to enter her mouth causing her eyes to fly wide open at the new sensation and her mouth to shyly open up. Her body seemed to know how to react better than she thought, imitating Mike’s motions effortlessly pushing her tongue in when he took his out. Her hand, which was still placed at the side of his face, moved to the back of his neck pulling him closer. He tasted like strawberry punch and she couldn’t get enough. It was kind of sloppy and sometimes their teeth bumped, but no one seemed to care. His hand came up to hold her face tilted and he pressed their bodies together, while El’s hand smoothly made its way under his suit and ended up on top of his chest, burning a hand-like hole through his shirt with her petite palm. Suddenly, steps startled them and they glanced flushed at their direction trying to make out who it was.

“Dustin?”, they both wondered, their minds still hazy from making out.

“You’ve been gone for half an hour!”

Mike and Eleven exchanged a concerned look and ran after Dustin back to the gym. Hopper had just entered and was looking around searching for her. Their eyes met and he headed towards them with heavy steps. She let go of his hand gradually, delaying the inevitable parting of their ways and they both acted their most innocent selves. The night had come to an end, but now they knew that she was his and he was hers, and in a month they would be together again.

In January, she convinced Hopper to let her stay overnight at the Wheeler’s and he agreed with only one condition: Lucas, Will and Dustin would also sleepover. She had arrived earlier than the guys to have some alone time with Mike and they mostly spent it holding and kissing each other lazily in comfortable silence, arms and legs tangled on his basement couch, no need for words when they could communicate their feelings so perfectly through their actions. They had stayed like this, staring and smiling at one another, her hand on his hip touching his bare, smooth skin that had been exposed by his shirt sliding up, his fingertips drawing circles on her back occasionally stopping at the nape of her neck to draw her to a kiss. Their lips touching tenderly, at first not even bothering to open up, then things got heated and their curious and hungry hands went travelling up and down each other’s bodies before it got back to being a lazy make out session minutes before the guys knocked on the front door.

The rest of the evening was just secret touches under the table, quick pecks on the lips that earned them diverse reactions each time, and El using her powers to lift Mike’s shirt a few inches winning herself a smirk and a mischievous look from him.

February had her practicing her powers more often. After Kali helped her somehow expand them, she was able to visit Mike at almost any time, even without using a cloth over her eyes or turning on some kind of static sound to cut off the outside noise. When they met they had talked about it and now he knew that when he felt her presence, she actually was there. She was able to see more, now, than just the person she had in mind and stay concentrated for longer periods of time. She could see more objects and details, sometimes whole rooms if they were small or simple enough. It felt more solid, genuine in existence and made her feel a sense of accomplishment, like she was getting better, getting somewhere, evolving.

One time she visited Mike and the guys at school, and sat with them for a whole hour, attending the class of Mr. Clarke. He was the science teacher she met the first week she escaped from Hawkins Lab, as Mike’s second cousin from Sweden. At the time she wasn’t in a position to understand how ridiculous and childish that explanation must have sounded, but now she smiled and giggled at the memory of their reactions and random thinking under pressure. The guys always talked about him and how great he was, and now she was seeing him on action, or more like spying him on action. See could see all four of her friends plus Mr. Clarke, the blackboard, part of the tiled floor and all their desks. That was more people than she had ever visited at once ever before and it made her feel… normal. For an hour she was a typical tenth grader like any other, in high school, attending classes amongst her best friends and the boy she liked.

Other times she visited the Wheeler’s basement when the boys were playing Dungeons & Dragons, observing their moves and language, “terminology” said Hopper, in order to understand how to play this board game the next time they all meet and keep up with the plot and story.

What she usually did, though, was to visit Mike at night. She would lie down on her right side and wait till Jim went to bed as well, then she would close her eyes and bring Mike’s features to her mind, his black mop of hair, his deep drown eyes, his high cheekbones, his uncountable freckles, his full lips and how they felt through hers, and imagine herself being drawn to him. Then she would find herself either wandering in his room, spotting him already at his bed or already next to him as he would always lie at the left side of his bed, turned to his side waiting for her. As her powers where getting stronger she was able to make her presence more noticeable, like slightly moving the curtains or whispering some words. Like a ghost. Mike believed that she might be able to teleport at some point in the near future. So, when she visited Mike she would observe him, listen to his breathing, touch his hair, he said that once he felt her caressing him, and it made her cheeks all rosy although they had gone further than just simple fond touches, and imagine how it would feel to sleep next to him with her body not only her mind.

The day before their March meet up, Eleven closed her eyes and thought of Mike’s curls. She was back at the no-place, when she saw a light and followed it. As she got closer she saw part of the Wheeler’s bathroom and Mike brushing his teeth, then drinking some water and spitting it to the sink before heading back to his bedroom with El following him from behind. Some minutes had passed and he seemed uneasy and uncomfortable under his covers, turning from side to side and throwing his arm over his eyes. His other hand, slid slowly from the top of his stomach down his lower abdomen. He kicked his covers and readjusted his body, his arm no longer over his eyes, but on his side, and his head tilted backwards with closed eyes and parted lips. She stood there examining this new behavior of his, her eyes fixed on his hand, which was now massaging leisurely himself between his thighs. He pushed the waistband of his sweatpants lower down over his knees revealing his light grey boxer shorts that hung loosely around his hips and his- his hard on that was creating a small tent in his underwear, still restricted by the fabric. He inhaled deeply as he brushed over the length with his fingers, teasing himself, and his cock twitched, reacting to the soft caress, getting harder. He cupped his erection over the light fabric before hooking a thumb at the side of his boxers and lifting his hips from the bed to allow for his underwear to slide down his legs and meet his pants, freeing his cock, that looked like it was already leaking, with a bounce.

Eleven gasped at the sight. Guilt had built up inside her chest, but she was unable to make herself move. She had heard Lucas and Mike making masturbation jokes when at the basement but never paid much attention as she wasn’t sure what most of the euphemisms they used really meant. Later on, when it was just the two of them she had asked Mike and he, blushing, had tried his best to explain what it was and the meaning behind some of the silly jokes. And that’s how she knew how things would escalade from that point.

Subconsciously, she tightened her fists that were starting to sweat. He brought his hand up to his mouth and spit then wrapped it tightly around his aching cock, his mouth opened wider, a groan escaping from his slick lips and she swallowed hard feeling a strange burning sensation in her belly. He stoked up and down a few times and spread his knees wider for better access. Eleven’s breath caught in her throat and she had a brief look around the room feeling exposed even though she knew her body wasn’t really there and no one could see or sense her.

His pace had quickened into a glide now, his hand moving faster up and down his shaft, his spit and precome producing a wet sound that made El lick her lips catching herself thinking about its taste. She watched as the flushed head of his cock disappeared into his fist and how the tip leaked more precome every few strokes when his hand was clenching at the base, his thumb coming to swipe it off from his slit. His breathing was becoming uneven, groans escaping his mouth every time he squeezed under the head of his cock, some of them successfully muffled by his teeth sinking into his free arm.

His hand was moving faster now, his moves turning sloppy, his heels dug to his mattress in order for him to thrust with his hips into his hand. He was mouthing something under his breath and Eleven, shyly, took one step closer to listen to his choked off whisper. “El- El…” Mike’s strokes shortened turning to tight, rhythmic clenching around the head of his cock. His head dropped back as he gasped and stuttered out a moan, his back arching off his bed and he gave himself a final squeeze right at the base of his dick before his body stiffened. His cum came shooting in ropes at his bare stomach and t-shirt, he was panting, the movement of his hand slickening as cum leaked over the top of his hand, from between his fingers, and he used it to stroke his still hard cock once more.

El let out a breath she didn’t knew she was holding. Mike turned his head still coming down from his orgasm, lazily opened his eyes and strangely looked directly at her. She shifted uncomfortably. “El?” Shocked, she almost lost her focus. “I can feel you, El. You can’t fool me. I felt your presence the moment I lowered my pants.” He was still panting, but he had a grin on his face. “Your feelings gave you away. I could sense you.” He said with a smirk and turned to look at the ceiling, relaxed. He sat up and took off his stained shirt, cleaning himself up and tucking his softening member back to his underwear. She closed the distance between them and climbed into his bed. “Mike.” She whispered in an apologetic tone. Their faces were inches away. She was so close to his barely clothed body and had the urge to kiss his swollen lips. “I wanted you to watch me.” He turned and looked at her.

*       *       *

The next evening it was the first time Hopper saw El nervous about something that wasn’t eggos. He drove her to the Wheeler’s home, but the moment she opened the door he leaned over her and closed it. “You okay, kid?” Maybe he didn’t always show it, but he did worry about her. She took her time to think and nodded with a small smile.

She stood outside their basement door, listening to their yelling, Dustin purring every now and then and Lucas and Will making assumptions about the monster that would enter this round. She took a deep breath and opened the door. She went down the stairs, at first seeing only their colorful, stripped shirts, then Dustin’s face, Lucas’ and Will’s and finally… Mike’s. All of them had turned to see who it was, so no one noticed the naughty smirk Mike shoot El when their eyes met.

They all talk at the same time for a few minutes before bringing a chair for her to sit next to Mike. They all sat down and while the guys were back at making fun of Dustin’s purrs, Mike leaned towards her, held her hand with his, intertwining their fingers and placing them on top of her lap and turned to kiss her on her cheek whispering “Thanks, for coming!” emphasizing the last word. She shifted to look at him and grinned widely before bringing their mouths together in a playful kiss. That was the first masturbation joke she understood.

Kubos <3

[thenightling]

Meet the minion

A list of Morpheus’ minion from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.

Morpheus' minion:

Matthew  - Spy / messenger.  Matthew is Morpheus’ Raven.  He is a former human who died and whose soul remained in The Dreaming.  Matthew used to be a government agent known as Matthew Cable. After several misadventures in the Swamp Thing comics his body languished in a coma.  During the coma Matthew was taught the error of his misogynistic ways (He had been abusive to his wife) by the nightmarish Eve.   While comatose the corrupt hospital he was kept at harvested organs from his body.  Out of mercy his wife tried to shut off his life support systems but he woke up long enough to apologize ot her and do it for himself.  Once deceased his soul stayed within The Dreaming where he became Morpheus’ loyal raven.  

Lucien AKA Mr. Raven - Morpheus' Librarian and most trusted assistant.  Lucien is a raven but he is usually in human form.  He is very tall (Taller than Morpheus) and has pointed ears. When Morpheus was imprisoned it was Lucien who kept things running for him while most of Morpheus’ other servants fled. Lucien is still Morpheus’ most trusted servant.

Rover - Lucien’s pet werewolf.  Though not seen in Sandman, Lucien kept a werewolf “Pet” in his original comics. 

Nuala - Maid.   Though presented to Morpheus as a slave, Morpheus did not want to keep a servant against her will.  He was pressured into accepting her under threat of offending the Faerie court.  He removed the glamour illusion that was (under pressure from the other faeries) cast on her to make her “Prettier” (preferring her true form) and never once gave her an order though she set about cleaning the castle for him and doing household chores on her own.  Later when the faeries came to reclaim her, Morpheus granted her a boon for her loyal service.  He even once rescued her not-so-kind brother from certain death for her sake and made it clear that it was for her sake.

Mervyn Pumpkinead - Mervyn or Merv Pumpkinhead is the chain smoking  grounds keeper / Handiman of The Dreaming.  At some point while Morpheus was imprisoned, Mervyn abandoned his usual work and took up driving a bus in The Dreaming. Morpheus had to bring him back to the castle to continue his original duties.  As his name suggests he has a jack-o-lantern pumpkin for a head.  

Abel - Abel is the Keeper of the House of Secrets and the victim of Cain’s homicidal tendencies.   Mostly immortal, the kind hearted Abel always bounces back from the dead after being killed by his brother, who murders him regularly in a strange form of obsessive compulsion.  Abel keeps the mysterious house of secrets, which is often changing it’s form and is bigger on the inside.  The house contains nearly all the secrets one could wish to know.

Cain - Keeper of the House of Mystery and story teller.  Cain has a morbid obsessive compulsive need to murder his qausi-immortal brother on a near nightly basis.  Cain is a proud nightmare inducer.  His house of Mystery is the stouter twin of the House of mystery.  For every mystery there is a secret but not every secret requires a mystery.  Like the house of Secrets his house is bigger n the inside and can change form. The House of Mystery seems to be sentient and both houses can appear anywhere in the waking world while still having roots in The Dreaming.   A haunted cemetery exists between their houses.  

Eve - Eve is the Keeper and protector of the ravens that serve Morpheus.  She is a nightmare to Misogynists. She is able to be any age she chooses in appearance.  She resides in a cave in The Dreaming.  This is the same cave that Matthew’s soul inhabited during his long coma before his death and transformation into a Raven.

Original Goldie - Ghost (moved on).  In the old Tales from the Crypt style horror comics that Cain and Abel originated from, Abel had an “imaginary” girlfriend, a ghost named Goldie.  Cain would sometimes patronize this imaginary girlfriend and tell her stories.  Later it was inferred that Goldie was real and had been featured on the cover of an issue of the House of Secrets.   It’s been indicated that she has since moved on to some other afterlife or reincarnation.   

Goldie = Abel's baby gargoyle pet.  In issue 2 of Sandman< Cain gives Abel an egg that hatches to reveal a little golden gargoyle.   Abel names the gargoyle Irving at first but Cain is insistent that Gargoyles must have names that begin with “G” so the gargoyle is renamed Goldie, after the old ghostly girlfriend.    

Gregory - Cain's dog-like (in personality) and draconic (Dragon-like in appearance) Gargoyle.   Gregory is a puppy-esque gargoyle that seems to forget his own size.   He likes to dig up the cemetery and when Morpheus collapsed on his way to the castle (after his escape from captivity) it was Gregory who delivered him to The house of Mystery where he could recover under the care of Cain and Abel.   Gregory is big and green.

Oskar - Cain's black cat.   Though rarely seen these days, Oskar is Cain’s black Cat who often hunts rats in the cemetery.  

Corinthian Versions 1 and 2 - Nightmare.  Corinthian was created to be a “Dark mirror” of human nature.  He was a nightmare that looked human, with white-blond hair.  The difference is Corinthian has mouths full of teeth where his eyes should be.  He can see very well (Somehow)  and he loves the taste of human eyeballs.    The Corinthian went on a murder spree in the waking world during Morpheus’ long imprisonment and when Morpheus hunted him down he “uncreated” him.  Later Morpheus re-created him with a few “adjustments” (making him more loyal). The Corinthian is gay.  This is not a feature of his ‘nightmare” qualities.  He just happens to be gay.    

Fashion Thing / Mad mod Witch - A witch who follows fashion trends and keeps up to date on the human world (Rarely seen).

Brute and Glob =  Two Nightmares. During Morpheus’ absence Brute and Glob tried to create their won Dream Dimension and recruited two Sandman morta superheroes to maintain it, the second of which was Hector Hall, Daniel’s father. The two are very defiant and like to cause trouble.

Ruthven - A vampire bunny.  Not much is known about Ruthven but he was in the castle toward the end of the Brief Lives storyline.

Puss 'n Boots - The Faery tale character of Puss ‘n Boots was seen fighting a Musketeer Mouse in the castle library during Brief lives.   Other literary characters have randomly appeared in that library. 

Echo - (from The Dreaming spin off) - A new Nightmare made from a dead trans woman.   Echo (who temporarily replaced Corinthian) now serves as a Nightmare with a (as she always wanted) a fully biologically female body. 

Taramis - Morpheus' chef. 

Judge Gallows - A nightmare judge (from The Dreaming spin off) that tried to banish Cain.  He seems to think he has more authority than he does, probably because Daneil doesn’t actually get off his ass and do anything.

Cuckoo - The Cuckoo is a parasitic nightmare that looks like Barbie as a little girl.  Later the Cuckoo happily takes the form of a bird (as she always wanted) and flies away even though the immortal witch known as Thessaly wanted Morpheus to kill the Cuckoo. 

Aristeas The poet - An Ancient Greek raven of Morpheus’.  Aristeas served Morpheus for a long time.  After serving him for two centuries he decided he wanted to be human again.  As reward for his loyal service his request was granted however this did not last (as he was no longer happy in The Human World and misfortune kept befalling him) and he eventually returned to being a raven.  Aristeas was based on an historic figure.

Tethys - Daniel's female white raven.   (God, how I hate The Dreaming spin off...)

Alianora = Ghost and Morpheus' old lover.  Alianora rescued Morpheus when he was held prisoner in his castle by two Lovecraftian Gods. The two fell in love but eventually that faded.  with no where else to go, Morpheus cretaed a world of her own out of a skerry in The Dreaming.  This wonderland was maintained by a dream stone.  When it was shattered in A game of You a ghost verison of Alianora made a brief appearance while the skerry was being recalimed by Morpheus.  

Gilbert / Fiddler's Green - Fiddler’s Green is a very pretty place in The Dreaming.  He took human form and lived on Earth for a while using the name Gilbert.  The Fiddler’s Green is a pretty and inspiring place in The Dream realm.  While Morpheus was imprisoned Fiddler’s Green became curious about the human world and took human form, wandering to Earth.  Eventually he was returned to The Dreaming.

The Gate keepers - Morpheus' Wyvern, Hippogriff, and Griffin.  The Wyvern, Hippogriff and Griffin guard the castle in the centre of The Dreaming.  They are Morpheus’ gate keepers.   The castle is surrounded by a gate of horn and a gate of ivory.  Dreams that are lies and deception pass through the gates of ivory.  Truthful and profound dreams pass through the gates of horn.  No one guards the gates of horn. 

Abudah - Monstrous Nightmare creature.  Briefly assists Mervyn Pumpkinhead.

Danny Nod - Lucien’s assistant (Sandman Dreaming spin off).   LIke most characters introduced in The Dreaming Spin-off Danny Nod is unsettling but not in a good way. Many characters in The Dreaming feel like Happy Tree Friends after the novelty of watching cute creatures mutilate each other has worn offThe whole thing is overly dark and gritty and makes all the Dreaming characters frankly unpleasant and unlikable.  No one is written write in that thing.

Knight of Clouds and Shadows and The The Forgotten Trumps - Not much is known about these guys except that they had an appointment with Daniel at the start of Sandman: Overture. 

Note: There were several other dream characters in Sandman  that appear randomly but these are the only ones I know of that were specifically named. 

[inawickedlittletown]

Walking The Wire (166/167)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

@findmeinthestarss

Masterpost

Chapter One Hundred Sixty Five

-

“I’m a really big fan,” Peter said. 

Thor was really really tall. He was also more muscular than Peter had expected when standing up close and yet there were his biceps. May was right about them being something to admire because they were huge. All of Thor was kind of just big. Even, it seemed, his personality. Maybe that just came with the territory of being a god. 

“I’ve been told that, Peter son of Stark,” Thor said. “You have your own fans, I hear.”

“Um, I guess so--”

Sam next to Peter chuckled. Peter glared at him. The reception was in full swing. There was music playing -- something from the eighties because Quill had decided that he needed to have some input with the music but no one really seemed to mind. His dad and Steve were dancing. Everyone was still eating or finishing up and Peter had finally had his chance to meet Thor. At last.

“So is it true that only you can wield the hammer? Well, the axe now?” 

Thor nodded. He didn’t seem at all bothered by Peter talking to him and asking questions. 

“Only someone worthy can lift it,” Thor said. “Would you like a try?” 

Peter shook his head at once. Eyes wide. “No. No. I don’t think I could--”

Thor chuckled. “All the Avengers tried once. Your father came close.” 

“My father? Really? What was he wearing the armor while he tried or something?” 

Thor chuckled. “Not that father. The other one.”

“Oh. Well, yeah, I could see Steve maybe being able to do it.” 

It would have been fitting, too, Peter thought. Steve was probably worthy. 

Peter asked Thor about the other Asgardians and how they were settling into Earth and it was nice to listen to Thor explain how different “Midgard” was to his home planet. But it seemed like his people were settling in fine. 

“They have Valkyrie, she’s a good leader,” Thor said. He motioned towards the Asgardian that was currently playing some sort of drinking game with Rocket and Quill. 

He talked to him for a while and Thor seemed entertained by Peter even after Dr. Banner joined them. Peter was also quite star struck by the mild mannered Bruce Banner and Peter had a whole lot of questions to ask him that were more science related and he could tell that Dr. Banner was curious about him and his powers. 

“You’ll just need to stop by my lab sometime, Peter, I’m sure we’ll have lots to talk about.” 

“Yes. Definitely. I’m so down for that.” 

He only left them when he spotted Ned waving him over.  Ned and Michelle were sitting with May and Pepper and Happy. It was in many ways the most normal table at the reception. May still got on really well with Pepper, and they were mid-conversation when Peter approached the table. 

“Hey,” Ned said, “were you just talking to Thor? That is so cool.” 

Peter laughed. “Yeah, it kind of was. He’s very different but nice.” 

“So, the crush will remain alive and well,” Michelle said with a smirk. 

“It’s not a crush,” Peter muttered. “I kinda -- no, it’s not important. Are you guys having a good time?” He pulled a chair from another table to sit down between them. 

“We are,” Michelle said. “I am. This has been -- I never expected to go to anything quite like this.” 

“Nor I,” May said, but she was smiling. 

“It’s a crazy world the one that Tony Stark inhabits,” Pepper said. “Never a dull moment. I don’t know how Steve’s going to deal with it.” 

Bucky happened to be passing at that moment and he stopped. “Stevie is just as much of a mess, that’s how. They’re kind of perfect for each other.” 

They really were. When Peter looked for them, he spotted them at their table and they were talking to each other. Steve laughed at something and his dad smiled and there was just so much love and fondness in their eyes when they looked at each other. It was kind of amazing to see two people so in love. 

---

When we met, I didn’t see you. But when I started looking, I couldn’t stop seeing you. You make the world brighter, Tony Stark, and I selfishly want to keep you forever. You gave me a home, a family, and a future. I love you. I will always love you. 

---

The whole of it was a success. Tony had had a few doubts with the rain and then with Pepper having the bad news that their DJ cancelled. But in the end, everything turned out fine. As Friday predicted the rain stopped and then Peter Quill had stepped up and dealt with the music and somehow nothing went amiss. He and Steve were married and Tony was happier than he could ever remember being. 

All his friends -- his family -- had come. Scott and his ex-wife, wife’s new husband, and daughter. His girlfriend Hope and the Pyms. Clint and his brood. A lot of the people that Tony actually respected from SI including Agent and Sharon Carter -- although she wasn’t really Shield anymore these days. All the of The Avengers. The Guardians of the Galaxy. T’Challa and Shuri. Even Strange and Wong had shown up. Fury and Maria Hill had made it and Carol had returned from space just in time. 

“This everything you wanted?” he asked Steve as they slow danced. 

Steve was a careful dancer, wary of stepping on Tony. Wary of skills that he thought he didn’t have even though he moved more like a dancer than a fighter when in the middle of battle. It was a matter of how he seemed to overthink his every step. He didn’t trust himself. 

“You are everything I wanted,” Steve whispered. “This is just nice -- having everyone here.” 

“Sappy. You’re getting sappy in your old age, husband.” 

“I am not the oldest one in this relationship, husband,” Steve said. 

Tony tutted at him. “Just because you were in ice,” Tony whispered back. “Something I will always be grateful for.”

“Is it everything you wanted?” Steve asked. 

Tony shrugged his shoulders and he spun them, looking around at the other dancing couples. Clint and Laura. Scott and Hope. Natasha was trying to get Nebula to dance with her to not avail. Gamora was over in a more secluded area with Quill. Then there was everyone else mingling around them. Pepper and Happy laughing at a table with Rhodey. He spotted Peter with his friends. Thor was talking to Shuri and Tony would have loved to know how that was going. Then, he spotted May talking to Bruce. 

“Yeah. You at my side. All of our friends. Our son.”

Steve’s eyes met his. “Our son,” he repeated. 

Tony kissed him, chaste and quick. He pressed their foreheads together. “Steve, you jumped off a cliff to bring him back to me even though you had no idea if you’d survive it because you love him just as much as I do. He’s yours too.”

Steve smiled and nodded. They’d discussed it before a few times,but it was nice to bring it up again. “Yeah, he is. We talked about it before the ceremony.”

“Of course you did. He loves you too, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. I didn’t think I needed to hear it from him, but when he said it, it was one of the best feelings in the world.”

Peter laughed from the table he was at -- joined by Bucky and Sam -- and for a while Tony just watched him and he remembered once not expecting to ever get to meet or be a part of Peter’s life at all. But he had met him and formed a relationship with him. He’d brought him back after Thanos snapped him from existence. 

Steve kissed his temple and pulled at his hand. Tony followed, walking beside him towards Peter who immediately got up and hugged him first and then Steve, staying between them for a moment once May got out her phone to take a picture. 

“Be sure to send that to me,” Tony said. 

“Of course,” May said. 

When Peter moved away, again, Tony drifted closer to Steve, pressed against his side. Peter glanced back at them and Tony just smiled at him and then looked to Steve again. He was so so lucky. 

---

I once thought I’d be alone forever. I didn’t think I’d ever even meet my son much less someone I would want to share him with. Not until you, Steve Rogers. There are no words to describe the relief I feel at having you at my side. This is for as long as the universe allows and even beyond that. I love you. 

---

The rest of the night went well. There were speeches at some point and Peter could tell that Bucky had gotten into some of Thor’s Asgardian mead because he seemed a little drunk when he gave his.

“Super soldiers aren’t supposed to get drunk, are they?” Ned asked. 

“No. Not unless it’s alien mead.” He motioned towards Thor and the other Asgardians. 

Rhodey had given a best man’s speech too -- a more coherent one. Peter really intended to spend more time with him and ask him about stories about his dad when they were both in MIT because he knew they had to be good. And despite officiating the wedding, Pepper had had a few things to add to Rhodey’s speech as well. Peter was just glad that he didn’t have to make one. 

All in all, the wedding was perfect. It was towards the end of the night that his dad got up to talk. 

“I want to thank everyone for being here. It’s been a long few months for a lot of us but the world is finally set right and we can only hope that it will remain so. Today I married the love of my life -- a man for another era entirely and one I’ve loved and hated my entire life. He brings out the best in me and I hope I do the same for him. And I’m just glad I get to share this with all of you. With my friends, my teammates, and our son.”

He paused them, to glance around at everyone. 

“My dear husband and I are going to take off, now, but the party can keep going. There is a lot to celebrate and plenty of cake.” 

Before leaving, his dad and Steve stopped where Peter was standing with a plate of cake. 

“Have a good night,” Peter said and wiggled his eyebrows. 

“Don’t be cheeky, child,” his dad said.  

Peter hugged his dad first and then Steve.

“I’m really happy for you,” Peter whispered. 

His dad kissed the top of his head. “Love you kid. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

The party kept going after they left. Thor and the other Asgardians were still drinking. Quill kept up his playlist and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Peter spotted Natasha dancing with one of Clint’s kids. Scott was dancing with his daughter. It was cute. 

“This was nice,” MJ said. “Thanks for the invite.” 

Peter nodded. “I’m glad you came. Did you--” he motioned at the dance floor, “did you want to dance? I mean, it’s okay if you don’t, but there’s really nothing else to do and I think May said we’d be leaving soon too so--”

MJ grabbed his hand and Peter trailed off, his eyes widened and when he looked at her she just laughed and then tugged him along. 

“You ramble a lot,” she said. 

Peter didn’t know what song was playing because it was something too old for him to actually know, but it was soft and easy to dance to even if it still made him just a little nervous when MJ turned to him. But moments later, his arms were around her waist and her arms were over his shoulders and as nervous as it made him, MJ felt good in his arms. She smelled like something flowery. 

It felt like the moment lasted mere seconds but also forever and when it was over and Peter pulled back, he smiled at her and she smiled back. 

“That was...that was nice,” Peter said. 

“Yeah…”

It was awkward. Everything was just so awkward. It was lucky that Ned appeared then and he clapped Peter on the shoulder. 

“Good, found you two. May thinks it might be a good time to go.”

“Oh,” Peter said. “Yeah, sure.” 

Although his dad and Steve were going to some fancy hotel for the night and Peter had had the option to stay at the compound with Bucky and Sam and the rest, he’d decided to spend the night with May instead. He hadn’t gotten to see much of her since the first time he went to see her and it also meant spending a bit more time with Ned and MJ on the drive to Queens. 

May had insisted on driving instead of letting Happy pick her up or letting Doctor Strange bring them over through a portal, but Peter didn’t mind the drive. They found her soon enough. She was talking to Happy and Pepper and Peter was surprised to see how weirdly cozy they looked. 

He gave Pepper a hug and high fived Happy and then said his goodbyes to Natasha and Bucky but only because he saw them as they were heading out. He wasn’t sure how much longer the party would go for, but everyone still seemed to be having fun. 

“It wasn’t as overthetop as I thought it was going to be,” May said as they set out. 

Peter shrugged. “Pepper and the wedding planner had a lot to do with that. Also how fast they had to arrange things.”

“Well, it was nice,” MJ said. “I had a great time.” 

She met his eyes and Peter ducked his head and then they all got into May’s car. Ned told them all about how he’d managed to talk to Sam for a while and how cool he was and it was easy to let Ned just fill the silence. 

The topic of conversation drifted away from the wedding to other things eventually and everything just felt normal. MJ even tried to bring up decathlon. 

“We’re not even in school right now,” Ned said. “We don’t have to worry about it.” 

“I just want us to do well, Ned, and as captain that falls on me. All I’m saying is that Peter can’t slack off because of his spiderness.” 

“Hey! I went to all the practices last year.” 

“He did,” Ned said. 

After they dropped off Ned and MJ, Peter leaned back into his seat. He was actually feeling quite tired from the day and he wasn’t expecting for May to want to talk to him about anything. 

“You know, for a while there I hated that you knew the truth,” May said. “I didn’t trust Tony Stark to really know what was best for you. I figured he would take you away. I guess, well, he sort of did. But he also didn’t keep you away and after Ben -- I’m really glad you get to have him be your father. Your dad. And from the state he was in when you were gone, I know that he loves you and that he needs you just as much.”

“May, I--”

May reached over and grabbed his hand. “You have a big family, actually, and I’m really glad you do.”

Peter nodded, thinking about everyone at the wedding. Most of them he could consider family. A big superhero family and some of them weren’t even human. 

“I guess I do,” Peter said. 

---

“I don’t even want to know how much money you spent on this place. Especially when we could have just gone back to the tower seeing as no one is there.” 

Tony just chuckled. Steve had been nagging him about their post-wedding plans since he’d learned of them earlier in the day, but Tony wanted to end the night in style by which he meant with a surprise.  

“I really love hearing you put down all my romantic plans,” Tony said, but shot Steve a grin.

“I just don’t think it’s necessary,” Steve said. 

Tony nodded. “I kind of figured you’d feel that way. But have I mentioned how much I enjoy seeing you riled up over something that doesn’t even matter?”

Although Tony was in the driver’s seat, it was Friday that had control of the car and so Tony felt entirely safe turning to look at his new husband. “I did something a little crazy,” he said. 

Steve’s suit looked as pristine on him as it had in the beginning of the night and the way he looked at Tony was with a warmth fondness rather than any real annoyance. They were both so sappy and in love and it was kind of disgusting. 

“Crazy how?” Steve asked. 

“Crazy as in, Peter is right, and we do deserve to have a honeymoon. Even a small one. And if we do it in another time, then Peter won’t have a chance to get into any real trouble.”

Steve shook his head. “Tony, you’re...where -- no, when are we even going?” 

“Any time you want. Anywhere you want. As long as we’re together.”

“Together,” Steve said. “I like the sound of that.” 

-

Epilogue

[metawitches]

  When Joss Whedon’s dream came true and Natalia Alianovna Romanoff willingly flung herself to her death, I felt nothing. I knew from the moment she and Clint went off for the Soul Stone that she would die, but, stupidly, I didn’t quite get to the realization that she would be the one to kill herself – one of the few decisions she’s made for herself in her time in the MCU.

There aren’t a lot of options for women and girls to look up to as role models in media – not female ones, anyway. Growing up, I was always looking for female role models in media, and I frequently ended up in love with the ones who had agency, above all else. The “powerful or good” dichotomy that I wrote about in a post in response to the Frozen musical details the struggle I’ve always found in female characters. You can be powerful or good, have agency or compassion, intelligence or charm, be sexy or moral – whore or madonna.

I fell in love with Natasha slowly. Her emotional depth and complexity, her flirtatiousness, her dynamism and belief in herself, her desperation to fit in somewhere, with someone, her history of having been brainwashed into believing she was nothing and no one, taken from the only world she knew to a drastically different one, only to find that maybe the two weren’t so different… Her instant connection and trust with Steve that grew to a deep bond, only to quickly find him more concerned with another, arguably stronger bond from his past (with someone who may be her former lover, who now doesn’t recognize her, but does recognize her new partner), followed immediately by the discovery that the one person she thought of as family, Nick Fury, did not consider her part of his family after all… I fell in love with her strength, intelligence, vulnerability, past, relationships. To me, the quintessential Natasha is Winter Soldier Natasha, when she is an equal partner to Steve and has her own journey and her relationships are most intense and hopeful and devastating – she is the one I fell in love with.

But that woman was seriously undermined – or should I say, Whedonized – in Avengers: Age of Ultron. She feels she’s a monster for not being able to have babies, her relationship with Steve barely exists, she pathetically begs for the attention of a man who considers her about as despicable as he considers himself, and then somehow ends up suicidal. It was a logical progression from the fragile, childlike woman in The Avengers, save for her connection with Steve being less present than in the first movie.

The Natasha from Winter Soldier was mostly back in Captain America: Civil War, but as is bound to happen, her character was twisted and manipulated to fit the plot. She is the “wild card” Avenger, as the special features on the Civil War DVD call her. Having a character who could go either way because of complex calculations, goals, and values is interesting and compelling, and I believe that’s what they intended to do with Natasha. Instead, they twisted her character in ways that were only loosely defensible and used her as a convenient object in order to achieve the plot they wanted. More than the wild card Avenger, she is the spare Avenger.

She barely existed in Avengers: Infinity War, and in Avengers: Endgame, she was back to her Avengers persona as opposed to her Captain America persona. This is the Natasha that, frankly, doesn’t feel like my Natasha. I’m not going to argue which one is the “real” Natasha, but I know which one is mine, and she was not it. Endgame has so many problems when it comes to plot, mythology, science, character, logic, and morality that, as a fan, I have a very hard time taking the movie seriously as canon. And I haven’t forced myself to take it seriously – it’s all fiction, and I can hold in my head a version of events that is just as real as the version a bunch of men looking for profit came up with.

I never grieved Natasha because, to me, she isn’t dead. She isn’t suicidal. She is resilient as ever – she has her regrets and her insecurities, but she isn’t suicidal.

But I wasn’t nearly as well prepared for the death of Daenerys Targaryen – because I didn’t realize she was so important to me. I never expected to become a fan of an Avengers character, but even less than that, I never, ever expected to care in the slightest about a Game of Thrones character. I’d never seen a single minute of the show. I could name about two characters. I’d seen the talk of its treatment of female characters, the counts of rape per episode (warning: link contains triggering content) and the frequency at which women were shown full-on naked compared to men. I’d read many feminist analyses of the series and felt no need to put myself through a single episode to confirm what my fellow feminists said. In short, I had little respect for Game of Thrones, and even less now.

I don’t know how Daenerys came into my awareness initially. Cultural osmosis has led to me seeing her around for years, and, sometime during this latest season, I found myself searching for information on her history, her journey, and – my favorite – her relationship with her dragons. I think my gradually growing interest in her had a lot to do with the headlines I saw referring to her disappointing descent into a “mad queen.” This was vaguely surprising to me, though it shouldn’t have been. It’s a tried and true tradition in fiction that women with power go crazy – all that responsibility and capability melts their poor little brains.

The night of the series finale, I googled her name to see what her fate had been, already pretty sure what I would find. That suspicion was correct. She continued farther down the path of power melting her ladybrain and turning her into a vengeful goddess along the lines of Ishtar, Athena and Hera, continuing the long and still prevalent trope of vindictive women. Thus, she had to die.

I was sad upon seeing this, but it took a minute for it to really sink in. And then I was very, very sad. I couldn’t think about anything else. This was exactly what had happened to Natasha just a few weeks ago. We lost Natasha, then we lost Daenerys. One after another, two of our time’s most iconic female characters met lazy, demoralizing ends.

And it struck me how similar these two are. Natasha and Daenerys both spent years as examples of female characters who could be both powerful and good (though flawed), but in the end, they, too, were forced to choose. Natasha became good and weak. Daenerys became evil and powerful. Both died. Natasha is the Giving Tree and Daenerys is the Evil Queen. The Madonna and the Whore. Neither allowed to live or be full people.

Natasha and Daenerys were women with power who had to give up that power to pay for their sins. They couldn’t atone in ways other than death. In the eyes of the writers and the characters around them, Natasha was a monster because she couldn’t have babies, while Daenerys was the mother of monsters. (Though I object to the common notion that dragons are monsters in addition to Daenerys being coded as a monster by proxy – they’re animals living their lives, just like us.) Natasha is surrounded by men who have committed crimes at least as bad as what she’s done: Steve and Thor have killed many, many soldiers in war; Tony has killed countless innocent people, including Wanda’s whole family (which she conveniently forgets about after Ultron), through his numerous mistakes; Hulk has killed people in his hulk-rage; as of Endgame, Clint is not only a long-time assassin, but has spent years being a vigilante serial killer. But Natasha has “red in her ledger” because…she was an assassin for Russia before she was an assassin for the U.S.? Because she’s killed people in her job or for the greater good? Because she’s barren, as Joss 💩™ seems to think? (Never mind that the “red in my ledger” line, which people seem to take as the heart of her character, was said when she was tricking Loki into telling her his plan. She has no more red than any other Avenger. But she’s the only one who has to sacrifice her life in order to redeem all of that.)

Daenerys suffered from the same bizarre ideas of what’s an appropriate ending for a female character. I’ve seen fans of GoT say that the show ended the way it needed to, that it’s never been about happy endings or closure or justice – which is fine. But if that’s the case, why was it a happy ending for the Starks? Why couldn’t Daenerys live as an evil queen? Why couldn’t she kill Jon Snow, knowing that he might try to stop her evil plans? If she was so destroyed by all the loss she’d experienced, and was so afraid of further betrayal, couldn’t she have killed him before he could betray her, too? Why does the tragic ending have to be a tragedy for her, the show’s long-standing symbol of female empowerment? If she’s so evil, couldn’t the tragedy be for the people who’d loved her and the people who would have to suffer her rule for the foreseeable future? If she had to be either powerful or good, couldn’t she at least keep her power? And why did she go crazy from losing so many people/dragons, while so many (male) characters on GoT didn’t, despite having lost just as many?

There was also no particular way that the story “needed” to end. This story was not handed down from god. (No, George R. R. Martin is not god.) This was created by men. (Yes, men and not women.) Daenerys did not come to them as someone who was doomed to be power-mad. She is completely made up. They chose to make her story one of a woman turning out to be evil, out-of-control, and ultimately not even that powerful. Even if becoming crazy and killed by a man was the best end for the character they created, they created her this way. This story didn’t fall into their laps. Daenerys didn’t have to die; they killed her. And the same is true of Natasha.

Metacrone has done extensive analysis of the cultural fear of women’s power, so I won’t go in-depth on that here. What we haven’t analyzed as deeply on this blog is the cultural need for a woman to die when her story is over, or at least become suicidal. This trend is largely one and the same as writers getting to the end of a woman’s story, or the end of the overall story, and not bothering to write a proper ending for one or more female characters. Instead, they lazily dispose of their women by having them become suicidal or suddenly so horrible that they can’t be allowed to live. And let’s not ignore that the writers of Endgame said themselves that Natasha’s story had to end if she got the Avengers back together. Apparently, that really means the male Avengers. I guess Clint can live knowing a woman died for him, but she can’t live knowing a man died for her.

Daenerys’ death brought up the feelings in me that I’d managed to escape when Natasha died. There goes another one. Another woman who couldn’t maintain her own agency. Another one whose biggest contribution to the world and the plot was her death. Another one who couldn’t be a complex, whole person. Another one the (male) writers were too lazy to give a proper ending. Time to end the story – oh, we have this troublesome woman here. What do we do with her? Eh, easiest to just kill her. She’s just the spare. We don’t need her for the plot anymore.

These two are part of a very, very old tradition, one which influences and reflects the real world, and as a real live human woman, I can report how this feels, though I know that most male writers (and some female writers) aren’t terribly interested in how women feel as long as we continue to give them money. My point isn’t whether Daenerys was really crazy or the creators manipulated the audience to think she was (although that’s an analysis I would love to read), or whether she deserved to die. My point is that This. Keeps. Happening. Powerful woman has to die. Powerful woman who is known to be a source of inspiration for women and girls (hopefully not very young girls in Daenerys’ case, given the explicit on-camera sexual abuse/rape) is actually evil and the best option for her is death. If you’re a powerful woman, the best thing you can do for society (and yourself) is die.

I won’t go into the specifics of Daenerys’ story or character. But I think my reaction, which was largely the same that I saw from many Game of Thrones fans, to her fate of becoming “mad” and then being killed by a man is enough to showcase its cultural impact. (Metacrone texted me shortly after I’d read the story of Daenerys’ death, also upset – neither of us have ever seen a single minute of Game of Thrones.) Daenerys has a cultural meaning. Even those of us who know nothing about the show and next to nothing about Daenerys herself still know her as the queen, the woman who always has the dragons by her side and commands the men beneath her. We know her as the female face of the franchise, just as we know Natasha as the female face of hers.

So what message does it send that the female faces of two of the most popular franchises of our time died at the end of their franchises (well, to the extent that Endgame can be considered the end of the original Avengers group)? What does it say that neither of them could have an ending that involved them continuing their lives after the narrative was complete? As Metacrone has written elsewhere, the end of a man’s story usually means that it’s time to start the next chapter of his life. That’s what it meant for most of the Avengers (aside from Tony, who died because he’s a good person, as opposed to Natasha, who died because she didn’t deserve to live), and it’s what it meant for most of Daenerys’ male counterparts. The man Natasha died to save and the man who killed Daenerys both continued their lives after the end of the story.

Natasha’s death may not have felt real to me, but Daenerys’ death less than a month later made me realize that, in terms of cultural impact, it was real. These two iconic women are the latest in the time-honored tradition of killing a woman when her goal is accomplished or when it’s time to end the story. What do we do with this character? Have we given her enough of an identity to know what an appropriate ending for her would be? Does her fate have relevance to the overall story? How will it affect other characters? These questions seem to mostly be pesky inconveniences to many writers, so they just kill their women. Too much of a bother trying to write them as real characters.

It really isn’t hard to write about women – they’re people. They can do and say the same things as men. But these writers’ brains seem incapable of processing a character who is just a character but happens to be female. So they try to appease the Crazy Feminists™ by doing sh-t like this:

to say to us “girl power!! Look at all the women we have!! Progressive!!” while absolutely none of the women in that shot did a single thing remotely consequential to the story. Absolutely not a single one of them could have been in the movie and it would be the same movie. In fact, one fanboy edited out all the scenes that weren’t about straight white men, and the end result was a logical, substantial, full-length movie. (Plus, he changed the opening images to the Stan Lee version of the Marvel comics montage, which was seen at the beginning of Captain Marvel. We need the very beginning to be an ode to not only a straight white man, but a groper.) Luckily for me, this guy already did the work of seeing what would happen if you edited out all the pesky “representation” that the poor creators of the film were forced to add. And it changed nothing about the movie. It’s the same movie, just a little more streamlined. I’ve seen people mocking this guy for being pathetic in needing to edit all these things out, and he is, but the dominant culture of our society is on his side, or else this movie would have actually written non-straight-white-male characters who had real reasons to be there. This guy and I do have something in common regarding this – we both were quite annoyed by the use of the characters who were not straight white men.

I never want to write about it when a female character I’ve loved and drawn inspiration from for years is ruined this way. I didn’t want to write my Frozen piece, either. I had no intention of writing about Natasha’s death because, again, it didn’t feel real to me, and I was very happy living in that land. I didn’t want to face it enough to write about its significance. But then Daenerys turned out to be so evil and out-of-control that she had to die, too. Two of her dragons, the symbols of her power (and animals who are used as plot devices rather than real characters, as so often happens), died. Jon Snow’s pain in killing her is apparently just as bad as her being dead, according to the soft-boy-men’s-rights-activist who plays him. As the delightful Emilia Clarke said, “Um, he just doesn’t like women, does he? He keeps f–king killing them.” (A fitting statement for most male writers, too.) Oh, and he’s also the true heir to the throne, not her. (And also, let’s make this little boy king of the 6 realms instead of his two older and much more qualified sisters. Now if that doesn’t sound like real life….)

It should be clear from the subject matter of this site that we don’t agree with the argument “it’s just a TV show/movie,” but in case anyone wants proof, there are studies that show that film and tv affect our beliefs in gender roles and stereotypes.

As it stands now, I will continue to have my own ideas of how Natasha’s and Daenerys’ stories went. (Personally, I like to think that Daenerys continued to stop her husband’s men from raping enemy women and instead gained their trust, they all formed an elite group of warriors, spies, witches and assassins, and through this group as well as her strength and compassion, Daenerys gained enough power within Dothraki society that she eventually killed her rapist husband rather than falling in love with him [wtf???] and was then considered the real Dothraki leader. Some of the Dothraki men, of course, never took to this, and continued to challenge her or attempt to kill her, but between her, her dragons, and her team of deadly women, none of them could touch her. All her dragons lived out their long lives. She led her people and her dragons through the long, harsh winter and was all the more loved for having helped her people prosper so well throughout it. Also, she turns Dothraki society into a vegetarian one, except for her dragons because they’re carnivores. The end. [Natasha’s story is quite a bit more complicated, and I’m still working it out.])

But our culture, especially young girls, can’t disconnect from media in this way – and, clearly, I can’t quite do so either.

  Images courtesy of Marvel and HBO.

Daenerys & Natasha When Joss Whedon’s dream came true and Natalia Alianovna Romanoff willingly flung herself to her death, I felt nothing.

[zaggitz]

My Top Ten Video Games of 2018

Well, here were are again, my friends. After the non stop roller coaster thrillride of VIDEO GAMES 2017, can 2018 live up to the hype??? I’m gonna go ahead and say no right off the bat, but while every single week wasn’t filled with a new incredible genre defining experience like last year, we still had some genuine certified bangers in the mix, many of which I think will remain important to me as the years go by. It should be noted this is the first year since 2014 where a Trails game hasn’t hit the market, so for the first time ever since I started writing these lists, a Trails game will not reign victorious at the end. Scandalous! Impossible!! Shit year tbh, but we’ll get by.

Outside of games this year is maybe the best year of my entire life?? I got out of a years long slump, started an actual genuine career path, and then somehow managed to fenegle falling in love into the whole mix. These lists have always come from some greater sense of yearning to reach out and communicating how I feel about things I love to anyone who will listen, but right now all I can think of is about how happy and lucky I am for my life to have taken the turns it did this year. 2019 is gonna have to try real hard to break my stride.

If you’d like to read my previous rambly lists, here they are:

2015

2016

2017

Anyway without further ado, here’s ten games that aren’t Trails of Cold Steel 3(WHEN??):

10. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

This one is only at the bottom of the list because I didn’t have time to finish it. I loved getting to jump into the world of the witcher again. The world is dark and gritty and the choice are morally grey and the writing is impeccable and gwent is even more fun to play as a main mechanic than it was in the Witcher 3 as a minigame. I can’t wait to dive back into this one come the new year.

9. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology

One of the most well written and executed time-travel-based JRPGs I’ve ever played. It’s a story about trying to fix mistakes, about different perspectives trying to understand each other instead of fighting over differences.

It’s got an overall theme of realizing how important you can be to the world around you despite seeming insignificant that really resonated with me, an amazing cast of characters and it also just happens?? To be really fun to play??

8. The House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence

That I didn’t play the first game the year it came out is a damn crime, this series of gothic tragedies has such special, meaningful and important themes of redemption and sacrifice and finding the people who will survive the world with you no matter what. It tackles mental illness, lgbt topics with an immense amount of respect and tells some of the most heart wrenchingly real and gutting stories, but it all culminates in the most viscerally satisfying way.

This sequel delves into one of the most unspoken parts of the original while also offering promising and hopeful glimpses into the future. It’s absolutely a must play if you in anyway liked the original.

7. Wandersong

Now here’s one that came absolutely out of nowhere. This game just oozes joy out of every pore. You play as a dandy bard who can only interact with the world via music trying to save it from being destroyed. Heavy themes of pacifism and the internal struggle of doing your best when you know for a fact your best won’t be good enough cover this thing like sprinkles on the most delicious and colorful donut.

Another thing I love is how every single chapter of this game plays differently, one will be a pirate adventure where you steer a ship with pirate shanties, the other will be a Majora's Mask still town sim, it goes on like this, and it never once gets boring. This game will make you smile the biggest smile from start to finish.

6. God of War

Remember Kratos?? He’s back, in open world action-RPG form. I sort of grew up with the original GoW trilogy and am of the opinion that they aged about as well as I did(which is fuckin not gracefully, teenager me was a fuckin mess). God of War is out of its edgy teenager phase now, and just barely squeaking out of its holier than thou college student phase into a game that actually has a few things to say, fun characters, an amazing world, and a paternal relationship that is kind of actually a joy to watch unfold despite everyone making fun of the game for it.

This game is like twice, maybe three times as long as the original trilogy which hilariously kind of makes those games feel like a prologue to this one. I suppose the real ironic thing is they kind of are?? They were shallow angry games with nothing to say but their existence created a character that, under the right light, under THIS light, could actually be extremely compelling and fun to watch grow alongside his boy. This series went from one I was glad to see gone to one I can’t wait to get more of.

5. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life/Yakuza Kiwami 2

It’s absolutely insane that Yakuza is popular now. I got into this series 10 years ago and at the time every single new yakuza release was a blessing and a curse; blessed because holy shit they actually put out a new Yakuza game and cursed because oh god it sold like shit and they probably won’t localize the next one why did they localize the zombie spin-off it almost killed the series nooooo don’t localize that give us the samurai games instead.

So anyway, this year I finally finished my journey playing through all 7 mainline Yakuza games. The journey of Kiryu Kazuma has come to an end and I have seen every step he’s taken. Yakuza 6 itself had kind of a really rough new engine that Kiwami 2 ended up refining, and from a gameplay perspective these games are basically the same, for the most part(Kiwami 2 is just better). Neither of these games come close to touching the masterful highs of Yakuza 0 but from a story perspective I think the respect and love this series has for its protagonist is unmatched, and while I was sad to see him go, I will never forget that big good crime boy and his whacky antics.

Ganbare, Kiryu-san...sayonara!!!!

4. The Messenger

This game fucking rules, I really don’t know how to do it justice, I played it on a whim and fell in love with it for the time it took me to beat it in a way that I haven’t done with a game in a long time. The gameplay is fluid and fun, the writing is charming and legit hilarious at times and the soundtrack, oh baby the soundtrack, if this wasn’t a year where Celeste came out this game would win every single award for OST of the year, I would fight anyone who disagreed.

The main gimmick of this game once you reach the halfway point is being able to shift between the 8 bit past and the 16 bit future, and every time you do the music will warp to fit those aesthetics and the game does this so freaking seamlessly, it’s amazing. The final level in particular meshed the music so well with the narrative that I was like fist pumping the whole way through the final sequence of the game.

It rules extremely hard, play it. Yes, you, you reading this right now, play this game so these people will make more for me. Please?

3. La-Mulana 2: The 0th Body, The 9th Spirit

Chalk this one up for game of 2018 I most can’t wait to replay and do a bunch of quick runs of. The original La Mulana is one of my favorite games of all time and this sequel delivers more of all the stuff I love while streamlining a lot of the more obscure and obtuse solutions. The music, the bosses, the world, all of the best things about the first game were all just as on point in this one.

The game evokes a sense of mystery you can only really achieve in a sequel to a game like the original La Mulana by constantly making you question the lore you already knew from the original. This all culminates in a sidequest that for a game as inscrutable as opaque as LM2, I still ended up getting really really emotionally invested in.

I don’t think there will ever be a La Mulana 3, and if that’s the case I’ll be able to leave this series happy, these two games complete each other in such a huge way, and will remain some of my favorites for years to come.

2. Celeste

I swear to god, this game was my Game of the Year for 9 whole months. I have never in my life played a game with this much precision perfect game design. This is maybe the tightest most consistent feeling platformer of all time. It’s like basically perfect on a gameplay level. That it meshes it’s gameplay with it’s themes so well is what truly makes it stand out and transforms it into not only a viscerally satisfying, tough but fair game, but an emotionally resonant masterpiece that will stick with me for years to come.

Celeste is a game about climbing a mountain. Celeste is a game about overcoming depression and anxiety and learning to cope and better yourself. These things are not interchangeable, the challenges you face as a player in this game all tie in perfectly to the main character, Madeline’s struggle to just fight through her self doubt and self loathing. It’s an extremely real tale, despite how fantastical the visuals are. It’s a game about fighting and screaming and clawing at that fucking Mountain to give you a way to have your heart again, and it’s absolutely wonderful.

The game is difficult, but every personal triumph accompanies one in game, and it lets you truly feel the feelings the game is trying to evoke alongside it. This is the kind of game that only comes once or twice a decade. I’d be extremely surprised to see anything hit this level any time soon.

1. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

This is the gold standard for all JRPGs now as far as I'm concerned. There are series that go deeper, that go harder, that go all the way in with their music but no game out there exists that is so confidently just the classic all encompassing idea of a JRPG like this one. This game is pure comfort food, it knows exactly what it is and what it is is a fun heartwarming and charming classic JRPG “chosen one gets the cool sword and fights the dark lord” tale and damn it if it hasn’t been a while since we had just a good one of those.

Haha, just kidding.

A third of the way through, this game takes a dramatic shift and flips everything on its head in a way that hasn’t been really seen or executed this well since FF6. Suddenly the comfortable is taken away, the world is scary, bleak, and the themes you missed, that were simmering in the background since the start of the game start to boil over to the surface. The world is darker but the people in it are warmer, they hold themselves together until the day comes, and the game will find ways to make you cry you would never expect from a series this traditional. These themes all culminate in a super satisfying finale that, while not entirely happy, at least leaves the world in a better place than it was before, with it’s people that much closer.

Now what if I just didn’t write any of that and told you why I really love the game.

Credits roll, and the post game, that is to say, the final third of the game, begins. What if the shift never came, how would the world be different? How would these characters acrs resolved? Who would live? Who would die instead? What does this happening mean to the world? What does this new future hold?

In one simple moment, you answer all of those questions, and Dragon Quest XI becomes a prequel to Dragon Quest III (which was a prequel to DQ1 but that’s less important).

All of a sudden this entire series has lore, everything is connected in a way it had never been for 30 years, and it fits so seamlessly and perfectly that it could only have happened in a series like Dragon Quest, which has had the same writer across all 11 games. As a fan who had played all the available english games this was such an insane rewarding moment. I struggle to really compare it to anything else outside of maybe like…

Oh shit.

OH SHIT.

Outside of goddamn Trails.

Ya’ll know what that means right?

That’s right, Trails wins game of the year once again. STILL THE KING BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[havendance]

After the Storm

Summary:

When Nohr invades Hoshido, it's like a storm hits. And everybody is swept up in it. Age swap AU for the endgame of conques. Spoilers for the ending of Conquest.

AN: This was inspired by @rapis-razuri’s age swap AU Down the River Line. This was meant as a sort of continuation of the story so I would recommend that you read it first. It’s really good. You can read it on fanfiction.net  and ao3. There are spoilers for the Conquest path end game. You have been warned. I hope you enjoy reading this. :)

Ryouma

As soon a Ryouma sees the enemy, he knows that he cannot retreat and let Fort Jinya fall to them. Fort Jinya is one of the most important parts of Hoshido's line of defense, if it falls, Hoshido falls. He knows that his siblings sent him to the fortress to keep him safe, but he will not hesitate to fight, and fall, alongside his men.

They fight well, but not well enough, as the battle drags on, it becomes clear that the only options that remain are death and surrender. Ryouma knows nearly everyman under his command. He has learned their hopes and dreams and fears. He doesn’t want to see them die.

And so, when Corrin offers a chance of surrender, Ryouma takes it. But not for himself. He refuses to be a pawn of Nohr; to be taken prisoner and used as a tool. He knows what a samurai’s final duty is.

It is when he is lying on the ground, impaled on his own sword, with the world fading around him that he hears the screams of his men around him. The last thought he has before he dies is that he made the wrong choice.

Marx

Marx is disturbed by the massacre at Ft. Jinya, but he tries not to show it. He doesn't want to be an embarrassment to father. He will do what father wants, and right now, if father wants this slaughter, then Marx will do nothing to stop it. There is nothing he can do.

Afterward, as he walks through the fortress with Corrin and the others, he notices the body of the prince who was defending this place. He is lying in a pool of his own blood. Marx has heard stories of Hoshidan samurai warriors who would rather face death than dishonor. But he sees Corrin trying to not let his grief show, and he wonders if what the prince did was really all that honorable.

Confidence has never been Marx's strong suit, but this war is changing things. After walking through the carnage that day, he knows that he has gained glory and he knows that he can fight. But that doesn't stop him from wondering if what he is fighting for is really what is best for Nohr. Maybe, if he had the confidence to confront father, none of this would have happened.

That day, Marx swears that he will find the confidence he needs to help Nohr in the right way.

Hinoka

Hinoka watches the Nohrian army approach the Great Wall of Suzanoh. Takumi warned her that the army would try to come this way so she isn't surprised to see them approach. What worries her is the direction that they are coming from.  Ryouma was supposed to be safe at Ft. Jinya, she thinks, sending up a silent prayer to the Dawn Dragon that her little brother is safe.

She rallies her troops, not letting anyone see the nervousness that she feels. Hinoka knows that failing here means Hoshido will almost certainly fall. The stakes here are higher than any that she have ever faced. But she has never been one to back down from a challenge. Not ever.

No matter how hard she tries, she can’t stop the battle from turning in the Nohrians favor. Hinoka finds herself at the receiving end of a Nohrian archer's bow. She falls. She counts herself lucky that she didn't break her neck. But her faithful Tenma is dead and she can't help but remember that it was an arrow that injured it when they first met.

HInoka forces herself to walk away. She knows that this battle has been lost and that she must stay alive to fight Nohr if everyone else has died. She can't bring her mount with her, but she can bring Raijinto, a treasure that will serve her well if she must fight.

Let Nohr think that she is dead, she will rise from the ashes like the phoenix.

Camilla

Camilla never feels more alive than when she is risking her life. She swoops and slaughters on the back of her wryven. She has heard the fearful whispers of the Hoshidans. They talk of a demon on a dragon wielding a dark axe as they curse her name under their breath.

She doesn't care about what they think. So what if she’s not the young lady that she’s supposed to be? She will use the strength that she has to defend her siblings. Marx, Elise, Leon, and Corrin. Leon and Elise are not always appreciative of her efforts, but she will fight for them nonetheless. Corrin is different, he is older than her, but he acts like he is younger. Camilla decides that she will be an older sister that protects him.

So, at the Great Wall of Suzanoh, when she hears Corrin's tears for the sister that is no longer his, she goes and looks for the body. Camilla can't bare to see Corrin cry.

She finds the body of a temna in the forest, but no sign of the princess. Camilla tells nearly everyone that she is dead. Corrin is the only person she tells the truth. If the princess is still alive, she can consider her life a gift.

Camilla hopes that the possibility is enough for her brother.

Takumi

Takumi knows that as the crown prince of Hoshido it is his duty to guard the throne, to be the last line of defense against Nohr, but he insists that Sakura take that place. They previously received word that Nohr was pushing forward and had taken the capitol. There is no other reason that pride to keep fighting now when there battle is all but lost.

So he insists that his sister stay back because, while he knows that they are going to die, he can't help but hope that somehow he can push back the Norian army. He knows that it won't make a difference. He knows that they are surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered. He knows that they are going to die. It is clear that the question is not whether or not they will survive, but how much of the Nohrian army they can take down with them.

They fight Corrin's little army. Takumi wonders how his traitor brother can act like he regrets what he's doing, and still fight his family. He fights them furiously, but he can't win.

He is dieing from dozens of wounds and he can't help but think that if he had the Fujin Yumi, it would've made a difference, even though he knows he was doomed from the start.

Leon

Leon can see the worry in Elise's eyes when she looks at Corrin. Elise has always wanted to protect everyone, and Leon is quite content to help her do it. She draws him aside as they enter Hoshido's palace, and asks him to help her to find a way to save Sakura. She wants Corrin to have at least one of his Hoshidan siblings survive because she can see how their deaths hurt him. Leon tells her that he will try. They both know that his success is dependent on whether or not he can fool father.

Sakura is the last obstacle that they must face. She challenges Corrin to a duel, though it seems to Leon that she does it primarily out of a sense of duty. He watches as Corrin accepts, though it is clear that he has no desire to bar his sword against her.

While the chaos of battle rages around them, Leon watches Corrin's duel carefully. And, when he has defeated Sakura, but not killed her, Leon steps in to deal the final blow.

Father objects, but not as much as he would of if Corrin had argued with him once again.

Only Leon and Elise know what really happened. Sakura is injured, but not dead. Though Corrin weeps now, he'll know the truth soon enough. Elise will tell him.

And Leon will watch and continue to work his own brand of magic from the shadows.

Sakura

Sakura isn't sure why she is still alive. She wakes up in the care of none other than the Crown Princess Elise herself. When she first wakes things are a blur. There is talk of peace, a treaty, and a coronation. People are addressing her as queen. Bit by bit, she puts together the pieces. Takumi is dead. Ryouma is dead. For a time there is talk of Hinoka being dead, but she is alive. Sakura thanks the Dawn Dragon for small mercies.

Without explanation, Nohr packs up and leaves, as if the invasion never happened. Sakura is left behind to mourn. It is her duty as the queen of Hoshido to try and forgive Nohr and to forge a hopeful future. She tries, but it is hard act as if the two new graves next to Sumeragi's don't exist.

There is talk of a marriage in order to solidify the treaty. And, though Sakura knows that it will probably be necessary one day, she ignores it. Right now, she just wants to focus on rebuilding Hoshido and recovering from her own, personal losses.

She tries to comfort Hinoka, but her sister refuses to be comforted. Sakura watches as Hinoka fights as if strength is all she needs to bring back her family. She envies the way that her sister is able to forget herself in her training.

Sakura can't pick up the Fujin Yumi without remembering Takumi and how much he had wanted the weapon.

Sakura doesn't feel ready to take the throne. Queen Elise of Nohr is willing to talk and cooperate in ways that have never happened between Hoshido and Nohr before. There is so much resting on Sakura’s abilities to repair her war torn country. Everyone is looking to her to make things right; to solve problems that she doesn't know if she can solve.

Sakura finds herself admiring what her stepmother did more and more everyday.

Elise

Elise has finally achieved the peace she dreamed of. Tensions are still rocky between Hoshido and Nohr, but there's nothing that she won't be able to overcome. The largest problems that she faces are the ones at home. She pretends not to hear the rumors whispered behind her back saying that she was planning this all along, that she killed her father in a premeditated move, that she's going to destroy Nohr with her new policies.

But the words still hurt because she can't help but see the truth in them. Elise loved who her father used to be, she didn’t love who he became, but she stood by his side nonetheless out of respect for the man she remembered. The man who was a good king.

When Corrin told them that their father was dead, and had been for years, Elise hadn't wanted to believe him, but when she saw the monster that took her father's place, it was clear that their was no other choice but to destroy what he had become.

Elise remembers her father the clearest of all her siblings, and so she regrets their actions the most of all of her siblings. She knows that she must look to the future, so she leans on the father that she loved in the past. She has always leaned on her family even as they leaned on her.

The entirety of Nohr is her family now. Elise vows to live for it and protect it. It will be her monument to the family that didn't live to see this day.

Corrin

Corrin feels regret more than anything else. He has eyes. He could see the way that Sakura and Hinoka looked at him when they attended Elise's coronation. He has ears. He can hear the whispers calling him a traitor behind his back whenever he sets foot in Hoshido. He knows that he's not wanted by the people that he tried to help.

He blames himself for the deaths that happened. Mt. Garou, Ft. Jinya, Ryouma, Takumi. At least he managed to save the ice tribe. Corrin can't help but feel that if he made a different choice, those people would still be alive. He tells himself that he will find a way to make amends for his actions.

Corrin refuses to believe that Aqua is truly dead. He knows what he saw, and he saw her, he heard her, that day. He throws himself into a search for her, telling himself that if he finds her, he will finally feel that his actions were justified. She could always convince him that he was making the right choice

They say that he is living in the past, but they just don't understand that it is his duty to make things right.

Aqua

Aqua is lost, but not forgotten.